Here's an interesting comment on performance. Do you think anyone might be interested in 5.5x to 14x more performance than their iPad?
Our test model against a true tablet, like the iPad 3, should make for an interesting comparison. Regardless of which benchmark we ran, be it Browsermark (101,129 to 554,649 points) or Sunspider JavaScript Benchmark 0.9.1 (1,860 to 128 milliseconds): the Core i7 CPU tangibly took the lead, even in simple surfing. Both benchmarks were run on the Metro version of Internet Explorer
Gaming is another matter. High end games like Battlefield 3 are unplayable, but others, like Deus Ex, Anno 2070 (a popular overseas RTS game), and Diablo III, get perfectly good frame rates at low settings, making this a potentially fun system to take on trips.
Noise levels are quite good, with barely audible ~30dB levels in idle, and only slightly audible ~40dB under load.
In terms of temperature, it seems to get dangerously hot at the exaust vent during load, but otherwise is in the range of most devices.
Battery life is impressive, with 9.5 hours of idle time, and 5.5 hours of web browsing. Unfortunatly, the 1.5 hours of 3DMark06 looping implies maybe it wouldn't be such a good portable gaming system.
Summary Pros and Cons:
Pro + Excellent sturdiness and build quality + Great IPS display + Good input devices + Long battery life + Very quiet in everyday use + Mini DisplayPort
Contra - Very expensive - Meager connectivity - Throttling (early BIOS) - Modest speakers - Very thick and heavy in tablet mode
It seems like the end result is a solid system with more upsides than downsides, and at least the throttling downsides may in fact be mitigated by launch time, or with future BIOS updates. The price is higher than a minimally configured iPad, but let's get real: many people upgrade to richer iPad configurations with accessories, and can easily get to $1000. This system comes with 8GB of memory and up to 256GB of SSD; iPad is a toy compared to this.
As a first entry into the new convertible market, I'm fairly impressed. I know Haswell will go a long way towards addressing the thermal issues, and probably make a thinner and lighter system, but Ivy Bridge already does quite well, and throttling seems to be under control in most cases.
The area of greatest concern I had was the touch experience of Windows 8, and the reviewer rated it high. We can also see that Dell did not skimp on the display, and instead delivered a very nice IPS panel with good brightness and contrast and (finally!) full-HD support.
I think Intel will do quite well with these, as they fully address any demand for high performance, while preserving tablet-like usages. I am still interested in seeing how Clover Trail rounds out the more price sensitive areas of the market, and how well it can compete with iPad at similar price points.
AI
