The Surface Pro hoopla is almost about to begin, and even though Microsoft is still pretty tight-lipped about its premier tablet, that is not stopping other manufacturers from jumping in to the party.
One such vendor is a German company, with a funky little name, Kupa.
Back at MobileCon 2012, Kupa unveiled its UltraNote slate. Though this luxurious tablet did not set the technology world on fire, the company wasn’t discouraged. It has now rebranded it as X15. Essentially, the X15 Windows 8 tablet is just UltraNote, minus a few changes.
The 10.1-inch slate is ready and available in four different configurations, powered by either an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor with 8GB of RAM. Storage capacity goes up to 128GB, and an IPS LCD display keeps things nice and vibrant at a resolution of 1920 x 1200 and 10-point multi-touch support.
Intel’s Core series processors already have some very capable graphics units integrated right into the CPU, meaning more than decent visual performance can be expected from this tablet.
The base model involves a Core i5 CPU, with 64 GB SSD storage, two cameras (a 1.3 megapixels on the front, and a 5 megapixel shooter on the back), along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
Oddly enough, the company has decided to do away with LTE broadband connectivity and NFC (near field communications) on the X15, even though the UltraNote had these two features. Sadly, Kupa also does not allow an option to customize each tablet and choose custom hardware components.
But wait till you hear about the price.
With the base model starting at $1,100, things only go up — all the way to $1,600 for the most powerful model powered by Core i7 and 128GB of storage.
More information is available on the company’s website, and consumer interest is higher than ever, but it remains to be seen if a custom tablet like this can steal some of market of the Surface Pro.
