If there is one thing that will always happen in the computing industry, it’s that if a product is popular, it won’t take long for competitors to appear. While Tim Cook might continue to deride Microsoft’s attempts to compete with the iPad and Macbooks of the world with its Surface Book and Surface Pro lines, Fujitsu is all-in with the 2-in-1s, launching a competitor of its own.
It’s called the R726, and it’s a 12 inch, convertible tablet with keyboard cover. It’s built within a magnesium-aluminium alloy chassis, and has a kick stand to make it operate more like a laptop, picture frame or TV as and when you want it to. It measures just 0.4 inches thick at its widest point and weights less than 1.75 lbs, making it one of the more portable 2-in-1s out there.
Internally it’s not too shabby either, with a dual-core, four-threaded i3-6100U from the latest generation of Skylake hardware. That’s just the base model, though, with options for up to a Core-i5-6200U from the same generation. Whichever you opt for however, it always comes with 4GB of RAM, with options for storage ranging up to 512GB. No matter the size, the drive always uses the M.2 SATA SSD standard, so it should be very quick.
Outside connectivity is handled by a Gigabit Ethernet port, as well as support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi, though there are cellular data and NFC modules for additional connectivity if desired. The tablet portion of the two-in-one has a USB 3.0 port, and Mini-DisplayPort, too.
Perhaps the most attractive feature of the whole thing is that Fujitsu is claiming a battery life for the device as long as 12 hours, which is rather impressive.
We still don’t have any pricing information, but the release date is slated for sometime in February next year. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more about this potential Surface Pro alternative.
