The Korean company Mintpass is among the very few that had conjured up an Android tablet device back in 2009 when not many might have heard of the Android operating system. Tablet devices too perhaps made up the last of any consumer’s shopping list, if ever it did that is. The company itself in not one among the most or even moderately well known and its a matter of speculation if it could have been the opposite of it had Mintpass come up with the Android tablet in 2009. In any case, the company is ready to make amends and has decided to make up for it by coming up with a tablet with not one but two screens conforming to the clamshell form factor. And the tablet does not only load the Android OS but the Windows 7 as well.
The new dual screen clamshell tablet will be a lot similar to the Libretto W100 from Toshiba in that both the screen can work independently of each other or in tandem. What this means is that users will have the choice of surfing the web on one screen while watching a movie on the other. What’s more, the tablet can easily be converted into a laptop by enabling one of the screen to be used as a virtual keyboard. All of this will be made possible by the use of a new touchscreen technology which Mintpass has termed ‘Space Touch’ that allows for quick and convenient conversion between book and notebook orientation use.
However, further details of the yet unnamed tablet is missing and its not known what the story will be like on the hardware front. With Windows 7 in the scene, users definitely have the choice of running a full blown desktop OS with the easy availability of a vast number of applications. However, on the flip side, Windows 7 requires some serious processing power and is not known to be particularly kind on the battery. Android, on the other hand is known for its simplicity and is less demanding on the battery.
While we know the highest version of Android that an Intel Atom CPU can support is Android 1.6, a possible configuration for the dual booting tablet can be an ARM-based CPU for Android along with an Intel x86 chip to take care of Windows 7. It will be interesting to see what the battery life would be under the scenario, and whether it would be better than the around 3 hours of battery life the Libretto comes with. The tablet is expected to enter markets during the first half of 2011.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
