Even if you don’t own a Dell computer, there’s a lot to thank them for how they have changed the concept of buying and selling factory-built computers. Besides being extremely competitive, they’ve also made computers customizable inside-out for all segments of the market both in the home and business. Which is why when Dell (finally) announced their Tablet PC offering, every tablet enthusiast scribbled with joy, including moi. Many believe and hope Dell could set the Tablet PC industry right, even if price is all they’ve got.
| Latitude™ XT RTS (Ready To Ship) Dates | |||||
| Americas | Brazil | Europe | APCC | Japan | CCC |
| 12/03/07 | 11/16/07 | 11/16/07 | 11/16/07 | 11/16/07 | 11/16/07 |
But according to internal documentation (above), Dell’s first Tablet PC, Latitude XT, was intended to ship in most regions outside America last Friday. Unfortunately it seems to have suffered a delay since it has not appeared on any Dell’s regional websites. The delay might be related to the recent LCD shortage.
On the bright side, I do have some official technical specification information for the Latitude XT, more or less confirming the leaked specifications from a month ago.
| Product Overview | |
| Features | XT |
| Processor type | Intel® Core™2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage (Merom) |
| Processor speeds | Dual Core: 1.2 GHz (U7600) |
| System chipset | ATi RS600ME/SB600 |
| Memory | DDR2: 1 GB at 667 MHz onboard, one 667 MHz SODIMM |
| Memory min/max | 1 GB / 3 GB at 667 MHz |
| LCD types | Dual-bulb CCFL: 12.1-inch WXGA (1280×800) LED back-lit: 12.1-inch WXGA (1280×800) |
| Video | ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 |
| Video memory | 256 MB of UMA memory plus variable HyperMemory™ |
| Audio | IDT STAC9505 Codec Digital array microphone (CCFL version only) |
| USB support | Three USB 2.0 connectors, one powered |
| Hard drive interface | PATA |
| Media bay options1 | D-Bay drives: 24X CD-ROM 24X CD-RW/DVD 8X DVD 8X DVD+/-RW Secondary 80 GB HDD Media slice drives: 8X DVD+/-RW |
| Wireless options | WLAN: Dell™ Wireless 1390 a/b/g Mini-Card Dell Wireless 1490 a/b/g Mini-Card Dell Wireless 1505 a/b/g/n Mini-Card WWAN: Dell Wireless 5720 Mobile Broadband Mini-Card (various providers) Dell Wireless 5520 Mobile Broadband Mini-Card (various providers) |
| Bluetooth support | Dell 360 Bluetooth® v2.0 |
| NIC (LOM) | Broadcom BCM5756 Integrated Gigabit Ethernet |
| Modem | External only (optional) |
| I/O card slots | ExpressCard™ 54 SD™ card |
| IR support | N / A |
| Connectors | Power Video (VGA) RJ-45 (network) USB 2.0 (x3, 1 powered) IEEE 1394a Audio (headphone and mic) Secure Digital (SD™) media card reader ExpressCard slot |
| Operating system | Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 (RTS= 12/10/2007) Microsoft Windows Vista™ Business 32-bit Microsoft Windows Vista Business 64-bit Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Novell Certification Red Flag Linux (China) |
| Docking support | Media base |
| AC adapter | 45 W and 65 W (65 W ships with optional media slice and / or battery slice) |
| Battery | 4-cell "smart" lithium-ion 6-cell "smart" lithium-ion 9-cell High-capacity "smart" lithium-ion (battery slice) |
| Weight | LED Backlit LCD 1.6 kg (3.57 lb) (with 4-cell battery) Dual-bulb CCFL LCD 1.8 kg (4.0 lb) (with 6-cell battery) |
And even more specifically about the display screen and tablet input device.
| Both LED backlit thin-and-light LCD and Dual-bulb (CCFL) LCD options: | |
| Panel design | 12.1 inches WXGA |
| Display area | Horizontal: 261.12 mm (10.28 inches) Vertical: 163.20 mm (6.42 inches) Diagonal: 307.34 mm (12.1 inches) |
| Aspect ratio | 16:1 |
| Number of pixels | 1280 X 3 (RGB) X 800 dots |
| Pixel pitch | 0.204 mm X 0.204 mm nominal |
| Viewing angles | |
| Horizontal | ±70 degrees |
| Vertical | ±70 degrees |
| LED backlit thin-and-light LCD option: | |
| Luminescence | 220 nits (typical) |
| Dual-bulb (CCFL) LCD option: | |
| Luminescence | 400 nits (typical) |
| Digitizer | |
| Interface | capacitive touch |
| Input resolution | 1000 dpi |
| Position report rate | 133 PPS |
| Coordinate accuracy | ± 0.4 mm (avg.) |
| Coordinate jitter | ± 0.4 mm (avg.) |
| Pen | |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 133 mm (5.2 inches) |
| Diameter | 9 mm (0.35 inches) |
| Type | two-button, non-battery powered |
27 Comments
Mog0
Either that’s a new super widescreen format or there’s a typo in the aspect ratio (16:1)!!
Danny
Is this the multi touch one? Has anyone heard even a rumor of price?
n00b
There is no specific “multitouch” model, and I’m pretty sure that the 16:1 is no typo. apparently you don’t get around the internet quite enough because I’ve seen other widescreen and pan-scan formats, one of which was 16:1.
Jason Cox
@Danny:
I think it is Multitouch, I remember a video coming down through my Outlook RSS reader last week demonstrating this.
Here’s to the hoping the price is less than the other guys, thats the only thing stopping me from getting a (decent) tablet.
Perry
It is a typo. They meant 16:10. 16:1 would be ridiculously wide.
bluebird
@n00b:
Just how exactly would a 16:1 widescreen look like? 80 by 5 inches? That would be perfect, I’ve always wanted to watch this movie without the black bars covering most of my screen: http://us.imdb.com/Sections/DVDs/AspectRatios/16_:_1/
Illrigger
It’s not going to be multitouch – it’s a capacitive screen, which means it needs a pen.
What gets me is that it says it’s PATA. If that’s true, this will be the first PATA system Dell has shipped in the business segment in about two years. It’s got to be a typo….
ethana2
So, is all of the hardware supported under Linux?
Charlie
1280×800 works out to 16:10 ratio (1280/800 = 1.6).
16:1 would be something like 12800×800. So yeah, it’s a typo.
ethana2
(That is to say, is the Red flag linux a clean install, or does it have to be altered by Dell to work right?)
…and which costs more, shipping from China or the Windows tax? Not all Americans want Windows on their machines– just 90% or so. 40% don’t even know what they want, and most of the time, Linux will do just fine for them.
Charlie
Also, Dell has stated that this tablet IS multitouch. See this article:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasi c&articleId=9046999
“In addition to the green initiative, Dell also announced the new Latitude XT tablet PC, which he said is the industry’s thinnest 12.1-in. convertible laptop and has a 25% brighter screen than those on competitors’ laptops. It will support new ‘multitouch’ technology, said Kevin Kettler, Dell’s chief technology officer, during an onstage demonstration.
“In addition to supporting single-touch features that work with a user’s finger or a stylist, the laptop will let customers use multiple fingers to draw lines or manage images simultaneously, Kettler said.”
Manifold
Charlie is right. It was rumored a while back that Dell would be sourcing their digitizers from a company called N-Trig, who combine passive capacitive touch with active pen capabilities in a single unit, so you get the best of both worlds. They’ve also stated that future versions of their capacitive touch technology would be capable of multitouch; I assume what Dell demonstrated at Oracle is the future version of that digitizer.
Daniel
I suppose if it’s multitouch it might be the same kind that Lenovo is using for the X61, which utilizes both an active digitizer pen and touch input. These two are different and independent input devices in terms of the actual hardware.
Dark
Actually is not the same kind that Lenovo X61t employs, it’s capacitive (reads input from the electrostatic/electromagnetic response of the fingers/pen on the screen), Lenovo’s is pressure(touch) based for the passive digitizer combined with active digitizer for the pen, and the pen on Lenovo if close to the screen disables the passive digitizer (touch/pressure control).
So in THEORY it’s much better, except that we don’t know yet if Dell’s capacitive is able to reject palm input to avoid vectoring while inking.
mrmckeb
A little ugly…
MonkRX
Dark, that sounds interesting. But this also means no more cool pen-hovering over the screen without clicking, right? I hope this type of touch screen is also more power efficient.
Are there any battery life numbers so far on the 6 cell?
Did dell claim this is the smallest 12.1″ tablet? .. Doesn’t this weigh a bit more than the Lenovo X61T?
Either way I’m happily typing away on my Fujitsu T4220 with SXGA+ Screen, and until someone makes a higher resolution small screen tablet, I’m sticking with this. Its really the only option for those who want a decently high resolution on a Tablet PC.
Charlie
@MonkRX
I’ve not seen any actual figures so far, but Dell has posted a video on YouTube that claims the screen will stay on “all night long”. Not sure from what time to what time of course, nor what size battery they used though. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zJN29wbDKI for the video.
stoffie
cool…
can i use it as an iPhone?
beq
Interesting choice between a thinner/lighter 220 nits LED-backlit screen vs a 400 nits dual-bulb CCFL-backlit screen that has digital array microphone and ambient light sensor. I think I would go for the CCFL, but then again I’m not sure how much thinner and lighter the LED is. They listed 3.57 lbs for LED version with 4-cell battery, vs 4.0 lbs for CCFL version with 6-cell battery, which hides the true weight saving of the LED?
I’m also really confused with the mention of the D-Bay drives *and* Media slice drives.
Engadget’s interpretation is that “An integrated media bay can accept either an optional secondary 80GB hard drive or a dual-layer burner”.
So it has an integrated bay for an optical drive, a 2nd hard drive, or a 2nd battery? And it also has an optional docking base that has a separate bay for even more drive/battery options?
Anyways, I’m disappointed that there’s no webcam. But I like having both trackpoint stick and touchpad. Actually I like the stick but I know most people like the touchpad.
Andrey
I will never buy a Dell computer!
Harsh
What’s a “Windows Security button”?
AndyC
Windows Security Button = CTRL+ALT+DEL, handy if you’ve got the keyboard folded away.
I’m looking forward to this, hopefully I can blag a demo model from our Dell rep….
Roberto Gonzales
Great job on the specs. Yes, it looks like you have it right with capacitive touch – I think the technology comes from a company called N-trig.
There are a couple of other blogs that talk about them as well.
Comment on Dell’s own Direct2Dell citing N-trig
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/18/15193.aspx
Comment on Tablet Buzz…doing the same thing- connecting the dots on Dell and N-trig working together.
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=36264
Kebler
Great job on the specs….a little disappointing on the processor speed. I would most likely go for a fujitsu or the lenovo first for the convertable tablets but the sahara for the slate (way cooler)
Owen
I noticed one thing that concerns me deeply regarding this new Dell. Where is the scroll button while in tablet mode? Is the biometric reader going to serve double duty like some or is there no scroll ability like HPs 2710p. Without good scrolling ability in tablet I cant use this machine as it loses a function that I use with regularity.
BDS
Release date… My dell rep told me last week that they have an internal memo to start selling the XT to business customers on 12/11/07 in the US. He would not confirm or deny the rumor that retail purchases will have to wait until CES in January.
I’ll be calling him early on the 11th.
Dave R
I had a chance to play with one of the demo units and it isn’t as good as Lenovo or HP. Optic is BAD and there is a “grid” like reflection from the display probably related to the touch module.
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