Looking for a sub $200 Tablet PC option? The Toshiba WT8 is $193 at Amazon.com today but the newer, lighter Toshiba Encore 2 WT8 is $192. This Windows with Bing PC arrives for testing tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it. What features have been stripped out of this Bing version of Windows? Is the new platform better? Is there significantly more available storage space or is this 1GB RAM limit going to negate any of the potential improvements? With the original Windows 8.1 8-inch tablets also at the $200-$220 mark, why bother with the Encore 2?
Two important things to note about Windows with Bing are that 1) You don’t get an Office Home and Student license and 2) There’s only single language support. The latter may not affect many people (except myself – someone that relies on this for purchasing tablets in Germany and switching them to the English language) and the former is offset by a one Year Office 365 Personal license. You get Ooutlook included in that and you also get, in theory, 1TB of free online storage for the year. There may be other changes too.
There’s a 5.0MP auto-focus rear camera which could be useful if it’s as good as the one on the original WT8, microSD support up to 128GB and stereo speakers. As with the WT8 there’s no HDMI so you’ll need Miracast or DLNA support to stream movies to a bigger screen.
If the Toshiba Encore 2 wants to be a competitor in the western market for tablet PCs it needs to beat the class-leading Dell Venue 8 Pro in features or undercut it by a big margin. This launch price isn’t enough to convince me but if the device checks out in my review for Notebookcheck and the price drops to $175 or less then it could be worth a closer look.
There are three things I check when I quickly evaluate new 2-in-1 announcements. Price, performance (CPU, disk, screen) and weight. If the tablet is over 1KG a big buzzer goes off in my head. This 13-inch Satellite Click 2 Pro P30W however has got me inquisitive. 13.3-inches in 1.05KG (2.3 pounds) on an Ultrabook platform makes it quite interesting.
My predictions about the 7-inch Windows tablet space are coming true. The smaller Baytrail-T (refresh) platform simply allows a smaller motherboard which means a smaller screen which means lower backlight power/cost and finally a smaller battery. The mathematics continue into plastic costs, shipping costs and storage costs and then you end up with something like the Toshiba Encore 7. Good for markets that need it but bad for markets that want higher quality and better features.
The new Toshiba Encore 2 tablets have launched. An 8-inch model, the Encore 2 8, will start at $199. The 10-inch Toshiba Encore 2 10 will be $269
The two tablets were announced by Toshiba today and they have a whole new set of specifications. Down goes the launch price but so do the specs in some areas.
The 8-inch tablet has been reported to start with just 1GB of RAM on a quad-core CPU (likely the Z3735F or Z3735D) with a screen resolution of 1280×800. 1GB will be fine for working within the Modern UI but will certainly cause problems for people wanting to do extensive desktop or browser-based application activity.
Full specifications haven’t been revealed yet but here’s what we’ve got so far.
1280×800 resolution touchscreen on both models.
Quad Core Atom CPU (likely Z3735 series.)
1GB RAM (at least on the 8-inch model. Information isn’t clear at this stage.)
2GB RAM (on entry level Windows 10 model. There may options for 64GB and 2GB on the 8-inch model.)
32 or 64GB storage options.
Micro SD card on both models.
Audio jack
Wireless display
Micro HDMI on the 10-inch model only.
Office 365 one year license provided. (Note that a Modern UI version of Office would require a 365 license so this could have more value in the near future.)
‘10 hour’ battery.
5MP rear cam, 1.2MP front.
Dolby Digital Plus audio processing.
Windows 8.1 with Bing (without Office)
Size of 10-inch: 258,8 x 175 x 8,98 mm. Weight of 10-inch model: 555 grams / 1.2 pounds (This would make it one of the lightest 10-inch Windows tablets.)
Size of 8-inch: 210,62 x 132 x 9,48 mm. Weight of 8-inch model: 385 grams
Unknown specifications
Battery size?
TPM?
Connected Standby?
As the first official Windows 8 tablets with the refreshed Baytrail-T platform and the new licensing deal with Windows 8.1 + Bing they don’t have any direct peers to compare against yet. An early launch before Computex could well be a good move because we’ve got a hunch that there’ll be products using the same platform launching there for less than this.
Both products will be available in early July.
The 10-inch Encore 2 tablet will be available for purchase in early July at select retailers and on toshiba.com/us , starting at $269.99. 544 grams (1.2 pounds) MicroHDMI, MicroUSB 2.0
The 8-inch Encore 2 tablet will be available for purchase in early July at select retailers and on toshiba.com/us, starting at $199.99. MicroUSB 2.0
There’s news that a Toshiba Encore WT10 is going through US certification testing right now which is a good sign because right about now we’re expecting a wave of models to start appearing that offer 64-bit builds on updated CPUs, both at the low-end and high-end of the Windows 8.1 Baytrail tablet spectrum.
The leak comes via WiFi and FCC certification processes in the USA and there’s not much information associated with it. All we have is information that a Toshiba WT10 –A and Toshiba WT10-B are going through testing. With Computex just a few weeks away it seems likely that we’ll have more information very soon from the Japanese manufacturer.
We’ve already seen two 10-inch tablets on the new processors but they’ve been aimed more at the business market. The Fujitsu Q584 and the Lenovo Thinkpad 10 are both worth checking out but it would be nice to see a consumer-focused model in the space with 4GB of RAM. The current Toshiba Encore WT8 tablet, an 8-inch model was well received but it was a little thick compared to some other 8-inch Windows 8 tablets. Hopefully Toshiba have made progress and can offer us something with USB3 on board, a good FullHD screen and 4GB of RAM for a good price. Competition for the current Lenovo Miix 2 10 and HP Omni 10 would be great.
We’re following Computex news closely and expect to see more leaks in the run-up to the event. In the meantime, check out all the 10-inch Windows 8 tablets in our database in the list below.
Lenovo Thinkpad 10, 10.1″, 595gm Aimed at professional users and built to be a very lightweight ‘tablet-first’ 2-in-1 the Lenovo Thinkpad 10 offers a high level of specification for a Baytrail-T tablet. 64-bit OS, 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD along with a range of accessories and optional digitizer layer. The Lenovo Thinkpad 10 isn’t a low-cost tablet but it’s a flexible and high-quality choice among 10-inch mobile Windows tablets.
Lenovo Ideapad Flex 10, 10.1″, 1200gm The Lenovo Ideapad Flex 10 mini-laptop offers touch, a good keyboard, USB3.0 and a multi-mode screen for a good price. There’s no SSD inside, no SD card slot and a relatively basic screen but for the price this is a good value Windows 8 laptop in a netbook style.
Acer Aspire Switch 10, 10.1″, 585gm The Acer Aspire Switch 10 offers 2-in-1 tablet/laptop Windows 8.1 at a very low price. The product competes with the ASUS Transformer Book T100 well and offers multiple ‘modes’ via the flexible magnetic hinge. Screen resolution is a relatively basic 1366×768 and there’s no additional battery in the keyboard but as a consumer-focused dual-mode PC/Tablet the Aspire Switch 10 will offer good value in creation and consumption activities.
Lenovo Miix 2 10, 10.1″, 589gm The Lenovo Miix 2 10 looks to be the perfect travellers mobile laptop. Lightweight with good battery life (8hrs quoted) and all in a nice-looking and flexible multimode package. $499 launch price won’t include 3G/4G but at least there’s an option.
Fujitsu Stylistic Q584, 10.1″, 640gm Clearly aimed at business markets but offering some ofthe best specifications we’ve seen on the first wave of Baytrail tablets. 4G, 640gm, IGZO 2650×1600 screen, Digitizer and a built-in 38Wh battery are all high-end.
HP Omni 10, 10.0″, 652gm The HP Omni 10 offers full-HD resolution on a 10-inch tablet in just 650 grams – a big step forward for Windows tablets. The entry price of 399 Euro is a step forward too.
Dell Venue 11 Pro, 10.8″, 770gm Available in Baytrail and Core processor versions the Dell Venue 11 Pro is aimed at more proffesional use. Two keyboard options offer a similar choice to the Microsoft Surface Pro. Well built and including a removable battery.
ASUS T100, 10.0″, 1100gm One of the first 2-in-1’s on Baytrail architecture. It’s a lightweight product with a very usable tablet section. With the price at $345 (32GB at launch. $399 for 64GB storage) it could be a very attractive and highly dynamic tablet/PC combo.
I haven’t had the chance to take a close look at the Toshiba Kirabook before so when I saw it on the Microsoft booth at CeBIT this week I took the chance to have a closer look. Wow, it’s a smart looking bit of kit.
This is UMPCPortal, the site that’s been covering handheld Windows PCs since 2006 and as you might imagine we’ve been quite excited about the return of the small-form-factor Windows PC. The Acer Iconia W3 piqued our interest earlier in the year but the sector has now been completely re-born through products that combine Intel’s Baytrail platform with Windows 8.1. The Dell Venue 8 Pro is one of five or six devices already on the market and it will be joining us soon but we’ve already bought the Toshiba Encore WT8 and our full review is here. There are additional videos on our YouTube channel and even more detail coming soon.
With Haswell Y-Series, the Toshiba W30T has the right platform for the design. You’ve got a docking keyboard with battery and up to 256GB of SSD in the tablet (or 500GB hard drive if you want!) The screen resolution of 1366×768 is disappointing, as is the ‘punch’ of the display but we’re told that this hybrid is only 649 Euro. I want to see that in writing though.
