Apple held off from revealing a new iPad yesterday, revealing two larger iPhones instead. Android, however, continues to push ahead with innovative new slates – the latest being from Dell.
The firm’s new Venue 8 7000 is the world’s thinnest tablet, with a depth of just six millimetres. For the sake of comparisons, that’s thinner than the iPad Mini (7.5 mm) and the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet (6.4mm).
The Dell Venue 8 7000 is a compact slate with an 8.4 inch OLED screen. It makes room for that screen by extensively cutting down on the top and side bezels, bringing it closer in design to the recently revealed Sharp Aquos Crystal phone. Although, like Sharp’s handset, it contains a rather large bottom bezel – which on the Venue 8 contains a speaker. This, combined with its minimal black design, also recalls recent tablets from Nvidia.
In terms of specs, the Dell Venue 8 7000 is a premium Android slate. The display has a solid 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, which will look even better on the device’s edge-to- edge screen.
Inside the tablet is an intel Moorefield Atom Z3500 quad-core processor and an Intel RealSense camera. The latter is another unique selling point for the tablet, as it is the first slate to carry the 3D depth sensing lens. The RealSense tech creates a depth map, which can actively measure the distance between objects in an image. A rather large camera lens, which houses all the sensors required for the tech, can be found next to the device’s speaker on the front. A less conspicuous snapper also sits on the back of the slate.
We’ll have to wait and see if Intel’s new imaging software can offer anything different to the Amazon Fire’s 3D imaging cameras and the 3D mapping tech found on Google Project Tango.
Dell has yet to reveal a precise release date for the Venue 8 7000, but it says it will hit shelves in tine for the Christmas shopping season. The firm has also kept mum on a price, but judging by its premium specs it will no doubt aim to compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S (£319) and Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet(£399).
