6 Tablets to Consider for Windows 8′s October Launch

The release timing for Windows 8  has been somewhat of an open secret, but now it’s official.

Microsoft says the final version of Windows 8 will be available by the end of October, along with the first PCs running Windows 8 and Windows RT. The company will release Windows 8 to hardware makers (RTM, as they say) in the first week of August, and will let app developers start charging for their wares at the same time.

In the past, new versions of Windows meant new laptops and desktops. But to go along with Windows 8′s touch-friendly interface, PC makers will be launching tablets, touchscreen laptops and hybrid devices as well. Here’s a rundown of the most interesting Windows 8 PCs we’ve heard about so far:

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft stunned the tech world last month with plans to build its own Windows 8 tablets, collectively known as “Surface.” We’re still waiting on all the details, but the design looks promising, with a built-in stand and a slim screen cover that doubles as a keyboard (as pictured above). The Windows RT version, which runs on the same type of processor as the iPad and other tablets, will launch around the same time as Windows 8 (so, presumably in October). A thicker and heavier version running Windows 8 Pro, with support for legacy Windows software, is coming 90 days later. No word on pricing yet.

ACER

Acer Iconia W510

Acer’s Iconia W510 is a Windows 8 tablet that connects to a rather interesting laptop dock. When the dock’s keyboard and trackpad are facing up, the W510 acts like a laptop, but flip it over, and the tablet swivels around into a presentation stand, with the screen facing out from the front. The W510 has a 10.1-inch, 1920-by-1080 resolution display, and will run an Intel processor with support for legacy Windows software. Acer hasn’t announced a price or release date yet.

Asus Transformer AiO

If today’s tablets are too small for you, consider the Asus Transformer AiO, an all-in-one PC with a detachable 18.4-inch touch screen. When separated from the base, the gigantic tablet runs a standalone version of Android, but it can also use a remote desktop connection to access Windows 8 over a local network. Asus isn’t talking price or release date now, but my guess is “quite a lot” and “not for a while,” respectively.

HP “Slate 8″

HP has been quiet about its Windows 8 tablet plans so far, but a report by Neowin suggests a slick first effort. While most Intel-based Windows 8 tablets will be a bit chunky, the so-called Slate 8 will measure just 0.36 inches thick–a hair thinner than Apple’s new iPad–and weigh about 1.5 pounds, according to a leaked product rendering. And despite the slim figure, the Slate 8 will reportedly get between 8 and 10 hours of battery life. Now all we need is an official announcement to make this thing real.

ASUS

Asus Tablet 600

One of the few Windows RT computers announced so far, the Asus Tablet 600 is essentially a Windows version of the company’s popular Transformer Android tablet series. The tablet has a 10.1-inch, 1366-by-768 resolution display and an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor; it turns into a laptop with a keyboard and trackpad dock, an extra USB port and an extended battery. You know the drill: No price or release date just yet. (Asus is also working on Intel-based versions of the same concept. The Tablet 810 will have an Atom processor and an 11.6-inch display, and the Transformer Book will have Intel Core processors, discrete graphics and screen sizes of 11.6 inches, 13 inches and 14 inches.)

Nokia Mystery Tablet

Okay, so Nokia hasn’t announced a Windows 8 tablet, but there have been rumors, and former chairman Jorma Ollila has promised that  the company is planning to launch a range of tablets. Nokia’s Lumia 800 is one of the best-looking Windows Phones yet, and I’m interested to see the company carry those design chops over to larger touch screens.

Time to Admit It: A Smaller iPad Would Spell Doom for Everyone Else

The rumors of a mini iPad have surfaced once again, and I’m starting to believe them. Both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal report that Apple will launch an iPad with a screen smaller than 8 inches this year, citing unnamed sources.

In the world of Apple rumors, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal represent a sort of turning point. Their stories about unreleased Apple products are usually vague on details, but the gist–that product X will be released during timeframe Y–tends to be correct, especially when both publications report the same story.

As a fan of competition and someone who generally enjoys Android–especially the latest version, Jelly Bean–I desperately want to be contrarian about this. I’ve been trying to think of ways in which a smaller iPad wouldn’t destroy Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet and Google’s upcoming Nexus 7, but so far, I’ve got nothing.

(MORE: Google’s Nexus 7 and Nexus Q: A Photo Tour of the New Hardware)

Price alone won’t be fatal. Despite what some pundits are claiming, I doubt Apple can hit $200 with a 7.8-inch iPad. The only way the competition gets that cheap is by sacrificing hardware profits in hopes of making money on digital content sales.

Apple doesn’t work that way. According to unofficial estimates, Apple makes about $150 in profit on the Wi-Fi iPad 2, which now sells for $400, and for the latest iPad, the profit margins are even greater. Content sales are just gravy. Unless I’m drastically underestimating Apple’s supply chain prowess, a smaller iPad priced at $250 or $300 seems far more likely if Apple still wants to make a profit on hardware.

But even at a higher price than other 7-inch tablets, Apple would do well against its competitors purely on the strength of its apps. No other tablet maker has cultivated an app ecosystem like Apple’s, which is why 10-inch Android tablets haven’t made a dent in the iPad’s sales—even ones that cost less than the iPad.

If Apple can pitch a smaller iPad as a less expensive device for kids, or for women to fit in their purses, or for gamers who want something easier to grip with two hands, I think it’s a winner. It would likely have all the same apps, as iOS developer Joel Bernstein points out, because even when scrunched onto a 7.8-inch screen, they’d still fit within Apple’s design guidelines.

(LIST: 30 Best Apps for Apple’s New iPad)

And it kind of makes me sad to think about it. I own an iPad, and I really like it, but I’ve also been using Google’s Nexus 7, and it’s really, really good. Android appeals to my nerdy side, with all its customizability, its lack of a walled garden and the simple fact that I can play classic video game emulators on it.

But I know most people don’t care about any of that, and even though Android is now fast and fluid enough for curb appeal, the advantages it offers over iOS still aren’t obvious to the average user. Apple is the safe bet–the platform with all the apps–for which people will happily pay an extra $50 to $100. Amazon and other tablet makers can race further to the bottom, and they probably will, but they won’t come up with better products that way—only cheaper ones.

At the moment, 7-inch screens are the only place where Apple’s competitors can start to build ecosystems of apps and media–ones that could potentially come back to haunt Apple. With its own smaller, cheaper tablet, Apple could snuff those ecosystems out.

Toshiba’s Thrive 7: Still Searching for the Perfect 7-inch Tablet

Almost two years after it was announced, Apple’s iPad remains the very definition of a category-defining product. Every other tablet that’s arrived since — and there have been bajillions of ‘em — must start by trying to answer a basic question: “Why should somebody buy this instead of an iPad?” Rising to that challenge has proven unexpectedly tricky, which is why nearly every tablet that isn’t an iPad has turned out to be an also-ran.

 Two reasons you might buy a non-Apple tablet are reasonably straightforward, however: You might prefer one that’s smaller and cheaper. Those factors help explain the relative success of Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet, two 7-inch models that are $300 and $250 cheaper, respectively, than the iPad.

They also come into play with Toshiba’s new tablet, the Thrive 7. Unlike the Fire and Nook, this Android device hasn’t been stripped down to hit a low price point. In fact, it features many of the same features and components as Toshiba’s first tablet, the 10.1-inch Thrive. It also starts at the same price as the earlier model: $380, or $119 less than the lowest-cost iPad. (That’s for a unit with 16GB of storage space — a 32GB version is $430.)

(MORE: A Few New Year’s Resolutions for Tech Companies)

Using the Thrive, I got the same twinge of good news/bad news I’ve experienced with 7-inch tablets dating back to Samsung’s original Galaxy Tab. The small size makes for a distinctly different, more portable device than the 9.7-inch iPad. In portrait orientation, it feels like a paperback book; in landscape mode, you can still cradle it in your fingers and type with your thumbs. It can slip into a coat pocket or a purse, making it easier to tote than the definitely-not-pocketable iPad.

But both hardware and software issues keep the Thrive, like its 7-inch predecessors, from providing iPad-like overall excellence in a more compact form. I’m as convinced as ever that this is a legitimate size for a tablet — and I’m still looking for the first one that nails it.

As with Toshiba’s first tablet, this one has less of an iPad-wannabe feel to it than some of Apple’s rivals. Instead, Toshiba seems to have set out to translate what it knows about building laptops into tablet form. The 13.2-oz. Thrive 7 is a tad chunky and unapologetically plasticky, but it includes some PC-like features that the iPad 2 lacks: a Mini USB port for attaching peripherals, a Micro HDMI connector for hooking up a TV and a MicroSD slot that lets you expand its storage capacity.

(Outside of the U.S., incidentally, Toshiba sells a 10.1-inch tablet that goes head-to-head with the iPad 2 in terms of raw sex appeal, but the company hasn’t announced plans to bring it to this country.)

The single best thing about the Thrive 7 is its screen. Toshiba essentially took the display on the 10-inch model and squooshed it down, retaining the 1280-by-800 resolution of the original. That gives the Thrive a strikingly high pixel density for a 7-inch tablet: 66% more pixels than the Kindle Fire and Nook, and 25% more than the iPad 2. Movies from Netflix, which comes preinstalled, looked sharp and beautiful — especially once I’d cranked up the brightness a tad beyond its default setting — and Kindle books sported crisper typography than they did on the Kindle Fire.

1 / 14 backnext View All GADGETS CES: 12 Unique Ultrabooks and Tablets You Should Know About

Windows-based Macbook Air alternatives were plentiful at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, while tablet makers had more conservative lineups. These two computing classes may soon merge, so enjoy the best of them both in one handy slideshow.

Looking Forward to 2012: Credible iPad Threats

The iPad is a great tablet, but you know what’s even better? Competition. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of that in 2011, as Apple’s rivals rushed out clunky, expensive tablets based on Android Honeycomb, which itself was buggy and short on proper tablet apps. Next year will be better — I hope.

The Amazon Factor

Android tablet makers had three big problems in 2011: their hardware wasn’t cheap enough, the software wasn’t polished enough, and there weren’t enough apps compared with the iPad. Amazon tried to fix these flaws with the Kindle Fire, a 7-in. (18 cm) tablet that costs $199 and runs a heavily modified version of Android. The interface is easy to understand, and because of the small screen size, Amazon could get away with offering Android smart-phone apps slightly blown up to fit the larger display.

(MORE: Amazon: “Kindle Fire is the most successful product we’ve ever launched.”)

You might argue that Amazon’s Kindle Fire is already providing serious competition to the iPad, but as a smaller tablet at a much lower price, the Fire caters to a different market than the iPad does. Amazon’s tablet is a cheap content-consumption device, whereas the iPad is primarily a way to enjoy big-screen tablet apps. These two tablets can thrive independently.

That’s not to say Amazon won’t go after the iPad in 2012. Rumor has it that Amazon is working on new Kindle Fires with 8.9-in. (22.6 cm) and 10.1-in. (25.7 cm) displays, DigiTimes has reported. If true, these tablets would likely undercut the iPad on pricing and would use the same simple interface as the original Kindle Fire. And because the original Kindle Fire is a hit, a larger Amazon tablet would likely draw interest from developers, who would finally start tailoring their Android apps to bigger screens.

Taking this speculation a bit further, a larger Kindle Fire could have a ripple effect on other tablets. Apps developed for Amazon’s tablets could also be made available through the Android Market, alleviating the app shortages of other Android tablets. But those rival tabletmakers would have to slash prices to compete with Amazon. Apple, meanwhile, may decide to keep selling earlier iPads at lower prices, as it does now with the iPhone. Consumers who have no interest in the Kindle Fire may still benefit from Amazon’s making larger tablets, simply because of how other companies respond.

Windows Strikes Back

After two years of staying out of the tablet wars, Microsoft will roll the dice in 2012 with Windows 8. The operating system will sport some radical changes, including an interface designed for touchscreens and an app store for tablet software.

What makes Windows 8 intriguing is that — depending on what type of processor is inside — it’ll still support the classic Windows desktop and legacy software. And because Windows is at the core, all devices will support external mice and keyboards, complete with helpful shortcuts like copy and paste. This opens the possibility of having a single device that can act like a tablet, a laptop or a desktop as users attach keyboards, mice and external monitors. That’s one way to answer the all-important question: Why should someone buy this instead of an iPad?

The first tablets based on Windows 8 are expected in the second half of next year. Because millions of people will get Windows 8 as they upgrade to new PCs, Microsoft’s mission is simple: slow the iPad’s ascent by selling people on Windows machines with touchscreens.

Despite these threats, the iPad isn’t in any serious trouble next year. It remains the gold standard for tablets, and most competitors won’t have a chance. But at least 2012 will bring products with clear strategies for competing with Apple. That’s enough to make me optimistic.

Review: With Tablet S, I Worry About Sony

Sony’s Tablet S is an awkward device, but not because of its unusual wedge-shaped design. It is awkward because it catches Sony in the middle of a transition, from an iconic hardware maker to an Apple-like company that sells software, services and the devices to run it all. After playing with a Tablet S for review, it’s clear that Sony’s growth spurt isn’t anywhere near finished.

Because of the hardware, the Tablet S remains interesting among a sea of me-too Android tablets. Yes, the wedge shape looks weird next to every iPad imitator on the market, but Sony’s goal of making a tablet that feels like a magazine, folded over, is a success. When holding the tablet upright, an instinct takes over that makes me want to read things. It’s too bad Android Honeycomb is tailored toward landscape orientation, with some apps such as the Android Market only displaying horizontally. In that orientation, the Tablet S is less comfortable in the hands, but not unbearably so. The 9.4-inch display is roomy enough, while feeling less cumbersome than 10.1-inch widescreen tablets.

(MORE: Tablets: ‘Why Should Somebody Buy This Instead of an iPad?’)

The Tablet S also hides a neat trick in the form of a built-in infrared remote control, which can operate pretty much anything in your living room. The tablet recognized my two year-old Sharp HDTV right away, and I was able to program volume controls on my decades-old Sony stereo system manually.

Just one hardware nitpick: unless you want to wake up to a blinking notification light in the middle of the night, you’ll have to disable notifications altogether on the Tablet S. There’s no way to turn off the light otherwise.

Hardware is only as good as the software it runs, and that’s where the Tablet S starts to degrade. Android Honeycomb lets you do some cool stuff, such as adding widgets to the home screen, but its slowly-growing tablet app library doesn’t compare with that of Apple’s iPad. The OS occasionally stutters when moving from one screen to the next, and it has some frustrating bugs, like when an app you acquire from the Android Market hangs in “waiting to install” limbo. Sony’s added a few of its own flourishes, such as a stylized “Favorite Apps” menu, and claims to have made the software run smoother and faster than other Android tablets, but these tweaks don’t amount to a major improvement over the stock version of Android, which itself still needs work.

Where Sony really tries to stand out is in services, which is tech jargon for “giving you stuff to consume on your device.” For a long time, Sony’s been trying to create a platform for music, movies, books and games, with the end goal of having all that content available on every screen you own. The Tablet S could be a piece of that puzzle, if only its services were enticing.