Features - QOTW: How much would you pay for a Windows 8 tablet?

[pp05]

Depends how easily I can do certain tasks out of the box.

[bobharvey]

This is quite a difficult question to answer, because we have no real idea what they are offering. But I can't say I am waiting in anticipation for either the OS, or an MSbased tablet. I recall all their previous efforts, and have a fear of lugging a steamroller around, when I want a parasol

[krazy_olie]

I'd pay £500 for a dockable windows 8 tablet and doubled up as a general use pc, not so interested in the ARM ones but we'll see.

[HW_90]

I don't think I would, my Transformer with ICS has enough capability and is reliable enough that the only reason to have a PC is for games.

[tickedon]

For ARM & WOA, I'd be looking to pay no more than £300.

For an x86 Windows 8 tablet, £400+ would be fair I think.

Certainly the WOA version has to be cheaper than an iPad - and a fair bit at that!

[crossy]

1) The ARM version that only ever runs metro. This is a direct competitor to the high end android or iOS tablets, and imo should be priced at £400-£500 for the base models. That should sell well, and being a true "modern tablet" it should compete well..if the software is available.

2) An x86 combined tablet/ultrabook (like TheAnimus mentioned) - this would be brilliant imo, best of both worlds. x86 so it can run all legacy software, but with a detachable keyboard where it can run in slate mode (i.e. that ugly metro UI). This of the Asus transformer but actually useful! I'd be willing to pay around the £1k mark for one of these, as long as the specification matched the price (would be looking for unibody style construction, core i5, 4gb ram etc).

I suspect that the pricing will be around iPad2/3 level for the ARM based units (so £400+), and the less suitable x86 ones will be £700+. I have no interest in the x86 version because it'd probably be heavier, have much poorer battery life and the cost makes it suitable only for businesses and those for whom a MacBook is an impulse buy. If I've got the kind of money they'll go for then I'll wisely invest it in a proper desktop or laptop.

The ARM based one is much more suitable for me - cheaper for start. That said, I'm really not convinced that Windows8 will be as good in tablet mode as Android or iOS - because the latter were designed for touch, whereas I'm cynical/bigoted enough to think that Windows8 will be a touch layer glued onto a desktop OS.

Oh and Spud1 - I'm typing this on a Transformer - and it is useful! That said, I agree with you, the Transformer idea is probably the best tablet configuration imho.

[Spud1]

Oh and Spud1 - I'm typing this on a Transformer - and it is useful! That said, I agree with you, the Transformer idea is probably the best tablet configuration imho.

Pfft it's Android, surely that can't be useful ;D Nah in all serious I mean it would make it truly useful in the sense that you can run legacy software on it, and have access to all of the software/tools that make you use a PC. It could be a true desktop replacement.

I always loved Tablet PCs, but they have always been too heavy, bulky and generally just poor..the transformer concept really fixes the problems that they had - we just need an x86 version now to tide us over until we all switch to ARM based kit for our day to day home and office activities

[crossy]

Pfft it's Android, surely that can't be useful ;D Nah in all serious I mean it would make it truly useful in the sense that you can run legacy software on it, and have access to all of the software/tools that make you use a PC. It could be a true desktop replacement.

Problem then becomes that you start running up against the limitations in the form factor - limited RAM and disk space being the most obvious. E.g. on the latter, I'd argue 32GB is a "typical" storage size for Xooms, Transformers, Galaxy Tabs - oh, and that other one ( ) - but an Office 2010 has a recommended size of 3GB - so that's 10% of all your disk space taken with one product. I'm also pretty dubious that the x86 line can deliver the kind of meagre power usage that'll be needed - especially if you don't pay much heed to power saving and use it fully.

For those reasons I think people will be initially disappointed with the WinTel tablets. The ARM based one's on the other hand I think could do very well. That said, I'll still personally prefer iOS and Android devices because their OS's were designed for small resource, power sensitive mobile devices.

I always loved Tablet PCs, but they have always been too heavy, bulky and generally just poor..the transformer concept really fixes the problems that they had - we just need an x86 version now to tide us over until we all switch to ARM based kit for our day to day home and office activities

What you said above got me thinking, and to be honest if Office was available then I probably could just about trade in my current works laptop for a docked tablet now. I'd need one with decent connectivity (no iPads) because I'd want to use USB keyboard/mouse and a proper monitor (perhaps with the tablet falling back to become a smaller secondary screen - that'd be very cool).

Maybe the ultimate end point would be something like a Windows 8 Mobile powered Asus padFone - certainly the advantages espoused for the current padFone would be far greater if that device was Windows powered and could therefore run an Office version etc as you're suggesting. I can think of a lot of people who'd like the idea of a device that could morph from Desktop -> Netbook -> Tablet -> Phone as they needed.

[Spud1]

Problem then becomes that you start running up against the limitations in the form factor - limited RAM and disk space being the most obvious. E.g. on the latter, I'd argue 32GB is a "typical" storage size for Xooms, Transformers, Galaxy Tabs - oh, and that other one ( ) - but an Office 2010 has a recommended size of 3GB - so that's 10% of all your disk space taken with one product. I'm also pretty dubious that the x86 line can deliver the kind of meagre power usage that'll be needed - especially if you don't pay much heed to power saving and use it fully.

True if you are thinking about a £400 tablet - but if you take my view that they should cost nearer £1k, you suddenly have a lot more money to invest in the components.

Effectively it would become an ultrabook with a detachable tablet - look at the sheer amount of power that Apple can cram into a Mac Air for example - if you can replicate that from a decent PC manufacturer (no elcheapo Acer rubbish) then you are on to a winner.

[[GSV]Trig]

Problem then becomes that you start running up against the limitations in the form factor - limited RAM and disk space being the most obvious. E.g. on the latter, I'd argue 32GB is a "typical" storage size for Xooms, Transformers, Galaxy Tabs - oh, and that other one ( ) - but an Office 2010 has a recommended size of 3GB - so that's 10% of all your disk space taken with one product.

Sometimes you say things that make you sound pretty stupid, office 2010 on an x86 platform has a recommended size of 3Gb, so, which part of you thinks that the ARM/Win8 version will be the same?

Kingsoft office is less than 8mb, google docs 4mb, you seem to think that the x86 version of office will need 3Gb... need I go on?

[wyatt]

I guess it depends on how good it is and how much I really need it.:d

[crossy]

Sometimes you say things that make you sound pretty stupid, office 2010 on an x86 platform has a recommended size of 3Gb, so, which part of you thinks that the ARM/Win8 version will be the same?

Erm, what was it in what I'd said that made you think that I was talking about a currently mythical ARM version of Office? Spud1's comment was that he was looking to run "legacy" software on the Win8 Transformer - and the most obvious part for most folks will be Office (until there's a dedicated tablet version of course). I also said (in the next line) "For those reasons I think people will be initially disappointed with the WinTel tablets. The ARM based one's on the other hand I think could do very well." - hence that para you quoted was talking about x86 gear.

Kingsoft office is less than 8mb, google docs 4mb, you seem to think that the x86 version of office will need 3Gb... need I go on?

Don't think it's particularly valid to start spooling off alternate versions - at the risk of being accused of "stupidity" again I'd suggest that most businesses will want the "proper" Microsoft Office. Not sure about the Kingsoft product, but Google Docs is "feature limited" even compared to Abiword/Gnumeric and especially LibreOffice.

By the way I don't "think that the x86 version of Office will need 3GB" - Microsoft does! See http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/pr...#_Toc250543106 512MB of RAM and 3GB of disk space are stated requirements for the Standard and Pro versions of Office 2010. So if you still don't agree, go argue with them!

I agree where you're coming from - yes, there undoubtedly will be ARM versions of Office in the fullness of time, and yes those probably will be a bit lighter of footprint than the current desktop Office. It'll be interesting to see what these look like (and how much they'll cost!).

Nice to know that even you - [GSV]Trig - can have an "off" day, since that post of yours was definitely way below your usual high quality standard. No insult intended of course.

[Saracen]

This is quite a difficult question to answer, because we have no real idea what they are offering. ....

That. ^^

It depends on the spec, and what I expect to do with it.

In all likelihood, about £200 max, because if it's much more than that, it's more power than I need and I'd rather buy a laptop. So I'm not holding my breath in anticipation.