Hasta La Gadget!

“No form-factor left untested” may well be Samsung’s unofficial motto for Windows 8, with the company bringing a raft of prototype notebooks and tablets to IFA, Alongside the Dual-Display Notebook were four alternative concepts that played with sliding, swiveling, slate and other designs, as Samsung took a suck-it-and-see approach to Windows tableteering.

The Swivel model, shown above, follows the convertible notebook approach we’ve seen in Windows tablets before, with a touchscreen that can be rotated and then folded flat down onto the keyboard so as to make a ruggedized slate. That would deliver the same functionality as the Dual-Display concept, but with less weight thanks to only having a single screen.

The Binder concept is more unusual, with a touchscreen slate sliding into the docking slot of a removable keyboard. It’s hard to tell how it differs from the docking systems of the Samsung ATIV line-up – all four of the concepts were behind glass – but it presumably has low-profile connections in the docking “gutter” so as to allow the slate to glide into place.

Samsung’s Slider concept took a slightly different angle to the Sliding PC Series 7 the company showed off back at CES in January, with a form-factor more akin to Sony’s VAIO Duo 11. The fixed viewing angle is a compromise, but the mechanism may well be more sturdy than a single swiveling hinge as on the first prototype.

Finally, there was the Samsung Memo PC, a smaller form-factor slate (somewhere between 7- and 8.9-inches, we’d say) with S Pen support, intended for those that don’t need a physical keyboard. The asymmetric profile would be more suited to right-handed users, but it could be an interesting alternative to Samsung’s Android-based Note series.

Of course, that’s assuming any of the designs actually make it to production. Samsung is pushing ahead with more conventional docking-tablet designs right now, but was polling IFA attendees to see if they were swayed by any of the concepts it had on show. Let us know which you prefer in the comments.

Samsung spills Windows 8 concepts is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung’s Windows 8 line-up at IFA wasn’t limited to just the ATIV range; the company also had some interesting concepts to show, of which the most usable was a Dual-Display Notebook. Resembling one of Samsung’s slick Windows ultrabooks from face-on, close the notebook’s lid and there was a second display to be found, turning the machine into a slate-format tablet.

That arguably gives the best of both worlds: you get the convenience of a slate form-factor when you’re more interested in content consumption, and then a full keyboard when you’re looking to get some words down on (virtual) paper. It’s a similar concept as we saw Toshiba and Sony follow with their Windows 8 tablets, though those companies opted for a slider mechanism rather than a second display. Samsung also throws in its S Pen digital stylus, for notetaking and sketching.

The downside to Sony’s strategy is weight. The base section of the notebook is as slim as a regular Samsung ultrabook, but the lid is considerably thicker than the norm; it has to be, to fit back-to-back displays. Although it didn’t tip back under its own heft, or prove too much for the hinge mechanism to keep the screen stable, you did notice it when lifting the concept notebook up.

Samsung isn’t saying whether the Dual-Display Notebook will ever get a commercial release, though the company was running IFA attendees through questionnaires about form-factors and expectations around battery life. Our guess is that the collective response to that will decide whether the concept makes it out of the labs or gets relegated to the back-burner.

Samsung Dual-Display Notebook concept hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

No fan of Sony products but loved their latest “VAIO Duo“? Don’t worry! Toshiba has exactly what you need with their latest Ultrabook the Satellite U925t! This nice little 12.5″ wonder comes with a 720p touchscreen and a stunning slide-out keyboard that will offer you pretty much what the VAIO Duo can give you but on a larger screen! Like the VAIO Duo the Toshiba U925t comes with Intel’s latest Core CPU (Ivy Bridge) and will be offered by default with a Core i5 …

If each tech show has an unofficial theme, then IFA 2012‘s must be Windows 8 tablets. Microsoft’s new OS – in both full 8 and pared-back RT forms – has shown up on touchscreen hardware from all of the main manufacturers, each trying slightly different combinations of size, specs and accessories in the hope of standing out from the crowd. Options are great, of course, but are there signs that Microsoft’s tablet desperation is rubbing off on its OEMs?

Windows may still be dominant on desktops and notebooks, but Microsoft’s footprint in tablets has been underwhelming for years. The company has seen Apple eat not only its lunch but its breakfast, dinner, and afternoon snack in slates, with the iPad helping spread the iOS/OS X ecosystem into all areas of users’ lives.

Microsoft knows it needs to score big with Windows 8/RT (not to mention Windows Phone 8), hence taking matters into its own hands and producing the Surface. Faced with a solid “own-brand” option, Windows OEMs have apparently decided that outlandish riffs are the way to go.

Detachable keyboards have been done already with Android slates, but that hasn’t stopped the idea being well reheated for Windows 8 and RT models. Samsung threw the most devices into the mixture, with the ATIV Tab and Smart PC Pro range each offering removable keyboard docks, but Dell’s XPS 10 and Lenovo’s ThinkPad Tablet 2, HP’s ENVY x2, and ASUS Vivo Tab and Vivo Tab RT, all play with the form-factor.

You can see the appeal of the strategy. Adding full QWERTY is a simple and obvious way to differentiate from the iPad: Apple says its tablet users don’t really need a keyboard, so Windows tablets will sweep up those who still think they really do. That only works, though, when there are keyboards worth typing on, and that certainly wasn’t the case across the board. Chasing competitively light form-factors left some manufacturers with models that are top-heavy – Samsung’s more powerful ATIV Smart PC suffered this fate – and others that simply lacked the sort of key-travel and responsiveness that makes a physical keyboard worthwhile.

“Even a fixed keyboard doesn’t guarantee a decent typing experience”

Even having a fixed keyboard isn’t necessarily a guarantee that you’ll have a decent typing experience. Sony chose to keep its keyboard permanently attached, and instead make the VAIO Duo 11 a tilting-slider; Toshiba did the same with the Satellite U920t, though its screen could at least be adjusted to different angles, rather than the fixed-position VAIO. Dell took a different approach again with the XPS Duo 12, making a device that’s arguably an ultrabook first and then – with the flip of a screen – a tablet second.

Of the three, the Toshiba and Dell had the best feel, though it’s worth noting that they were each significantly larger than the 10-inch tablet norm. Both have a 12.1-inch display; the 11.6-inch VAIO managed to feel cramped, particularly with the bottom edge of the display section ending its travel just above the function key row.

Could it be that manufacturers are chasing unusual form-factors for the sake of form-factors; simply for being noticeably different on store shelves rather than truly delivering on the functionality promise they imply? It’s worth noting that not all of the keyboard docks include batteries, either, a somewhat common-sense addition presumably ditched for its impact on weight.

Microsoft’s Windows partners need the platform to succeed. The iPad is just as damaging to Sony, Samsung, and the others as it is to Microsoft, while Android has shown itself to be – though wildly popular in smartphones – less than capable of a clean sweep in tablets. Windows 8 and Windows RT represent a third contender to keep the slate segment moving, as well as a doorway into those enterprise markets yet to be convinced by the iPad’s business credentials.

That desperation has created a glut of products that, after our first look at IFA, don’t all hold up to scrutiny. Choice of models is important, yes, but so is a product that not only makes sense in ticking spec-sheet boxes but in everyday use. Not all of the Windows 8 tablets brought to Berlin this past week look likely to succeed in both those categories.

Check out all our IFA 2012 coverage in the show hub.

The great Windows tablet keyboard crapshoot is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Windows 8 devices are all the rage at IFA this year, especially tablets. Toshiba has a new Satellite – the U920t – on the scene, and like many tablets we’ve seen, this one is convertible into a notebook. However, unlike a number of the tablets we’ve seen, you don’t convert this tablet by attaching it to keyboard dock. Instead, it features a slide out keyboard using a mechanism that Toshiba assures will provide for a smooth and stable transition.

The Satellite U920t comes with a 12.5-inch glossy touchscreen, and as you can imagine, that slide-out keyboard adds a bit of weight to the unit. It weighs in at 1.45 kilograms, which is around 3.2 pounds, so while it’s a bit heavy as far as tablets go, it’s still right around the top-end for Ultrabook weight. The U920t makes use of Intel‘s Core range of processors, and you can run with either 4GB or 8GB of RAM, depending on your preference.

As far as storage goes, Toshiba is making use of solid state drives with the U920t, allowing users to pick from either 128GB or 256GB varieties. It also features two USB 3.0 ports and one full HDMI port, which is a pretty rare sight for tablets. It comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, and even though it doesn’t come with 3G functionality at the moment, Toshiba says that it could update the U920t to include 3G in the near future.

Since it’s a Windows 8 tablet, Toshiba is hoping to have launch bad boy as close to the Windows 8 release date as possible – meaning it should be available right on October 26. Of course, Toshiba may need a bit more time than that, so the company isn’t ruling out an early November launch. The Satellite U920t will cost €949 when it launches in Europe, which comes in just south of $1,200. More details on pricing and availability are likely to follow soon, so keep it here at SlashGear for more information.

Toshiba Satellite U920t hands-on is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.