When I picked up the MSI W20 at an AMD event last week I was impressed. 1.5lb is 680 grams and that isn’t bad for an 11.6-inch tablet. Based on the build and CPU I’m guessing we’re looking at a low-cost Windows 8.1 tablet and if the price is right, this could be a nice couch-mate.

The A4-1200 CPU isn’t going to be hugely powerful (in the same ball-park as Atom Clovertrail) and the build quality doesn’t seem to be anything to sing about. The screen is a 1366×768 part and you’ll only get 2GB of RAM but there’s a fingerprint reader (could be an option) and AMD Radeon HD 8180 graphics which is likely to beat Clovertrail’s GPU. The main problem with the MSI W20 is that ASUS have just gone and announced a 10-inch 2-in-1 on Baytrail that weighs just 550gm (tablet) and only 1.1KG combined with the keyboard. The price for that is $399 with a 64GB SSD. MSI will have to go some to beat that. We’re likely to see Baytrail-M-based 11.6-inchers feed in later in the year too so don’t rush out without checking back here first!

Here’s my hands-on video.

We’re expecting Baytrail products to show this morning. We’ll hear about Ultrabooks and we’ll hear about Windows and Android mobility.

This article will update with relevant pics and information as the keynote progresses. (Start at 0900 San Francisco time)

0900: starting.

I think we just heard a new ‘bong bong bong bong’

First up is  Doug Fisher who sets the stage.

Hermann Eul will now go into details….

Smartphones….we want more. “It all starts with great CPU”

The Silvermont Core….

“Spans an Ultra Dynamic Range”

Announcing  Bay Trail.

Next generation of Intel multi-core. Intel HD graphics.

“Ample” performance.

Advanced imaging capabilities.

Asus announce T100 Baytrail Transformer

HD display. over 10hrs of battery life.

“Perfect for productivity.”

[Update: Pic from post-event Q&A]

Hermann: Baytrail wonderful for mobile gaming.

It’s demo time… Online shopping.

Nice avatar and measurements-based online shopping demo. Animated catwalk rendering impressive.

These manufacturers will release Baytrail based products.

Dell. Windows 8 8-inch ‘Venue’ Windows devices.

Branding – Venue – a range of products launching ni October.

What comes next….

We just had a lightshow….

Next up, Kirk Skaugen….

New 2-in-1’s coming.

Prices down to $349. Clearly Ultrbooks and BayTrail deivces mixing in this sector.

Sony Vaio Duo 13. Dell XPS 11, Sony Vaio Tap 11, Dell XPS 12 get a little demo. All info on these over at Ultrabooknews.com

Time 10:00

Tami Reller from Microsoft now on stage…

“Big fans of the category”

Windows 8.1 RTM released to developers yesterday.

2 million downloads from MSDN so far.

Windows 8 momentum. August “highest amount of activations in the history of Windows 8.”

Apps: Facebook, Foursquare coming. 8.1 will help the apps ecosystem.

VPro Ultrabooks and 2-in-1.

SSD Pro 1500. NGFF form factor helping to reduce time of disk encryption.

Intel Pro WiDi announced.

BMW on stage talking about Intel in their cars. Traffic info, etc. Also talking about IT infrastructure. [time for a break….]

50000 VPro Ultrabooks will be distributed internally at BWM.

Baytrail M and D…

140 design wins across this sector. Non touch clamshells down to $199 2-in-1’s down to $349

Branded with Celeron and Pentium capability.

What’s coming in 2014…

Broadwell 14nm systems….

30% power reduction for the same performance level on Broadwell

Perceptual computing being integrated into frames with 3D cam capability.

Kirk closes with a slide about developer opportunity.

Doug Fisher back on stage…

Skyrim with touch overlay shown…

Doug plugs IDZ – Intel Developer Zone. Online resources for developers.

Google announcement coming,….? Google flashes up on screen.

Android optimizations highlighted, NDK bridging technology, tuned Dalvik Runtime, optimized drivers.

Highlighted: Tools for Android.

New Chromebooks coming on Baytrail.

hp 14 with optional 4G

Acer, Toshiba, Asus Chromebox

Improve battery life by 50%

Coming for Holiday.

Google on stage. Sundar Pichai

Latest version of XDK for HTML5 announced. Doug talks about cloud combined with XDK and promotes IDZ again.

Keynote finished.

Update: Baytrail tablet pics. (Post Keynote event.)

Windows 8.1 Preview was announced and released at Microsoft’s BUILD event this week and I’ve been testing it on an Acer Iconia W5 Clovertrail based tablet similar to the W3, 8-inch devices that were given out to around 3000 people at the event. I’ve also upgraded an Ivy Bridge Ultrabook and an AMD Temash subnotebook, all with touch but it’s the tablets that get the most out of the changes in the upgrade. Keyboard changes, windowing changes, 3G connected standby support, new Windows 8 applications and a range of application upgrades. If you’re on a non-touch laptop and spend most of your time in Windows 8 desktop, don’t bother with the upgrade yet as there are bugs but if you’ve got an Acer Iconia W5 or one of the other supported Windows 8 tablets or hybrids and you’re not using it for production purposes I would definitely recommend upgrading.

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Microsoft have announced a focus on small Windows tablets, a Windows 8.1 preview download and have detailed changes for small screens. Changes include a new keyboard with gesture features, new Windowing for the Metro UI, layout changes (see right) and more. Here’s a few of the key features that have just been announced.

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Samsung just launched an 8.2mm thick, 550gm, 10.1 inch Windows 8 Tablet.

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Rumors started in April about this 8-inch Windows tablet but today we’re pretty happy to see it in a reputable retail channel in the UK. The Acer Iconia W3-810 is listed with 2GB RAM, 64GB storage in silver for £469 which, after removing tax, is the equivalent of about the same in dollars. Littlewoods, the online supplier, say they can deliver this by 17 June.

A full specifications list is not available yet but from the images it appears to be the tablet only and not including the interesting docking keyboard.

A 32GB version of the Acer Iconia W3 had shortly appeared on Amazon.com for $379 until it was removed.

Acer Iconia W3-810 Specifications, based on leaked info are as follows:

• CPU: Intel Clovertrail Z2670 (2×1.8Ghz)
• RAM: 2GB
• Storage: 32GB or 64GB
• Screen: 1280×800
• Camera: Rear-2MP, Front-2MP
• Micro SD Slot
• HDMI out (we suspect micro HDMI)
• micro USB (host capability unknown)
• 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless, Bluetooth 4.0+EDR
• 2-Cell Li-Polymer (3500 mAh) Battery (25Wh)
• Size: 218.9 mm x 134.8 mm x 11.43 mm
• Weight: 500 grams

Click to see large images

We’re expecting this to launch at Computex in a few hours after this posting so check back at UMPCPortal for more info.

Source: Littlewoods.

We like CloverTrail. It’s the only connected-standby capable X86 platform on the market and it blows every other Windows-capable platform out of the water when it comes to battery life but in terms of processing power it’s not quite enough to satisfy most people on a day-to-day basis. I’ve recently been testing AMD Temash and with about 2X the all-round processing performance it’s enough to satisfy most people. It’s efficient, but unfortunately you lose that CS-capability, the mark of an energy efficient Windows platform. At the top end of the efficiency-focused platforms are the Intel Core U processors used in Ultrabooks. They’re expensive and don’t offer CS capability but if its processing power you want, they are the king.

I took three devices based on each of these platforms and ran some tests to try and get some sort of guideline performance differential between the three and I’ve come up with 1:2:5. Where Clovertrial 1.8Ghz is the baseline, AMD Temash (high-end A6-1450) comes in at around 2X the processing power and a high-end Intel Core i7 at 2.0-3.2Ghz will hit 5X the performance of Clovertrail. Obviously these figures will vary across different tests and system builds but after running a number of tests, this is a ratio I’m happy to use as a guideline.

Peacekeeper, the browser performance test, is a good example as it addresses one of the most common usage scenarios for a PC. In the tests above (done with Chrome) you can see that 1:2:5 ratio showing up. (1:1.6:6 in this case)  In a Floating point test I saw 1:2:5 and in Cinebench, 1:2:5.  The Sunspider ratio was 1:1.4:6.3. The average across all the tests I performed was 1:1.9:5.1

In two days we’ll have another platform to consider. Intel’s 4th-Gen Core, aka Haswell, will eventually offer sub-10W parts (timescale unknown) with CS capability and a performance ratio that probably fits into the 4X range. In Q4 we’ll see BayTrail that will offer lower TDP and something like 2X the current Clovertrail performance seen here. Again it will be CS capable. From AMD we also need to consider Kabini, the higher-clocked, and higher TDP version of Temash although that’s really only for laptops and Ultrabook-alternatives.

Performance ratio of mobile Windows 8 capable platforms (guideline.)

Clovertrail:Baytrail:Temash:Haswell (low TDP):Ivy Bridge:Haswell (high TDP)

1:2:2:4:5:6

Clearly for Ultra Mobile PC fans looking to 2014, the BayTrail, Temash and low-TDP Haswell parts will be the most important and with BayTrail offering connected-standby, that’s the one that could work best in your next Windows 8.1 handheld.

Back to today though, here’s a (long) video showing three devices on three platforms with commentary and some visual indicators of performance.

I read a few IDC new releases today. The PC outlook is bad. The Tablet outlook is good.

Take another look though, ignore some of the news articles riding on the back of the headline PR and you’ll see something interesting. Firstly there’s no obvious consideration of PC evolution into the tablet market. Secondly, there’s a huge opportunity opening up in the 8-13 inch segment. As tablet users start to prefer those smaller, cheaper tablet devices, more value and capability is needed in the larger screen segment.

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