Dell Announces the Venue 10 7000 Tablet

Today Dell announced the Venue 10 7000, the newest device in their line of Android tablets. The Venue 10 7000 is very much like the larger version of the Venue 8 7000, with the same Intel Atom Z3580 SoC, the same Intel RealSense camera technology, and a larger 10.5″ display of the same 2560×1600 AMOLED variety. But the Venue 10’s larger profile is what may allow it to become a much better device for productivity than its smaller sibling. That line of thinking is what allows for some very unique design decisions on the Venue 10 that differentiate it from other tablets.

The design of the Venue 10 is similar to the Venue 8, with an aluminum construction and a very thin 6.2mm profile. However, with the Venue 10 Dell has gone with a more traditional bezel design, where the bezel is the same width on sides that are opposite each other. Despite this, the Venue 10 still has an imbalanced appearance as a result of the cylinder on the one long edge of the tablet. The cylinder is home to the battery and the speakers of the Venue 10. While this design may seem incredibly strange at first, it’s what enables the Venue 10’s feature that Dell hopes will give it an edge when it comes to productivity.

As you can see above, the cylinder on the side of the Venue 10 is the method of connecting it to Dell’s keyboard accessory. The keyboard is fully backlit, and it also has a trackpad. It’s Dell’s hope that having a well integrated keyboard accessory will be what sets the Venue 10 7000 above other tablets for users that intend to use their tablet as a productivity device. Whether or not the somewhat strange design trade off is worth it for this ability is up for debate, and we’ll hopefully be able to take an in depth look at it when the Venue 10 7000 comes to market.

Dell’s Venue 10 7000 will be coming to the US later this month at a price of $499 for the tablet alone and $629 with the keyboard included. It will be coming to Canada in May at a price of $599 CDN for the tablet on its own, with the keyboard attachment being available separately.

ASUS Launches The Transformer Book Chi

Though the Chi series was first announced at Computex way back in June 2014, it has been a long time getting to market. ASUS is now accepting pre-orders for two models of the Chi. The T100 Chi will be the replacement for the well-received Transformer Book T100, and the T300 Chi is the flagship model. Both will be fanless designs, and include the now traditional Transformer Book keyboard dock.

Starting with the T100 Chi, we get a nice update to a good design. The T100 Chi is a tablet convertible , so all of the components are in the 10.1 inch display. Speaking of the display, ASUS has went with a 16:10 ratio, with a 1920×1200 resolution. It is nice to see a few devices bucking the 16:9 trend, especially with tablets. It also features a laminated IPS display, which removes the air gaps between the different display layers. This is not a new feature of course, but one that has normally been reserved for more premium devices. And the premium feel does not end there, with the T100 Chi being made completely out of aluminum. The T100 is powered by the Intel Atom Z3775 quad-core processor, and has 2 GB of memory. Storage is eMMC in 32 and 64 GB tiers. The T100 Chi has a MSRP of $399, which is very much keeping in line with the previous T100, and comes with the keyboard dock.

The T300 Chi is 12.5 inch tablet, with the same laminated display as the T100, but we are back to the 16:9 ratio. Two resolutions are offered, with a 1920×1080 model being the mainstream version, or you can opt for a WQHD 2560×1440 version as well. The 1080p model comes with the Intel Core M-5Y10 CPU, 4 GB of memory, and a 128 GB SSD with micro SDXC expansion. The higher resolution T300 Chi will come with the Intel Core M-5Y71, 8 GB of memory, and a 128 GB SSD with micro SDXC expansion. The tablet alone is just 1.6 lbs, and combined with the included keyboard dock, the weight doubles to 3.2 lbs.

Both models feature support for the ASUS Transformer Book Chi Active Stylus Pen, which has 256 pressure levels supported and could therefore be based on N-Trig technology is a Synaptics unit (Confirmed with ASUS).

The keyboard docks have always been the key to the Transformer Book series, and the Chi models feature a unique magnetic hinge to perform the connection. The new models also offer support for additional modes beside attached and detached, with flipped and tented now joining the capabilities. While they do not feature the kickstand of the Surface, if you do have somewhere to rest the tablet, the tent mode should offer some nice functionality.

The ASUS Transformer Book Chi T100 and T300 are available for pre-order starting today.

Source: ASUS