Sony launches 20 inch tablet running Windows 8

http://presscentre.sony.eu/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=7959&NewsAreaId=2

by anigbrowl • 14 years ago

38 35 14 years ago

presscentre.sony.eu

octopus• 14 years ago

This more like a touch PC than a tablet at about 5.2 kg ...

debacle• 14 years ago

Didn't initially see the weight. That's huge. Ten pounds! I don't even think my laptop weighs that much.

ConstantineXVI• 14 years ago

If it wasn't for having a battery, I'd presume it's intended to stay fixed to one place. It's still technically portable, but I don't imagine it going far given the size, nor any practical applications that wouldn't be better served by something smaller.

lukifer• 14 years ago

That's exactly the idea: a semi-mobile desktop tablet. I could see that having usability value when paired with a touch-centric OS. (I'm still waiting on the giant drafting table implicitly promised by Jeff Han in 2006.)

kellishaver• 14 years ago

Calling this thing a tablet is like calling a Dell XPS M2010 netbook.

ekianjo• 14 years ago

I would call it a table computer rather than a tablet... :)

IanDrake• 14 years ago

No SSD? That's strange at this point.

madoublet• 14 years ago

If I had the money, I would put one of these on my coffee table.

nickyp• 14 years ago

At 20 inches, this thing could BE your coffee table!

sliverstorm• 14 years ago

Just hope your coffee mug doesn't start moving the mouse

lobster45• 14 years ago

1600x900 is too low for a 20" tablet. The 7" Nexus 7 is 1280×800

gamble• 14 years ago

Looks like they just used a standard low-end desktop panel.

sachingulaya• 14 years ago

You can't compare resolutions between screens that differ in sizes...especially when the viewing distance is different. I can't imagine that you would hold a 20" tablet up to your face as you would a 7" one.

rrreese• 14 years ago

At 5+kg there isn't going to be much holding going on. It's designed for using on a table (or maybe your lap) which as you say means significantly greater viewing distances then an iPad/Nexus 7.

ChuckMcM• 14 years ago

I noted this as well. I would have expected it to at least be a 1920x1080 panel since at 20" that is pretty cheap glass these days.

Surprised no one has done one of these with a 27" hires IPS panel.

mparlane• 14 years ago

Could anyone see any estimates for battery life? I seem to be blind.

MatthewPhillips• 14 years ago

About as long as it takes you to find the next one from your bag.

hamxiaoz• 14 years ago

Sony is never great for the battery life

nightski• 14 years ago

Title is rather misleading, this is not being marketed as a tablet but rather a full on touch PC.

hkmurakami• 14 years ago

Ah the VAIO brand name now makes sense!

astrodust3• 14 years ago

Sony is a lot like Apple in that they have these designers cooking up crazy designs and inventing new things, and they have people who know how to make something very cheap and inexpensive to manufacture.

The difference is Sony doesn't put these two kinds of people in the same room.

SoftwareMaven• 14 years ago

Rectangular with rounded corners. Black bezel that is the same size on all four sides. Metal border. Is this another design patent suit about to happen?

eckyptang• 14 years ago

I've already got the tethered touchscreen predecessor of this (Vaio VPCJ1) and it's a piece of shit, even with Windows 8 on it. I'd have been seriously angry if I'd bought it but I was given it from someone else who was angry that they'd bought it.

It's heavy, slow, noisy, unreliable, hot and poorly engineered (the stand broke after about a week - 2x cheap self-tapping screws into plastic bearing the ENTIRE weight), the PSU started whistling after a couple of months resulting in a warranty job.

The kids use it as their "I don't care if they break it" computer.

Excuse the cynicism, but I doubt this will be any better.

DeepDuh3• 14 years ago

As someone who's close to Japanese culture ('married into it') and has loved Sony products in the 90ies this stuff just makes me angry. At this pace Sony will soon need some berserk of Jobs' calibre to turn it around (they still aren't at the point Apple was in '97 but it's getting closer rapidly).

astrodust3• 14 years ago

Sony is firmly in the 1993-1995 era Apple where they keep turning out decent products but never hit the high notes they used to.

They're effectively rudderless, with the television, game, movie, electronics and various other key enterprises not firing on all cylinders and often moving in opposing directions.

This is akin to Apple that, for a period that went on far too long, they were making dozens of different models that often differed in little more than price and badging on the front, with models specific to certain channels and retailers.

The problem is they don't have a visionary they can re-adopt. Changing a company as diverse as Sony, with so many competing interests and a typically Japanese corporate culture that's as flexible as someone suffering from rigor mortis... Prognosis isn't good.

mortenjorck• 14 years ago

It's a shame they built a massive, 11-pound x86 desktop PC in a bloated tablet format rather than taking the opportunity to build an ARM-based tablet for WinRT with an unusually large screen. There are probably still quite few issues that need to be solved to make LCDs light enough for a truly mobile tablet at that scale, but Sony is in a good position to at least experiment in that space.

twinsnes• 14 years ago

I guessing they would like to run some apps that aren't arm compatible, most desktop apps aren't yet. With the usual price tag sony puts on their computers, I'm guessing that they will market it as a touch screen desktop. Like the HP media center pcs.

martythemaniak• 14 years ago

Shameless Plug: I built a similar 23" Android "tablet" last year. http://martin.drashkov.com/2011/09/android-megapad-23-androi...

I thought Android is a much better choice of an OS, seeing as how many apps would already scale up nicely. I still think this is a valid product category - various specialized kiosks and smartboards will soon be replaced. I guess we'll see whether it'll be Android or Win8 (or some Apple thing).

hammersend• 14 years ago

Wow that looks pretty awesome. I'll bet it would be really nice with Jellybean on it. What are you using to make the touch screen work?

jpxxx• 14 years ago

I've been thinking this extra-large format would be huge in some niches like design shops: a big slab of touchscreen you could pass around and run full on Pixelmator-type software on.

And then you find out it's a PC with a mechanical HDD and I get sad. Ship this in five lbs and an obscene battery life for $1000 and you're cooking with gas.

DocFeind• 14 years ago

Want this NOW! ...please

mike_ivanov• 14 years ago

It's not a tablet, it's a .. table.

Sony launches 20 inch tablet running Windows 8

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