New ASUS VivoTab leak hints at a cheap Windows 8.1 tablet

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Is another ASUS tab in the works?

Dell's Venue 8 Pro may have some competition. Some imagery and specs have been leaked to the internet for ASUS' VivoTab Note 8, an entry-level slate tablet with pen input.

ASUS already sells a popular 10 inch Windows tablet called the Transformer Book T100. Evidence of an 8-inch model sent people digging, where they found that an entirely new model was in the works

If all is true, it will be ASUS's first 8-inch Windows tablet, and the digitiser pen will make it especially appealing to artists and people who prefer to write on their slates.

Details

The VivoTab looks to closely match Dell's hardware. It includes an 8-inch 1280 x 800 IPS display, a 1,33GHz Atom chip and 2GB of RAM. The slate will also feature an Intel Atom Z3740 Bay Trail processor. Storage wise, the tablet can come in 32 or 64GGB variants, both being expandable.

ASUS may also reuse a few parts from the MeMO Pad HD 7, such as the 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.2 megapixel front camera and a 3,950mAh battery. It would seem that it will work with TransKeyboard, which rounds out the input gap between using a finger or a stylus. Other rumours make mention of the VivoTab coming with Microsoft Office 2013 Home & Student.

The launch details should be taken with a pinch of salt, however. The image leak says that the VivoTab Note 8 will arrive during the holidays for $299 (£182, AU$337), but time is running out and a release looks likely not to happen until the new year.