Samsung breaks out Windows-based ATIV devices: in pictures
Summary: Samsung showed off a range of Windows 8-powered mobile devices at IFA in Berlin - two Smart PC hybrid tablet-notebooks, a 10.1-inch tablet and a smartphone.
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Samsung has taken the wraps off a range of Windows-powered devices at IFA in Berlin, breaking out a new brand for the two Smart PCs, phone and tablet.
ATIV (the Latin word 'vita', or 'life', spelt backwards) is the umbrella name for the family of Windows-powered devices, the South Korean company announced on Wednesday.
Heading up the new range is a pair of tablet/notebook hybrids, the ATIV Smart PC and Smart PC Pro. The Windows 8 devices come with a detachable keyboard-docking station that lets users switch between a tablet and clamshell design.
The lower-specced ATIV Smart PC (pictured) has an 11.6-inch (1366 x 768-pixel resolution) screen, Intel Atom processor, 2GB memory and 128GB flash hard drive. The front camera is a 2-megapixel affair, while the main camera on the rear is 8-megapixels. The device is 9.9mm thick (making it the same depth as the ZTE Grand X) and weighs 750g in tablet form or 1.45kg with the dock.
Both Smart PCs come with a "10-finger multitouch screen", which Samsung says allows for more interactive touchscreen gestures, and both are equipped with the Wacom-made S Pen stylus.
Rounding off the key specs are multiple USB 2.0 ports (two of which are on the keyboard), mini HDMI port, 3G/4G connectivity and Bluetooth 4.0.
Samsung declined to comment on the release date for the device nor pricing in the UK. However, a company executive told ZDNet's Ed Bott that the family of ATIV devices will range in price from $799 to $1,199 in the US, and from 799 to 1,199 in Europe.
The South Korean hardware maker also told Bott that the devices will not come with S Launcher, the Windows Start menu replacement seen in engineering samples.
Image credit: Samsung
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Talkback
Anxious to see all the convertibles and detachables that W8 oems
Not liking the looks of the WP8 phone hardware
Nope
710 model has better design than 800 and 900. Thats why in the only country where Nokia has succeeded (zombi followers) most (almost all) prefers 710 over any other model because design is much better. But even most of them when asked, prefers Galaxy S series or iPhone design.
Oooh...
heh know what you mean
Disappointing
8 hours battery life
Still waiting to see the specs of the asus transformer line. It has the same tablet/keyboard dock design and I recall reading about a built in nvidia gpu and extra battery in the keyboard dock for their core i5 model.
Very exciting.
An actual "lap"top
Q: Does screen clip into keyboard in landscape AND portrait modes?
If convertible tablet/clamshells allowed you to use the screen in portrait mode (vertically) with the keyboard, you could view a full page from an 8.5"x11" document large enough to read it while doing some serious computing.
I hope Samsung et al are paying attention and fixing this in the design of their convertibles.
Nope
landscape AND portrait modes for convertibles
Goodbye Android
How successful Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT will be remains to be seen. But Microsoft deserves props for both Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 for not copying Apple for a change. The litigious environment between Apple and other mobile developers will almost certainly rebound to Microsoft's advantage - and to Google's disadvantage - now that OEMs have viable alternative operating systems to turn to, both for tablets and for smart phones.
Whether Windows RT powered tablets will compete successfully with Android tablets is an open question, of course. And the OEMs will be in a win/win situation, making both tablet flavors and letting the market decide. Rather than competing directly with Android (and iOS), Windows RT will probably open up an entirely new market niche, just as the iPad did for Apple. If Windows tablets compete with anything, it may be with ultrabooks, which will also soon be running Windows 8. Pity the poor consumer who will have to decide between a Windows tablet, a Windows tablet-PC hybrid and a Windows ultrabook PC.
Hopefully these varieties of Windows devices will not result in the kind of fragmentation that has afflicted Android. Theoretically, at least, the OEMs won't be able to mess up Windows the way they have Android, inhibiting OS and software upgrades and limiting device life-cycles. This would certainly give consumers a break.
I believe you mean
Nope
And Trial didn't even touch Android, only Samsung. And it didn't touch world, only one country.
but
Doctor evil would be lovin it!
New approach
If you are right that will be a shame
It remains to be seen if Microsoft will give the freedom that Android users have to get software wherever they want to. In my view it is too different to iOS to be "competition" for it.
It will be a sad and expensive world if the only two mobile OSs are owned by Microsoft and Apple because both these companies prefer to make their money out of consumers rather that out of advertising as Google does. I predict that if the only competition is between iOs and Windows then you will see the price of apple devices rise and their sales still go higher. Windows phones will also get more expensive without the low cost android.
The ONLY loser in the law suit is, as usual the consumer. It is time that consumers found an effective way to control what companies do!
Samsung ATIV Tablet
http://windows8consumer.in/blog/index.php/2012/08/30/hands-on-with-samsung-ativ-tablet-screenshot-gallery/
Ballmer says...
Very funny