TabletKiosk Intros Semi-Rugged Vista UMPC

TabletKiosk's new eo TufTab v7112XT puts a Vista-enabled UMPC in a semi-rugged case, offering mobile protection from bumps, dust, and moisture.

TabletKiosk has taken the wraps off two new UMPCs, its eo TufTab v7112XT and Sahara TufTab i310XT. The new tablet-based UMPCs offer a semi-rugged casing protecting the systems from moisture, particles, vibration, temperature extremes, and the bumps and drops of mobile use—and if you need the latest and greatest, the v7112XT packs Windows Vista.

The eo TufTab v7112XT is available in either black or white, weighs just under two pounds, and sports a 7-inch sunlight-viewable touchscreen LCD display, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless networking, a PCMCIA Type II slot for add-on hardware, a 40 GB hard drive, and 1 GB of RAM. The unit is driven by a Via C7-M ULV processor running at 1.2 GHz; the system also sports a USB 2.0 port, SD/MMC memory card support, VGA output, 100Base-T Ethernet, and a biometric fingerprint reader to secure the system from unauthorized access. The system comes with a docking connector which adds three USB 2.0 ports, serial, Ethernet, and VGA output. The v7112XT gets three to four hours of use off a rechargable four-cell lithium-ion battery, and can be equipped with SUSE Linux, Windows XP Tablet Edition, or Windows Vista Business. The v7112XT should be available in April for $1699.99—more than you might pay for some other Vista-running UMPCs, but, then again, those aren’t semi-rugged, either!

TabletKiosk has also announced the Sahara TufTab i310XT, which ships with Windows XP tablet edition and offers the same semi-rugged protection from dust, moisture, humidity, bumps, and drops. The i310XT sports a 12.8-inch wide-angle touchscreen offering 1,280 by 800 pixels; under the semi-rugged cover, you’ll find an Intel Celeron M running at 1 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, and a 60 GB drive. The Sahara TufTab i310XT also sports three USB 2.0 ports,802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, SD/MMC card support, VGA output, and 100Base-T Ethernet. The v310XT is heavier than its TufTab v7112X counterpart (3.5 versus 1.97 pounds), but you get a lot of screen real estate with that extra weight. The Sahara TufTab i310XT will be available in April; no pricing information has been announced.