views: 12194

It’s been tablet and hybrid PC wars all the way at the IFA trade show in Berlin, which goes on till September 5. And plenty of them have been sporting Windows RT, the ARM version of Windows 8. The unveiling of all the models has been timed keeping in mind the grand launch of Windows 8 in October. Almost every brand has thrown a tab into the game – Samsung, Dell, Microsoft, Toshiba, Lenovo and HP. And an upgrade of the Kindle Fire is rumoured to be announced next week, even as the company announced on Thursday that all stocks of its previous version have sold out.

Here’s a list of all that has been showcased at IFA so far:

Dell XPS Duo 12: With the Duo, Dell has straddled both worlds in style – it offers the full functionality of a laptop with the option of using it as a tab. The Duo that runs on Windows 8 is a convertible; the fully functional 10-point touch-screen swivels to sit flat, face-up, on the keyboard, turning into a tab. Awaiting specs.

Toshiba Satellite U925t: This is a convertible ultrabook that doubles as a tablet. It has a 12.5-inch display and a screen resolution of 1366×768. It includes a Core i5 processor and a 128GB solid-state drive. Most of these devices are expected to hit the market in late October and around.

Dell XPS 10 Windows tab: The Dell XPS 10, the company’s first Windows RT tab, made its outing in Berlin on 30 August. It is a 10-inch tab, 10 mm thick and runs on Windows RT, the tablet version of Windows 8. It comes with a keyboard dock that when attached, makes the XPS 10 look like an ultra-light laptop or even a netbook. It has an HD touch screen, microUSB connector, microSD slot and according to Dell, a battery run of 20 hours on a single charge. Mashable calls it a strong competitor the Microsoft Surface. The specs are still to be released.

Samsung Galaxy Note II: Samsung’s phone-tablet or phablet, if you will, has a 5.5 inch display, is powered by a quad-core processor, runs on the Android 4.1Jellybean and comes with its signature S-Pen. It has 2GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel rear cam and a 1.9-megapixel front cam. The memory options are 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB with an expandable microSD memory slot.

Samsung ATIV Tab: This is Samsung’s first tablet to run on Windows 8. The 10.1-inch slate has a 2GB RAM and a screen resolution of 1366×786 with a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.9-megapixel front camera. The tab offers storage of 32GB and 64GB expandable via the microSD card slot. It’s less than 9 mm thick, and its USB port and HDMI allow it to plug in accessories like printers, keyboards, projectors and external monitors.

Samsung ATIV Smart PC: This hybrid PC comes in two versions – the Ativ SmartPC and the Ativ SmartPC Pro. Both have 11.6-inch HD screens. But while the SmartPC has 1366-by-768 display and 2GB of RAM with a next-gen Intel Atom processor, the SmartPC Pro offers up a 1920-by-1080 display, 4GB of RAM, and an Intel Core i5 chip.

Sony Experia Tablet S: This one retains the much-loved “rolled back magazine” wedge design of its predecessor launched last year. It runs on the Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 and has a display of 9.4 inches and a screen resolution of 1280×800 megapixels. It’s powered by a quad core Tegra 3 processor, has 1GB of RAM and offers storage options of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. It has an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1-megapixel front camera. The Sony Experia Tablet S has an SD card slot, USB and HDMI ports, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0.

Sony VAIO Duo 11: This one too is a Windows 8-powered PC that transforms into a tablet. It is certainly heavy at 1.3 kg with an 11.6-inch full HD touch screen panel, its resolution being 1920x 1080. You can use your fingers or the S-pen stylus. It has a 256GB hard drive, Intel Core i7 processor, and 4GB or 8GB of RAM.

Lenovo has launched a trio of Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0-powered tablets at Berlin.

Lenovo IdeaTab A2109: The 9-inch Android IdeaTab A2109 runs on 1.2GHz quad-core Tegra 3 and 1GB of RAM. It has a LED screen resolution of 1280×800 with dual camera setup: 1.3-megapixel in the front and 3 megapixels on the rear. It packs a 3.5 mm headphone jack, micro-USB and micro-HDMI and has a 16GB storage expandable via microSD. The tab costs $299.

Lenovo Idea Tab S2110: This Android tab is positioned as a “premium entertainment tablet” and comes with a detachable keyboard dock. It’s 8.69 mm thick and weighs 580 gm. The 10.1-inch display sports a 10-point multi-touch that makes it great for two-player gaming. It has a microHDMI port, an SD card reader and USB ports. It is powered by Qualcomm’s dual-core 8060A CPU and has a 1.3-megapixel front-facing and a 5-megapixel rear camera. The hybrid slate is available in the market in 16GB and 32GB versions.

Lenovo Ideatab S2107A: The 7-inch Android 4.0 tablet has a touch screen with a resolution of 720p and battery life of 10 hours. It comes with a microSD card slot, Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, built-in FM radio, and 3G network compatibility.

ASUS Taichi: This is a Windows 8 ultrabook with display on the front and the rear. When open, you can use it like a notebook and when shut, it turns into a multi-touch tablet on which you can work with a stylus. The Taichi comes in two sizes: 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch. It packs in the Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7 processors, has 4GB of RAM, SSD storage, dual-band 802.11n WiFi, FHD/Super IPS+ displays and dual cameras.

ASUS Transformer Book: This is yet another ultrabook from the house of ASUS that has a detachable top screen that turns into a tablet.

HP Envy x2: Again, this is a full-featured Windows 8 laptop-tab hybrid with an 11.6-inch screen that detaches to become a Windows 8-powered tablet. Powered by the Intel X86 processor, the tablet sports an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with an “HD” camera on the front. ASUS VIVO Tab: This is an 11-inch Windows 8 tablet with a detachable keyboard. It has 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD, weighs 675 gm, and has an 8-megapixel rear camera with flash, and a 2-megapixel front camera.