Windows 8 Includes Tablet Hardware Requirements
Microsoft has released the minimum hardware requirements for tablets using Windows 8.
Microsoft's own batch of "Windows 8 Hardware Certification Requirements" documents, released last month, reveal that the company is providing minimum hardware requirements for x86, x64 and ARM-based tablets running the upcoming Windows 8 OS. Devices will need at least 10 GB of free space, a 1366 x 768 screen resolution, Bluetooth 4.0 + LTE, a 720p camera and more.
The requirements are part of a 293-page "Windows Hardware Certification Requirements" document for client and server systems, covering aspects ranging from pen- and touch-based digitizers to WiFi Direct to power management. Starting on page 72, Microsoft begins to set the foundation for tablets, defining bezel width, boot latency, required hardware buttons and required components.
According to the document, a Windows 8 tablet must feature a power button, a rotation lock, a Windows key button measuring at least 10.5-mm in diameter, volume up and volume down buttons. "The default orientation is in landscape mode and the Windows Key button must be on the front of the device facing the end user in the center along the bottom bezel," Microsoft says. "If the system is a convertible, the buttons must be accessible in all configurations. For convertible systems, it is acceptable to have the button off center along the bottom bezel when the convertible is in its tablet mode. "
As for other specs, the tablet must support a minimum of 5 touch-based inputs. It must also feature WLAN, at least one USB 2.0 controller and exposed port, a gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, and a magnetometer. The bezel itself must not exceed 26-mm "to allow for users with smaller hands to access the edges while holding the device with two hands." However tablet convertibles with a hinge can have a bezel measuring more than the 26-mm limit -- up to 45-mm along the bottom edge closest to the hinge.
For more information, take a look at Microsoft's 2.13 MB PDF -- it's the first download labeled as "Windows 8 System Requirements" (windows8-hardware-cert-requirements-system.pdf) listed here.
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can anyone recall a win OS with so little demand by the public as win 8?
They are requiring LTE? Does this mean there are no WiFi only versions?
Going to lose sales if you try to make all of these mobile broadband only. I won't buy one with LTE or 3G or any crap like that, even Apple offers a WiFi version of the iPad.
Windows 8 Hardware Certification Requirements version 2013.
Any tablet is accepted. We need market share. I repeat. ANY TABLET IS ACCEPTED. PLEASE PUT WINDOWS 8 IN YOUR TABLETS. PLEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WE BEG YOU......
can anyone recall a win OS with so little demand by the public as win 8?
can anyone recall a time when there were so many good/great OS alternatives to windows? with all the linux distros, droid, iOS/OSX... people weren't going to wait around forever just to use a full blown windows OS on their phone/tablet.
Win8 will be a game changer in that people will be able to do office tasks on their mobile/tablet. just saying it will carve out a nice niche in the "mobile OS pie".
can anyone recall a win OS with so little demand by the public as win 8?
Prior to launch? Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP...
Yay for a 10 gigabyte bloated OS thats meant to go on 30 - 60 gb ssds.
"Windows 8 OS. Devices will need at least 10 GB"
10GB... is anyone at Microsoft actually reading this ?
We all know that the US population has an obesity problem; but has anyone noticed that this also extends to Windows ?
10GB is not 'bloatware' anymore. That's a serious health issue for an OS.
No wonder Windows is so insecure as it is virtually impossible to patch all the holes hiding in this piece of FatCode (TM) before Windows 9 is released.
can anyone recall a time when there were so many good/great OS alternatives to windows? with all the linux distros, droid, iOS/OSX... people weren't going to wait around forever just to use a full blown windows OS on their phone/tablet. Win8 will be a game changer in that people will be able to do office tasks on their mobile/tablet. just saying it will carve out a nice niche in the "mobile OS pie".
Anything productive on a tablet requires a keyboard. Once you have a keyboard with the tab, what is the point of the tablet over a laptop? The hardware being slow compared to even an atom based laptop sucks as well.
Might as well use a cheap/small laptop over a tab+keyboard if you plan on doing anything productive. Brazos based systems particularly come to mind as a better alternative to tablets with somewhat low power and high capability being a plus for Brazos.
This is not a lash out towards you. I just don't see where Windows 8 on tablets fits into the productivity aspect. It's more like Win8 on x86 based tablets has compatibility with software if you need to view certain files or make changes, but you don't necessarily need speed.
Can't wait for a Windows 8 ecosystem (PC/laptop/tablet/phone/xbox). This will be a game changer big time for Microsoft, no one else can come close to doing this. Very cool.
can anyone recall a win OS with so little demand by the public as win 8?
Can you name a time when Apple used there own OS??? Ill give you a hint it ends with a number below X and did not rip off the entire Linux community to keep the company alive.
Windows button on the bottom when in landscape orientation? Am I reading that wrong or is Microsoft stupid?
Yay for a 10 gigabyte bloated OS thats meant to go on 30 - 60 gb ssds.
"Devices will need at least 10 GB of free space" is not the same as "Windows 8 is 10GB big".
I guess Microsoft just doesn't want manufacturers selling cheap tablets with minuscule amounts of storage.
Can you name a time when Apple used there own OS??? Ill give you a hint it ends with a number below X and did not rip off the entire Linux community to keep the company alive.
You obviously have no idea what Mac OS X is made off.
There is not a single line of Linux code in Mac OS X. (The Mac OS X kernel dates back to the days of NeXTSTEP, which predates Linux by 1 or 2 years)
Parts of Mac OS X are taken from non-Apple sources, but it's hardly the majority of the code in Mac OS X.
btw: if anyone had "ripped off" the linux community, it's Google Android, but open source software is meant to me used.
tomala papa
Every time there is a Windows 8 article there are so many stupid comments.
It's been a long time since 10GB was alot of space for me. I have games that take up more than 10GB of space. Even phones come with more than 10GB of memory.
Having a requirement of 10GB does not mean installing it uses that much space.
Nobody cares about ARM Windows 8. No idiot would think to buy one of those. Metro only=no work.
I think Win8 arm if done right, can bring back netbooks in to a useful light. Imagine a 10.1 inch 720p netbook with Nvidia Tegra3, 2gb ram, a 64gb SSD running Win8.
You get an ultra slim netbook that will (hopefully) run 90% of the application non-arm windows can, yet it will totally silent (passively cooled), be speedy enough to multi-taks, and have a 12+ hours of moderate usage on a 3 cell 2200mAH battery.
ahh yes all the linux fanboi's out in full force on here. too bad for them ubuntu will never be as good as any version of windows.
"Windows 8 OS. Devices will need at least 10 GB"10GB... is anyone at Microsoft actually reading this ?We all know that the US population has an obesity problem; but has anyone noticed that this also extends to Windows ?10GB is not 'bloatware' anymore. That's a serious health issue for an OS.No wonder Windows is so insecure as it is virtually impossible to patch all the holes hiding in this piece of FatCode (TM) before Windows 9 is released.
on a full desktop, 10gb isnt bloat, im assuming mainly to built in drivers to make evrything just work right out of the box in most cases. but mobile... the arm version should be no more than 1-2gb, and the x86, i hate to say it, should be quite a bit more, but not 10gb.
assuming you put out drivers for everything, and if you are anticipating only the tablets (true tablets not laptops with a touch screen) than even that shouldn't be as big of an os as 10gb... especially in an area where 8gb-16gb is the standard.
Every time there is a Windows 8 article there are so many stupid comments.It's been a long time since 10GB was alot of space for me. I have games that take up more than 10GB of space. Even phones come with more than 10GB of memory. Having a requirement of 10GB does not mean installing it uses that much space.
considering that ios and android are both under 1gb, and i believe under 500mb, something 10-20 times bigger than them, is HUGE, and unless you are willing to shell out an extra 150-200$ for a 32-64gb device that will be dated in 2 years, than yea 10gb is a crap ton of space.
They are requiring LTE? Does this mean there are no WiFi only versions?Going to lose sales if you try to make all of these mobile broadband only. I won't buy one with LTE or 3G or any crap like that, even Apple offers a WiFi version of the iPad.
it says wlan is a requirment
"Windows 8 OS. Devices will need at least 10 GB"10GB... is anyone at Microsoft actually reading this ?We all know that the US population has an obesity problem; but has anyone noticed that this also extends to Windows ?10GB is not 'bloatware' anymore. That's a serious health issue for an OS.No wonder Windows is so insecure as it is virtually impossible to patch all the holes hiding in this piece of FatCode (TM) before Windows 9 is released.
Please, please, PLEASE tell me you aren't running Windows 7 on your desktop right now. Please.
That OS has a requirement of a minimum of 16GB of storage space. This is actually a significant improvement.
Sure this requirement is atypical for TABLET OSs but all this means is that it could push hardware vendors to develop, switch to, or in some way change their current storage setup to accommodate this. Whether that means installing hybrid drives, full on hard drives, or switching to a cheaper solid state technology it doesn't really matter.
I for one think that's a good thing.
... will (hopefully) run 90% of the application non-arm windows can...
more like 9% of the applications non-arm windows can.
Unless it's a full screen game or movie, I want my programs to run in a frickin WINDOW!
on a full desktop, 10gb isnt bloat, im assuming mainly to built in drivers to make evrything just work right out of the box in most cases. but mobile... the arm version should be no more than 1-2gb, and the x86, i hate to say it, should be quite a bit more, but not 10gb.
RISC programs require more code so why would the ARM version use so much less drive space? In any case, the required free space on the storage drive is 10GB. This means that Win8 should consume significantly less space than that. You say that most mobile devices are 8-16GB, well 16GB is 60% more than 10GB so than in 2H 2012 when Win8 comes, out 16GB should be about the minimum for devices anyway.
unless you are willing to shell out an extra 150-200$ for a 32-64gb device that will be dated in 2 years, than yea 10gb is a crap ton of space.
I bet MOST people planning to spend several hundred dollars for a Win8 tablet would be willing to shell out $150-$200 for 32GB+ of storage space. The primary allure of a Windows tablet is that you can use it for content creation, so most will probably require significantly more than 10GB.
fancarolina 01/18/2012 12:12 PM
They are requiring LTE? Does this mean there are no WiFi only versions?
Going to lose sales if you try to make all of these mobile broadband only. I won't buy one with LTE or 3G or any crap like that, even Apple offers a WiFi version of the iPad.
ummmm WiFi is actually WLAN, silly wannabees acronyms matter in IT.
dirtyferret :
can anyone recall a win OS with so little demand by the public as win 8?
dragonsqrrl 01/18/2012 12:21 PM
Prior to launch? Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP...
True dragon, you missed the real answers though, i.e. Windows 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 (3.1 did pretty
well for the time). But the real MS crapper was Windows ME.
Some of you are idiots. It says MUST HAVE AT LEAST 10GB OF FREE SPACE. Meaning that after the OS is installed and what ever bloat some manufactures put in there must be at least 10GB OF FREE SPACE. Not a minimum of 10gb total. Learn to read.
If you don't want bloat then by from Microsoft directly. You can shop at their online store or if you have on in your city on of their retail stores. They don't install anything extra on the pc's and have a decent selection.
There is no such thing as Bluetooth 4.0 + LTE. The author made an error. I am sure that the document talks instead about Bluetooth 4.0 + LE, which is the low-energy initiative.
There is mention of support for cellular service in the documentation (GSM, CDMA, WiMAX, etc), but no requirement for such support to be included. Instead, the document outlines minimum driver support, power management support, connectivity,etc. to ensure that if the device is included it will work as expected.
The biggest issue I can see, is that the new devices will not give end-users a lot of options when it comes to software. These devices are going to be very well locked down, with pretty much zero chance of being "jailbroken." If MS starts charging $500k for a license to digitally sign apps, you'll have to pay it to write or install apps for your tablet. Any chance of running an alternate OS (or dual-booting to x86 Windows, Linux, etc) is effectively gone.
They are requiring LTE? Does this mean there are no WiFi only versions?Going to lose sales if you try to make all of these mobile broadband only. I won't buy one with LTE or 3G or any crap like that, even Apple offers a WiFi version of the iPad.
Prior to launch? Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP... True dragon, you missed the real answers though, i.e. Windows 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 (3.1 did pretty well for the time). But the real MS crapper was Windows ME.
hmmm, completely missed the point I was trying to make, but okay, nice list.
You missed the Secure Boot requirement for ARM hardware – it must be used, and must not be able to be disabled. See page 116 (according to Bit-Tech).
10 GIGABYTES OF RAM?!
Win8 sucks donkey balls....
It is obviously not meant for a desktop....
They should just call it Windows7 Tablet edition or something...
There is no such thing as Bluetooth 4.0 + LTE. The author made an error. I am sure that the document talks instead about Bluetooth 4.0 + LE, which is the low-energy initiative. There is mention of support for cellular service in the documentation (GSM, CDMA, WiMAX, etc), but no requirement for such support to be included. Instead, the document outlines minimum driver support, power management support, connectivity,etc. to ensure that if the device is included it will work as expected.The biggest issue I can see, is that the new devices will not give end-users a lot of options when it comes to software. These devices are going to be very well locked down, with pretty much zero chance of being "jailbroken." If MS starts charging $500k for a license to digitally sign apps, you'll have to pay it to write or install apps for your tablet. Any chance of running an alternate OS (or dual-booting to x86 Windows, Linux, etc) is effectively gone.
Good catch. I was dumb struck when they said LTE a requirement, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to be required, but not optional. Plus LTE is not the only standard, so making it a requirement sounds dumb. Bluetooth LE makes a whole lot more sense.
I guess reading the original document would be interesting as well, because I do not see CPU and RAM minimums in this article. Also, no mention of GPS. Would be nice to see that standardized from a development point of view.
SO now they have physical requirements?