Sony unveils Tap 11, the world's SLIMMEST tablet PC (for now)

Tablets, tablets, tablets. There’s one out there for everyone these days or so it seems. On show at IFA there are, er, certainly more tablets than you could shake a stick at – or should that be a stylus? Sony was looking pleased with itself after it was confirmed that its Vaio Tap 11 is officially the thinnest PC tablet around …

[Anonymous Coward]

8.3 inch 1080 screen

I make that a slightly higher pixel density (265 > 264) than the current generation iPads.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 8.3 inch 1080 screen

Yep, that is true, but still not as good is it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 8.3 inch 1080 screen

Won't make any difference to your eyes as you won't be able to differentiate the difference anyway.

[John 62]

Re: 8.3 inch 1080 screen

"Won't make any difference to your eyes as you won't be able to differentiate the difference anyway."

While I did upvote that comment, it may be the case (I don't know cos I haven't seen any in the wild yet) that downscaling can create unwanted artifacts. Though then again, unless you're watching at an insane bitrate, you would probably notice compression artifacts before noticing downscaling artifacts.

[Charlie Clark]

A modest proposal

@Sony &Toshiba

Try making Android combos patents $200 cheaper (no windows tax and no Intel tax) and you might be surprised at how many you sell.

[qwarty]

Re: A modest proposal

What ARM model are you proposing to compete with the Core i7-4610Y clocked at 1.7GHz?

[Anonymous Coward]

How thin?!

"Sony unveils Tap 11, the world's SLIMMEST tablet PC (for now)"

But how slim is that?!

[Patrick R]

Re: How thin?!

9.9mm

[Brian]

PLEASE tell me one of these will have a dock that allows for more than one external monitor without using a USB dock. That would let me use my tablet as my primary computing device. No more desktop, no more iPad.

[rcorrect]

Apple

...submits a patent for the thickness of a mobile computing device.

[Eddy Ito]

So I go to look at Sony's site to see the specs on the Tap 11 but instead of that Sony has their QX lens camera that uses NFC and WiFi to connect to a smartphone to provide 10X optical zoom with about 19MP sensor for about $250. IMO, that's actually pretty damn clever and I wonder why nobody else has done it, have they?

[Nuke]

Why So Thin?

Can someone explain to me in sensible terms why it matters that this stuff is so thin?

Sure, once stuff was quite thick (I remember a 1990's laptop) so it was welcome when they made it thinner. But there is a point of diminishing returns, or a point where further reduction becomes pointless. Once it reaches a thiness such that it is dominated by the thickness of its carry-case, and indeed by other stuff in your briefcase if you carry it in one, even if it were made ZERO thickness there would be no difference in practice.

I am more interested in performance.

[Tom 7]

Re: Why So Thin?

It so thin so they can sell you something to raise it off the desk to help avoid RSI.

Or maybe they have an RSI treatment patent.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not going to be satisfied until my tablet is so thin that I can't pick it up without lacerating my palm.

[bag o' spanners]

So thin, it hurts

I think the ever decreasing thickness of tablets is to prepare us clumsy neanderthals for the inevitable OLED sheet with a wifi link to a tiny processor and storage podule we carry about our person. The tech exists, albeit at a price point beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest, but given the commercial pressure to reach into the wallets of early adopters, it will probably be with us ornery folk in five years or less.