News - More screens are now produced for tablets than for laptops

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Panel shipments for tablet PCs overtook those destined for laptops during October.

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Read more.

Can someone please tell me what the model number of that Asus notebook is?

I saw it in Tesco the other day getting unboxed but stupidly didn't take the model number, then when I try to find it on their site it doesn't exist yet!

It's a Zenbook touch I believe.

Thanks Jimbouk, but the touch seems bigger and has a numpad to the right side. Starting to think it's the Prime, as the one I saw was around 11", possibly 13".

But I'm sure the one I saw had a 500GB HDD instead of a SSD, it was only around £450 so can't have a SSD lol!

Think I'll just have to pop back to the store and have another look, especially as the Tesco website is now down!

Edit:
Actually it could be the 13" Touch (UX31A), but that still comes with a SSD according to Asus. But then I'm sure it was 1366*768 res and not full HD. Lol, I'll have to go back and have a look!

ASUS Vivobook S200 is the one in the pic.

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Originally Posted by M_Taylor40

Can someone please tell me what the model number of that Asus notebook is?

I saw it in Tesco the other day getting unboxed but stupidly didn't take the model number, then when I try to find it on their site it doesn't exist yet!

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I'd still prefer a laptop regardless of the current trend, this whole touchscreen tablet thing is maybe just a fad. Laptops are a much more versatile computing tool where as tablets are for dicking about with angry birds and facebook.

With any luck, volume production will push IPS panel prices down enough that they become standard for notebooks, rather than the embarrassingly crap TN panels that are inexplicably the standard.

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Originally Posted by M_Taylor40

Thanks Jimbouk, but the touch seems bigger and has a numpad to the right side. Starting to think it's the Prime, as the one I saw was around 11", possibly 13".

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Ah yes, they have more than one touch screen Zen, looks like a UX31A.

Zenbooks are now in the second (or third with a touch screen refresh?) generation so you might be comparing them to the originals. I definitely prefer the 11" and 13" ones as well, shame they seem pretty much non-existent in the real world.

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Originally Posted by edzieba

With any luck, volume production will push IPS panel prices down enough that they become standard for notebooks, rather than the embarrassingly crap TN panels that are inexplicably the standard.

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Totally agree, not only that, I'd like to see the 16:10 aspect ratio panels now common on tablets back on laptops.

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Originally Posted by addz17

I'd still prefer a laptop regardless of the current trend, this whole touchscreen tablet thing is maybe just a fad. Laptops are a much more versatile computing tool where as tablets are for dicking about with angry birds and facebook.

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I assure you, it's not a fad. Phones and tablets (which are blending together really) are going to be the future of personal computing for the majority of people. Obviously, not for everyone, and laptops/desktops will still have their place, but they'll be relegated to more of a niche for people who need them for productivity reasons, as opposed to the majority who just want to use the web, social networks, media, etc.

I'd tend to agree with the above, but they are still in their infancy and I expect the lines to get more and more blurred over time

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Originally Posted by addz17

I'd still prefer a laptop regardless of the current trend, this whole touchscreen tablet thing is maybe just a fad. Laptops are a much more versatile computing tool where as tablets are for dicking about with angry birds and facebook.

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Yes, a laptop is a more versatile computing device at the moment but to disagree with you, but if you look what's happening then you'll see that we're past the "fad" stage.

• Windows8/MUI is designed for touch;
• The rise of the large screen smart phone - giving rise to the "phablets";
• Compelling Windows8 RT devices - not just for "consumption" - but something that someone who wants to "create" docs can use easily.

Granted the majority of iPad's that I've heard folks buying are for twitbook and some game apps, but to say that "tablets are for d**king about with Angry Birds..." is to do them a disservice:

• David Hockney (and others) have taken up the iPad as a new artistic media;
• Keyboarded tablets like the Surface and Asus Transformers mean that content creation is far easier - sorry anyone who says that an on-screen keyboard is suitable for large amounts of text is a class-1 idiot imho;
• Some discussion that tablets could replace low spec laptops and netbooks in the portable data-collection etc avenues - so for warehouse folks, financial advisers, double glazing sales folks; :(
• Devices such as the Note 10.1 whose digitizer can do for "design" apps what the Transformer's keyboard can do for the Office stuff. Couple that with more up-spec'd kit - e.g. quad ARM core, 2GB RAM or more, etc - and the amount of activities you can usefully do on a tablet is bound to get larger and larger. Heck, Samsung are pushing the Note 10.1 as a way of doing (simple?) edits on images you've got in the Photoshop cloud, (which goes over my head)

I also remember reading of a hybrid device -a small touch-screen (Windows8?) laptop where you could "undock" the screen which then hibernated the laptop bit and also booted-up an Android-based environment on the detached display. That sounded like a pretty good deal to me - especially if the price wasn't at Sony/Apple levels. The downside though is that either the user is happy to accept a 10/11" laptop screen, or worse, a 13"+ tablet.

I myself have quite happily used my Transformer to write a report or two, and I've got my Note 10.1 sitting next to me - helping me plan a project and do a couple of brain storming diagrams for a meeting I've got later.

Oh, and neither tablet has Angry Birds or the Facebook app on it! :p

Don't get me wrong - I can't see laptops dying out any time soon - there will always be people who need that extra flexibility or power of a proper portable computer. However, if your needs are basic - bit of game playing; bit of video watching; bit of web/mail/etc; few docs and simple spreadsheets - then a good tablet can probably do that without you having to compromise too much. Assuming that you're willing to stop using Microsoft products - although when/if Office comes to Android and iOS it could make things very interesting.

Basic laptops, and pretty much all netbooks, are probably heading for the "do you remember" section though.

Most people are simply too lazy/stupid to manage a proper computer so I think the creep towards locked down appliances will continue. They think of computers in the same way as they do a DVD player. They don't 'get' computing. However I think that long term something like netbooks but with Android onboard could become popular - if Google did a Chromebook with Android at £200 I reckon it would sell bucketloads.