Samsung Ativ Q: the new king ?

Pros:

- giant real estate .Still 16:9, but l @ 13" and with the uber DPI, we should finally have something that is useable in portrait mode !
- true wacom !
- excellent performance
- uber battery life (all hail the Haswell)
- rez simply through the roof
- folx seem to be in love with monitor's brightness and viewing angles
- Android apps just a click away. What is the emulator they are using ? Could it be that Bluestack has finally come outta age ? If every Win touchscreen has it soon, Google would have to start worrying ...
- create hinge allows for versatile screen positioning
- USB 3, microSD, HDMI

Unknowns:
- just how heavy is it ?
- is the screen too much ? I guess it had to be at least 13" for the qHD+ to really make sense ... Anyway, the vast expanse of OneNote/Photoshop etc canvas ... pure heaven...
- will 8GB RAM/256GB SSD configs be available ? The extra RAM will cost some extra power draw
- would Transformer-style detachable keyboard be better...


Summary: has a real chance of being the tablet of tablets, finally the prayers of content creators have been answered ... My Surface Pro and Nexus 10 are both sweating bullets and rightfully so .

 

Apparently it weighs only 2.84 pounds, pretty amazing at that screen size. I'd still have liked a true hybrid as well, because I'm not even strong enough to lift my Lumia 920.

 

A few things that come to mind.

When seeing a few images that were provided by engadget (as well as other media sites) I see that the description of the device indicated 256 GB storage and on the images of the settings it showed 16 GB as well, so I assume it there will be different configurations of this device. Naturally more expensive as the available storage gets larger.

IT depts may not like this device unless there is a way to disable the Androids part once the device is connected to their network.

I personally would like to see at least 8GB RAM since the processor if I am not mistaken can handle much more. I also feel that the design is unique but maybe a detachable version may have reduced the weight once you carry the device around as a tablet.

Either way, I have the 500T (since i couldn't find the 700T and I like it, but the ATIV Q, at this point in time, seems to be on my wish list.

TS

 

Looks to me like it suffers from the fixed angle keyboard issue I have with a lot of devices. Also, there's no palmrest to go with the keyboard. At teh risk of sounding like a broken record, I still think the Helix and Ativ Smart PC Pro nailed it when it comes to how you make a hybrid with a keyboard: a detachable tablet with a keyboard dock. Now, give me a refresh of the detachable Ativ with that resolution, better battery life, ditch the cheapo feeling plastic (seriously, plastic is fine, but it has to feel premium) and I'll start drooling.

The only reason I decided not to get a Helix in the end was because Lenovo took its sweet time releasing the thing.

Also agree on the RAM, what's up with a measly 4 GB in ivy bridge and Haswell ultrabooks/tablets. That is seriously low by today's standards, 8 GB would be nice, 16 GB would be awesome.

So far, most of the hybrid devices I've seen fall into, the nice, but not quite there category for me.

 

Too big (sorry, a 13" tablet is nonsensical) and too expensive.

The "size factor" I freely admit it to be a personal evaluation, but price is still way too high. Tablets should be no more expensive than comparable ultraportables and they should follow MS's lead on the "Type Cover". Solutions like the Helix, or Samsung's Ativ are cumbersome.

 

I rarely use a keyboard with my tablets. Almost all content creation is in OneNote, scribbling with a stylus. So if the fixed keyb angle is the only drawback, I can live with it - in exchange for all the other benefits. The fixed angle doesn't bother me at all with my Surface Pro ... I do wish for extra couple of inches of screen real estate ... and now that we'd have the true full-screen Android available too ... heaven. 19:10 or 4:3 would have really made it the sweetest thing ever, but industry is hell bent on 16:9 screens.

Although, whatever emulator they are using, can not imagine it staying exclusive to Sammy, other Windows touchscreens will be getting it too.

 

For 98% of casual users, consumers of content, it is too big and too expensive. But for the 2% of us that are content creators and are into OneNote/Photoshop, Wacom styluses, etc - this is a gift from heaven. Of course, the implementation (palm rejection, stylus accuracy at the edges etc) could ruin the great premise the thing holds ... should know more soon I guess.

 

There is leagues of painters, graphic artists, animators, and other digital content creators who would disagree entirely with you.
On both functionality and screen size.

Having one device instead of 2 (wacom tablet + ultrabook) will always be LESS cumbersome.

 

When the EP121 came out, it was a gift from heaven. If you needed the keyboard, you pulled it out and flipped your case around as a tent, otherwise it didn't get in the way or add to the weight, and most importantly, your screen real estate wasn't this ridiculous wide screen ratio that's being shoved down our throats. Seriously, that restricts our canvas size so much. I remember when the EP121 came out, people complained about it restricting size instead of 4:3, but now so many people seem willing to just take whatever they give us because, well, it's what we can get. We're the consumers, we should have the power to demand what we want here.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just really tired of having no options for screen ratio anymore.

 

For someone like me who works in a lab, the ideal device needs to provide something easy to use to take lab notes, draw diagrams, etc. (sure paper works, but lab notebooks fill fast, can be lost and you've got no backup) and also provide a decent typing experience both at the office and on the go. A good keyboard to write those reports and articles is rather useful. I wouldn't want to use a sirface pro with the type cover in a plane when going to a conference for example. That is why I'd prefer getting something with the Helix's form factor. I'm waiting for a Haswell device though and using a TPT2 for lab notes and my Precision for typing in the mean time.

The ideal device for me would be one that can pack 32 GB of RAM (or more), a quad core CPU in a portable hybrid form factor, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon. In the end I'll be stuck with two devices, but if the second devices can also act as a regular laptop for when I'm on the go and don't need the processing power for CFD, it will be a huge plus.

You're not the only missing the old form factors, heck if it wasn't for the Atmel digitizer on the HP Elitepad, I'd be using one of those right now because of the 1280x800 res.