Intel Clover Trail tablets are the ultrabooks of the slate world

Chipmaker Intel takes another step in the ultraportable direction with a new classification of tablet

When Intel says jump, laptop manufacturers ask how high. When Intel said build ultrabooks, we saw a tidal wave of the skinny super laptops hit the shelves. So now that Intel has devised a new set of specifications for itsClover Trailtablets, we can expect at least 20 on their way already, including theLenovo Think Pad 2,Asus Vivo Tab,Dell Latitude 10andSamsung ATIV Smart PC.

These tablets must be lighter than 680g (less thanWindows 8 Pro tabletsbut similar toARM Windows RT tablets), measure less than 8.5mm thick, and come with built-in 3G, 4G, and NFC. All this and the Clover Tail chip – based on the 1.8GHz dual-core Atom Z2760 – will offer Imagination SGX545 graphics for a full Windows 8 experience.

If you think that isn’t enough of an incentive to replace your laptop, their 10 hours heavy use battery life and three week standby time should help convince you.

Of course these Clover Trail tablets won’t offer the USB 3.0 or 1080p screens of the Windows 8 Pro machines, but they will – at US$800 (£500) – offer the best Windows 8 experience while maintaining portability. Now to see if these beat theWindows Surface tablets.

[ViaEngadget]

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Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website. 

Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge.

Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones.

He’s also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home