Another update on potential winners (or losers): Talked with the Paceblade folks in Sweden, who directed me to the folks they buy it from. Who would’ve thought it’s a US company;
http://www.tabletkiosk.com/products/sahara/i500_overview.asp
I’d heard of TabletKiosk before, but not for PCs…that Paceblade PM240 unit is the same as the Sahara i550, a new version of the unit above (Sahara i500).
PROs
i7 processor
WACOM (yayyyy)
widi
displayport (for multiple monitors)
5 finger multi-touch (for Windows 8 )
fingerprint reader security
12.1" touchscreen (better than 11.6!)
dual batteries
CONs
HEAVY (3.3lb)
Intel HD graphics engine (but he claims it works great in this configuration)
only a 12.1" screen (worse than a 13.3", 14.1" or bigger)
only WXGA (1280x800) screen resolution.
An interesting product with some new and some aging spec’s but still better suited to our specific needs than these mainstream Win 8 tablets we’re seeing (if you’re doing field research or serious sketching / CAD work while traveling, this is probably going to be a great unit). I’ve asked the TabeltKiosk folks to get one to us for a tryout, I’ll try to video how well it works.