As promised, the makers of the Eve V tablet are developing a follow-up… and as with all of the company’s products to date, the folks at Eve are soliciting community feedback to help finalize the design details.
Does a 2-in-1 tablet need to have a Thunderbolt port and support for an external GPU? Do you need front-facing speakers? Do you prefer volume buttons or a wheel? Is a plastic chassis OK, or is metal the only appealing option? And would you rather have a hard keyboard or one that’s part of a lightweight folio cover?
Those are just some of the questions Eve is asking potential customers.
Another interesting one? Should the tablet have screws in the design, making it easier to open up for upgrades and repairs? Here’s a new image showing what that could look like:
That’s not necessarily how the new tablet will look… it’s just one of many design concepts the company has been kicking around.
You can find some other ideas in these design sketches posted to the Eve Community site:
Eve is also crowd-sourcing potential names for its upcoming tablet… which Eve hopes to begin shipping in the fourth quarter of 2020.
While the company ran into some problems shipping the original Eve V tablet in a timely fashion, the company says the kinks have been worked out and orders placed today typically ship in 5-6 days. Some folks remain skeptical.
Eve has since partnered with PCH International to help with manufacturing and shipping.
Meanwhile, the company has launched a clearance sale on the original Eve V tablet — starting today, you can pick up a first-gen model with an Intel Core i7-7Y75 processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of solid state storage, a pen, and keyboard for $779 while supplies last.
First of all, LONG comment incoming, you’ve been warned : )
I’m not in the USA, so the Eve V-tablet or V2 won’t apply to me.
…but I love their enthusiasm and honest/open nature for product design.
If it were upto me:
I’d make it a 12inch tablet with something like a 3:2 aspect ratio so that its relatively easy to carry under-arm, and use around the bed/couch. However, it’s not so small as to be a major hindrance when taken and used for work.
The tablet would be designed with the user first and foremost. That means a Slim bezel to avoid accidental touches, where you store the Selfie Cam and other sensors, and front-firing stereo loudspeakers. It will have clicky buttons on the top right corner, and an Active Pen that’s in a Silo. Basically, it’s like a flagship phone but blown up in size. Potentially it would have a full-sized HDMI port, full-sized USB port, Headphone Jack, SD slot, and at least two USB-C ports.
In terms of power, the battery would be maximised and able to be unscrewed for replacement. The m.2 SSD would also be able to be upgraded. And two DIM slots for RAM should be user upgradeable as well. Full ThunderBolt 3 port is a must have for future products, and potential Docks and eGPUs. As for the chipset, it would be good to have some options like:
5W 2-Core (4t) Intel Core M (1000G4) SoC = Best Battery Life.
15W 4-Core (8t) Intel Core i7 (10510U) Chipset = Balanced/Laptop.
25W 8-Core (16t) AMD Ryzen 4800U APU = Best Performance.
As for form-factor, this is a tablet. It’s an iPad, just with Windows, and active cooling.
Kickstand? The ones that MS uses in the Surface Pro adds too much weight, and steals precious space away from having a bigger battery. I think the most efficient solution would be to have one feet on either left-right side, with enough resistance to not fold. There, now you can use it on a bench top without having to lean it on something. What about Keyboard?
It shouldn’t be flimsy one like you get on an iPad or Surface Pro. None of that Folio crap. But nothing like a behemoths on Gaming Laptops. It should be as small as possible, but STURDY. Where you can actually use the keyboard on “top of your lap”, with decent key travel, backlighting, and great trackpad. And it should attach to the tablet to convert into a Laptop. Basically, like the “Surface Book” where it is reversible and sturdy. But with a proper hinge like we saw ages ago on the Lenovo Helix. And to take advantage of that extra heft, the keyboard-base should also include a battery, to basically double the battery life.
So now the device is a Tablet, Laptop…. and a Desktop! How? Allow the tablet to use the same hinge/connection to “dock” the tablet on a Desktop cradle. This can “fast charge” the tablet, provide extra thermal active cooling, and give more ports like Ethernet, DisplayPort, etc etc. And the Dock can also connect to a dGPU via a hidden (PCIe port). And this solution isn’t limited to a Computer Desk either, you can use it next to a TV in your living room like the Nintendo Switch. Whereas the Keyboard-Laptop portion can still function either wirelessly (latency) or direct by a USB cable. Not to mention pairing it up with a gamepad like the SteamPad, DS4, or XB1S controller.
Since Eve V2 is a small-scale production, they won’t be able to order parts at the same cost as those by Apple, Lenovo, or HP. So they should just give everyone with a clean install of Windows10 Pro, cheap 256GB SSD, and a single-slot of 8GB DDR4 to start off with. And clear instructions on how to upgrade that to something like a 1TB nVme, a dual-slot DDR4 RAM, and to upgrade the OS for those that are keen (Hackintosh/Linux/Android). That will make it more affordable and more desirable in the eyes of fans… and potentially a product they can sell for man years without needing to change it.