The MSI Windpad is finally available to order in the U.S. (as the Windpad 100W) and in Europe (as the Windpad 232W) and to me it looks like a mish-mash of a Tablet PC that aims to be an all-rounder on specifications and yet ends-up being a master of nothing.

The 10 inch screen is 1024×600 average. The capacitive screen sits on top of the mouse and pen-focused Windows 7 Mis-match. The GMA500/1.6Ghz Menlow platform isn’t the best at helping Windows 7 along. An 800gm weight is unlikely to house a battery that offers more than 4 hours. The U.S. version appears to be missing the Bluetooth module. The price isn’t exactly stunning.  There’s only one USB port.

With an SSD, a 1.6Ghz Atom and 2GB of RAM you’d expect it to run reasonably well but Engadget reported from CES that “Windows 7 is seriously laggy and unresponsive inch which means it could have a slow SSD set-up inside.

The differences in specs between the 100W and 232W are subtle but it looks like the EU gets the more complete tablet package with Windows Home Premium and Bluetooth included in the 232W. Oh, and we’re not sure if that docking station is included too so please check before ordering. Better still, wait for some reviews to filter through first. We’ll add them to the product page when we find them.

I’m not a big fan of 10 inch tablets myself but I do know what it makes to create a good mobile TabletPC and a good consumer tablet. The two often require different approaches that can’t be addresses in a single product. That single-product approach is what MSI appear to have attempted here.

If the Windpad drops in price, comes with the dock and proves itself through reviews then it might be worth taking a look at as a docked hot-desk solution but for other scenarios, I think there will be better solutions out there.

The HP 500 tablet was an important milestone for low-cost Tablet PCs as it combined the finger-friendly capacitive type input with the pen-friendly digitiser for using some of the important features of Windows 7 at a breakthrough price. The combination is perfect for those wanting true PC productivity in a tablet and really, without that digitiser, there’s a mis-match between hardware and operating system in my opinion.

It was encouraging to see Lenovo Ideapad Slate offer dual-mode operation too and that one pushes the envelope even further by using the Oaktrail platform that appears to be offering quite an advantage in terms of battery life.

A third offering we saw at CES, and one truly ‘built for business’ was the Motion Computing CL 900. Not only are we talking about dual-mode operation on Oaktrail but this is a tablet with a full Gorilla Glass screen for extra ruggedness, IP52 dust and water protection, up to 2GB of RAM and SSD hard drive. There’s an optional Broadcom Gobi 3G module too. The battery is a relatively big 43Wh and it charges in just 2hrs. There’s a lot of unique features here in just 1KG of weight.

Full spec sheet. Click to Enlarge.

Berengere Viale-Brun of Motion Computing was kind enough to talk us round the device at the busy ‘CES Unveiled’ event last week and here’s what we captured.

Windows 7 is a great operating system but never really felt at home on low-end mobile hardware platforms in my opinion. The disk, memory and CPU requirements were just above what a netbook could offer and it wasn’t until the dual-core Atom CPUs became available that I was finally convinced that Windows 7 would run smoothly on a netbook. 2GB of RAM is still an advantage though and to squeeze the best out of a low-end platform, a fast SSD is a must-have.  I’m currently testing the Tegatech Tega V2 which doesn’t quite have the dual-core CPU specs but manages to keep up by having 2GB of RAM and a reasonable SSD. It’s just about working smoothly enough to be called a serious device. Taking a look at the HP Slate 500 that was launched last week leaves me with a similar feeling that they’ve specified the device well enough to be able to offer enough performance, memory and storage along with some good battery life potential. At 1.5lbs this is definitely one to look out for in the Tablet PC department

Updated: Our HP Slate 500 Information page. Includes comparisons. Forum too!

The 1.8Ghz Z-series Atom CPU should be good enough to give a reasonable Win7 experience and to improve the pinch-to-zoom response, a quick and useful real-world usage test with low-end CPUs. It will also provide video acceleration out of the box although the additional Broadcom video accelerator does highlight that the built in video support in the Intel Menlow processing platform isn’t quite man enough for the job of video decoding! 2GB RAM Check! 64GB SSD Check (as long as it’s fast) and at 1.5lbs with an 8.9 inch 1024×600 screen, it seems optimal for some serious mobile productivity work. Throw in a capacitive screen with active digitiser, a 3.0MP ‘camera’  and an HDMI-capable docking station and you’ve got a tasty tablet that I would have estimated at over $1K. The price: $799.

Based on what we’ve seen with other Menlow-based tablets, the 30Wh battery on this should give it a true 5hr battery life. Again, not bad. (Note: I’ve read claims that a 2-cell battery is less capacity than 3 or even 6-cell batteries Ignore them. It’s all about Watt-hours, not cells. 30Wh is about half the capacity of a good quality extended netbook battery.)

The only reservation I have is about 3D and 2D graphics performance. It’s not a strong-point of the ‘Poulsbo’ chipset and my first tip would be to turn the Aero UI elements off to improve the UI experience.

Not included and worth thinking about though are a number of features that are common among mobile computing devices:

• Auto rotation(unconfirmed)
• GPS
• 3G Option
• Optical mouse pointer
• VGA Out
• Ethernet port
• Built-in stand

Having said that, the $799 price seems very good value and we’re looking forward to getting hands on to see if our predictions about performance and battery life are correct. The HP Slate 500 is available for pre-order now and should be with customers in about 3 weeks. (U.S. only)

Extra: Mobile Barbarian, a long-time reader of UMPCPortal has written a blog post on the Slate 500. He’s ordered it and explains why here.

We’re waiting for a price on this productive tablet from Tegatech but if it’s anywhere near what Viewsonic are proposing for the equivalent (we assume same OED) Viewpad 10 – around 550 Euros for an entry-level version-  it will be well worth checking out.

Update: The launch is postponed untilt he 15th due to global Windows Phone 7 launch events.

We tested the Viewpad 10 at IFA last month so we’re already fairly confident that the performance and responsiveness is  acceptable and with Windows 7 Pro, 2GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD and 3G option, it really would make an interesting modular PC. Take it from me, someone that has been using a ultra mobile PC and netbook exclusively since March, you will be able to use this as a desktop PC for most day-to-day scenrios.

As with all Windows-based tablets, I tend to look immediately for a docking port and unfortunately, it’s missing on the Tega v2. (and Viewpad 10.) I can not overstate the usefulness of a docking port and docking cradle on a productive tablet, especially when you’re looking at having to charge during the day and with the possibility that 10 inch in portrait mode makes a superb second screen.

We’ve added the Tega V2 specs, links and images to the database.

With a confirmed (we checked out the hardware at IFA) 4hrs of battery life possible, it’s not bad for an 800gm PC with a 10 inch screen.

Our only issue is that if you’re using the 16GB drive version, there won’t be much storage space left after Windows has gobbled up most of it.

As for the included Android Open Source build, well, it’s interesting. You might find some use for it. A sideloaded Amazon Kindle app comes to mind if you fancy holding an 800gm book but we don’t see Android as being a key feature here.

As we mentioned, we don’t have prices for the Tega V2 yet but we do know that Tegatech have now expanded operations into Europe and US which is perhaps a sign that the pro-mobile segment is benefiting from the consumer tablet craze.

Our hands-on with the similar (unconfirmed but we suspect the two devices are coming from the same production line) Viewpad 10 is shown below.

Update: Viewsonic Viewpad 100 is now in the database

Update (It’s called the Viewpad 10 now)

Following up from my post on the Viewpad 100 the other day, here’s a hands-on video. You’ll see Android is fast alright but again, without the always-on hardware platform and no way to switch quickly between the two operating systems, you’ll probably find your self sticking to Windows 7. As a Win 7 TabletPC this is worth considering. 4.5hrs and good performance for 549 Euros isn’t bad.

Viewsonic Viewpad 100 gallery also available.

I know there are a lot of designers, manufacturers and resellers that read UMPCPortal so this one is for you. Potential Windows 7 Slate customers should also read this. In fact, as a reviewer, I’m learning from this White Paper too!

Windows 7 Engineering Guidance for Slate PCs.

Windows for Devices have reproduced an extremely useful white paper by Microsoft that gives detailed information about what Windows 7 can bring to slate PCs (note Microsoft aren’t using the ‘Tablet PC’ term!) and how designers should think about everything from ergonomics and electronics. Windows 7 is one of the only operating systems that provides the Full Internet Experience with a productivity focus and a touch-enabled user interface. It may not be the sexiest but as of today, nothing can touch it for desktop-style productivity.

There are some obvious tips that are useful for designer and buyer…

• “Provide 2 gigabytes of memory on CPU-constrained and GPU-constrained systems. inch [which applies to Menlow, Pine Trail and Oak Trail designs in my opinion – Chippy]
• “Slate PCs should use solid-state drives (SSDs) to enable lower power consumption and high reliability in a mobile environment. SSDs also have greater performance than most traditional platter drives. inch
• Battery life should exceed 4 hours under normal operating conditions.

…and some not-so-obvious tips…

• To get a Windows 7 hardware logo on a device bigger than 10.2 inch you need to support DirectX 10
• Ensure handgrip regions are designed away from heat dispersion and venting.
• Biometric logon — Consider including a fingerprint reader for improved ease of access for logon and security scenarios.

The document is rich with advanced tips and inks and is also a recommended read for anyone considering buying a WIndows 7 ‘slate’. Clearly, with Microsoft pushing Windows 7 into this area, with OakTrail offering a super low-power platform and the general slate/pad/tablet wave of interest we’re seeing at the moment, there will be an increased number of offerings in the late 2010 and 2011 timeframe.

Additional information can be found in my article: Things to Consider when Designing or Buying a Tablet-Style Device

Windows for Devices WIndows 7 Engineering Guidance for Slate PCs

Acer has taken what seems like an age to get stock of the 1825 PT and PTZ out to distributors but finally I have managed to get hold of one. I will be reviewing it over the next two weeks to give you an insight of the devices capabilities but in the meantime here is the unboxing video.

Specifications;

• Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
• Intel® Coreâ„¢2 Duo processor SU7300 (1.3 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)
• 11.6″ HD Acer LED LCD (1366×768), 2 point multi touch
• 4 GB Memory
• 320 GB HDD
• Multi-in-1 card reader
• 802.11a/b/g
• Bluetooth
• Webcam, 6-cell Li-ion battery
• Weight 1.7KG

How does it look to you? Netbook upgrade?

[I’m interested in seeing how Guy’s testing goes. With 3G and a fast SSD, this could be a nice upgrade from my Touchnote which, with the extra battery that gives me 8 hours, weighs over 1.5KG! – Chippy]

As the rumours surrounding the HP Windows 7 tablet continue to swirl and with no official response on the matter, no one is quite sure if the project is dead or not.  For those who like the form factor and who aren’t interested in owning an Apple iPad, the Jumper JK01-TT may be of interest.

It’s a 10.1 inch tablet running Windows 7 and sports a 1024 x 600 multitouch display. The JK01-TT is powered by a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450, 2GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. It comes loaded with WiFi, 3G, USB, 4 in 1 card reader, 2MP webcam, accelerometer with autorotation and a 3000mAh battery.

I would estimate a possible 2 – 3 hours run time if you’re lucky but given its 1.2kg weight and slim dimensions (11.4 inch x 5.9 inch x 0.8 inch) it does make for a small, full-featured tablet.

As an added bonus the Jumper JK01-TT ships with a docking station, wireless mouse / keyboard and is available at Ownta costing €556.92

[image courtesy of Ownta via Liliputing]