We haven't seen too many Windows RT tablets on the market--the Surface and the ASUS VivoTab RT are the two most notable--but Dell entered the fray with the XPS 10, a $499 tablet that uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor.
In our hands-on time with the XPS 10 at CES 2013, we were struck by the tablet's soft-touch coating and chrome trim that gave it a look not unlike the somewhat larger XPS 12. Even the bottom of the optional keyboard dock, though it wasn't made of carbon fiber, had the same two ridges running along its length. While the key travel was shallow, that's to be expected on such a slim device, and certainly felt more than adequate on a system this size.
Unlike the Surface RT and the VivoTab RT, both of which use Nvidia Tegra 3 processors, the XPS 10 has a 1.5-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU. Samsung's Ativ tablet, another Windows RT device, also uses the Qualcomm processor, but that company announced it would not sell an RT device in the U.S.
At 1.4 pounds, the XPS 10 is slightly lighter than the Surface (1.5 pounds), but heavier than the VivoTab's 1.1-pound weight. Dell estimates the 28-wH battery in the XPS 10 should last about 10 hours; that jumps to 16 hours when attached to the keyboard dock. Of course, the combined weight jumps to 2.9 pounds, too.
Like the Surface RT, the XPS 10 will start at $499 with 32GB of eMMC storage; when bundled with the keyboard dock, it will cost $679. A 64GB version of the XPS 10 costs $599 alone, and $779 with the dock.
