It's fair to say that Windows 7 tablets haven't been very good, with the OS not particularly well-designed for a touchscreen interface. Samsung is hoping to change this with its new 700T tablet, which we managed to have a hands-on look at recently.
For starters, it's powerful. Instead of the Atom processor we're used to seeing in these tablets, the 700T has a 1.6GHz Core i5-2467M processor. Impressively, the 11.6in tablet is just 12.9mm thick and weighs only 960g. Holding it we were immediately struck by how similar it is to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 .
Windows tablets usually fall down on usability, but Samsung has added a touch overlay menu that's finger driven. It's pretty successful, from our initial tappings, making it simple to launch applications without having to fiddle around with the Start Menu. In addition, there's a stylus included, which gives you fine control over what you're selecting. It's pressure sensitive, too.
Samsung also has another trick up its sleeve to make the tablet more usable: it ships with a dock and a Bluetooth keyboard. In an office, then, it can be used like a regular laptop and, with its fast processor, is just as snappy and easy to use. There's even a Micro HDMI output on the tablet, so you can even hook it up to a large monitor and use it like a regular computer. The dock has USB and Ethernet ports, so you can leave it on your desk hooked up to the network and other peripherals you don't want to move. If you're going on a trip, the dock is small enough to carry around with you, and it folds neatly down protecting the dock connector from damage.
The tablet will ship with 4GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD, so some external storage could be useful for larger files. It will be on sale soon for £999. Given the specs and the small size it's a pretty good price and looks ideal for businesses that want the flexibility of a tablet, the power of a laptop and need Windows to run their existing applications.
