14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 is set to become commercially available sometime this fall, when leading vendors around the world will put for sale their latest devices powered by the platform.
Microsoft has long promised amazing hardware running Windows 8, and the Computex tradeshow in Taipei has brought some of these to the spotlight.
Windows 8 is an operating system heavily optimized for use on mobile devices, and this is exactly what the newly-unveiled products powered by it focus on: increased mobility.
Acer, Asus and MSI were among the hardware makers that announced Windows 8 PCs at the show, both of them focusing on taking full advantage of the touch optimization features that the platform sports.
Thus, these companies came up with tablet PCs, ultrabooks and all-in-ones that sport touchscreen displays to benefit from the Metro UI in Windows 8.
Microsoft promised a next-generation platform capable of changing the PC industry, and the first signs of that already emerged.
Traditional Windows users have been long complaining of Windows 8’s touch optimizations, which make it rather hard to use on desktop PCs, but it seems that they will soon need no traditional input method on their computers.
Whether at a desktop or on the go, people will be able to benefit from the touch features of Windows 8, and they won’t have to navigate through the platform while using a keyboard and mouse when using new products powered by the OS (though they will be there too if needed).
Two Windows 8-based Acer tablets were showcased at Computex, the 10.1-inch Iconia W510 and the 11.6-inch Iconia W700.
The former is a convertible device that boasts an IPS HD screen, capable of delivering 18h of usage when docked. The latter boasts full HD resolution and 10-finger multi-touch support and comes with a cradle so that users can tilt it while in landscape mode.
MSI unveiled its s20 Windows 8-powered Ultrabook Slider at the trade fair, which features a 11.6-inch screen and is only 0.78 inch thin.
Acer’s Aspire S7 ultrabook shined at the event too, with an aluminum body, 1080p 13.3 and 11.6 inches touchscreen models, and 12 and 9 hours of battery life, respectively. Depending on configuration, price for these devices will go up to $999/€805 - $1,799/€1450.
Asus unveiled Tablet 600 and Tablet 810 Windows 8 devices, one with a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 CPU inside and Windows RT, while the other based on an Intel Atom processor. They sport 10.1 and 11.6 touchscreens, respectively.
Along with these mobile computers, Windows 8 was also showed on all-in-one machines, namely the Transformer AiO from Asus and the 27-inch Aspire 7600U and 23-inch 5600U swiveling devices from Acer.
All these devices look impressive, especially given their ability to efficiently exploit Windows 8’s interface to provide users with the experience the OS was intended to offer.
Of course, we should expect for more such mobile PCs to be unveiled to the world in the coming months, as well as after Windows 8’s official release this fall.
