woohoo! looks great!

it's about freakin time!

i hope its a decently priced 3LB convert tablet with educational discounts!!

All these anon tips i've been getting at Aximsite are starting to materialize now. Thanks Dell. I have been hammering on on particular PR rep for 3-4 years to get this done!!!

Congrats

Fantastic news! I've been waiting for a tablet offering from Dell for years. It was a tough move going with another brand for the last 2 years, but I'm seriously addicted to my tablet.

There is just one request: Dell, PLEASE include an option to upgrade to an Nvidia chipset. The intel video that comes with most tablets doesn't run the 3D applications that I use. ATI is good, but their drivers aren't as good for 3D authoring as they are for games. Dell+tablet+Nvidia=me as a guaranteed customer. I will pay double!

The slim factor definitly appeals to me.  I'll just have to wait and see.  I'm still a little ticked about the whole Axim discontinuation thing, but from the looks of things I may end up with another Dell before I know it.

Great to see information starting to come out about this - rumors of a Dell Tablet PC have been circulating for quite some time, and Dell's entry into the Tablet PC marketplace shows that Tablet PCs are a mature technology that are finally coming of age.  The fact that it's a convertible is important.

 
Dan Jensen

www.small-laptops.com

Glad to see Dell finally joining in. Now, if Chrysler could make a hybrid electric car, we'll finally be in the 21st century!

Looks like the convertible form factor is winning hands down over slate models. Most people I know are familiar with Dell. No one has yet seen the "Dude, you're getting a 'Motion Computing' or 'Electrovaya'" ads.

 Until now, if it weren't for Gateway or for HP's product placement on "Stargate: Atlantis," tablets would be pretty much dominated by Fujitsu and Toshiba.

Dell - Innovators in technology

Dell is striving to be a front runner, and this new Latitude Tablet couple with the Dell Ultra HD Display Port, they are entering a new arena, as leaders in innovation and technology.

Exciting times for Business and Consumer!

 
-WebMaster Adam.

http://www.computersite.com/blog.htm

At http://colinizer.com, this weekend, I'm commenting on some of the gadgets coming out of this weeks WinHEC conference.

The 6 keys things I think my next tablet should have:

1. Windows Vista with Aero
2. Convertible
3. SideShow (that I can extend)
4. LED-backlight widescreen
5. Windows ReadyDrive HDD
6. 6+ hours on a single battery with standby battery swap

In the mean time I may purchase a Vista UMPC.

I currently own a Gateway CX210X tablet PC, and love it because it is top-of-the line with regards to WIFI, HD, chipset, proc, and RAM.  The video card is an ATI X1400.  However, the tablet technology used by Finepoint Innovations does not match that of Wacom.

I wish I had purchased the Toshiba Tecra M7 instead during the brief window when it was sold with an NVS Quadro 110.  This unit has all the same advantages of the Gateway (including 7 hrs of battery life with a secondary battery) and supports 1440x900 resolution.  Also, it has better compatibility with OS X (hacked) and OpenSUSE.

Thus, good job Dell, but use Wacom, offer discrete graphics, (ideally next-gen DX10-compatible i.e. GeForce 8600 or RadeonHD 2600) and offer at least a 1440x900 resolution.  Personally, I don't care about weight.  Most geeks are guys, so either elbow grease is not an issue, or it shouldn't be. 

Looking forward to a Dell Tablet!

Please, please, I hope you haven't overlooked in your infinite wisdom at Dell to include the items which will put this over-the-top ahead all other teblets, ever!

I am a physician, these are the items I would want/need to work truly mobile:

1. Camera(s) - for video calling/conferencing w/ other physicians/residents
2. Wireless, of course, all modes, all available at the same time on the same tablet
3. Monitor: UXGA and options for large screens - 15" or larger instead of just trying to make it tiny weeny - I'm not putting a 12 or 10" screen in my white coat pocket, so I would rather have the real estate to view data/labs/literature with the least amount of scrolling possible, PLEASE
4. Separate Video controller - NOT shared! - not paultry, up to even 256 please so I can process those ultra sound video

Thank you,
Jonathan

Very exciting.

If they were to also confirm an availability date, I might wait for this. Otherwise, I will probably have to pull the trigger on either the Gateway e155c, the Lenovo x61 or the Fujitsu T4220.

Man, if it was available right now I would not mind spending $2000 to order it right now.

Interesting stuff.  I would like to hear more about the "touch" and "pen" interface.

Also.. coming for the business/education markets, I hope that means a decent docking solution will exist for it...   with dvi output to drive my desk bound lcd.

All in all pretty interesting.

Wonder what the price point will be.

- mike 

Does it run Linux? Will Dell do character recognition with Linux for it? That would be interesting.

Greetings from Germany

Business and education markets hmm... to my mind that = relativly cheap and low spec.

I dont see the point of targeting business people with tablets for the use taking notes in a meeting since most people can type alot faster than they can write. Artists, illustrators, graphic designers - it seems these people are being ignored by every company that makes tablets, ironically enough they are the one group who would most apreciate a tablets capabilities and also be willing to pay good money for a product that meets thier needs  - 

- high res screen

- fast processor

- 4gb ram

- 7200rpm drive

- DVI instead of VGA (please its 2007!)

- firewire 800

- more than a handful of buttons for use in tablet mode, check out the wacom cintiq for an example.

Err anyway, rant over :0)  

Fingers crossed that this tablet shapes up to be a decent machine ;)

What took so long? I hope Dell targets it at the budget consumer who wants innovative technology but not sacrifice to pay an arm and a leg, but at the same not up for sacrificing basic features and functionality to justify the cost.

Dell has been shipping some lacklustre hardware lately though especially in the notebook department and the recent consumer complaints are enough to make me wait a while before even buying a Tablet from from you guys.

What I'm hoping for:
Core 2 Duo
1 GB of RAM Minimum, Vista itself loves more.
DVD Burner - but will sacrifice for DVD/CD-RW
Dedicated graphics 256 MBs
Vista Home Premium or Business

Vista x64 (64-bit) FULL support

Taget price, $799 to $1000 for mainstream market, although I know you will have higher end models for corporate customers and specialized industries. But for a student, the price range I mentioned would be very suitable.

Its time the Tablet come out of the niche market now and I think Dell might just make that happen.

I am ready to update my notebook laptop to a tablet. As a loyal Dell customer I (along with family members own over 16 Dell products) was disheartened to find that Dell did not offer one. As I was searching for the best replacement I came across rumors of the Dell. Now I can't wait till it hits the market. I'd like to know when can I get my hands on it.

As a professional in the real estate buiness I can safely sat that Tablet PC's will be the next big thing in our industry and therefore I'd like Dell to consider this large group when designing of this product.

-Just make it cheap. A convertible is just a laptop with an hinge. No need for endless development. Esp. since you are so late on the market.

- Make it 15'

It was about time. Nice to see the confirmation seal on this so fast! The XT looks really sleek Keep up the good work!

I really wonder on the pricing of the Latitude XT. Don't keep those insanely high prices which many can't afford. At the end of the day, its just a laptop, with a few mods and tech. inputs. Tablets and convertibles are nothing new, price it normally and not as a flagship product for a very niche market. Dell is already late to enter this market, price it well and you enter with a BANG! Good luck :)

Horrible Shirt, but one pretty piece of tech.

Nobleman
 

Great News Dell!! but the upcoming 2710p from HPs pretty impressive too, with their cam n hsdpa  connection options(only thing lacking from the HPs a touch screen) and their shipping end July 07!?

and a rumoured HSDPA supercompact convertable slate 'Helios' from Fujitsu?

so roll out your lappies quick! Dell :)

Having built-in (not through USB or PCMCIA or express card) HSDPA connectivity is a must these days! Dell, please put HSDPA inside of this Dell Tablet PC because my next (it will be 4th in my life) Tablet PC must have HSDPA built-in --- because I am sick and tired of using PCMCIA cards with UMTS/HSDPA - I need to have it built-in!

It's all about dedicated graphics and screen resolutions which i can't find in dells 15" range.

If dell doesn't build a 15" laptop or tablet with dedicated graphics and at least 1680x1080 screen resolution, i have to stick with a 15" macbook pro...
 

Once again Dell is late to market with a "same as" offering. When are they going to learn that market leadership entails taking risks.

Let's see, the sales pitch will be commonality with Latitude and less expensive than [name your favorite, entrenched tablet vendor].

Would it be too much for Dell to introduce any product where the cost is not the primary reason for purchase from this OEM? 

The device looks extremly proprietary and is way too big.

I wouldn't bother with these. Get a Lenovo instead. 

If you do plan to use a combination of processor architectures in your Tablet PC portfolio, please keep the lowend processors as far away as possible from it. When I say low end, I mean Celeron, Sempron, Core Solo and Core Duo. Just give customers value, go back to the your roots of your Company: Customer Value and service.

 Core 2 Duo or AMD Turion are just fine by me.

 I would also suggest you provide a powerful out of box experience that could make offering more unique and valuable in comparison to your competitors, offering a full copy of Office OneNote 2007 would make it an enticing value proposition, especially for students.

Other things to take into account:

A community and help site just for owners of Dell Tablet PCs.
 

I think this is great. I am so excited for this tablet to enter the market! the 12-1 inch screen is perfect I would hate to go larger. The tablet just gets to "clunky." I want a lightweight convertible with an external optical drive so weight is minimized. don't-need an optical drive on the go. I'm a professional going back for her master's degree. this is perfect! In my opinion Dell-is going to get this right. Don't understand people who would want to lug around a 15" tablet. Unfortunately weight is a key factor among business, health, & educational fields. Perhaps some of you have forgotten lugging around insanely heavy bookbags with insanely heavy textbooks.

 Another thing I've found, is people don't understand why a tablet costs so much more than a regular laptop. Well, its because the active digitizer technology & screen make up about 40% of the costs. Blame not enough competing active digitizer technology out there for the insane cost of tablets. Then unfortunately it's performance and graphics cards that are cut to keep costs from being too outrageous.

I definately hope they give the option of a solid State hard drive as they offer for the D420. Though they too are very expensive its a nice option. I hope, too, that they up the 4200 RPM haddrive to at least a 5400 drive I think a 4200 is just too slow and antiquated with the 7200 RPM mobile drives available. 

With Santa Rosa and the new integrated graphics with more dedicated RAM, this should be an extremely viable machine. Now, I simply must learn to be patient. Not an easy task!

Looks a little too small for my taste...

I had a TC4200 and I just bought the new HP one...

HP is far ahead don't kid yourself....

Great! however where is the onboard camera for video conferencing.. Most of my clients are going for apple and acer for just this reason...

I hope this spec.

+ Display
-SXGA+ or more
 from 12.1 inch to 17 inch
-wide view angle to that ThinkPadX61Tablet at least.
 (160degrees / horizontality, verticality)

+ Graphics Chip
- GeForce or Radeon
- Integrated Intel Media Accelerator Graphics!

+ HDD
-2.5inch

+ CPU
- Intel Core2Duo

+ Interface
-Wacom technology for the screen/pen interface
-DVI
-Bluetooth
-more than a handful of buttons for use in tablet mode, like a ThinkPadX61Tablet or Cutiqu

and Please sale in Japan.

Nice shirt!  Is that supposed to compete with Steve Jobs?

I personally am sorry that the main manufacturers  don't want to make pure tablets which shed the weight and bulk of the keyboard.  My NEC Litepad was sufficient for 99% of the potential uses.  Speech recognition will soon make keyboards unnecessary even for heavy text inputting.

 johnware
 

Dell has the ability to bring together all the features which other tablet convertibles have at reasonable prices. I would like to have a monitor size minimum of 13"  a small camera as in HP tablet, digitizer (Wacom) instead of touch screen. and off course light weight.

Release it soon. People are waiting.
 

oh, man, some people above sound have no idea what a tablet is, and they insist a HIGH RESOLUTION screen------do they really think they can read on a 12" or smaller screen with 1600x1200 resolution???

For small screen, 1280 or even 1024 is more than enough.

With the reduced resolution, it is possible to come up with increased 3D performance----lower resolution, but high quality. Hopefully ATI or Nvidia could adjust their product lines.

Battery is more important than traditional laptop because tablet is meant to carry around. Think of PSP, one of the major problem is the relatively short battery life than NDSL.

Talking about PSP/NDSL, their outlooking design is definitely something worthy to study.

many people talk about performance, and even large screen.

Interesting, if so, why not go for a laptop???

Tablet is for mobility, not for performance (although it's cool to play World of Warcraft or need of speed on a laptop).

PDA is being replaced by smartphones, tablet can be regarded as the next generation PDA.

I'm in the market for a tablet and I was planning to buy as soon as lenovo releases the x61 but now I have to wait to see the initial reviews of the latitude xt. Thanks a bunch dell, for making me wait longer! :)

In case it helps, here are the things I'm hoping to get (in the x61 or in the XT):

• L7500 processor option.
• 1440 x 900 multitouch option (or an sxga+ if not that) -- note that x60s have the multitouch option but only for xga resolutions. This is a business laptop, and we business users need our real-estate :)
• The screen should _absolutely not_ be glossy -- this is a deal breaker for me -- in a lot of lighting situations the glare makes it impossible to read stuff off the screen. <rant> I simply cannot understand this trend (especially from HP, Toshiba) of forcing glossy screens on us. </rant>
• Discrete ATI graphics option would be nice but isn't required -- x3100 will do. This is a business laptop -- graphics are not the most important thing as long as I can drive a standard XGA projector in a meeting room I should be all set. The 965 will handle Aero just fine -- the 950 already does!
• Either an integrated smart card reader, or a regular PC card option -- the express card formfactor causes me tons of heartbreak since it can't accomodate a credit-card sized smart card reader (which is what most companies issue, and since this is a business laptop this should be an important design criteria).
• Decent battery life without adding an ugly appendage to the laptop -- its clearly a thing of beauty, looking at the videos. It would be a shame if 100% of users have to spoil that by adding an external battery like in the case of the x60. Dell: here's your chance to learn a bit from lenovo's mistakes. i.e. if literally 100% of x60 buyers opted for an external battery it clearly means that to most users the weight savings from removing the battery was not worth the loss in terms of battery life. That being the case, put a decent battery (4-5 hrs worth) in the laptop to begin with. We (the buyers) will opt for extended batteries above that depending on our needs.
• 7200rpm HDD options -- the more the better. I would love to have the option of getting 160GB @ 7200 rpm.
• Maintain the high keyboard quality that we've come to expect from Latitudes.
• Maintain (and improve upon) the quality materials we're come to expect from latitudes. Keep the lines clean, the colors basic -- none of that shiny but cheap looking silver coated stuff..
• Keep the synaptics touchpad. A lot of business users need a trackpoint/stick/whatever but the vast majority of us are irreversably used to using touchpads and don't want to take the effort to get used to trackpoints. And make the touchpad black/dark grey -- these silver touchpads look cheap.
• I assume the XT will not have an optical drive. I am fine with this (I've had a laptop sans cd-drive before and it was a good experience). However a lot of users could get intimidated by (what they think) are the implications. Make it clear that this is not the end of the world -- make a slim & light external drive available, and make sure it isn't prohibitively expensive. Make it clear what the options are for booting from CDs/DVDs. Make s/w available for caching disks to deal with those "what if I want to watch a DVD in an aircraft and don't want the inconvenience of an external drive" type of questions.

Oh, and finally -- please don't make me wait too long! I cannot wait to read the first review and see the first _large_ pictures of this tablet. I'm in the market, and I will have a _very_ hard time waiting once the x61 is released. :)

Thanks

Please Please Please - do not go with Finepoint!

I went through several Gateways with the Finepoint setup, and was horribly disappointed!  No Photoshop support until recently, and the response was atrocious.

I work as an analyst in the real estate industry and know of several major homebuilders who loved the idea of tablets for their salesforce, but could not find a workable version.  I am looking at replacing my Gateway within the next month or two, and this looks like it could be a winner.  Looking forward to updates!

Could you place me on a waiting list? :D If Dell gets this out soon, I'll buy it over the other models I've been looking at...

It looks Sweet. I first found out about tablets on stargate. I i was thinking:"Hmm, where do i get a computer that's just a sccreen?"
Well, finally it's here. Good timeing.
 

Looks cheap...  is that a plastic case?

From what I've been able to research, view, touch/feel/handle, and finally see in live action at my doctor's office, the top ranked tablet/convertible laptops have some winning features.  Several brands use the Wacom active touch screen, they have decent enough graphics that are still visible and useful for a small (12 inch class) screen, they are relatively small and lightweight, they have full laptop and tablet functionality, and most of all, a couple of the best brands provide a high quality product for the money.  

There are several 12 inch screen tablet/convertible laptops on the market today.  Dell has a long hill to climb to match, or better, exceed these competitor products.  I hope that Dell leapfrogs the competition in both technology and value with their new product.  I will be carefully watching to see what Dell produces, because I am going to fetch a convertible laptop soon.  May the best product win.

Hi, i need such a tablet running on Linux not Windows.

With all my respect to Dell (I had 6 or 7 computers) why bother with 12" Tablet? There are 2 dozens on the market from Asus to Toshiba, many powerful enough and lightweight. Motion Tablet is quite good and weights nothing.

I can't state the same on 14-15" screen Tablets.  Something that one places on the table and uses whole day. And than carries elswhere.

Desktop with touchscreen is not a solution, neither is latest funny HP kitchen Touchscreen PC. 

I have also been waiting a long time for this and am very excited!  Our company purchases our laptops exclusively from Dell, and this is what I have wanted for a long time.  I will be first in line when they are released.

i am a university prof. and am ready to buy this conertible. My wish list:

close to 3lbs and 12.1"

santa rosa

vista (with lotsa ram)

sideshow + D docking station compatible (if possible)

solid state drive

Touch AND stylus

Really cool!

Don't think it has a built in optical drive though! 

Dear DELL,

We are working for an international organization. We have more than 100+ tablet PC now and all are Fujitsu. 90% of staff are men and we are frequent travellers for business purposes. The Fujitsu's 12.1" tablet PC is, for the time being, most suitable option but most of us need more than that size. we have to deal with graphics and drawings which need large screen to view.

Important points for your plan on Tablet:

1/Intel Latest CPU, Duo 2 or Multi Core, (FSB > 800 MHz is preferable)

2/ 13"~ 15" with sxga or wxga 1440 x 900 ++ (bright view, high contract) display- if smaller than 13 inch, no way to think about it.

3/ 4-GB RAM

4/ Dedicated VGA controller card and Memory 256 or 512 Gb for 3D (Share VGA RAM not work well all the time)

5/ WLAN a,b,g,n, Bluetooth, HSDPA, F-iR,

6/ RJ-45(10/100/1000), RJ-11, Media card reader, PCMCIA, Audio-mic-headphone ports, USB, Firewire, VGA out, (I do not care LPT port, S-Video port)

7/ SSD with 60 GB (Samsung has made it)

8/ 7200 rpm 200Gb HDD (Fujitus has it)

9/ Pen Digitizing with wacom tech.

10/ Thin, stylist, hard tri-metal chissis (like D800, M60)

12/ Some security measure (biometric or fingerprint etc.etc)

We do not mind DVDor CD or optical drive to come as Build-in, these days, everything could be transfered via flash drive. this optical drive could be external The way like floppy drive.

We do not mind the weight, size and price.

I hope if you could make it bigger than normal market flooded size (i.e 12.1 inch), that could be attractive to normal Laptop/Notebook users as well.

Let see....

King

The main reason I haven't bought a tablet yet is that they weigh too much.  I have a Latitude X300 and, with the exception of the Motion Computing 1700LE, current tablets are all much heavier (and the 1700LE doesn't incude a keyboard).  Dell says their tablet will be lightweight but if that comes at the expense of a decent screen size -- which happened with the X1 -- I'll keep my X300.

In reference to Mike's comment about Dell machines being cheap and fragile:  My understading is that one of the reasons it has taken Dell so long to enter this segment is that tablet manufacturers have been losing their shirts on warranty repairs for convertible models.  I don't think we'd be seeing a Dell Tablet if they hadn't figured out some way to make something more durable than the competition. 

What is going on!!!!!!

What a great surprizzzze! I 've been waiting for this ages long..

But Dell, make it quality product, not like inspiron series: cheap and weak,  line. Make it like Latitude or Precision series: smart and tough line.

I think we need abit different (bigger) size than dozens of available 12 inch products line which is full of market place in everywhere. Probably 13.3 or 14.1 will do.

To go well with Windows Vista, I think you may do with good option for VGA. Personally I prefer symmetric design to any curvature outlook.

Any cutting-edge gears plugged-in?? like web cam and laser beam communication for mid range 30 - 50 m contact in the field? The thermometer, hygrometers and barometer to be build-in? (these equipments do not need big space but use minimum power like clock and provide very useful environment parameter for us.)

BTW, I am surveyor. So I need these staff.

Good luck and looking forward to this new toys.

This is a great step in the right direction.  I personally predict that all laptops will be tablets in the next 5 years . . there's certainly no disadvantage of having that option.

I hope you'll move into the consumer market soon because I'd love to see an XPS tablet.  I've read rumored specs of the 1330, and it has everything I need  eeeexcept it's not a tablet. ;_;

What I'd like in my dream tablet that I don't believe anyone else is offering are:
- A display with a higher resolution than XGA
- A DirectX 10 card
- HDMI
- Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive
- Santa Rosa

All under 5 lb. would be awesome (my current laptop is 7 lb and it's already a pain to carry). And is $1500 or less possible?

Thanks in advance!

- Kevin
 

Hi,

Some wants 12" screen and minimum weight, others want big screen (13,14 even 15"..) ... and light weight of course ;-) Well I think the best Dell can do is to make two differents Tablet PC: a mini 12" screen and less then 3 pounds on a side, and a most powerfull (dedicated graphic chip and video memory) on another side.

What is very important in all cases: Wacom tec, no touch screen like the HP TX 1000 series (I was about to buy it but after a short try definitively NO), and NOT a glossy screen: we must be able to use it outside, or inside in a environment with multiple lights that make these brightscreens abslotuely ,ot usable.

We do not need a integrated optical drive (to save weight). A good idea, instead of that external drives that you don't know where and how to put (in a plane or a train for example...) should be a slim part that you could plg UNDER the PC, and with the size (same as the Tablet) could integrate an second battery to have the ability to see a 3 H video in the train, and at the destination, put it back on your bag and continue to work with the Tablet alone (on its own battery). 

And of course: powerfull Core 2 processors, 2 to 4 Gb mem, card reader (DON'T FORGET Compact Flash please, think to photographs... have you noticed no laptop on the market have a card reader that accept Compact Flash ??!!!)

Thanks 

I hope that the device is offered with a broader range of options than the typical fare.  HP seems to have hit this target by making the 4400 series as a tablet and a notebook version, reducing production costs, hitting a broader market and providing greater versatility.

The X61 is a nice device, but the spinning drive misses the point.

12.1 is a nice size (especially in wide format) provided I can push a higher res external monitor.

Battery life is always an issue, but many of us won't have the tablet off the dock more than a few hours a week.  What about offering an option for a higher speed processor, and more agresssive speed stepping for off dock battery life?

As a design professional, I am looking for a portable device that will not limit my productivity, and will be willing to pay a little more to get the power neccessary to drive the software I need to achieve my goals.

My hardware requirements include:

It would be great if Dell would acknowledge this market si