Microsoft Shows Off New Quad-core Tablet

Tegra 3 is supposed to be Quad-core. It comes out before the end of the year. I wonder if this is Tegra 3.

Microsoft is a software company so why they insist on making hardware? Look what happened with the Zune.

And look what happened to XBOX...

I hope you are not the same people posting that claim HP should dump their hardware PC business to focus mostly on software

Yea why would microsoft get into hardware its not like they havent made billions on the xbox 360. Next time Darkk think before you speak bro it doesnt make you look like an ass.

I think it is great. I have been holding out for a Windows 8 tablet, so this is good news. As for Microsoft making its own tablet... I am a little mixed about that, but then again we don't know all the details either. I do know that I am excited about this and when the 2nd generation comes out, I will probably buy one...

MS won't be making any Tablet hardware. They are showing off hardware to promote their upcoming Win8 OS.

Whats with that lip edge. It's ugly unless he's holding it up comparing to an ipad for size reference or something.

Microsoft will "energize" the tablet for real this time

I heard the ASUS tablet will be the first tablet to use Tegra 3 this year. So I'm not sure.

yup Transformer 2 is due out in November

Intriguing, anyway I wonder what sort of performance and battery life this beast will offer.

If anyone can make a tablet into a real desktop replacement, microsoft can....

Apple is like the french and too in love with its own image in the mirror...

Asus EP121

That will be a good one,a quad core tablet. Can hardly wait to see some write ups of it.

I have been putting off buying a tablet for so long now, I guess a Quad Core and especially Microsoft Windows tablet would be the perfect one to buy...!

I'm not really a tablet guy but I have played around with some friends, so don't shoot me for asking, but is processing power really a limiting factor in tablet development?

Why would anyone want a quadcore tablet? They mostly do one thing at a time. I can understand dual core, that makes a lot of sense. But quad core just seems dumb. 2 faster cores > 4 slow cores on such a platform.

At least until general apps become more threaded. Which still hasn't happened.

I think that Microsoft has finally gone completely to crap. If they have a tablet that is any good, any good at all....bring it. Actually SHOW it to someone, or better yet, let people run some software, benchmark it, and test the battery life. And most importantly get people to actually buy it. All I see here is another "Me Too...Someday" Microsoft product, just like the Zune and WP7, and Windows 8. This is becoming a real issue with Microsoft. People are adopting new technology faster than they can knock it off, and by the time they do and then get it right, it's too little and too late. Hate Apple all you want, but they have one huge advantage over Microsoft, a tablet computer that has has gotten great reviews, and is actually for sale today. Until Microsoft can say the same, I'm not even a little bit interested....

What's wrong with the Zune? It's significantly cheaper than an equivalent iPod, doesn't require you to use iTunes, and has a better screen and similar if not better battery life. Sure, it didn't sell very well, but that's because Apple has brand-power, not because the Zune was a bad product.


Honestly though, I don't see the point of bothering to make a tablet. Everyone thought the iPad concept was simply worthless when it was announced, I don't understand why that changed. They're just a useless product category, priced higher than a laptop with less usability and power. The only thing tablets are effective for is internet browsing. So until a company makes one that's cheaper than a better device, there's no point. A tablet at around $50 that does nothing but run a web browser would be great. A tablet at $500 that also does nothing but run a trimmed-down web browser and has expensive hardware that isn't required for that task is useless.

You are missing a little something comparing the tablet to a laptop. They are not the same task machine. I lie in bed and read on my tablet. Can't do that on my laptop. I check stocks on my tablet while waiting for my kid at his school. Can't fit a laptop between me and the steering wheel comfortably. I subscribe to and read a dozen magazines on the tablet.The NASA App alone is worth the price of admission. And oh, as a pilot, I now have all my FAA required flight materials on a tablet.

I have had laptops for 15+ years and almost nothing I am doing on the tablet could I have done as easily if at all on the laptop. So, I sold the laptop and exist entirely with a desktop PC and the tablet. And life is better.

Correction: Apple tablets do one thing at a time. And why? because there are considerable processing benefits to 4 slower cores over 2 faster ones.

Not a single one of those things requires even a bit of processing power though. My point was that tablets are far too expensive to make any sense right now, and companies are only making it worse by being focused on putting better hardware into them, instead of making them cheaper. Arguably, the nonsensical focus on "apps", which are effectively just webpages you download in advance because the tablet interface can't handle a standard website, might be driving this. After all, why allow people access to a functional web browser when you can charge them to visit every single page instead?

With tablets everyone is currently forced to spend $500ish on a system that does nothing that a $50 to $100 system couldn't do just as well. The cheaper hardware obviously already exists too, as even the cheapest smartphone can run a web browser at a decent resolution, although it doesn't have the interface to make use of that. There's so much wasted cost because companies are trying to add power to a platform that doesn't even need the amount of processing power we had ten years ago. Make a tablet that doesn't waste the consumers money on hardware they'll never use and it makes sense as a product category. Right now, it makes sense for nothing.

Battery life?

windows 8 tablet bye bye apple ipad!

Is this... The new Arm A15?

Microsoft hasn't made billions off of the Xbox 360. Bill Gates is the one who originally was the one that said Microsoft is a software company, and considering Xbox's hardware struggles that should be pretty obvious. Seems to be a lot of Microsoft fanatics around here because what Dark said really isn't anything out of ordinary.

Microsoft should stick to what they know best, stealing operating systems and deflecting lawsuits. As long as they stick to their roots they'll do fine in the tablet business. I don't think anybody wants a red ring of death on their new tablet!

a good device that cant compete with "cool" factor of apple.

thats what happens when you compete with someone who sells lifestyles instead of actual equipment.

but that is tablet so it's gonna be banned. Apple invented it first

@tm
You will be surprised to know that but Microsoft brought tablets to market long time before apple did. However, apple did it in more successful way.

Zunes were ugly devices that nobody wanted. ZUNE is dead. Try to buy one from newegg. What? Oh yeah, dead product. Did Apple force people to NOT buy Zune? You can flip it around... did MS force people to not buy Macintosh computers?

Tablets have their place... as does a notebook. Do you have a notebook? If so, why? Why not just take your desktop everywhere you go?

Tablets have their place. Buy one or not.. get off the anger ride.



Apple did more in a month than MS in 10 years.... so yeah, Apple did it MUCH MUCH more successful.

We'll see how Win8 tablets do... I think it'll be overkill for the form-factor. But if done right, something like the Asus Transformer, it may do well.



iPads can and do multi-task. The issue of multi-tasking is how easy it is to switch between the apps, etc. WebOS had the easiest interface. Android is next... then iOS. In a few months, iOS 5 comes out and the iPads will improve.

A stupid thing about Safari on iPad... it has a waste-of-space row - which is where the tabs would /should be.