Asus is showing off a ton of great devices at CES this week, and the VivoTab ME400C is a stand out example of what the company excels at.
The 10.1-inch Windows 8 - not Windows RT - tablet will compete directly with Microsoft's own Surface Pro, but Asus's new device has at least one advantage: a superior keyboard.
The VivoTab Smart ME400C's detachable Bluetooth keyboard feels slightly cramped, but compared to the Surface's Touch Cover and Type Cover, it's much easier to type on.
Besides that, Asus's ME400C is a sleek and extremely portable device with some excellent features.
With Windows 8 you get the tile UI and the full desktop
The specs
The VivoTab Smart ME400C comes packing a 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Atom processor, 2GB of memory, 64GB of storage (or 32GB outside the U.S.), NFC, and a 720p widescreen, wide viewing angle IPS display and SonicMaster audio tech for media viewing.
A reported 9.5 hours of battery life should help with that as well.
The 8 megapixel rear camera has an LED flash and 1080p video capture, while a 2 megapixel camera rests on the front.
The ME400C is light, thin and sleek, weighting in at just 580g and measuring 9.7mm thick, with a pleasant matte finish on the back. A microSD card reader, microSD and microHDMI ports provide some flexibility, though a regular USB spot would have been nice as well.
For the given power and specs, the UI was responsive and games like Pinball FX 2 looked and ran great.
The cover features a unique folding design
The cover and keyboard
The keyboard connects instantly via Bluetooth and features a touchpad mouse with left and right clicks. The keys travel a satisfying distance and the touchpad is responsive, making it a breeze to type for minutes at a time.
The cover flap is the same one that's used on other Asus tablets, with a unique folding design that allows it to easily double as a sturdy stand.
The tablet attaches to the cover magnetically, and the keyboard can attach to the cover's inside flap for easy travel.
The one drawback is that the cover can't be folded back when the keyboard is attached to it; to use the Smart ME400C effectively, you've got to remove the keyboard from the cover flap, then fold the cover back so the tablet stands up; then connect the keyboard via Bluetooth.
The cover/stand comes in four colors
Choices
The tablet itself comes in black or silver finishes, while the cover has black, grey, pink, and blue options.
Ultimately, any drawbacks here are few and far between, and the Asus VivoTab Smart ME400C is sleek and portable enough to be highly recommended for those who want a decent Windows 8 experience without the need to carry around a laptop.
That said, the price is looking rather steep, coming in at $499 (UK£308, AU$470) for the 64GB version when it launches in the U.S. by the end of Q1 this year. The cover and keyboard will be separate purchases, as well.
The Archos 70 Titanium is due to hit stores around the world before March sporting an incredibly low price tag of just £99/£119 (around AU$150).
Packing a 7-inch 1024 x 600 IPS display, 1.6GHz dual-core processor, 8GB of internal storage, front facing VGA camera and running Android Jelly Bean the 70 Titanium is certainly a great sounding tablet for the money you'll part with.
Archos only had a non-working version of the 70 Titanium at CES 2013 in Las Vegas so we're unable to comment on how well the budget slate performs.
What we can say though is that its Alumium chassis feels reasonably sturdy, but the plastic power/lock, volume and home keys do highlight the cut price status of the Archos 70 Titanium.
The 70 Titanium does have a host of connectivity options including a microUSB and HDMI out sockets plus a microSD card slot and we're looking forward to getting a working version in.
There's no doubt that Apple will be forced into making a lower cost iPhone – but that doesn't mean it will be rubbish.
I've been arguing back and forth with a number of noted voices in the technology community about whether Apple is really going to bring out a cheap iPhone – and it's fair to say opinion is divided.
For those that haven't seen, this eternal brouhaha has been brought to the surface once more by the Wall Street Journal's claim that people 'briefed in the matter' told it that plans to bring out a lower-cost handset are progressing.
This would allow Apple to compete with the budget handsets that are powering through developing nations, into the hands of those seeking to jump on the smartphone bandwagon now they can afford to do so.
However Phil Schiller chatted to the Chinese paper Shanghai Evening News, and surprisingly spoke candidly on the subject of budget smartphones. He said that cheap smartphones would never be Apple's product development direction. "Although Apple's market share of smartphones is just about 20 per cent, we own 75 per cent of the profit," he added.
Cheap = bad?
Some people have speculated that a cheap iPhone would use lower-cost materials, something that Schiller took exception to. He noted that with things like the Retina display or aluminium chassis show that Apple will always look to the higher-end of the materials to bring the Apple 'ethos' to its products.
The issue Apple is going to have to face is that the smartphone market is set to change rapidly in the next few years, evolving into an almost unrecognisable user base.
Nathan Eagle, founder of Jana, which uses text messaging and mobile web surveys in remote parts of the planet to gain market data, told TechRadar he believes that Android's dominance is almost unstoppable, pointing to the low-cost handsets available using the OS and the 5 billion feature phones in the market that are likely to be upgraded to smartphones over the next half-decade.
There's no doubt that the emerging market is going to be a crucial battleground for manufacturers. IDC predicts that while the market share for Android will stagnate over the next few years, this isn't a bad thing given the user base will be an order of magnitude higher by 2016.
Apple, on the other hand, will see its hold on the market shifted somewhat as the likes of Windows Phone make inroads to the developing nations; already Nokia has seen modest success with its low-cost Lumia range in China, and the trend is continuing around the world.
"We believe that the high-end smartphone market (above $400 USD off contract) for [calendar year 2013] will be about 320 million units, of which we believe Apple will capture 50% market share," Gene Munster, analyst at Piper Jaffray, said.
"We believe this means Apple is missing the other 65% of the market, or 580 million units, given its current product lineup without the lower priced phone."
Add in elements like Firefox OS and the efforts of brands like ZTE and Huawei, all of which are capable of providing higher-end specs and experiences at low prices, and you can see why Apple could be forced to react.
China bright
China is a smartphone market that many are talking about as a key battleground in the near future, and that makes sense given its economy is growing at a rapid rate.
Samsung is currently leading the way in this region, although Lenovo - a relatively unheard of brand in the handset space outside of its native China - is intent on taking that slot away. Apple has around 80% less market share than Samsung, albeit with only three of its six-strong iPhone range actually launching in the country and it still hasn't offered a model that can run on 3G networks, which would clearly hold back sales.
The reason for smartphone dominance in such parts of the world for the likes of Samsung and Lenovo rests partly on their ability to bring sub-$250 devices to the market - there are many featurephone upgraders in rural parts of the country and the lower prices combined with ever improving hardware now make a smartphone a sensible choice given 3G networks are finally becoming more widespread.
So it would seem to the outsider that Apple would be mad to ignore such an opportunity, right? After all, it's got more cash than Scrooge McDuck many times over, so bringing a phone that costs $100, has the Apple logo on it and runs a watered down version of iOS is an easy win in the eyes of many.
And to those people Schiller's comments might reek of arrogance, of a firm that loves money and hates consumers and won't bring anything to market that it doesn't think will add to its massive money pile.
But look again at what he's really said and you'll realise there's a lot of wiggle room left with his words: a phone that uses 'the best materials we can' as well as cheap smartphones never being the future of Apple.
Of course they won't be the future. As long as Apple keeps making attractive smartphones to Western consumers (although there are some that think the mixed reception the iPhone 5 garnered is evidence that may not happen) it will maintain a healthy presence at the sharp end of the smartphone market and keep those high profit margin devices flying off the shelves for years to come.
But below the top end, there is absolutely room for an iPhone mini. One that uses older screen technology and lower cost materials but has a new design.
Which is precisely what happened with the iPad mini. In fact, it's hard to think of a top-end product range where Apple HASN'T made a mini version: the iPod, Mac and iPad all became miniaturised when Apple succumbed to pressure for a cut down version and decided such a model could flourish.
It didn't just make a low-capacity and rubbish quality version of any of these products though. It went back to the drawing board, looked at what was available at the price point it needed to hit, and found the perfect blend between profit and presence.
So if it does ditch aluminium for polycarbonate, an 8MP camera for a 5MP variant and brings the screen size back down to 3.5-inch, you can bet it will do so in a new shape and with a fanfare large enough to extol the intelligence of all these decisions.
As Matt Bolton, Deputy Editor of Future's Apple Group in the UK, pointed out, Apple can always find a new way through when it looks like there's only one option: "I wonder if this is a netbook-like situation; by the time it looks like Apple has missed the boat, a new way of solving the problem comes along."
In that case it was the iPad, so Apple could just wait until some emerging markets become a little more mature and then bust out a strong mid-range device that costs perhaps $280 - keeping the aspiration levels high but maintaining its presence.
In short, Apple cannot continue with its strategy as it stands in the same way it couldn't let Google and Amazon hoover up the tablet market with the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. But that doesn't mean we're going to suddenly see an iPhone 3G with nothing more than a new name either.
The new Sony Xperia Z has turned a few heads with a top-end spec list…so how can you go about getting it?
The handset caused something of a stir at CES 2013, mostly because it saw Sony finally releasing a phone that wasn't a couple of generations behind the competition.
This means a massive 5-inch full HD display, which pushes closer to the edge of the screen so you're not left with a comically huge phone dwarfing your hand.
It's also water- and dust-resistant, comes with top-end Bravia tech and offers an impressive camera too – so which networks will be stocking it?
Update: Clove has been in touch and informed us the SIM free price of the phone will be £528 - putting it squarely alongside the low-capacity iPhone 5 and other top-end handsets.
On top of that, we've done some digging and found a couple of Sony Xperia Z release dates for you to chew over. We've spoken to sources who refuse to be named but firmly believe the first wave of stock will be available on 28 February, getting the jump on 1 March dates being bandied about:
O2
The effervescent provider tweeted at stupid o'clock in the morning to confirm it would be bringing the handset to market, and it offers the earliest release date too: its 'coming soon' page says it will launch in February.
Oh, it is coming in 'Exclusive Purple'. That may mean it's only landing on O2 in that colour, or it's the actual name of the hue - you know, like Ranging Green or Megalithic Blue.
Three
The numerical network also confirmed it would be stocking the Sony Xperia Z but apart from it 'coming soon', there's not a lot more information floating around.
Vodafone
Let's get these out of the way along with Three: there's very little on offer here info-wise apart from confirming that the handset will be appearing on ol' Big Red in the future – although it has done a blog post outlining some of the specs you'll have read about loads already.
EE / Orange / T-Mobile
Nothing from this tri-headed behemoth as yet, but we've asked the question and have been promised to be furnished with details as soon as they become available.
Phones 4U
The independent retailer is already open for pre-registration on this top-end phone, but doesn't offer up a price as yet. However, it is betting its boat on a March 1 Sony Xperia Z release date, so you can circle that date in your diaries if you've got nothing else on.
Carphone Warehouse
We're going to get a little quote-y on yo' asses now: "Carphone Warehouse, has confirmed that it will be stocking the brand new Sony Xperia Z from launch in February." Saves us from writing that.
The retailer also confirmed that the Z will be available in later February to purchase, so could beat Phones 4U to the punch of actually getting it into the hands of consumers.
We're going to be updating this piece with prices and any more definitive release dates as and when we get them – stay with us during this difficult time.
Undoubtedly tired of the struggle against the iPad, Google announced its own branded 7-inch tablet: the Google Nexus 7 by Asus, complete with stellar specs and a rock-bottom price.
We've now been given a new and upgraded 32GB option to join the 16GB offering, with the price not raised above £199, which is hugely impressive for a quad core, Tegra 3-endowed tablet.
Like other Nexus-branded devices, the Google Nexus 7 tablet isn't actually hardware manufactured by Google (as you may have noticed, thanks to the suffix).
As the Mountain View company has done with Samsung, HTC and Motorola in the past, Google paired with Asus to design and manufacture this slender tablet.
15 best Android tablets in the world
It's a smart move: among Android tablets, Asus makes some of the best around, but matching the rock-bottom £129 price of Amazon's Kindle Fire while exceeding its meagre specs would be a challenge for any manufacturer.
And make no mistake: the Nexus 7 by Asus is more of an effort to stomp out Amazon's unwelcome (and forked) version of Android, although now it's having to fight the battle against the iPad mini as well.
That thrown-down gauntlet has been picked up by the Amazonians already though, thanks to the emergence of the Kindle Fire HD, which offered more storage and similar specs for the same price.
In turn Google has now dropped the price of the 16GB Nexus 7 to £159, ditched the 8GB model altogether and released a new model with a Kindle Fire HD-matching 32GB of storage, for £199.
The good news is that very little has been sacrificed along the way, unlike with Amazon's initial offering.
According to Android boss Andy Rubin, Google's profit margin bears the brunt of any sacrifices made, selling the hardware at cost to get customers to pay for content from the Play Store.
And that's ensured the tablet is selling in droves on our fair shores - millions of the things have shifted, with more to come in the pre-Christmas rush. You can even get an official dock from Asus, which debuted at CES 2013, although it's got a rather limited microUSB port and audio line out as it's main points of sale.
But enough about why and how Google and Asus have released the Nexus 7: is it even worth £159 of your hard-earned cash?
Apple will refresh its iPad line in March, with a new iPad 5 and iPad mini 2, according to one analyst.
Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets is convinced that Apple is now working on a bi-annual update schedule, meaning a launch in the next couple of months.
In a note to investors, White said his checks with industry insiders at the CES expo in Las Vegas have tallied with suspicions that new 9.7-inch and 7.9-inch tablets are already on the way.
However, any March update wouldn't be without controversy as the first iPad mini and the latest full-size iPad 4 only arrived in October 2012.
What's new?
According to White's sources, the new full-size iPad will be thinner and lighter than its predecessor and also boast an improved A6X processor.
The iPad mini 2, on the other hand, will keep its form-factor and improved innards.
White made no mention of the heavily-rumoured Retina Display for a second-gen iPad Mini, but we can't imagine Apple updating this product without improving the disappointing screen resolution.
iOS 6 release date is here and it's a big upgrade. The interface has been given a minor makeover with improved accessibility features.
Google's apps have been given the boot, so there's no YouTube and no Google Maps; Apple's written its own navigation and mapping app with considerable help from TomTom; Siri's been improved and finally works properly in the UK; the phone app's been tweaked, Safari and Mail updated and FaceTime brought to 3G.
It's much more social than before, with shared Photo Streams and Facebook baked into the OS like the word Blackpool in a stick of rock, and there are a host of other improvements to make your iOS device that little bit friendlier.
At least, that's the case on newer Apple kit. iOS 6 works on all iPhones from the 3GS onwards, the iPad 2 and new iPad, and the fourth and fifth generation iPod touches.
However, the older the kit the less of iOS 6 you actually get. Some of the big features - Siri, turn-by-turn navigation, panoramic photos and FaceTime over 3G - aren't available for the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4.
The 3GS doesn't even get the offline reading list feature, and Siri's not available for the iPad 2.
Is it worth the upgrade? We've installed iOS across multiple iOS devices: an iPhone 4, an iPhone 4S, an iPad 2 and a new iPad (that latter one courtesy of Vodafone) to find out.
As we discovered, even when you don't get all the new features, there are still enough improvements to make the jump worthwhile.
iOS 6: Phone and FaceTime
iOS's Phone app has some welcome improvements. When a call comes in you can now swipe up to access more options than just Answer and Decline: you can reply with a pre-defined or custom iMessage or SMS, or set a reminder to call the person back.
Such reminders can be time-based or location-based, so for example you can set a reminder that kicks in when you get home.
The Phone app also gets a new Do Not Disturb feature, which you can schedule for specific times (although we'd have liked a quick access icon in the lock screen or notification area. Come to think of it, location-based activation would have been useful too).
This enables you to silence all calls and alerts, or to ring only when specific people call, and you can also specify whether repeated attempts to call you should override the Do Not Disturb settings.
Those without iPhones (Or with them, but not on iOS 6) had some hearty lolz as the clock struck midnight at the dawn of 2013 though, as the Do Not Disturb feature refused to disengage, although thankfully most people didn't have to get up for work anyway so could simply swear at the celebratory message beepings before rolling back over.
The thing was it lasted seven days. Apple's response? "Do Not Disturb scheduling feature will resume normal functionality after January 7, 2013. Before this date, you should manually turn the Do Not Disturb feature on or off."
While it looks like the issue is put to bed, a number of users are now understandably wary of the feature going forward.
FaceTime's been given a boost too: you can finally use it over 3G, provided you have the right hardware (iPhone 4S yes, iPhone 4 no) and the right calling plan: Vodafone says some of its cheaper calling plans won't include FaceTime over 3G, although Orange, T-Mobile and Everything Everywhere don't differentiate between FaceTime and Facebook. Three hasn't published its policy yet.
