Windows Tablets  

Touch Screen Tablets

There are now a wide range of touch screen Windows based Tablets and 2in1s (ie a laptop with a detachable screen). Some of these have a high end specification others are low cost.

The following comments are for the latest versions of SuperView earlier versions may not offer as much support.

SuperView 25-Rplus allows most features to be used with just a touch screen (ie no keyboard) but there are features that are easier with a keyboard, earlier versions are not as suitable.

High End

These machines are quite suitable for SuperView provided a USB port for the dongle is available whilst running SuperView.

"Splitting" or undocking the screen whilst running SuperView is in general supported. Some 2in1s have a graphics chip in the base obviously that cant be used if the screen is detached !

Low Cost

Various hardware suppliers have released "very" low-cost touch tablets running Windows (10 or 8.1) with Bing. These are usually suitable for SuperView25 !

There is also a range of slightly more expensive laptops often without touch screens but with a full keyboard - these are also very suitable

In Spring 2017 Microsoft announced a Windows 10S version (S for Student or Store) - this is NOT suitable for SuperView25 but please read this more detailed information.

SuperView25 has been designed to run well on lower powered machines and this means these low cost machines are supported. The optional reflection effects in SV-25 R/SV25 Rplus are more demanding but can often still be used.

Their suitability for other software should be checked. In general the following are notes on using these machines with SuperView not their general usability, features or weaknesses.

Most Windows Tablets meet these requirements but please check

1. Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (not mobile or S)
2. Graphics processor (GPU) probably in-built with main processor
3. USB port (the dongle requires a full size connection (but see below)
4. 1G RAM or more (64bit Windows 10 requires 2G)
5. Hard disk - usually solid state

A physical keyboard and CD/DVD drive are not required but please read further

We recommend

1. 1028*800 resolution 8" or larger screen (more details)
2. Intel Atom (Bay Trail) processor or better (includes suitable GPU)

Windows

Microsoft sometimes change the hardware requirements of the latest version of Windows 10 e.g. increasing Disk Space required and/or RAM. We have no control on this so please check with Microsoft.

Windows 10 with Bing is a full version of Windows 10 - from the users point of view there are no limitations compared to the standard Windows 10, the restrictions are to do with the hardware and initial setup. The earlier Windows 8.1 with Bing was/is a full version of Windows 8.1 and also had no limitation to Windows 8.1 but there were limitations on the hardware and setup.

NB some limitations do exist when compared to Windows Pro and some OSes are 32bit not 64bit. Microsoft control Windows licenses so they may change this in the future. 

Tablets based on Android or Apple are not suitable.

Graphics Processor

High spec tablets often come with an Intel processor that includes a GPU - these are usually higher performance than those in low priced tablets and so are very suitable for SuperView.

Low priced tablets tend to come with a Intel Atom or Intel Celeron Processor which both have an inbuilt HD graphics processor using Intel's Bay-Trail technology or later.  These are low energy devices designed to run of a battery. This is suitable for running SuperView 25R and allows interactive manipulation of the 3D on screen. It should be remembered these are relatively low powered processors but the overall experience is very useable within SuperView 25 and many other desktop programs.

Bay Trail is Intel's name for their current version of the Intel Atom processor with number designations like Z3275. These are reasonably quick and include a reasonable GPU. Older version of the Intel Atom (eg Z2735) are not as good. The Intel Celeron processor with number designations like N2840 are similar but faster than the Atom Z3275

USB Port

Many tablets come with a micro USB port - so a convertor to a full size female USB port is required (we do not supply one). Convertors are available and are some times sold as suitable for Android Phones as a Micro USB to On-The-Go Cable. Whilst running SuperView 25 requires continued access to a USB port

1G RAM

This is sufficient to run SuperView25 but running multiple programs at once is not recommended although two may work fine. Some printer drivers require a large amount of memory - we cant control this and so cant guarantee behaviour.

Hard Disk

These are usually solid state and either 16G or 32G in size but the initial free space can be considerably less.

SuperView25 requires about 200M itself and each design file is of the order of 250k-1M. Saved pictures are separate and depend on resolution and compression 1M being towards the higher end. 1G would usually provide working space for over 150 designs with an average of 4 saved pictures each.

Keyboard

Tablets are often touch screen and do not include a physical keyboard or it is detachable but do have a virtual (on screen) keyboard. Using SuperView25R requires some use of this keyboard. We suggest the full virtual keyboard in the docked mode is used with the screen in portrait orientation whilst designing. In this mode most people can hold the keyboard in one hand and use the other to control the program.

A separate bluetooth keyboard could be purchased but is not required.

Screen

These devices tend to have a 7" or 8" screen which is fine for viewing the 3D etc. Since a touch screen is being used the larger the screen the better for selecting menu items etc. SuperView25 has been adjusted to help with this but this is not true of all Windows (desktop) programs. We are targeting 1028*800 which is a very common resolution for these Tablets. Please check (call or email) if your tablet has a lower resolution.

Some of these devices have a micro HDMI port for connecting a large screen which may be useful when "sharing" with a client but of course the tablet itself is still the input device. NB portrait mode is not necessarily accessible when displaying on an external screen (see keyboard)

Printers

Please note printing directly from SuperView may not be possible if the printer also connects via the USB port. Also printer drivers can have a large RAM requirements, especially those that are using WiFi. Saving a document via an XPS driver (part of Windows with Bing) and then printing is one alternative.

Installation

We provide the installation via download from our Cloud service so a CD/DVD drive is not required. The download does not have to be direct to the Tablet and once downloaded an Internet connection is not required.

Experience

We have found using a 8" touch screened 1028*800 res, Intel Atom (Bay Trail) Z3735G, 1G RAM Tablet running Windows with Bing and 32G storage provides a responsive and useable system.