Gigabyte T1132N

Way back in 2009, before the iPad hit the streets, when people talked about tablet computers they typically meant Windows notebooks with touchscreen displays that could be folded flat for use in slate mode. Those convertible laptop-style tablets are still around though… and Gigabyte has just released a new model that takes things to another level.

The Gigabyte Booktop T1132N is a convertible notebook with a 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel capacitive multitouch display and discrete graphics.

But unlike most convertible notebooks, the T1132N is also designed to be used as a real desktop computer replacement, thanks to the Booktop docking station. You can close the laptop, stick it in the docking station and connect a mouse, keyboard, or monitor. The docking station also has a built-in DVD burner.

The computer supports up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, has a 2.5″ hard drive bay, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, and an eSATA/USB combo port as well as HDMI, D-Sub, Ethernet, and audio ports. There’s a flash card reader, 4 speakers including 2 woofers, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, and optional 3G.

There’s no word on the price for the Gigabyte Booktop T1132N yet, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s going to be substantially more expensive than the netbook-sized devices with Intel Atom chips that Gigabyte has been releasing over the last few years.

via Engadget

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One reply on “Gigabyte Booktop T1132N: It’s a laptop, tablet, and desktop PC”

  1. “…when people talked about tablet computers they typically meant Windows notebooks with touchscreen displays that could be folded flat for use in slate mode…”

    Of course they didn’t, despite the fun that the prospect of rewriting history seems to hold, especially in an effort to better justify an irrational present.

    Tablets used to be desktops, laptops, slates, or convertibles.  They had as much to do with finger as does drawing and painting, which is to say nothing at the actual point of contact with the device.  In fact, tablets didn’t even necessarily have touchscreens of ANY kind, and many still don’t.

    You’re talking about an effort on the part of Microsoft to brand a Tablet PC (a trademarked term).  They were tablets to the extent that they supported tool based input like all tablets that came before them, and there was particular emphasis on integrating the input and output devices, which is why most did have a touchscreen that supported a pen.  Interestingly, there were competing factions within Microsoft over what exactly a Tablet PC should and shouldn’t be, and many prominent personalities were VERY MUCH AGAINST the inclusion of the keyboard and the defacto standardization on the convertible form factor.  Some were quite insistent that the Tablet PC should be a slate, leaving the keyboard out of the equation altogether and allowing the user to focus on the advantages of the tablet-centric operating system features developed by Microsoft as well as the obvious advantages that a pure slate offers.  However, the fear that consumers would be intimidated by a computer without a keyboard ultimately won out, and the resulting convertible form factor was the concession that resolved conflict between the competing factions.

    All of this is to say (for the 100th time) that just because we call many devices “tablets” today, it doesn’t mean that they actually are.  Moreover just because we call many devices “tablets” today, it doesn’t change the fact of what a tablet still is or used to be.  There was a time in which you could have a desktop computer with absolutely no touchscreen and it was still a tablet computer.  In fact, that time still persists as anybody can go purchase a Wacom graphics tablet peripheral (like the bamboo line), attach it to their supported PC, and achieve IDENTICAL computing functionality to the type of device that you describe above.

    Ironically, this device appears only to mimic the form factor of the Tablet PC (a convertible) without actually delivering on the “tablet” part, since there’s only a capacitive digitizer with no legitimate tablet input peripheral in sight.  Even weirder, Gigabyte uses a “pen on a slate” marketing image to suggest that it must be a tablet.  I guess there’s always a capacitive stylus, but if we’re being honest with ourselves (and most aren’t), then a capacitive stylus is basically a comically skinny finger that you can hold with your fat fingers.  I guess if that was sufficient, we would have all just settled on finger painting with thin sausages instead of inventing things like pens, pencils, and paint brushes.

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