For those interested in the Tablet PC market but do not want to pay the tablet premium, Intel’s Classmate PC–a One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)–competitor is a fine alternative. The “tablet” actually uses a resistive touchscreen–the same type of touch display used on most Windows Mobile devices–rather than an active digitizer made by Wacom with the special tablet pen to keep costs low. In fact, the model, which is said to be quite rugged, costs $480 and comes pre-loaded with Windows XP and a number of Intel’s educational software titles that make use of the touchscreen.

Intel has made a number of improvements to the resistive touchscreen technology. Resistive touchscreen technology works by registering input when two touchscreen layers get pressed together. Intel’s intelligent design can register a palm on the screen so that when a child or user puts his or her hand on the screen, the screen doesn’t accidentally register a touch or command. According to Wired, which had some time with the device, “Intel has been making a lot of noise about their palm rejection technology, which enables students to write naturally with their hand on the display.”

Like a traditional tablet PC, the unit looks like a netbook or laptop when opened; the screen can also be additionally swiveled and rotated to convert to tablet mode. The device actually more closely resembles a netbook with a swiveling resistive tablet touchscreen. The Classmate features a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 1024 x 600 resolution 8.9-inch touchscreen display, 1 GB RAM, and webcam. The pre-configured model comes with a 60 GB hard drive although solid state drives are also available, presumably for a price premium.

In terms of the pre-bundled software and overall design, Wired says: “Overall, the new Classmate PC’s are well built and it’s clear that a lot of time went in to figuring out how kids will want to use the hardware.”

Source: Wired