Windows 8: A new era for the Windows tablet PCs
Posted on 13. Sep, 2011 by Albert Madison in Tablets
Today at BUILD Windows 2011 in California Microsoft has talked about and demonstrating all of the new things they have in-store for Windows 8 customers in 2012. In all their demonstrations the most prevalent type of PC is the tablet PC, with Windows 8 Microsoft has re-imagined Windows for tablet PCs totally and completely. Windows 8 comes with a new user interface that works a lot better for touch than Windows 7 or any other versions of Windows ever have.
There are a lot of things that we can discuss, but it’s much simpler to look at Windows 8 as a whole and what it means for Windows-based tablet PCs. In that regard I can say that Windows 8 spells a whole new dawn for the Windows-based tablet PC.
Windows 8 is the first version of Windows that’s designed for normal consumers instead of just enterprise and business clients. Windows 8 is the first version of Windows that has an interface that’s been specialized for finger touch operation as well as pen input, previous version of Windows were best with a styli.
When you turn-on a Windows 8 computer you'll be presented with this start-up screen. Image: Microsoft
The changes for tablet computers starts from start-up with Windows 8, with UEFI boot optimization the process of starting up a Windows 8 tablet PC will take mere seconds (around 10 in demos). Once your Windows 8 tablet PC is started there is a new start screen that displays the time and small bit of info about updates and such, all you do is swipe up to log-in (if you have a password you’ll be prompted to in-put that– Windows 8 can do picture based passwords as well as text and digits).
The tile-ified home screen in Windows 8 is optimized for touch. Image: Microsoft
Once you’re logged into Windows 8 you see live tiles like on a Windows Phone 7 smartphone. The tiles are all live and act as widgets that can display live streaming data or they can act as icons to open specific applications. With the tiled experience Microsoft offers a touch experience that’s great for human fingers. In the home screen you can swipe left and right to view more tiles, and if you swipe up from specific edges you can get access to settings or the start menu. In all of the tiles there is still the ability to access the Windows aero desktop experience you’ve come to know well in Windows 7, although the user interface has a few minor cosmetic changes.
What about the applications? Well Microsoft is going to really rely on developers to make new Windows 8 apps. At this time only a few beta applications that Microsoft had made ready for their event today. In time there will be a large amount of applications that take advantage of the new tile interface, at least I really hope there are. All the third-part and Microsoft designed Windows 8 applications will be available in the Microsoft application store that will be accessible from the tiled home screen.
With Windows 8 the Internet Explorer web browsing experience has been re-done for tablets and other touchscreen computers. Image: Microsoft
As for the native applications like web browsing and photo browsing there have been optimizations made for Windows 8. The web browser is designed in a way that icons are larger and easier to access and switching between open webpage tabs is also easier for touch interaction. When looking at photos there is a tiled interface that makes everything unified when it comes to the user experience.
Once Microsoft released Windows 8 preview builds in the next few days there will be more details about all the really little things that have been altered in Windows 8. However for now I feel safe in saying that Windows 8 tablet PCs will be a vast improvement over the current Windows 7 tablet PCs for the average consumer looking for a tablet that’s not running a stripped down operating system. Now the quality and performance of the all the hardware that will be included various Windows 8 tablet PCs isn’t something I can comment on at this time.
However Joanna Stern of This Is My Next notes that the Samsung Series 7 Slate that Microsoft had on hand for Windows 8 tablet PC demos today still exhibited noticeable fan noise and heat can be felt from the top vent. Other than that, though, the performance from the $1000+ Series 7 Slate was very good with Windows 8. The heat and fan noise issues are problems that have and will plague Intel based tablet PCs like the Series 7 Slate for the foreseeable future.
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7 Responses to “Windows 8: A new era for the Windows tablet PCs”
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Rob
18. Sep, 2011
looks good. If they could just get rid of Bing! It would be perfect!!!
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23. Sep, 2011
Looks great….keep up the good work Microsoft
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