If you’re looking for an Apple iPad rival, it’s not hard to find one nowadays, with all those cool tablets coming this year. For now, we turn to concepts, like the Smartbook device pictured below and designed by In-oh Yoo & Sun-woong Oh for Metatrend Institute. What does this device have as a plus? A smartphone that it can use as a QWERTY keyboard!
Yes, you’ve got it! The Smartbook tablet concept is made out of two devices: the tablet per se, looking very much like an iPad and a smartphone that can turn into a QWERTY keyboard and get connected to the tablet. On board of the main units you’ll find a gravity sensor, so it’ll work in both landscape and portrait mode. You might also want to know that the tablet is compatible with a stylus, used with its 7 inch screen.
You can sync the smartphone/keyboard with the main device and charge them by uniting connecting the units through magnet. Once the QWERTY keyboard is folded, it turns into a cellphone, with a touch display and microphone. Both devices support Chrome OS or Android OS and use a touch interface.
Nitin Rabadia recently e-mailed us his design, the Total Multimedia Device, that you can see pictured below. You have to know that he created this device by messing around in Paint, but he may return with a few Photoshop renders later. In the meantime, let’s see what this phone-tablet combo is all about (click on the images for a larger version).
This handset is made out of two devices, connected via electromagnets, that are switched in during contact. One of the devices is an MP4 player, with a 2.6 inch AMOLED touchscreen display, a 5 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and video camera, plus 32GB of internal memory and a MMC slot.
The same gadget includes a dynamic keypad, an MP3 player and support for video editing, WiMAX connectivity and video playback of most formats. The multimedia phone tablet section also features a 2.6 inch AMOLED touchscreen, a 14.1 megapixel camera with HD video capture and 5x optical zoom, a dynamic keypad, a mini projector and 64GB of internal memory.
When you combine the two sections, you’ll get a TMD (Total Multimedia Device), with a full cinema aspect ratio 5.8 inch screen (end on) or a 4.2 inch screen (side on), ideal for browsing, email, video, gaming and more.
We think that Nitin Rabadia’s idea is excellent and we’re curious to see how this design will evolve.
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative is expanding and after the first model was made available on the market, as the XO-1 with a $100 price tag, we skip right to the XO-3, a mere concept for now. What happened to the XO-2? The project was canned, it seems.
The OLPC XO-3 is similar to the original model, but it’s more of a tablet than a regular laptop. What’s really impressive is that designer Yves Behar hopes that this OLPC concept will be available for as low as $75, an incredible price tag for any PC.
XO-3 features an 8.5 x 11 touchscreen, a folding ring in the corner for better grip, a camera at the back and it supports induction charging. This is quite a slim device, its waistline being half the one of an iPhone. Also, we learn that this is a multitouch tablet, that will become real in 2012.
We ran out of concept phones these days, but we’ve stumbled upon a pretty interesting portable device design you can check out below, the Litl webbook. Although we’re not sure if this is a concept or a real product, we tend to think that this is a mere prototype of a “webbook”. Said device is a combo between a netbook and a photo frame.
This slim portable gizmo allows users to surf the web, view photos, play videos and use other features that are pretty normal on a mini laptop. Its operating system is a custom one, easy to operate at any age (kids and elderly included).
Cloud computing services will also work with this webbook and you should know that Litl can be connected to a TV and its screen can be flipped over.
What say you about a gadget that can control everything you use around the house? Some sort of universal remote control, dubbed Cuppa and also used as a social laptop-like device, to keep you connected to your close and loved ones. Created by Ben Arrent, the concept can be seen in the images below.
This slim portable device comes with a wireless keyboard and monitor, support for Wi-Fi connectivity and it can stay connected to a local Cuppa Server. The latter will be used as a cache server for the info you need and you should know that the concept device also comes with a RFID reader, covering both a long and short range.
Cuppa can be considered some sort of bridge between the desktop devices and the cellphone, but one that fits your home perfectly. This portable gadget is energy efficient and comes with an OLED screen, plus tons of IM and social networking features.
Smart Design and Intel have designed a very cool multifunctional device, dubbed the Intel Magic. This portable concept device serves as a phone, an MP3 player and it also packs a web browser, plus many multimedia features. There’s also an LCD display on board and a keyboard, as you can see below.
The keyboard’s buttons are activated via a customisable fabric material, that will seemingly make browsing easier. This is sort of a mini laptop, that can also be used as a phone, once it’s closed up, or even a king size MP3 player. Wondering what solutions Intel stuffed inside: Atom? Moorestown?
We’d surely like Nvidia Tegra to sneak in there, or at least the Ion platform, perhaps with some support for Windows (Mobile) 7? Don’t mind us, we’re just daydreaming again…
Slider is an ultra mobile computer concept that’s got all the specs you need to take your work on the road, at all times. Created by designer Sean Bovee, this device comes with a 9 inch touchscreen display, a full QWERTY keyboard that’s unveiled by flipping the screen and much more.
Slider supports mobile video streaming, that’s lag-free and it also comes with VoIP video chat, 1GB of RAM memory and a 1.5GHz processor. I’m really curious to see how resilient the hinge of this device will be, in case it becomes real. Another issue is the battery life, since the device can only operate for 4 to 7 hours.
The above-mentioned screen is an OLED one and you should know that the mobile computer’s specs list also includes, Bluetooth, WiFi, 4 USB ports and an 80GB SSD.
Since concept phone designers seem to be on holiday, we’ve decided to show you a bunch of mini-notebook prototypes, created by Freescale. The Smartbook concept includes 6 prototypes, modular devices based on ARM CPUs and sporting uber long battery lives.
The compact smartbooks below look great and it turns out that they’re durable and come with great functionality. I’m really impressed by the concept below, that probably packs a touchscreen, a pretty interesting keyboard and an innovative interface. Is it practical enough to make the cut?
These devices are all about productivity, so they deserve to be dubbed “workbooks”.
After so many tiny concept phones, one must up the stakes a notch and take a plunge into the UMPC world. Leave all Apple and Intel concepts behind and take a look at Mr. Felix Schmidberger’s design below, a beautiful UMPC designed for businessmen in their 30s with families and a passion for home cinema systems.
The device bears the name of “Compenion” and is accompanied by context-oriented docking stations. For example, you’ll use the UMPC with a home entertainment station for your living room, as it comes with an embedded laser projector and the device’s stylus can be used as a remote. This pen is not a regular one, but rather a “senstylus” with 2 action buttons up front and a thumb sensor field at the back.
You can even use this accessory as a remote by turning it around or write with the “senstylus” like with the average pen directly on the OLED touchscreen. The display above is a sliding one, which hides another OLED touchscreen beneath, showing the virtual QWERTY keyboard. Will we see this perfect UMPC hitting the market before 2015?
Umang Dokey designed the beautiful concept UMPC you can see in the video below as a college project and boy is this gadget sweet! The tilt function of the portable device was inspired by the HTC Shift and this baby can turn into a console, thanks to a dual sliding mechanism.
Its multimedia functions also make it a portable media player, but more details in the following video:
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