Hmm, killer fix and and interesting new tablet from Motion, on one day, who would have thought. Motion just announced a a tiny little tablet called the LS800 (Sounds like a Lexus or something; can't marketing departments be more creative than stringing together random letter and numbers? Oh wait, I get it! It's half of the LE1600! Yeah! Smart! Sigh.)
Specs:
- Fingerprint reader
- Bluetooth, apparently a/b/g Wi-Fi (standard?), infrared, Ethernet
- Less than 1 inch thick, 2.2 lbs
- ULV 1.2 GHz Pentium M 753
- 512 MB of memory, 60 GB hard drive
- 3 hours of battery life on standard battery, warm swappable
- SVGA, only 120-degree viewing angle (sorry, I want 170 on LCDs by now)
- Array microphones (big whoop)
- SD slot, USB ports, VGA output
- MobileDock docking thingy, security subsystems
- $1,899
Mind you, Motion is targeting this squarely at verticals:
"The new slate tablet PC, approximately the size of a paperback book, is small enough to slip into a lab coat pocket or attach to a tool belt and is optimal for highly mobile professionals in industries including route sales and service, manufacturing and healthcare."
However, I bet many a geek will like the tiny, cute, almost Sony Vaio-like form factor. In fact, after Motion finally came out with the decent slate with the LE1600, this is the first tablet from them that hooked me enough to actually consider. Of course, at the price one could argue you should get a ThinkPad X41, which costs almost the same, but is a convertible with larger and better screen. But it's still pretty darn cute!
Biggest rant though: still no swiveling HP-like hybrid keyboard?! Come on Motion!
Edit: I did neglect to mention that it apparently lacks a PC card slot, which sort of kills it for anybody needing a high speed WAN (EV-DO, EDGE, etc.) card in there. I guess there is always the shaky Bluetooth link to a phone. But it's still so darn cute!! Come on, color casings for the masses?