Razer's Project Fiona Gaming Tablet Confirmed for Production
by Vivek Gowri on October 4, 2012 3:25 PM EST
Razer garnered a lot of press at CES this year with their Fiona gaming tablet, a 10.1" Windows-based tablet packing a Core i7 processor and two joystick handles featuring dual analog sticks and a typical controller-style button layout. The device carried a pretty impressive speclist and walked out of Las Vegas with awards like "Best of CES" People's Voice and Cnet's Best-in-Show. At the time, Razer claimed that Project Fiona was slated for launch in the second half of 2012, but has remained mostly quiet in the months following.
A day after CEO Min-Liang Tan posted a picture of Project Fiona to his Facebook page asking for 10,000 likes in 7 days, the post crossed the mark. While it looks like the 2012 launch is unlikely, Min has confirmed via Twitter that production plans for the tablet are a go, with community feedback apparently set to play a significant role in the design process going forward. According to Min's Facebook page, there are are multiple design concepts that have been developed, so there is no final design specification as of yet. Hardware details have not yet been set in stone, with ARM and various Intel processors being mentioned as possibilities. Windows 8 is a given, though if ARM ends up being the hardware platform of choice, that would likely shift to Windows RT. The initial concept shown off at CES featured Windows 7, a ULV Core i7 processor, an unspecified dedicated graphics unit, and a 10.1" 1280x800 capacitive multitouch display.
Source: Twitter @minliangtan
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TareX - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
As a Vita owner, that doesn't make me happy. It's likely to be way more powerful, and already have the full library of PC games at its disposal. Only, what OS is it running? What are these "impressive specs"? All important questions...stm1185 - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
Obviously Windows 8 for OS. I'd bet it get's a ULV Haswell i7; without a dedicated GPU and a bump to 1920x1080 on the resolution.VivekGowri - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
Haswell would certainly be an intelligent way to go, especially if you stuck to on-die graphics. I'm not sure how that would play with a 1080p display though, I think if you wanted to keep most games playable at native res you'd stick to some form of WXGA. I'd love to see a 1280x800 display like the concept, preferably with an IPS panel, but I guess we'll see.Death666Angel - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
With small enough pixels (1080p/1200p @ 10" is quite small in my book), sticking with the native resolution is not as necessary as when we are dealing with 1080p/1200p @ anything from 24" to 50".Aren't quite a few iPad3 apps rendered in a lower resolution? I didn't see anyone really complaining about that.
@News: Definitely a fun product, though I expect very niche. And I wouldn't buy the first revision of this. :D
Friendly0Fire - Saturday, October 6, 2012 - link
The iPad uses an integer multiple of the former model, so pixel scaling is not an issue.Non-integer scaling introduces all sorts of aliasing issues, even with 1080p.
B3an - Sunday, October 7, 2012 - link
It would barely be noticeable on a 1080p 10" display. The PPI would be very high compared to 1080p monitors. Any gaming tablet should have 1080p or higher because even if you don't use the native res things are still going to look good.And i like the idea of this product. I've been saying for a long time that Win 8 will bring all kinds of imaginative products to market, people don't seem to understand how much of a game changer it can be. I mean just Win 8 gaming tablets alone can make mobile handhelds like the PS Vita obsolete as you have the biggest library of games on any system instantly available.
KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - link
Nonsense, scaling is still noticeable at that pixel density.Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
The problem with 1280x800 on this is the same as on the ElitePad 900...no Metro app snapping. Maybe 1440x900 though?VivekGowri - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
Oh yeah, 1366 minimum for Metro snapping right?Hrel - Thursday, January 3, 2013 - link
1368