Android tablets are a dime a dozen these days (almost literally… some Android tablets are really cheap), but a startup called Jide hopes its new tablet stands out thanks to a set of premium features designed to help you get work done.

The Ultra Tablet runs a custom version of Android called Remix OS which is designed to resemble Windows. There’s a taskbar, support for running apps in resizeable windows, and a theme that looks a lot like Windows 8 and later.

Oh yeah, and the tablet itself looks an awful lot like a Microsoft Surface.

remix_03

The tablet features an 11.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel IPS display, an NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor, 2GB of RAM, and up to 64GB of storage, plus a microSD card slot. It has an 8100mAh battery, front and rear cameras, and 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0.

It comes with a keyboard cover that measures 5mm (about 0.2 inches) thick. It also acts as a stand, and which connects to the tablet via magnets.

Jide hopes to sell the Ultra Tablet for about $349 and up when it launches in the second or third quarters of 2015, although it will likely be sold in China before then.

While the tablet hardware looks decent, but not wholly original, the software is what really makes this device special. Jide was founded by three former Google employees, and while Remix OS is a heavily modified version of Android, it supports the Google Play Store and other Google apps.

rmx_01

Right now Remix OS is based on Android 4.4, but the team plans to update it to Android 5.0 in the future.

In addition to selling its own tablets, Jide hopes to license Remix OS to other device makers, which means that you could see other hardware with a Windows-clone version of Android in the future.

via PC World, Android Central, and Neowin

 

 

 

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18 replies on “Jide’s Ultra Tablet with Remix OS: A Microsoft Surface Clone with Android”

  1. I’m really interested in this ‘Remix’ android launcher (if it is just a launcher). But not slightly interested in the tablet.

    Are they just rebranding old the Microsoft Surface 2?

  2. I would hope to see an X1 or K1 at least in a product aimed at getting more work done.

    I love the K1’s power in the NVIDIA SHIELD but the battery life is a bit short.

    The X1 is (hypothetically) supposed to address those problems.

  3. Melange, pastiche, remix…needs more stirring.
    (And modern hardware)

  4. I personally saw the product and had the experience of using it. I am not a huge fan of laptops or tablets. This device was a perfect mix between the functionality of windows 8 and flow/lightweight aspect of android. I am excited to see where this company is headed and want to get my hands on my own.

    1. Honest question: Why? There’s extremely little you could do with a low-powered W8.1 device that you couldn’t do with this (TBH, I can’t really think of anything).

      1. Spoken like a true media consumer.

        Windows allows people to work, not just play. I use Photoshop, and Lightroom on my Windows 8 tablet.

        Sure Android lets you do things like manage files, write documents and emails. But you will never have the software that Windows has.

        1. I’d reply in a serious manner, but your silly personal dig kinda negates that. Let me know when Photoshop crashes your Atom, k?

          1. Holy crap…did he really just say “Very few software vendors are going to make mobile apps nearly as functional as their Windows counterparts”
            The opposite is literally what companies are doing now with the intention of making it so you can work anywhere and everywhere.

            Also, cloud bro….you can do things in it from anywhere that you have the net. Let me google that for you?

            Lastly, an atom? Are you serious? With broadwell out, you would go for an atom? You make me a sad panda.

        2. And just to point out: Photoshop and Lightroom are cloud-based now, and the entire Adobe website places a heavy emphasis on the mobile side of things. Beyond that Adobe is focusing on iOS your claim that Photoshop is only for Windows is basically stupid.

          1. Like I said, Windows lets you work, and not just “play”. Adobe’s Android apps are designed to be photo-tweaking programs for people who don’t know how to use Photoshop. Their apps are for “playing”.

            There’s no such thing as a mobile version of Lightroom for Android.

            Photoshop is just an example, but surely you know enough about computers to see where I am going with this. Very few software vendors are going to make mobile apps nearly as functional as their Windows counterparts, and an even smaller number of them are going to make mobile-accessible cloud based versions of their software.

  5. Um, could someone call Jide and tell them it’s 2015? With the Tegra K1 out in Quad-Core 32bit and Dual-Core 64bit Versions for quite some time, and the Tegra X1 officially unveiled, not even shipping but planing to ship Tegra 4 products seems to either be a major oversight or a deliberate attempt at scamming people to buy outdated hardware with the promise of an appealing Android skin.

    For me it looks like the latter, and that without the added benefit of a big enthusiast community like the Raspberry Pi that shilled a huge surplus of ARM11 Chips to the public.

    Also: it’s 2015 God damn it! Where are my flying cars, selflacing shoes and Hoverbords for Christ’s sake? (And no, the Hendo Hoverboard doesn’t count. It’s essentially a Maglev Quadcopter with 15 minutes of battery life that only works on Metal surfaces.)

  6. What ever changes they make, it’s just cosmetic. I really don’t see the appeal.

  7. Tegra 4? Are you sure? That chip is out of date. Otherwise this looks pretty decent.

  8. If they manage to develop an x86/x86 branch of Remix OS with broad GPU support they’ll blow failed paths like Console OS compeltely out of the water. People want and need a mainstream Windows alternative for desktops, and by being Android under the covers Remix OS avoids the marginalization that plagues Linux distros.

    1. Hmm, it seems they really have the same strategy in mind: an OS for disposable hardware reaplced every year or two. But then again few vendors are interested in long term software support anyway, so they don’t ship “retail use” OSs.

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