Dell's Latitude XT tablet PC launching December 11th

[HEXUS]

Tablet PCs, the portable systems the world nearly forgot, are set to receive a new breath of life as Dell readies the launch of its own tablet PC, the Latitude XT.

Read more.

[dave87]

Thankfully one with a decent processor - all the ones I've used have had Celery at their heart and therefore the battery life and performance has been next to 0.

[vinnyT]

I had heard, ages ago, that tablet functions are a part of vista's armoury, though can't remember if it's been used before.

This may be because the tablet design is used mainly in specific niches, healthcare (though I didn't notice and nurses running round the ward with one the last time I was in) come to mind.

[this_is_gav]

The problem for Microsoft is I feel Linux is infinitely more suited to tablet PCs than Windows is - not so much for structure or layout, but as VinnyT said, tablets are very much a niche product - their uses for most of us (save for the funky nature of them) are extremely limited - I'm struggling to think of any at all to be honest. Linux is just so much more flexible than Windows ever has been or ever will be, and better leads itself to being used in the cases where a tablet is of benefit.

We've got some tablets at work (laptop/tablet hybrid types, as the Dell will be) and they've never been used for anything other than laptops. I had a proper tablet PC myself for work (I needed something portable and didn't have a laptop at the time, so nabbed this unused thingy), and I just couldn't see what the point was. PDAs are more portable and ultra-portables offer everything a tablet could to most and have less of a footprint. It's been a good 4 or 5 years since tablets came along in their masses and I'm still wondering why.

[Funkstar]

Thankfully one with a decent processor - all the ones I've used have had Celery at their heart and therefore the battery life and performance has been next to 0.

Have a look at the Asus R1F tables. I have one, look in the system specs to the left

I think i can squeeze about 3 hours out of it when i turn things down or off. Not really bothered about huge battery life on it though. It is portable, funky (it is a tablet after all) and a pretty good performer.

[dave87]

Looking good, quite a powerful processor to boot.

The time I used them with any consistency was in an educational environment - principally bought for teachers but the surplus ones we ordered (some of the older teachers couldn't get their head around the tablet idea) went to the IT staff. Quite useful when troubleshooting in multiple locations, but serve no real advantage over a normal laptop (what I would have chosen in preference).

[Sinizter]

What sort of price point are these supposed to be coming out at ?