I love Dell's tablet notebook

I think Dell's tablet-notebook is one of the best tablet PC in the market today. However I've heard rumors that some Dell's PCs are assembled in China. If it is true, what about the quality?

My Dell Inspiron 1200 will not turn on.  If I take out the battery it will not turn on whether I'm on electric or not.  Does the computer need to have the battery working to power on?  I'm trying to figure out if I need a new battery or if its something else.

Where can i get one and can you write and draw pics on it? with a magic pen or something iv heard of it used tht way

I have had one for 6 months or so. It is realy portable but really sloooow! I have had to disable the Aero interface and it is still slow. The hard drive is thrashing all the time.

If you get one be sure to get the maximum  3 Gigs of RAM. I got 2 and am gonna have to get more to try and speed it up. The integrated video card uses mainboard ram, that is one issue that does not help speed.

Has anyone manged to tweak their XT to make it faster??

I am using VISTA Business with Aero interface turned off.

Damn Dell can be annoying.

Lets produce a really good top end machine and then make sure there are no decent accessories or bags out there.

The tablet is great, the touch screen is the best on the market, and yes the ATI graphics can be a bit underpowered.

One thing I have noticed though, this baby charges up really fast, 1-1.5 hours.

Desperately looking for a brown man bag for the unit 

I just purchased a DELL XT, and I was very happy with it until the cursor (mouse) started going completely nuts on me.  It randomly bounces to the bottom left corner of teh screen, starting random documents and I cannot contorl it with the mouse pad or an external mouse.  It seems to be easily replicated by pulling the cover down, suggesting to me that it is somehow entering tablet mode and using somekind of signal form teh screen to guid ethe cursor.

DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON?

As you can see, Apple MacBook Air will now take a bite out of Dell tablet's market even without a multi-touch display.

Dell needs to build a multi-touch screen tablet in 7 or 9 inch display size to reduce costs and weight and use the Intel processor/motherboard that was made for Apple Macbook air. Any size bigger than 9-inch display is too bulky to have any good use of expensive multi-touch.

I can’t believe the XT is already here I have been on it with photoshop cs3 for two hours it is awesome we have a wacom cintiq 21ux here in the office as well and this things in pin only mode is just like it. Editing row camera file is sweet. I have played with others in stores and the XT so far leaves them behind. The pin keeps up with even the fastest strokes.

This mediabase fills kind of cheep, but it is very light for it size. So far it seem to work really well I am using it as a docking station.

The battery slice is amazingly light I have yet to use it but,, can’t believe how light it is.

I also got the D/BAY plus 8X DVD+/-RW and I really don’t like the usb plus fire wire plug in it but as I look around my office it seem all the Dell laptop have that plug so I guess it will not be as in convent as I first thought. I wanted to be able to us it on other laptop.

Cellular wireless. I am kind of disappointed in the cellular wireless card I wanted an internal one and they sent me a Dell Wireless 5510 pcie card, I am calling Monday to try and get that switched out. There website says internal and that’s not what I got.

I also got two roxio disk and to cyberlink power dvd disk in the box and no driver or vista restore disk.

Well that’s all I can thank of for know if I come across anything else over the weekend I will post.

I just got shipping conformation today on my order it should be here on the 15^th I can’t wait.

Here is an idea. Multi-touch screen is expensive and not very useful in a device over 10" screen size due to bulk.

So how about this - make two tablets:

• Multi-touch tablet with 7" screen - perfect for mobile workers and professionals such as doctors and couch potatoes (weighs less than 1.5 lbs)
• Wacom style touch tablet with 13.3" screen.

Any bigger screen and there is no advantage of touch tablet because it is no longer truly portable.

I am liking my Samsung Q1 Ultra (from BestBuy for $749.99) more and more. With aero turned off, it works great for my needs. Excellent for touch screen web browsing and eBook reading and moderate typing. And it only weighs 1.5 lbs (yes, that's 1.5 lbs!!) and I get 4+ hours battery life. I would have paid $300 more for Dell multi-touch but $2000 more? No way!!

I guess the market will tell.

There's a good reason Apple is touching $200/share and Dell has wallowed at +/- $25/share for the last 5 years.

I think it boils down to a good engineering, agressive company overcoming a tentative marketing based commodity company. The XT is a bit of a stray from their formula that used to work. Got to give them some credit for a least trying to think outside the box, however misguided it seems to be.

This tablet release is like a train wreck that I just can't avert my eyes from but is symptomatic of what Dell has become.

What I thought was the chance for the tablet to become accepted as a mainstream device I guess must be left to Apple now.
 

With the specs they have,

IT SHOULD HAVE COME IN SUB $1000

Benefit of dealing with an Israeli company that seems to be impressed with themselves and their overpriced and underwhelming technology.

I have to wonder if Mike's getting out soon and is greasing a few palms prior to doing so. 

When i heard about Dells Tablet i was looking at a price of <1000$.After looking at the price tag(3K$) i cant help wondering who is the dumbest to buy this piece as it doesnt include the fastest processor neither faster drives. Oh ya this might be the way to save battery life but i did not expect the price to be more than a XPS.

Looks like i have to wait for mac world coming Jan.. to see a tablet from apple..

Is this new Tablet Wacom compatable?

I just specced a nicely equiped machine out, and with our corporate purchase plan it came to $3200.  That is including office pro with software assurance, vista business with sa, 5400 rpm hd and more. 

 It also includes a 3 year warranty and complete care.  It is about the same price as any other laptop we buy with a similar configuration.

 I think that anyone who compares this apples for apples with a business class laptop with proper support on it will be plesently suprised.  People with small businesses who compare it (wirh retail price) against an HP or gateway from their local computer store (with far less warranty) will think that they are over paying.

 This is aimed at a mid to large business crowd.  With the discount these customers get, the pricing really is not out of line.

Wow, just built a modest machine and went over $3,000 almost immediately.

You guys act like you don't really want to be in this market.

 This has got to be one of the strangest paths I've seen Dell go down and due to family member working at big D, I've been watching for quite a while. I'm looking for the silver lining here and can't quite wrap myself around it. What makes you guys tick on this one.?

Did you just get in so far that there was no way out for someone? Motion backing out on N-Trig catch someone by surprize? I talked with a couple of them on a flight to DFW, and they seemed to be pretty sharp.

 I have to assume someone is going down for this one eventually, this venture can't possibly produce any ROI.

The insane $-tag has pushed my architecture firm to go with HP Tablets.  ***DELL - very disappointed.***  We've waited for a VERY long time.  The XT specs can't touch the rich HP environment (250GB Hard Drive (5400), 4GB RAM etc...etc.)  The price even @ $1900 as someone mentioned in another post is near what we've paid for amazing spec’ed tablets, HP's top-of-the-line; not the entry-level machine.  Their entry level tablet is between $800 - $950 and that gets you 160GB Hard Drive, 2GB RAM, 1,9GHz, TWO (2) I said TWO (2) built in speakers, fingerprint, webcam... ... ...  Get your tablet prices in line, come back to the present technology era, and we'll consider coming back in a few years when we transition our machines.

From everything we were told months ago by DELL, our firm was exactly who DELL is marketing towards.  I realize consumers in general won’t jump on the XT because of the high cost.  Why would corporations?  I cannot endorse spending above & beyond $1k to $1,500 for an inferior machine when there are superior products for in many cases, half the price tag.  'PS and by the way' – nor do any of our colleagues.

This is addressed to those of you who are tablet pc savy and to those of you who are not….

The pros of the Dell:

- One of the lightest available (1-1.5lbs lighter)

- One of the thinnest avilable (width is 1-2 inches less)

- One of the slimmest available (.3-.6 inches thinner)

- The capactive touch is very cool.  It is a nice little gimmic to

   use your finger with no pressure to navigate through your

   computer.

- Excellent battery life

- Nice little marketing campaign

- Uses a very small AC  adapter and a qucker charge

The cons of the Dell:

- The pricetag is exboritant.  (1,500 to 1,000 more)

- It uses some of the slowest available processors on the market

- It only has one slot for ram.  The other chip is a 1gb chip hardwired into the motherboard

-  No integrated optical drive

-  Uses the slowest hard drives available

-  Did I mention the cost?

What Id like to hear from Dell:

- How does the writing compare to the Wacom pen input currently used by most tablets?  Most Wacom pen input devices have some areas where there is a good margin of error between what you write with your hand and what gets written on screen.  If it is much more precise than Wacom I might consider N Trigs technology.

-  How can you justify spending about 1,000 - 1,500 (8 to 13 percent my ass) more on a computer that is much much slower than its compeitition just because it’s a little smaller, lighter, and has capacitive touch? I mean honeslty, the finger touch input is probably used maybe 20 percent of the time?  The rest of the time when you use the pen as an input the touch advantage becomes irrelevant and your 1,000 price jump is only for the dimensions and battery life.

- Why did another tablet manufacturer (motion computing) decide to drop the duotouch technology after working with N-trig for about a year?  What do you have to say to Motions comments claiming that N-Trigs technology has software issues and supply issues?

-  That being said are you using this excessive price tag to perhaps skirt N-Trig's supply issue?  This way N-Trig can manufacture more screens while you prepare to drop your price?

Overall…  Its small, its sexy, duotouch is promising, but its just plain not worth it.  Other manufactures will be using this technology in the future too so don’t for a second believe any of this is exclusive to Dell.  Let them drop it to a more reasonable price first.  In the mean time get an ibm, gateway, fujitsu, or toshiba for much less. 

My last computer was a dell latitiude. It was destroyed when I ran over it with my new 4 door Jeep. By accident!

I travel alot (Airline Pilot) and the sun is pretty bright in the cockpit. I could use a tablet, longer baterry life, light weight but also a screen that I can actually see in the bright sun.

It looks like this XT will be great! Problem is, I can't seem to order one.

I know when I start showing other pilots, it will be a hit, generating more sales for the XT.

Dell, when is this going to be released? Why the delay????

Thanks and Merry Christmas everyone. I'll be flying with Santa!

www.airlinecrew.com

Will this tablet pc be compatible with JAWS screen reader program?

I cant wait as it was my dream.  FINALLY!!! A MIRICLE OF MIRACLE WONDER OF WONDER.  Amazing.  Using it now!

I have just one word for Dell: THINKPAD!!!!!!  

I am going to buy the Thinkpad, and not the Dell Tablet.   The dell boys and girls are new to the tablet club.  They haven't proven themselves with a tablet yet......and it will take a while.  I certainly am not going to be a guinea pig for Dell........

I have not only ordered my first XT, but it is in production and will be shipped in a couple weeks. I am very excited to demo this product. Obviously if you think that this is the same device another manufacturer has already released, then you are not looking very closely.

We have MANY tablets in our organization, and no other vendor has yet shown us a tablet with a touch screen...

I think a lot of people are missing the point of this tablet.

 It isn't marketed toards the majority of consumers. It's a light tablet meant for the roadwarrior. Everybody who is complaining about the processor, disc drive and video card is missing the point.

 This tablet goes up against the fujitsu t2010 and the hp compaq 2710p. Both come in at around $1800 for much higher specs and both are just as light.

I don't think the capacitive touch is worth the extra $700. I watched the video demo and the touchscreen capabilities looked painful to use. The software needs to be improved dramatically before capacitive touch becomes useful.

Whether you like the XP or not the problem is there is still no word from Dell when it will be available.  Makes you wonder what the delay is?

Dell, you made me completely disappointed.

Price : unnecessarily too High

Display : still 12.1".. (why not 13.x" or 14.x")

CPU : too slow (other are going for 2+GHz...)

RAM : bad Only up to 3 GB. (Why not 4 GB)

HDD : PATA 4200 or 5400 rpm. (why not 7200 SATA)

Video: still shared memory? (why not dedicated VGA card)

No : IrDA... (I still use this for many external devices)

You take too much time and make us wait long for nothing..

Bye Bye Dell.

Ko Ko

$2499 - sounds to me like this is just a precautionary measure to avoid long backlog delays. High demand, low supply = higher prices. I would guess this is dell's effort to hedge their bets given the suspected supply line delays they have been having. They are ramping up slowly. If I'm right (and I'm often not) prices will come down pretty quickly once the supply chain and production issues are ironed out.

BTW - happily typing this on a brand new Fujitsu T4220, though if I were purchasing now, I'd probably go w/the new Toshiba M700 - up to a 2.6GHz Duo + on-board DVD burner! (I need processing power, not battery life).

400 nits.  Viewable in direct sunlight.  Not likely VP Jeff. I'll even give ya 10 to 1 on a c note.

@Bad Move Dell

 Actually, the Dell has both forms of multitouch you describe. Multitouch in terms of pen and touch input is a misnomer courtesy Lenovo, who use the term to describe their tablets.

 
While the Dell does indeed have pen and touch input, it also has multitouch input as seen on the iPhone and Surface, which is demonstarted by Michael Dell at the Oracle keynote.
 

Brandon your link to Microsoft Surface is nice, but the usability of a multitouch screen in a tablet seems fairly useless to me... If I had a 20"+ screen (up to a coffee table size) I could see the novelty and usefullness of the technology... but on a 12" screen, besides to showoff for a day or two, is completely useless.  People buy tablets for taking notes, and maybe some photoshopping... not orgainizing photos, or drawing with two hands.

I laughed when I heard of the price and specs of this tablet today, and sit gracefully on my Lenovo X61 tablet with SXGA+ screen and twice the processing speed.  Not to mention they share about the same footprint.  I got mine with 3 year warranty, 3gigs of ram, for ~1500.

 I can see the high price as they're entering the market, but it will be years before Dell can start to compete in this growing niche.

There needs to be more explination on Dell's part as to why this tablet is going to be more expensive in it's most basic form than most other tablets armed to the teeth with extras. Multi touch isn't going to make the difference for me and any other rational person trying to get dell quality, my case in particular is bad, as I need to introduce a tablet platform into an area it's never been applied before. To prove it's worth to others, to demonstrate the true capabilities of this platform as the immediate future (~10yrs) notebook of choice. As computers progessivley get lighter and thinner it's pretty obvious that eventually the only part of a computer you see will end up being a display of some kind, and for work we're looking at a ultralight rigid surface. With the recent increase in tablet notebooks today, for the first time we have the opportunity to begin development of skills, software, and preference of this new and superior ultramobile pc. I've been saving for the past 4 months to buy a Dell tablet as soon as it was released. I was hoping for christmas, but was prepared to wait as long as it took. I didn't need to worry about the specs, as thats one of the more enjoyable parts of waiting to buy a computer. All I was concerned with was a tablet pc needs to have a great warranty, no matter what. Full coverage is a must for this style of pc based on all of the reviews I've read about probably every tablet available today. The only company I trust as far as customer support, truly feel at ease with in that respect is Dell. That makes a Dell tablet extremley desirable, if not the only rational choice considering it's main competetion with tablets is Gateway, and with that recent merger who knows the future of that company... At any rate, I'm still going to remain calm as long as I haven't seen the order form section of the main Dell site. I have still have a small hope that considering it's Dell, and the original Dell angle, "why buy a computer from a store thats already obsolete, when you can call us and we'll build you one exactly how you want it and mail it to you" there will be a few options to lower the overall price of this machine back to the range I was expecting ~$2000. Like, for example- not including the docking station.

@Brandon Jones

 Multitouch is great and all, but there are currently a total of ZERO applications which support it today. While you may be fine paying a $1000 premium for capacitive multitouch, most of us aren't, and that's not something Dell should take lightly.

Dell now faces a very steep uphill battle selling the XT. They have to somehow convince consumers to pay more for inferior hardware, and if the only thing they have to say is, "It's got multitouch. Stop whining," I can guarantee you'll be able to buy all the XTs you want, because surely no one else will.
 

Brandon Jones:

The Microsoft Surface and Apple iphone offers multi-touch in a different perspective, not what Dell is releasing. For surface and iphone it means users can touch the screen in more than one place, which drastically increases usability. What Dell is releasing is one that the screen can be used as touch screen - if used with fingers or stylus, or as digitizer or if used with digitizer pen. It's different technology, but it's considered multi-touch. Don't expect the tablet to be like the glasstop shiny clear look of the iphone.

 This technology is in the marketplace and is being used by Lenovo, and even now, i think by Toshiba in the M700.

And yes, I think we all can hope and imagine the software that can be written for it, but the bigger question is, who will do it? While you may be sitting at home with a tablet which looks beautiful, I'll be whizzing right along with a company that has been in the market a while and has proven results. You can place that Dell on the shelves to view or what might have been.

Brandon Jones: I checked out Multi-touch further very very cool stuff.  But what are your thoughts about the processor speeds of the XT Vs. Fujitsu and others?

One of the reasons for the loss of Dell market share is it's seeming inability to read the needs of the market.  This tablet is extremely over priced in relation to the competition.  Those who buy it will purchase an untested unreviewed tablet with lower specs than the comparatively priced competition.  Dell grew building quality customized computers at a low price.  Teachers, schools, and businesses flocked.  As a teacher, why would I buy this tablet when I can get a Lenovo at the same weight, more powerful processor, a proven track record with tablets, and fantastic reviews stating customer satisfaction and reliability with the computer?  For a touchscreen that at this point has limited potential due to lack of software?  This is marketed to who? This seems to be the Dell MO lately putting out higher priced models with lower specs and counting on experience and ease of purchase through the internet to carry the line.  I was thinking of purchasing dell stock again after the recent price drop but everything I read or experience with the company points to slow decline due to a deteriorated marketing model.  Even with hyped new product releases Dell is already behind. 

I'm glad all of you are not buying the latitude XT tablet, because that will mean that I will get mine faster. (First US customer to order it!!!) Seriously, stop whining... The latitude tablet's display is going to be super bright, I'll have my verizon wireless card builtin, it will be super thin, and super light, AND IT WILL HAVE MULTI-TOUCH! Need I remind you people that this is a brand new technology that "oh wait a minute, isn't ANYWHERE IN ANY MARKET YET!?" I don't think any of you quite realize how revolutionary multi-touch will be. So, save your money cheapskates, and go out and buy your little HP's, or send your money outside of America and get your dry and boring Toshiba. If you want to be on the forefront of technology, you simply need to be willing to pay for it. Seriously, can you imagine the software that will be written for these display's!!!

 http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

 Keeping whining, that's what makes America great! All of those who waste their time whining about what they don't have, make it a hell of a lot easier for guys like me to go and get it.

Seems Toshiba Portege M700 is a better value.

1. Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.20GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB)
2. Genuine Windows® XP Tablet Edition 2005
3. 2048MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM @ 667MHz (2048MBx1)
4. 12.1" WXGA Backlit Display supporting digital pen with indoor/outdoor viewing (1280x800)
5. 120GB HDD (7200rpm, Serial-ATA) 
6. DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive 
7. Lithium Ion Battery (6-Cell, 4700mAh) 
8. Intel Wireless Wi-FI Link 4965AGN (802.11 a/g/n)
9. Intel Pro 82566MM 10/100/1000 Ethernet

 All for a grand total of $1879.

No need to have to buy an addon media drive (like with Dell & Lenovo), plus it comes standard with:

1 Year Standard Limited Warranty, Microsoft® Office OneNote 2007, Microsoft Office Ready with Microsoft Office Professional 2007 60-dayTrial Edition, McAfee® Internet Security Suite (30-day trial), TOSHIBA ConfigFree®, TOSHIBA Disc Creator, TOSHIBA Recovery Disc Creator, Fingerprint reader (with software), Bridge Media Adapter, 3-USB (2.0) ports, i.LINK™ IEEE-1394, RJ-45 LAN port, RJ-11 modem port, RGB monitor port, Microphone jack (monaural), headphone jack (stereo), docking connector

Only drawback I see is it does not come standard with an 8cell battery, but even if you buy aftermarket it's price is far less than it would be in buying a Dell, and since Toshiba has been in the tabletpc market alot longer than Dell, you don't have to worry about 1st generation product problems.

So, I see it Toshiba offers a better:

1. Faster Processor T7500 at 2.2GHz vs U7600 at 1.2GHz
2. Faster Harddrive 7200rpm vs 5400rpm
3. Free Microsoft One Note 2007, extra with Dell
4. Integrated Optical Drive extra with Dell
5. Better Wireless LAN chip
6. Memory speed runs at 533MHz on the Dell vs 667MHz with the Toshiba.
7. Tohiba offers a standard 4700mAh Lithium Ion Battery Pack vs the Dell with a 4-Cell 28W/hr Lithium Ion standard.
8. Price (base on Toshiba is $1449 vs Dell at base price $2499) I wonder who is better priced here? By far, Toshiba is.

Any thoughts folks?

I'm livid about yet another delay! Logged into the Dell Premier site this morning and the XT was listed altough no picture or further details. Clicked on customize and buy and what do you know...... Absolutley nothing! Spoke to my Dell Act Manager and she apologised to say it now wouldn't be release until next Tuesday and probably wouldn't get to me until the new year! My reply... I'll believe it when I see it!

 I've alway's been very loyal to Dell and sang your praises when it was suggested earlier this year that we should also look at other vendors. Shame Dell shows no loyalty to it's customers.

What on earth is going on Dell?!? With Vista's hardware independance and BDD driver injection, I may just start touting the likes of HP, Fujitsu etc. to the IT director next year!

Wow, $2500. I've actually been holding off on a tablet as well just to see what Dell might put out there but that's just way too much. Like several ppl have already observed, there are better speced tablets out there for about $1000 cheaper. I currently own a dell inspiron (I've bought 2 Dell machines over the years) and I hadn't gotten a Gateway since the early to mid 90s but it looks like Gateway has just won me back as a customer.

 Bye Dell.
 

 "If you still need to get your notebook fixed, feel free to either e-mail me directly here,"

Not that this has much relevance to the thread, but I tried calling customer service and, after 1.5hrs of hold time (this was several years ago, but by virtue of your comment, I expect that customer service has improved by now), they would only fix/exchange the power adapter, saying there was nothing wrong with the computer.  I just gave up on customer service and fixed the computer myself...it turned out that the power button came loose because it was not soldered on the mother board well (there was an air bubble that formed during the wave soldering process), it took less time to fix it than to wait for customer service to answer the phone.

WHAT! base price $2500! ALL THIS WAITING FOR THIS??!?!

BASE PRICE PEOPLE! WHY DELL? WHY? 

Nnooooooooo........  $2,500 !!!!????  You're killin' me....

Gateway here I come....   :( 

Can you release a release date :) ?

Mr. Dell Employee:

Just curious, can you tell us why they won't make a PR on it?

It's not listed on the website now?

 Is Dec. 10th a confirmed date yet or still a mystery?

The Latitude XT is now listed with the D430 and the ATG at the URL below.  Unfortunately, that is as far as it goes.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/latit?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

The caption under the ATG reads:

Latitude XT, D430 & ATG
Tablet, Ultra-Mobile &
Rugged

Am I the only one who noticed under the small business Section on the Dell Website, that they have this

Dell probably put the user manual out there to create some hype

 @Steve

My Precision laptop I bought 3 years ago has gigabit ethernet.  I can't comment on every laptop they released but a quick check on Dell's website reveals that the XPS1710 (the older version) has gigabit.
 

Here's hoping that's a typo, and it should say Core 2 Duo. Even the Latitude D430 has that, so I don't know why they'd skimp out here. I won't hold my breath on that though.

I like how they kind of dance around the battery time available. I know there's obviously a wide range depending on what you're doing, but you'd think they'd have a max and min time based on low power settings/idle, and playing a DVD with high brightness. (well maybe not the latter cause they don't want you do know that since it'll be short even with a good battery)

On the bright side, it has a gigabit LAN card. I guess Dell's realized some people still use wires from time to time. I don't think I've seen one of those on any Dell laptop to date. That said, I haven't looked very hard, although I'm pretty sure even the XPS models don't (which is ridiculous cause wireless increases lag which I would think the gamer types would complain about)

All in all, it looks about as you'd expect. A few lower performance components to favour light weight and low power consumption. No real surprises in the manual thanks to all the "leaks", but the fact that they've released this manual makes me wonder if this December 10th date isn't completely made up. At the very least I would think it will be available in January.

Steve

P.S. My favourite part of the manual is section 13. Not for the content, but for the red text.

According to Engadget, the launch will take place on Tuesday, December 11th:

 http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/dell-launching-latitude-xt-tablet-pc-on-the-11th/

It seems our friends over at Dell just got tired of waiting. On their website there is a full PDF manual of the new Latitude XT Tablet PC. From the looks of it there is no new information spec wise, except for the fact Dell may be releasing a Core Solo version.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latXT/en/PU189en1/PU1891MRD.pdf

N/A,

Check out http://www.microsoft.com/surface/ 

It is a little overkill, but you can get an idea of what "multi-touch" can do.  Believe it or not, it actually runs on Windows Vista.

User manual link posted on Engadget

 
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latXT/en/PU189en1/PU1891MRD.pdf 

Pardon my ignorance, but how exactly would you test for "multi-touch" in either Vista or WinXP?  I don't believe the interface for either Microsoft OS supports multiple simultaneous inputs regardless of the underlying hardware.  This is not to say that an application couldn't take advantage of the functionality.

 Can you give an example of an application that actually makes use of a "multi-touch" feature?  (the iPhone doesn't count as an application you can run on a tablet PC)

Come on Big Mike,

 release the beast, daddy needs a new tablet. The toshiba 3500 has bit the dust

Greg,

The term "dual-touch" refers to it responding to either a special stylus OR just any old item (fingernail, toothpick, etc.)

The term "multi-touch" refers to it recognizing and tracking more than one touch at the same time.

The latitude xt appears to have both of these features.

John 

I've tried the Motion, Toshiba, and a fe wothers. I LOVE the idea of a tablet but the 12.1" screen size is too small. How about a 14 or 15"?

@Spencer, @Steve

Thanks for the info, its great news, BUT I just got an email from someone from Dell Switzerland and the person says its going to be a dual touch. So pen and capacitive touch.

Now this is a HUGE disappointment and I don't really get it why are they doing this? Or the US version is going to be one step ahead? Or they first release this dual touch and later the multi touch so they can make more money out of it?

:(((

I've been looking to buy a Tablet for a while now for general travel and note-taking.  If anyone could help with 2 questions, I'd appreciate it:

 - What is the advantage of the multi-touch for non-artists?

 - Would it be easy to pursue a strategy of getting a traditional hard drive now and then swapping in a SSD in a year  (i.e., assuming SSD's are cheaper in a year, could you just buy a discount SSD and somehow get the Operating System, Programs, and Files easily onto it)

 Personally, I can wait, so the Dell to me looks like the best of the bunch so far...

 Thanks in advance,

Jason

Does anybody know if this is a touch sensitive touchscreen that can be used for design sketching? Thanks to anyone that will answer this question.

Christian

Does anyone have any impressions on teh inking experience? ulti-Touch is great, but I'm curious how the the N-Trig compares to Wacom.

 

@Greg:

It sure looks like real multi-touch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00mKTEqnzbs 

And so far as I know, this is the only available convertible laptop with multi-touch functionality. I don't know much about slate tablets, so there could be some of those available with it too.

 Although we have no way of knowing at this time whether this feature would be standard on all of the XT's or not, but the impression given by the video is that they do all have it.

Steve
 

HP's Table touchpad has been out.  Hell its got a 30% discount.

 mine is amd 2.0

5400 160 gig

2 gig of ram

900$

To all who tested or going to test it:

 PLEASE tell us if it is a real multi touch (5 simultaneous inputs by fingers) or not!!!!!!!!

Thanks a lot

Greg 

Here's how you know this thing is never coming out...

 Out of know where they launch a brand new 15" XPS system that is available right away. Meanwhile, we've been waiting for official information about the XT for almost a year now and have no idea when we'll ever see it.

Every time someone posts about seeing it at some trade show they offer a new release date quoted from some dell rep. but those dates never hold true.
 

What are the actual dimensions of the screen size on the pre-production samples? 

If the tablet screen is the same size as the X1, I'll have to pass and keep X300 a while longer.

Dell is currently showing off the Latitude XT at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) national meeting (the largest medical meeting in the world).  They have two units at their booth which are marked as pre-production internal samples.  They are passing out flyers, but the flyers don't provide any specification info.  No firm specifications are available from the reps as final specifications won't be available until launch.  They noted that items like screen resolution and processor speed may differ from the pre-production models.

None of the above is news.  However, the Dell reps are informing booth visitors that the device will be available on December 10th.

Anecdotally, the machine looks and feels very very good.  I was very impressed with the basics that affect everyday use like the keyboard and control placement on the screen.  The unit feels very solid.  The digitizer also seems to function very well with either the pen or by finger touch.  I can't wait to get one.

I really want to purchase a Dell Tablet NOW.  I have a Lenovo (IBM) X41 Tablet and I would not recommend it--sluggish, track ball is difficult to use, tech support non-existant.  Please--DELL, tell us how long we must wait!

Hey all,

Is it the only multi touch laptop that is announced? Because I'd need it only for this feature. So by multi touch I mean that it is capable of  reading 5 simultaneous inputs on its screen.

 thanks for the info

Greg