The wholesale android tablets in favor of something more comfortable-Priceangels.com

The wholesale android tablets and keyboard each tip the scales at 1.2 pounds, making for a full 2.4 pounds when they're locked together. And while it's not the sveltest full-size tablet out there, at a thickness of 0.41 inch, it's not exactly big either. Slightly pudgy would be the appropriate phrase, perhaps. I was a bit put off by the overly plasticy feel both in the tablet and especially the keyboard dock. Knocking on the bottom of the dock delivered a hollow, cheap sound sound that didn't necessarily scream "quality".
 

It bears a striking resemblance to the Transformer TF300 and looks to be based on that design, but thankfully Asus tossed the grooved toy-like feel of the Android tablet in favor of something more comfortable and a bit classier.The tablet boasts 2GB of RAM, a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera, and no back camera. Ports on the tablet itself include Micro-HDMI, Micro-USB, a microSD card reader, and, of course, a headphone jack. Stereo speakers can be found on the back, and the keyboard includes a single USB 3.0 port.

The keyboard is wider than Asus' docks on its Android tablets, but it still felt a bit cramped and not nearly as comfortable as Microsoft's Surface Type Cover. The large and easily accessible eject button -- to release the tablet from the dock -- was a welcome addition, however.Chipmaker Intel today unveiled the hardware it hopes will help it establish a much-needed foothold in the burgeoning tablet market.

Getting more Intel chips inside tablets is increasingly important for Intel as sales of desktop and laptop PCs — a market Intel has dominated for decades — dwindle, while tablets are forecast to sell in ever larger numbers.Intel is hoping to persuade tablet makers to swap out the ARM-based low power Risc chips that sit inside the majority of tablets today for the Intel Bay Trail platform - specifically its Atom Z3000 series of System on a Chips (SoCs).The Z3000 is Intel's second recent attempt to break into the mainstream tablet market, after its earlier Atom SoCs – inside its Clover Trail and Clover Trail+ platforms - only made it into a relatively small number of tablets.

On the face of it the Z3000 series addresses some of the criticisms levelled at Clover Trail, primarily it's faster and allows tablets to run for longer off the same battery.Annette Jump, research director in Gartner's worldwide consumer technology and markets team, said: "The biggest issue with Clover Trail was the performance, it was very slow on some of the tablets that vendors had used.Bay Trail SoCs are aimed at tablets and convertible laptop/tablets with screen sizes below priced at $599 or below and will ship in a range of tablets running Windows 8 and Android, ranging down to below $100 in price. lfj4D3ss2 

The first of these tablets will ship during the Christmas holiday season this year. For more expensive tablets Intel has the higher priced Haswell processor, which Intel says should "deliver 2x scalability" beyond Bay Trail for "key productivity usages".By targeting Bay Trail SoCs at cheaper, smaller tablets and the more powerful Intel Haswell Core processors at more demanding tablets and convertible PCs, Intel can pitch a processor at the right price and with the necessary performance for both the high and low-end tablet and PC market, said Gartner's Jump.

"Many of the vendors will be quite keen to integrate the new processors [Bay Trail] because that would allow them to reach lower price points on the 10 inch tablets and they wouldn't get all the negative comments in terms of the performance."The lower specced Bay Trail systems, the dual core Z3600 series will be used primarily for seven-inch Android tablets, while the higher end, quad-core Z3700 series will be used in both Windows and Android devices.

Another factor that held Clover Trail back from wider adoption was arguably Intel's failure to persuade more tablet makers to put the chip inside their flagship devices. Intel is promising it will rectify this with Bay Trail – saying the processor will be in "far more" Android and Windows 8 tablets "out of the gate", and is due to reveal who that will be today.Supporting the Android OS, and not just Windows 8, is a smart move for Intel, said Jump, as it allow tablet makers to price Bay Trail tablets more competitively with competing tablets running rival chipsets.