Windows tablets get a bad rap among consumer product reviewers because they're more expensive than mobile OS tablets, they weigh more and tend to have shorter battery life. Vertical market users and artists see the beauty of Windows tablets, and the ways they can make digital art come to life or simplify work in the field. With the Samsung Series 7 Slate, those who appreciate Windows tablets no longer have to suffer poor battery life or heft. The Series 7 Tablet weighs just 2 pounds, which is remarkable considering that many Android 10" tablets weigh 1.65 pounds and the Asus Eee Pad Slider weighs 2.1 pounds. The venerable Asus Eee Slate EP121, one of the best Windows 7 tablets on the market, weighs 2.5 pounds and runs for 2.5 to 3 hours on a charge.
Since this is a full Windows machine, anything you do with Windows 7, you can do with the Slate. Need a keyboard to do some serious typing? Plug in a USB keyboard or pair a Bluetooth wireless keyboard. Want to dock it to a large monitor? Use HDMI to do that. Need more storage? Plug in a USB external hard drive. That makes it more powerful and versatile than mobile OS tablets, but the drawback is you'll have to deal with Windows Updates and virus threats.
Is the Samsung Series 7 Slate wildly better than the Asus Eee Slate? Not in my book, but it brings some important advancements like a second generation ULV Intel Core i5 CPU with Intel HD3000 graphics, much better battery life and a better capacitive touch experience. The Eee Slate's multi-touch works OK with touch, but it takes some tweaking of Windows settings to make things better (enlarging fonts, for example, to make for larger touch targets). Out of the box, we're really impressed with the Samsung, despite its smaller 11.6" display. It's easier to touch even small Windows Start menu items, and Samsung's Android-like launcher is perfect thanks to its big icons. The iPad and Android tablets are still easier to use with touch, but this is as good as it gets for Windows 7, and it's not bad at all.
Horsepower and Performance
The tablet has plenty of horsepower thanks to the second generation 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-2467M CPU. It handles Adobe Photoshop and other CS5 apps handily, and it's more than up to the task of working with Corel Painter, Art Rage, MS Office apps, web browsing with full Flash (remember this is Windows 7, no need to worry about mobile Flash) and email. You'll notice a speed improvement coming from the Asus Eee Slate with its first gen Core i5 ULV CPU, and modest 3D gaming is possible on the Series 7 Slate. There's no dedicated graphics option for the Samsung Slate, but machines this thin and light rarely support such options (cost, battery life and heat become an issue).
The tablet comes with 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM that's soldered on the motherboard and is not upgradable. It's available with either a 64 or 128 gig mSATA SSD and there's no optical drive included. USB CD, DVD and Blu-ray drives work fine.
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