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NEC Tablet appears, wows BETT visitors

All we need to know is the bad news; it will be the price. Of all the Tablet PCs so far spotted, even nicer than the Viewsonic, the NEC looks like it will amaze buyers. A pre-production sample arrived at the education show, BETT, in London last week.

Barely time to review it; it came, and it vanished. But one look at it made it clear that this is going to be the act to beat - if you want a machine without a keyboard.

The NEC device is unbelievably thin. It weights around a kilo and is only just over a centimetre thick; and in a quick "look at this!" session (in the office of IT Week magazine, in London) is produced an almost unanimous response of "That's the one!"

Not only is it beautiful and light, but it's equipped. Theoretically, all Tablets are the same spec, but our tests show that the touch-sensitive handwriting recogniser works a lot better on some than on others. The "lubrication" of the display is an important point - the stylus must glide smoothly, not either stick, or skate uncontrollably.

Our tests were quick and sketchy, but again, having shown it to several people, all with atrocious handwriting, it was apparent that the NEC slate was far more accurate than several others we've played with. It scored 100% recognition accuracy with several in the office whose script defies human analysis.

It comes not only with the standard WiFi wireless, but a dual-standard 802.11a and 11b card built in - and a little pop-up antenna to improve reception. To make it aircraft-friendly you can push a little switch to disable the wireless; and a light goes on and off to prove you've done this, in case you're hassled by an officious member of the cabin crew who inexplicably doesn't want to die in a mystery incident ...

It has three USB ports (couldn't judge speed) and what looks like a Firewire port, as well as a standard Ethernet socket; and our model came with a USB CD Rom drive.

The battery claims to be able to drive the processor (a mobile Pentium III at 1 GHz, with the option of running at 400 MHz to save power) for two hours or more. It seems hard to believe, but that's one test we haven't yet had a chance to prove, so we can't do more than express minor doubts, along with the claims of all notebook makers for battery life ...

Our test model is a pre-production machine - good enough to show to exhibition visitors, but still lacking final polish. But the finished article is due for release later this month, or early February.

Which leaves really nothing to ask except: "How much?" and that's easy. The standard answer from lofty department-store floor-walkers last century would be: "If Sir has to ask, Sir cannot afford it." We don't expect any change to speak of from $3,000 and so this remains a dream machine. If someone felt that we had to have it, and could budget for it, we'd certainly accept it from an employer.

But to buy it, you'd need to be independently wealthy, we suspect. The announcement from Microsoft gave nothing away about this, and NEC's own site is meticulously silent about the tablet. If it costs less than $2,000, we'd be inclined to recommend getting one. No, it doesn't have a keyboard, but a USB keyboard and mouse aren't costly.

More details when we get to play with the finished model in a few weeks ...