LAB review: Business tablet with attitude

The Dell Latitude 10 Tablet PC may impress in style and power but the overall Windows 8 experience is a letdown, writes Redza Imran

DELL'S latest addition to its PC(Android 4.0 Tablet PC)line up now includes the Dell Latitude 10 Tablet PC. It's geared for the business power user and comes with numerous options to integrate the device with existing remote systems management solutions such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or Dell KACE.

The look and feel of the Latitude 10 are great with its magnesium alloy casing and sturdy Gorilla Glass screen. It boasts an Intel Atom Dual Core Processor, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator graphics card, a 10.1 inch IPS Wide Angle LCD which supports 10 Finger capacitive touch, 64GB SSD Hard Drive, built-in speakers, microphone and a 2.0MP HD front facing camera.

There are also the USB 2.0 jack, SD card slot, Dock Connector, Stereo headphone/microphone combo jack, micro USB charging port and mini HDMI port.

It supports Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, though some foreign models will offer SIM card compatibility.

Battery life is rated at 10 hours with the two-cell (30Whr) Lithium Ion Battery which can be swapped out should you buy the optional extra battery.

The instant start-up or always-on feature is nice to have in this device, making it feel more like a tablet that you can carry around than a notebook.ONDA V972

My previous experience with Windows 8 for PCs hasn't been great, and this Tablet hasn't changed that view. The interface isn't as intuitive as the iOS and the settings menus always seem to react differently, depending on the page you're on.

This can be disorienting if you're not familiar with the interface. Changing simple settings like background colour or the background image was a bit of a chore. The Metro interface isn't as easy to curate as it is with the Mobile version and some of the programs aren't able to work properly.

I especially hated the way this PC handled videos. Even after updating the various programs, the Video widget which was supposed to play whatever video was in your library could not properly play a video file, resulting in jerky playback.

The video images themselves were poorly lit, with bad contrast, which is surprising since its supposed to be an IPS screen. Perhaps this was a limitation of the software because the rest of the time, images on the screen were crisp and bright. In any case, the jerky playback ruined any sort of enjoyment I would have gotten from using the Tablet.

Another annoying feature (or the lack of it) was that Windows 8 did not automatically call up the virtual keyboard in the Desktop view as it would in the Metro view when you're trying to type.

You constantly had to call up the keyboard yourself in order to get to it, which shouldn't be the case. I'm sure there's a setting for this to happen, but I couldn't find it after 15 minutes of searching and just gave up.tablet android

The tablet does get warm to the point of being uncomfortable if used for too long a stretch. It is a wee bit heavy at about 660g, but due to its size and nice-to-touch materials, the weight shouldn't bother you too much. The camera took poor quality pictures, but I suspect it's just there to be used for video-conferencing.

Dell Latitude 10
Tablet PC

Enquiries: 1800-88-0301
Website: www.dell.com

Pros
• Nice build with magnesium alloy casing
• Always-on feature

Cons
• Poor video handling
• Poor quality camera images

Conclusion
The tablet is proficient in enough ways to make it a decent notebook replacement when one is travelling a lot.

FEATURES
Ultra-portable design
HD 10.1 inch IPS LCD Screen
10 Finger Capacitive Multi Touch
Coing Gorilla Glass

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