I call the Samsung XE700 an Ultraslate. It’s effectively an Ultrabook in a tablet form factor and it comes with a Bluetooth keyboard and a docking station. It’s one of the most flexible, usable tablets I’ve seen in a long time and it’s also a design milestone. This is the first time I’ve seen desktop-class computing in under 1KG of tablet with a decent (for tablet PCs) battery life. It’s a 2011 design too which means with Ivy Bridge, those designs can move forward with smaller, lighter form facts and/or longer battery life. Once you’ve got all the electronics in the screen you can do some very cool designs including ones with detachable keyboards. Intel CFO Stacy Smith reveals in a video by The Street (below) that he’s seen such a design. We’re wondering if it’s this Compal design that we saw at CES.
Ultrabooks are all about getting full computing power in a lightweight, stylish and long-battery life solution. Core i3, i5 and i7 ‘ultra low voltage’ platforms are the core of these systems but there are a few non-ultrabook solutions that use this platform and still provide a thin and light solution. One of them is a true alternative. It’s a tablet/docking station combo that I’ve written about before. The Samsung Series 7 XE700 and today the prices are looking a lot better than they did a month ago.
Prefer your Ultrabook in two separate parts for portability between big-screen desks? Fancy being ahead of the curve on touch-enabled Ultrabooks? The Samsung Series 7 Slate (XE700) is a tablet you need to pay attention too. After months of waiting (we did our first tests on this back in September) it’s shipping and you can expect a range of reports from various sites next week.
In this article I put a case forward for the Ultrabook. It follows a similar article in which I put forward an argument against the Ultrabook. You can’t say we’re not assessing all angles on Utrabooknews!
The Ultrabook project, a three-stage plan by Intel to change they way that laptops are designed and manufactured, is now producing its first products and already we’re seeing combinations of weight, price and power that have never been seen in the industry before; Truly ground-breaking notebooks. Early reviews have been very good and despite the expensive changes in design and manufacturing, the price points are competitive.
I’ll talk more about todays Ultrabook products further on in this article but first lets talk about why the Ultrabook project, over 3 years, is advantageous for everyone.
More important than the initial products is the massive change that is being asked of the laptop industry to move to ultra-efficient electronic designs [the battery companies are going to hate this part of the equation. Environmentalists will love it.], sealed unit and single board production by choosing and tightly integrating components and processes. As the change in the laptop continues the result will be advantages for all parts of the industry – a move towards solid state storage, smaller batteries, lower part counts and lower shipping weights. Windows 8 will combine to bring a scenario where the laptop covers a wider range of usage scenarios than ever before. Style included – Dont forget that very important style element for the mature markets.
I had time with the Series 7 Slate at IFA last month and was very impressed. Its simply the best Windows tablet I’ve ever used. When windows 8 comes along it will get even better. Light, powerful and thankfully, delivered with a dock and keyboard making it a true multi-scenario device. Those of you thinking about an Ultrabook for ultra-mobile activities might want to take a look at this because it uses the same Core i5 platform. It will especially appeal to photographers due to the high-brightness screen and hot-deskers because of the dock. Everyone will appreciate the Core i5 CPU!
You go to the Intel Developer Forum to learn. You learn about Intel’s heading, new technology and knowledge from other attendees. Unlike trade-shows where you’ll be talking to marketing teams and show-floor assistance, you get to hear from expert engineers, product managers and technologists. Thanks to Intels support at IDF I was able to sit down for a one-to-one with Adam King, senior manager responsible for the Ultrabook sector and get some outstanding questions answered.
Watch reports on the Samsung Series 7 Slate PC very carefully if you’re interested in Ultrabook performance because as mentioned before, it’s a Ultrabook without the keyboard. OK, it might not have a few of the Ultrabook features like Anti-Theft and WiDi but the processing platform is the same.
I had some hands-on with the Samsung Series 7 Slate PC at IFA last week and was impressed to see it blow through 100K in a CrystalMark test. That puts it at about 5X the score that a netbook would get and about 50% of the speed of the quad-core Intel Core 2 Q6600 2.4Ghz desktop I’m using right now. In summary, a very usable amount of processing, disk and memory speed that is unlikely to keep you waiting….and all in a platform that runs between about 6 and 25W of power usage. Amazing!
I’m not just playing with words when I say that the newly announced Samsung Series 7 Slate is ‘ultra’ because if you look at the platform, the weight and the price you’ll see that it’s effectively an Ultrabook without the keyboard.
Engineering something like this takes even more skill than designing am Ultrabook because you’re laying the screen directly over the motherboard. That introduces some nasty thermal challenges.
For those that need the keyboard, you can leave now. For those that may not need the keyboard all the time (video editing, photo reviewing, those thinking about Windows 8 touch features, hot-deskers) this is an interesting product.
The specs include SSD, 4GB RAM, capacitive and digitiser layer, a high-brightness 1366×768 screen, quick-start, a 2lb weight and an optional dock. Starting price is $1099.
This Is My Next have some hands-on here.
[ Posted via the Galaxy Tab. Ultra-Mobile at IFA 2011. For more IFA coverage, follow me on Twitter. @Chippy ]
