New Windows 8 tablets fail to impress

The Consumer Electronics Show has reached full swing and a very slick video from the YouTube Windows Video channel is making the rounds, titled “CES 2013: 9 New PCs Built for Windows 8.” A little bit of sleuthing left me supremely unimpressed.

However, because Microsoft itself isn’t exhibiting at CES — although CEO Steve Ballmer and ex-Windows chief Steven Sinofsky are there — this may come as close as we’ll get to a superstar list of new Win8 technology. So permit me to step through the featured “Built for Windows 8” PCs.

The Asus Transformer Book TX300CA

Per the video: “A laptop and tablet in one”

It’s a 13-inch Ultrabook with a screen that rips off, separating into a 1,920-by-1,080-pixels tablet and a keyboard with an odd exposed hinge. Asus claims that’s a “first,” although it sure looks like every Android Transformer I’ve ever seen. Core i7, HD4000 graphics, SSD and HDD storage, 4GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 3.0, HD front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel camera on the back. Battery life? Wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

Availability: Unknown

Price: Unknown Dell Inspiron R Series

“Brushed-aluminum design/Windows 8 comes to life”

Dell’s newly refreshed Inspiron R series looks a whole lot like its old R laptop series, with new 14-, 15-, and 17-inch touchscreens at the Win8-standard 1,366-by-768 resolution (1,600-by-900-pixel resolution for the 17-inch model). Each of them weighs more than five pounds. Optical drive. i3, i5, or i7 processors with separate graphics chip.

Availability: Unknown

Price: $650 for base models with touchscreens

Sony Vaio T Series 15 “Performance and mobility become one” It looks a lot like the old Vaio T Series 15 laptops, but with a touchscreen. Availability: Unknown Price: Unknown

Toshiba Qosmio X875 “Performance and power for gaming and creativity/industry’s first 1TB hybrid drive” An i7 laptop with 17-inch display at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, with GeForce GTX 670M graphics processor and 3GB of dedicated graphics memory. Optional Blu-ray drive. Availability: Orders start Feb. 3 Price: $1,480

Vizio 14-inch Thin+Light Touch “Built for work and play with stunning HD+ display/ultrathin unibody design” Vizio uses AMD processors. Unique among the Windows 8 machines I’ve seen, Vizio advertises that it’s “Microsoft Signature” — in other words, no crapware. Bravo. Other than the touchscreen, it isn’t clear to me what’s changed from the old (September vintage) Vizio 14-inch model CT14-A2. It’s a decent i7/HD4000 Ultrabook with 256GB of SSD. Not sure if the old 4GB of RAM maximum will apply with this new version. Availability: Unknown Price: Unknown, but this is Vizio, eh?

Toshiba Satellite U845t “Balance portability … and performance/touchscreen optimized for Windows 8” (as if the others aren’t) A true Ultrabook (20mm thick, 4 pounds) with a new 14-inch 1,366-by-768-pixel touchscreen, 32GB of SSD plus 500GB HDD. Availability: March 10 Price: $800

Lenovo Ideacentre Horizon Table PC “Lay it flat and gather around/all-in-one Windows 8 desktop” Push this 27-inch all-in-one over, and you get a big screen that lies flat on a table. Touchscreen is capable of handling multiple gamers and various types of gaming hardware — it ships with electronic dice and four joysticks, as well as Monopoly and lesser-known games. Lenovo calls it “phygital” (shoot me now, OK?), signifying the cross between physical and digital interaction. Availability: “Early summer” Price: $1,700

HP Pavilion Touchsmart Sleekbook “Affordable, lightweight/sleek and slim design/see more, accomplish more” Another AMD-based machine, with a 15-inch 1,366-by-768-pixel display, 6GB of RAM, and 750GB HDD; 23mm thick. Availability: February Price: $700

Lenovo Thinkpad Helix “Tabet and Ultrabook in one/rip, flip and go” As you probably know — the specs have been around for a while — it’s another small (11-inch, 1,920-by-1,080 pixel resolution) detachable-screen Ultrabook, but you can pull the screen out, rotate it, and put it back, thus using the Ultrabook as a presentation machine or slate. The removable tablet part is under 1.8 pounds, and the whole machine comes in under 4 pounds. It’s i7-capable, and it has 10 hours of battery life. Available: February Price: $1,500

Not surprising, Acer isn’t on the list. Acer president Jim Wong had some choice comments about Microsoft and Windows 8 yesterday.

To be sure, there are some possible gems in that list, if you’re interested in a premium Windows 8 tablet or a tablet-sized all-in-one. But by and large, I see lots of old designs barely warmed over for the new touch milieu. In some cases the prices approach nosebleed territory, but as Steven Baker of NPD Group notes, the PC industry needs to convince buyers to spend more to get more, in order to pull out of the industry’s downward spiral. I think it’s a great theory, but from what I’ve seen, buyers aren’t willing to reverse the bang-for-the-computer-buck curve unless there’s a truly overwhelming need or a completely new technology. Windows 8 doesn’t fit either category.

Of all the designs I’ve seen, Microsoft’s Surface Pro continues to stand out. Of course, nobody’s actually put a finger on a real, live Surface Pro. The earlier intelligence we had on the machine left a very poor impression: 64GB SSD with maybe 40GB to 45GB of usable space, a 10.6-inch screen at 1,920-by-1,080 pixel resolution, 4GB of RAM, a USB 3.0 slot, and a rumored four hours of battery life. Cost: $900, plus $120 or more for a keyboard.

There’s a very small possibility that the Surface Pro will ship with Intel’s new lower-power (7-watt) i5 processor, which was announced yesterday. If Microsoft can get the battery life on the Surface Pro back in the eight-to-10-hour range, we may have a competitor in the making — particularly if a larger SSD is in the cards.

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