Spec me a Windows 8 Tablet

Im really excited about Windows 8 and with the beta of Win8 and VS11 imintent, I am thinking about investing in some new tech (well why not).

I think that the options are:

• Viewsonic Viewpad 10
• Archos 9
• Acer W500 ICONIA
• Samsung 700T
• ASUS Transformer (not 100% sure Win8 will run?)
• RM Slate 100
• HP Slate 500 
• Wait 6 months

Can anyone please help me; what should I avoid and will any of the Windows 7 slates be ok for Windows 8 beta?

Thanks.

@123tax:Theoretically any Windows 7 device should be capable of running Windows 8. however given that Microsoft have been pushing for better quality touch sensitive displays and more sensor availability for Windows 8 hardware, I'd be tempted to wait and see rather than buy hardware now unless I had some particularly pressing need to do multitouch testing in an app on real hardware.

@123tax: I hope that Microsoft will present a few "Certified for Windows 8" tablet choices along with the Customer Preview version. Having a few OEMs present their tablets preloaded with Windows 8 Customer Preview (upgradable to the RTM version) tomorrow would be a nice surprise.

Since testing on actual hardware was essential on WP7, I'd say getting one ahead of Windows 8's release is recommendable for W8 devs.

I'd say that any of them would work, but the Samsung has an actual mobile processor in it, not a netbook-aimed Atom processor. That should give you some decent performance.

I can confirm the benefits of a Samsung Series 7 slate in conjunction with Windows 8 - and it can only get better tomorrow with the Win 8 Consumer release, but yes, hold off until all the announcements are made tomorrow just in case ....

I'd suggest to wait 6 months

Hi, thanks for all the replies. I have a history of Windows devices spanning CE 2.0 devices, various windows phones and a Samsung q1 - so Im well at home here.

I was looking at the Series 7 but I think circa 1000 is a lot of money when we are expecting some exciting new hardware in the next 12 months.

My plan B was to spend a few hundred on something like a Archos 9 (or a RM Slate 100 or even the Inspiron Duo N550) just to get a feel for the touch OS and get a little bit of inspiration.

Does anyone have anything good/bad to say about these devices?

@Charles: Well that's charming. 

I would suggest you might want to wait until Ivy Bridge, which has been delayed from an April launch to a June launch.

I might get an Arm tablet when Windows 8 launches, or I might wait for a Haswell version sometime next year. But I also will want to test out my apps that I plan on creating on a tablet long before Haswell devices come out.

The Dell Inspiron Duo rocks as a low cost, get your feet wet, Windows 8 tablet.  I consistently get more hits per day on my blog than for almost anything else:

http://websurfaces.co.uk/2011/09/28/installing-the-windows-8-developer-preview-on-a-dell-inspiron-duo/

I have a Samsung Series 7 Slate and love it to bits. Really powerful. (Great for notetaking with OneNote.) Just wish it had a bigger SSD - UK spec is just 64GB.

Another vote for the Samsung Series 7 Slate, been running the preview on it since Jan and love it. Bit expensive and a little too heavy, but is great for testing touch scenarios in apps as well as debugging through Visual Studio.

I'm wondering if it would be possible to install the W8 beta on an Android device like the Archos 101, and if so, how one would go about doing that. The Samsung and inspiron are all great but they're still pretty expensive for a device you'd use for about half a year until the real thing comes out. The archos on the other hand can be found for under €200. Sure, performance won't be great but at least it allows one to test apps on an actual tablet form factor, and if an app runs okay on the Archos you can be pretty sure it'll work great on actual W8 OEM hardware.

Anyone have any idea if getting a tablet like that is a possibility for W8?

@SimonJ:UK Spec?

13 hours ago, PaoloM wrote

I'd suggest to wait 6 months

This is great advice but isn't it a bit like asking children to postpone Christmas a couple of weeks till the January sales are on?   Disclaimer:  I am still a child.

@123tax:You missed a couple:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/list/parentCategoryID.44066900/categoryID.54536100

The Eee Slate B121 is a good competitior to the Samsung