We reported a few months ago that MSI had begun development on two different Slate PC’S and it looks like one of them will be out mid next month.
MSI will debut the new Tablet PC at the Computex Trade show in June. The MSI Slatebook will have a 10-inch touch screen display, Intel Atom Zxx series processor , built-in 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. The Operating system will be windows 7 based, so finally a Slate PC will run a full windows OS. Estimates have the Slatebook priced modestly at $500. It also has 2 USB ports, a webcam and a 12 hour battery life.
MSI is also developing a follow up to the Slatebook which would have the new Nvidia Tegra 2-based chips. The company mentioned that they will evaluate the success of the Slatebook before releasing any follow up tablets.
MSI had said that they were working on a E-Reader device, but that project seems to be shelved right now. Some rumours do persist that the Slatebook will be using the same screen as their E-Reader was going to have, with the new Pixel Qi hybrid display technology.
Although the Electronic Reader market is pretty saturated with all of the new comers in the market, MSI will debut the first Full on Slate sporting the Windows 7 operating system, something many other companies attempted to do, such as HP Slate and Microsoft Courier and ended up abandoning Windows as a core operating system. If MSI can possibly get their Slatebook on the market by July, they will have a few month advantage on most other Slates set to go sale this summer.
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Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.