I would NOT get a 16:9 tablet. I recently bought a Dell Venue 11 Pro (Core-i version, so it had a fan) and while the thickness of it didn’t really bother me, it being so large and also having 16:9 really sucked while in portraid mode. I also did not like the low PPI, compared to my Lenovo Thinkpad 8 at 1920×1200 that I’ve been using up till now. I think 16:10 is a minimum for portrait mode, and the maximum size for a tablet FOR TABLET USE is 10″. My ideal aspect ratio compromise is 3:2 (Surface/Lenovo Miix 700/HP Spectre x2) but no one makes one that’s both a.) small enough, and b.) cheap enough.
The Hi10, if it ever comes out, looks pretty sweet at 10.1″ and 16:10. I could probably live with the PPI, it wouldn’t be all that bad, although it still would obviously not be 260ish retina quality.
That leads me to the 9.7″ tablets, like the Teclast x98 and Onda 3G Air and Core M versions. My IDEAL tablet is a Core M version with the iPad Mini 7.9″, but since that’s not going to happen anytime soon, the Onda 3G Core M seems nearly as sweet. Unfortunately, as reviewed by Chris, it’s loaded with problems. Despite this, though, I’ve almost been tempted to order it and take my chances. I’ve read from several users saying theirs is ok, maybe Onda fixed some issues in production and it’s worth a 2nd look?
If Onda, or perhaps a quality company (Xiomi?), came out with a tablet using this 9.7″ 2048×1536 iPad Air chassis having a new Skylake Core-M, 8GB of RAM, at least 128GB SSD, and at least 1 USB-C, they could easily charge $500 and it would still be a great deal. The best part being the uniqueness of the display-the likes of which not even remotely being offered by a name brand.
