Billed as a full Windows 8 Pro tablet and Microsoft Surface Pro competitor, is the Dell Latitude 10-ST2 the device for you?
Introduction
Tablet computing is IT right now. Apple has their iPad and iPad mini. Samsung has the Android powered Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Note; and Microsoft has Surface RT and Surface Pro. Dell also has a Windows 8 Pro tablet – The Dell Latitude 10-ST2. How does it measure up to the expected tablet experience? Is it a good alternative to either the 64GB or 128GB Microsoft Surface Pro tablet? Let’s take a look and find out?
Device and Hardware
The Dell Latitude 10-ST2 tablet is all black and covered on 5 sides with a slightly rubberized backing. The front is Gorilla Glass. It has a 10.2 inch diagonal screen pushing a 1366×768 resolution that defaults to landscape orientation. Its basic hardware specs can be found in the table below. After all is said and done, the device had a Windows Experience Index value of 3.3, attributed to its gaming and 3D business graphics.
| Category | Component |
| Processor | 1.8GHz Intel Atom z2760 |
| Memory | 2GB, 800MHz DDR2 |
| Hard drive | 64GB SSD |
| Graphics | Intel GMA |
| Dimensions (WD) | 10.8×6.9 inches |
| Height | 0.4 inch |
| Screen size (diagonal) | 10.2 inches |
| System weight / Weight with AC adapter | 1.6 pounds / 2.1 pounds |
| Video | Micro-HDMI |
| Audio | Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone combo jack |
| Data | 1 USB 2.0, SD card reader, 1 Micro-USB charging port |
| Networking | 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth |
While the Atom processor has a high enough speed at 1.8GHz, it doesn’t have a lot of horse power. In fact, it’s pretty anemic. The system is optimized for a few specific apps – Microsoft Office being one of them – but don’t expect it to power through anything else though. The weak processor performance even seems to affect network traffic, disk I/O and display performance as well, though obviously system interaction between dedicated subcomponents will also factor in.
It was especially noticeable when trying to download content from Microsoft TechNet. I was a bit disappointed with it all.
