NEC Shows Off 2-Pound Tablet PC

NEC may be coming late to the tablet PC party, but this week it brings something new to the table: the lightest, thinnest unit running Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

Microsoft Chair Bill Gates demonstrated a prototype of the NEC Versa LitePad in November at Comdex. NEC is planning to flesh out his preview this week, releasing details and the announcement that the Versa LitePad will ship in the United States no later than March. The tablet is already available in Japan.

Product Specs

At 2.2 pounds, the slate-style Versa LitePad will best the closest competition weight-wise by half a pound. The Hewlett-Packard Compaq TC1000 weighs 2.7 pounds.

By placing the battery in a slab below--instead of behind--the 10.4-inch digitizer LCD display, NEC managed to keep the tablet a scant 0.6-inch thick.

The Versa LitePad has other high-end features to justify its $2399 price tag. It boasts the most powerful ultra-low power Pentium III CPU yet for a tablet PC, a 933MHz Intel chip. It has three USB 2.0 ports--also innovative for a tablet--as well as ports for ethernet, video-out, and an external microphone. It also has a CompactFlash slot, but no PC Card slot, something all the competitors have. The NEC also has a built-in combination 802.11b/802.11a adapter.

The device will ship with 256MB of RAM, a 20GB hard drive, and an external CD-ROM drive. Also included: A tripod-style slate-blue stand that can prop up the tablet in either landscape or portrait mode, and a small USB keyboard and optical mouse.

Joe Harris, director of product marketing for NEC, says the company plans to focus its sales efforts on specific industries such as health care, professional services, and field-force automation.