14 DAY TRIAL // With the iPad stirring both love and hate wherever it goes, depending on how much the various gazers care about Adobe Flash playback, it was only a matter of time before PC suppliers got serious and started putting real effort into the development of their own media slates. Dell, as one of the top five, is not about to lag behind and, as such, it ntends to unveil its own tablet around the exact time, or just a short while after the tablet market itself is set to truly take off.
HP will most likely be the first to unshackle a slate capable of taking the iPad head-on. Dell, however, is not in a hurry (or, at least it doesn't seem to be) and doesn't seem particularly inclined towards a tablet one-on-one. As such, the model it has in mind, known as the Looking Glass, will debut in November (just before holiday shopping starts), will use a smaller form factor (7 inches) and will especially focus on I/O and connectivity.
Consumers should be well acquainted with the fact that the iPad cannot multitask or run Flash, which means that a large part of online video streams and many Flash-using websites will not display properly. HP's slate will handle Flash playback, but Windows 7 will use up a large part of its hardware resources. Dell, on the other hand, will take a different approach and, instead of cramming as much memory and processing power as it can, it will focus on a software platform that uses fewer resources.
The Looking Glass will be based on the NVIDIA Tegra T20 system-on-chip and will have 512MB of RAM, 512MB of internal storage, a 7-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 800 x 480, as well as 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, optional 3G and DTV module, GPS and a 1.3-megapixel webcam. All these components will be somehow crammed inside a case measuring 198 x 130 x 12.75 mm and weighing 500 grams. Finally, the Looking Glass will feature a microSD slot (for additional storage) and, to communicate with a wide variety of other electronics, it will include a USB 2.0 port.