Vizio may be getting ready to launch its first Windows 8 tablet. The company unveiled an 11.6 inch tablet with an AMD Z-60 Hondo Processor and Windows 8 software at CES in January. And now the Vizio MT11X-A1 has shown up at the FCC website.
While the FCC documents don’t tell us much about the tablet’s specs, the model Vizio was showing off in January had a 1 GHz AMD Z-60 “Hondo” dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 1920 x 1080 pixel display.
The tablet weighs about 1.7 pounds and measures about 0.4 inches thick.
In January I noted that the Vizio tablet felt about as responsive as similar models with Intel Atom chips — but I didn’t really have time to run any benchmarks or do any heavy-duty work on the tablet.
The biggest challenge I saw was actually the 1080p display. While full-screen, Windows 8-style apps look great on high-resolution screens, one of the advantages of choosing a Windows 8 tablet over an Android or iOS model is the ability to run desktop software such as Office, Photoshop, or QuickBooks. And once you switch to desktop mode, an 11.6 inch display with a 1080p resolution leaves you looking at incredibly tiny text and graphics.
It’s been more than 5 months since Vizio first unveiled the tablet, so it’s possible some of the specs or software have been changed since then. AMD’s next-gen low-power processors, code-named “Temash,” are starting to hit the streets, for example. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the Hondo chip in this tablet were swapped out for something a little faster.
https://liliputing.com/2013/01/hands-on-with-the-vizio-tablet-pc-windows-8-slate-video.html
“While the Vizio Tablet PC is initially shipping with an Hondo chip, AMD says eventually Vizio plans to upgrade to a faster AMD Temash chip after the next-generation processor is released later this year.”
So the issue as to whether Vizio would use Temash is already settled.
We should be talking about the 45nm old tech with a dual chip solution. This chip will get hot, and draw battery power. They have done minor improvements and reduced the higher Speed I/o. I think they are using the 11.6 inches because it can hold a larger battery, more surface area. Since temash is a true single chip solution, same performance at lower power. Let’s hope its temash!
What’s interesting is the release in fcc a week before Xbox event. Also, the 8″ Acer Device also cleared fcc. Huh… think Xbox may include some windows 8 tablet news!
1.7 pounds? Yikes! Bit of a pig.
What about trinity?
I haven’t had much experience with Windows 8 yet. Can you not resize the icons and fonts in desktop mode like you can with the previous windows releases?
You can, but it’s an imperfect solution since many apps don’t use the system default font sizes… You end up with a decent looking desktop, but then you launch an app and are greeted with tiny text and menus.
This is a counter intuitive rebuttal if referring to the apps in the Modern UI, are you referrring to desktop “programs” or modern UI “Apps” .. In desktop mode if you change the interface font and Icon size it changes the basic font size in all desktop applications”Programs” that use the Windows desktop interface. In the Modern UI there is no need as it is optimized against standard for a 1080 resolution interface.
This system was designed around a 2nd gen hondo in a fanless deployment. Due to this I would expect the system to be in the 4 to 5 hundred range and not more. If there is marketting at all at that price point, it will sell big.
Similarly powered systems such as the MSI Windpad 110w “no longer manufactured or sold in retail” are selling for 550 to 600 new “purchased to be sold” due to its capability to run windows 8 pro. It also could be upgraded easily to 8 gigs of ram and 128 gig or better MSATA SSD. I own one and can say it is an absolute beast of a tablet.
The Vizio tablet will be the same speed, but requires less power while producing less heat. The Z series APU plays 1080p video much more efficiently and smoothly than any Atomn varient, and as well as many I5 varients.
Apps is short for applications, and can refer to desktop, mobile, metro, or whatever… The term wasn’t born with the iPhone.
In this case I’m talking about third party desktop applications, and changing the default system font sizes and DPI settings does not always have the desired effect on those programs.
It is probably temash, it really can’t be Hondo at this point. It would be outdated.y fingers are crossed for temash and hopefully it’ll be priced around $600 like atom tablets!
Vizio isn’t a top of the line tablet company… So yes, it’s a Hondo… Companies like Vizio can continue using the older chips for a few years after their original release…
Not that Hondo is that old, it only came out a few months ago, but it’s barely a improvement on Desna and it won’t be long before we start seeing Temash and Kabini products released that’ll be the first real improvements…
Acer is already starting to show off a update to the Aspire V5 with a quad core Temash… It’s not really cheaper than the Core i5 version but that’s because they traded the costs for a better IPS HD display with Multi-Touch, compared to the Glossy TN screen of the original.
Being a laptop though, does bring the price to below $500… Tablets and especially hybrids will still be priced higher but we should see some start dipping below $600 soon…
On sale we see atom tablets at $500. Temash should be priced to compete with atom. As for vizio, they were the first to announce a Hondo tablet, who says they won’t be the first to use a temash chip? That assumption is baseless
Sorry but Vizio isn’t a major tablet company… So it’s very unlikely that they’re going to be the first to use a new product that isn’t even widely available yet!
Manufacturers take time to ramp up production and that means limited supply that will go first to the companies that make the largest orders and when it comes to tablets that’s not Vizio!
Limited supply also means only the big orders get priced well, and the smaller orders need to pay a price premium… So it’s often just cheaper and easier to use a older hardware platform that they don’t have to compete for resources and makes the system designing easier.
This is true even for low cost ARM products, where companies similar to Vizio often release products that are still based on older technology.
While we’ll have to wait and see if AMD can price Temash as low as the ATOM…
And no, you can’t go by the tablet pricing because they’re not pricing them according to actual hardware costs.
The present Clover Trail ATOM Z2760 has a starting Tray cost of just $41, lower at larger quantities… this compares to $15 to $25 for a Tegra 3 and some high end ARM SoC even enter the $30’s…
So similar designed tablets would have very little actual cost difference between a ATOM and ARM SoC…
Problem is OEMs are used to charging much more than actual costs and MS set the standard when they priced the MS Surface to compare to the Apple iPad, which is another product that charges a lot more than actual costs.
This is going to be different with next gen tablets, OEMs have learned their lesson and the next gen Bay Trail ATOM will be even lower cost than Clover Trail.
For example a touch screen laptop with Bay Trail will finally drop to the $200 to $300 range, with the $200 range being versions running Android and even the Hybrids will be noticeably cheaper than they are now…
Already, you can find Windows 8 tablets as low as $300 with special deals and the ones that were originally around $500 are now typically closer to $400…
That is possible but it is also possible that vizio actually does get this chips right off the bat. Why? Because AMD might want to “reward” vizio for being one of the only manufacturers to use Hondo and because vizio does not require a great supply of chips. That number of 200-300 is not unrealistic however the quote comes from Intel, not too reliable. I have yet to see an atom tablet under $500, the tablets on sale for $300 are windows RT. As for the pricing of the SOC there is still a range. Anything priced around clover trail/arm should be in one category. Haswell/ maybe ULV kaveri should be in another. The chip in the surface pro costs over $200! I think we should expect to see temash priced around the atom range. It should also destroy clovertrail while being competitive with bay trail. Since baytrail will be released well after temash it is only fare to compare to both
Well depends how seriously they take their partnership that they’ve talked about and what the yields in manufacturing and cost in manufacturing looks like.
It’s pretty much guaranteed not to be good enough… Vizio is still primarily a entertainment company and tablets are just something they’ve started to expand into but isn’t a major product line for them… besides, Vizio only ever mentioned the Z-60 and A10 as options…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kp47oMMLOg
And they’re not looking to directly compete with the major tablet companies.
Not bright to enter a market you aren’t willing to fight for.
Maybe, but like the video pretty much states, they’re looking to fill a niche the others don’t really focus on and that can potentially still work for them.
There’s more than one way to enter a new market and you don’t always have to do better than the competition to still succeed.