Dell's 'Dual Personality' Laptop

njkobie writes "Dell was the unlikely star of today's keynote at IDF, unveiling a convertible tablet. While that might sound a bit been there, done that, the Inspiron Duo can be used as a tablet or opened up to offer a keyboard. The screen rotates inside the frame, taking it to the netbook form factor. It runs on an Atom processor and will be available at the end of the year, Dell said."

Where have I seen this before...

[Kitkoan]

I know I've seen this design before... [cnet.com] the only difference is the Dell's screen (glass part) flips instead of the whole top. I feel that I would prefer the other design since it has a bigger hinge, less likely to break then that Dell's.

Re:Where have I seen this before...

[Kitkoan]

Gateway also had one like it in 2005 running Windows XP. The video on the netbook shows it better then the older review pictures though. [cnet.com] All in all, it's a (what I feel) gimmicky twist on an old design, and possibly a bad move since I feel the screen without the case boarder would make it more delicate and more likely to be broken by Joe User.

Same tablet, different axis

[pwnies]

So it's a generic convertible tablet PC like we've had for ages, except the screen rotates along the x axis instead of the y axis? Why is this news?
What does this do that my X61t doesn't?

Yawn yawn yawn...

[gilesjuk]

When will they realise that it's not the hardware that matters but the software.

I've seen a convertible laptop/tablet before at a customer site. He was trying to use it to take notes. But thanks to Windows it required a reboot as it wouldn't come out of sleep properly. It's a bit annoying when you all have to sit there and wait to start a meeting while a laptop boots.

Anything tablet like needs to be instant on/off. No HDDs, no x86 Intel processors and a keyboard should be totally detachable for those who don't want to use it.

Re:Duo

[InlawBiker]

If you don't know any details it's OK to say nothing.

Re:IBM did it first?

[flibbidyfloo]

The Dell looks pretty fragile to me, whereas the X41s we have are still going with no hinge problems after 5 years. But that's not the point I'd worry about. mrops has it right... the form factor is smaller still, and probably will be too slow to satisfy anyone who can afford it. With today's technology I bet you could fit a killer system inside a body the size of an X41.