[citation][nom]bigdragon[/nom]I'm a digital artist and developer on the go. I don't like Intel's specs at all. I really hope manufacturers buck Intel's desired definition of what a tablet should be and bring us more devices like the Asus EP121. Of all the tablets I have used that has been my favorite. The Atom-based tablets have been miserable failures. They're simply too slow to get any real work done with them.I want to buy a 10 to 13 inch tablet with a Wacom digitizer and a CPU that is at least twice as strong as an Atom. The only thing at this point that would make the EP121 better is if it had AMD or Nvidia graphics inside. I'm sure Intel doesn't want anyone building the device I want to buy because it would eat into Ultrabook sales. What a shame.[/citation]
[citation][nom]bigdragon[/nom]How many tablets? Many. Fujitsu Q550, HP Slate, Lenovo S10, and a couple more. I have to evaluate these things for their applicability for the work environment given the current tablet fad. I was quite fond of the Samsung Series 7, but its reduced screen resolution vs the Asus EP121 was a real downer. When you look at it objectively the mobile i5 reduced battery life is an acceptable tradeoff against the Atom for dramatically higher performance, more screen resolution, and a digitizer that doesn't lag. 3 hours is pretty good compared to the stuff we used to have that got 1 or 1.5 hours. I'm really not all that concerned that an EP121 doesn't stay powered as long as a Kindle. It's good enough. At least I don't have to wait 5 seconds for the junky Atom-based Q550 and its digitizer to decide how to draw the line I just drew.I'm not going to comment on phones and ARM and such. My goal is to raise an alarm bell that Intel wants to dumb down Windows 8 tablets into an arena dominated by the iPad and Android tabs. I want a powerful tablet for drawing, sculpting, and even scripting on the go. I want to use it for business and pleasure. Intel and Microsoft seem to want to position their tablets for media consumption. I can browse Facebook just fine on my phone and watch movies just fine on my Smart TV. Let's not forget about the high-end tablet niche the EP121 has dominated over the past year. I want to see a Windows 8 replacement. This article tells me we may not see such a thing because it competes with the Ultrabook.[/citation]
[citation][nom]bigdragon[/nom]Last time I checked the Motion Computing LE1700 I used to use and Asus EP121 I use now both had Intel logos on there. The LE1700 is from 2007, can be viewed in direct sunlight, has a C2D L7400 that smokes the Atom provided in the 2011 Fujitsu Q550, but only gets an hour of battery life unfortunately. I have been using tablets since before the iPad. The iPad, its form factor, and its purpose is not the be-all and end-all of tablet computing.I don't want an iPad and I don't want an Ultrabook. I can't do real work on an iPad, and I can't draw on the screen of an Ultrabook. It disturbs me that Intel wants to define what a Windows 8 tablet is to be such that it doesn't compete with Ultrabooks. This same sort of behavior torpedoed the netbook market. People can do so much more with these types of devices. Let's not use another spec list to constrain them to existing in an over-saturated market dominated by iOS and Android. I don't think this is a recipe for success.[/citation]
[citation][nom]bigdragon[/nom]You should see peoples' faces light up when I bring out the EP121. Everyone asks me if it's the new iPad. I politely answer no while Photoshop or Blender loads. There is no way I would ever trade that for lugging around a desktop or a conventional laptop with its permanently-attached keyboard.[/citation]
These new Atoms are faster than the netbook ones and Windows 8 is much lighter than Windows 7. Besides that, this is to compete with stuff like the Android and iPad tablets. These aren't high end laptops without a keyboard like what you seem to want. The i5's reduced battery life is not acceptable for the majority of tablet users and the performance benefit doesn't matter too much for them either.
That the new Atoms seem to be able to compete with even the projected performance of the Cortex A15 ARM CPUs that we are still waiting for (according to Anand, some of these Atoms also have graphics performance equal to that of Apple's A5X chip).
Your basically saying that you don't want these because they are not focused on your niche market. Guess what, that is why it's a niche market... Most companies don't care much about it because most people don't and that makes it a low money market. There is a huge market for media consumption tablets, so both Intel and M$ wanted in on that. Your argument is like saying that a new Pentium based laptop is no good because the P4s suck (an analogy for your comparison of the old Atoms to these new ones) and because they aren't quad core i5/i7 based instead of Pentium based. Guess what, the low end market has more money, so it gets more focus.
You can say that you would like a new tablet to replace your EP121 for what you do, but your complaining about these machines is just whining because you didn't get what you wanted. You probably won't see a new tablet like the Asus EP121 at least until Ivy Bridge is released, if ever. I have no problem with you wanting a very high end tablet, but these are obviously for a different market.
the tablet with laptop CPU market is like the laptop with desktop CPU market; very small. I wasn't pissed about the X58 laptop not being upgraded to X79 until a while after X79 came out, just wait and you might see a replacement for the EP121. In that, I wish you luck. I admit that I would like to see a replacement for it because it's an interesting product, although I'd never spend the money on it even if I could afford it.
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