We knew Asus were planning to put out a tablet (or two) this year, but four tablets? Yep. Apparently, the plan is to flood the market this year with different tablet models to cater to whatever you’re looking for. They just rolled out four slates at CES, ranging from a compact, Android 3.0-based 7-incher to the relatively huge 12.1-inch Eee Slate EP121 that runs on Windows 7.
The “year of the tablet” is almost over, and almost every known electronics manufacturer has announced plans to put out a tablet. Except for Sony. It doesn’t look like it’s going to go that way for long though. Plans for a tablet PC has just turned up at the FCC, and it’s going to come with Sony’s VAIO brand. The plans have been tagged with a PCG-31xxL model number, but that’s about it as far as known details go. The filing doesn’t come with a product photo or even a clear sketch, but since it’s a VAIO, it’s likely to run Windows 7. Other details are being held confidential until January 20, which could mean that Sony’s planning to unveil the tablet (or tablets) during their CES presentation on January 5. [via Engadget]
It’s tiny, it’s a convertible tablet with multi-touch support, and it’s now available. Fujitsu just started shipping the Lifebook T580, which is an ultracompact, netbook-sized 10-inch Windows PC that conventionally folds in or out for use as a tablet or as a notebook. It’s no low-cost, light-duty netbook though. While the spec isn’t as high-end as you’d expect from a laptop with a four-figure price tag, it’s not bad at all. The T580 packs a low-voltage Intel Core i3 processor, 2GBs of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and a six-cell battery that should give it a fairly long burn away from a socket.
The teaser video Dell released earlier this month was definitely eye-catching: it showed off a touchscreen tablet that flips into a notebook thanks to an unorthodox hinge that twists the screen in its frame. Of course, it could all well be just a gimmick, since convertible tablet/notebooks have been around for ages, but at least it’s what makes the Dell Inspiron Duo interesting enough to set it apart from hundreds of netbooks and the growing number of tablets popping up.
New developments on the Lenovo U1 Hybrid/LePad tablet we first saw way back in January: first, they also pushed back the China launch from December to early 2011. Now they’re saying that it’s also going to arrive in the US sometime next year, and that they’re putting a lot of money (to the tune of $15.1M) to get developers working on a separate app store for the LePad.
