Gigabyte reveals pair of Windows 8 tablets at CES

Gigabyte is boarding the the Windows 8 tablet train, unveiling two tablets at CES for both work and play.

The star is Gigabyte's S1185 tablet, an 11.6-inch tablet with an HD IPS display supporting 1080p powered by a third generation Intel Ivy Bridge processor and supporting up to a 256GB solid state drive.

The S1185 has a kickstand and can connect to an optional keyboard dock to take advantage of Windows 8 Pro's desktop mode, but the tablet also features an "optical finger navigation" sensor. The sensor is a small circle on the right side of the tablet, when held in landscape orientation, which allows for mouse control similar to a miniature trackpad.

Shutterbugs can use either the 5-megapixel rear camera or the 1.3 front-facing camera, and it comes packed with a wide range of ports including VGA, HDMI, both USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, and an SD card slot along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 3.5G WWAN antenna.

A new challenger arrives

The firm also announced the S1082 Slate, a 10.1-inch tablet more geared toward business users.

To make the S1082 Slate a business tablet Gigabyte has given it a 500GB hard drive, with an option for a smaller solid state drive also be available. Faster storage will certainly benefit the S1082 Slate, which will run Windows 8 Pro on a 1.1GHz Intel dual-core processor.

It will sport the same optical finger navigation sensor as the S1185, with the addition of both right and left mouse buttons. For connectivity, it features a similar variety of ports with VGA, HDMI, ethernet, USB 2.0, and an SD card slot along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 3.5G WWAN antenna.

The pricing for either tablet has yet to be nailed down, but Gigabyte expects to launch the S1082 Slate in February, while the S1185 should begin shipping by late March.