News - Tango PC packs an AMD Kabini APU into a phone-sized chassis

[MaverickWill]

I see the usual intel fanboys have arrived.....

Where? All I see is a bunch of people saying "If you're going to spend £300+ on a PC that has to be used with a dock that's about the size of an NUC, you may as well 'just get an NUC or similar' (quoted DIRECTLY from CK_1985) for less money". Nobody made this an Intel/AMD fight until you showed up. The NUC has been mentioned because it's probably at the forefront of the tiny PC revolution right now, readily available, in a comparable size, for comparable use, and it's much faster to type than "A. N. Other small form factor PC". We could talk about the Gigabyte BRIX, but not many people would know what we're talking about.

The Tango requires the dock to function - you can't just whip it out of your pocket and hook it up to the nearest monitor. Either you're carrying the dock with you, which defeats the point of the "tiny" PC, or you're spending a small fortune to have docks put everywhere you're likely to use this. If this wasn't the case, and the PC could function in its entirety without the dock, I'd say "Great, this sounds cool, I'd dig it". As it stands, you've got to plug the tiny Tango in to a much larger system. Which defeats the point - either spend £65 a pop on docks, or carry the thing round in a bag.... at which point, enter the NUC!

I can carry round a CPU, SSD and 2 sticks of RAM in some anti-static in my pocket perfectly easily - doesn't mean it's a PC.

[loyal986]

I like the idea about this pocket sized pc. I just wish to see in future more PC's shipping in this small form, a standard form that would fit in a laptop made chasis so you don't need to upgrade the whole laptop. Wish you success Tango...

[kingpotnoodle]

I see the usual intel fanboys have arrived.....

Oh go away. The Tango would be just as silly an idea with an Atom or Core i3 U/Y series as well... Kabini APU is probably the best for their envisaged usage - it's that usage model that makes little sense.

[scaryjim]

I see the usual intel fanboys have arrived.....

Bit harsh dude. Haven't seen anyone knocking the choice of processor.

I don't think they've got the concept wrong here, tbh, just the execution. Ultimately they're looking at a new computing paradigm, where you have a small portable core that you take with you so you've always got the same computer whether you're at your desk, at someone else's desk, or at on the move. All they're lacking is the flexibility of doing multiple versions of a dock - and that's not surprising, because it'd take a lot of venture capital to produce three different docks when you haven't proven a market for any of them.

It's essentially the hardware equivalent of Windows 8's workspaces to go - you get a consistent portable workspace experience: this just takes it an extra step by adding the hardware to the workspace. Even if this doesn't take off, it's a decent proof of concept. We already know that you can build laptop docks and tablet docks in a similar style - motorola's Atrix and ASUS' fonepad both did a similar docking trick. Offices could have docks built in to monitors. BUT - imnsho at least - it needs the flexibility of multiple dock types. And that's (again imnsho) where they've missed the boat with this one.

But, as I said, it is pointing at a new paradigm. If they've done enough to persuade other manufacturers that it's worth pursuing this, I reckon they've done a good thing.

[DanceswithUnix]

Chromebox looks like an interesting similar device.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/...-mini-desktop/

[kingpotnoodle]

BUT - imnsho at least - it needs the flexibility of multiple dock types.

Yes definitely, that and a screen, or one of the dock types needs to be a tablet like the Asus Padfone (like you suggested before). They'd need to do packages with docks and unit that price similarly to a competing laptop or tablet.

It's a good starting idea but I think much better served by a 7-8" tablet (with keyboard attachment) that plugs into similar desktop docks for better cooling and extra ports, the Tango device needs to work standalone/mobile otherwise you're shafted if you've lost, broken or just don't have a dock to hand, that's the fundamental flaw. Imagine the frustration of sitting there in a meeting with your Tango in your pocket thinking "if only I had a dock I could get my Powerpoint out and ace this..."

I would love to see an 8" Windows 8 tablet that slides into a dock and then jumps to higher TDP mode and gets access to lots more ports, power, networking etc. How to engineer the heatsink interface is a tough one, the skin of the tablet would have to conduct heat through to the dock somehow. I'd prefer the basic Tango device to be a tablet, it would probably be a lot better integrated and sleeker than a Padfone style solution and leaves the option of using it as a secondary screen for mirror or expansion when docked.

[3dcandy]

Surely the dock could just have a fan and push some through the tablet?

[MercutioUK]

What WOULD be interesting tech is something that "functions" as a tablet (e.g waaaay underclocks the CPU, doesn't power up all the ram/etc) on the move and when docked (with external graphics card, mass/raid storage, better soundcard or just a boatload of PCI-e slots to use how we please) has it's CPU juiced back up to full desktop power, ram restored etc etc.

THAT in my opinion would sell by the bucketload. Give it the option to full "juice up" without the extra features provided from the dock when just plugged in.