Microsoft’s Surface Pro series of Windows 8 tablets are pretty interesting devices, consisting of a large tablet device that you can use for media consumption along with a kickstand and magnetic keyboard to help you get work done. The fact that Surface devices run Windows might turn some folks off, but soon those people could get a Surface-like experience but with Android.
Jide Technology, a company founded by three former Google engineers, has created the Remix Ultra Tablet. It’s a Surface lookalike that’s shaped like a black rectangle and has a kickstand, support for USB accessories, and an attachable keyboard. Instead of Windows 8, though, the Remix Ultra Tablet runs a skinned version of Android 4.4.2 called “Remix OS” that looks quite a bit like the standard Windows desktop.
Spec-wise, the Remix Ultra Tablet’s got an 11.6-inch 1920x1080 touchscreen, NVIDIA Tegra 4+1 processor, 5-megapixel front and rear cameras, a microSD slot that includes support for cards up to 128GB, up to 64GB of built-in storage, 2GB of RAM, and an 8100mAh battery. The Remix OS includes support for multi-window apps, a task bar that shows your running apps, support for all Android apps, and an “ultra-modern metro style UI design.”
The folks at Jide Technology say that the Remix Ultra Tablet aims to reduce the number of devices that we carry by combining a tablet and a keyboard, allowing you to consume content and be productive with a single product. That’s definitely intriguing, but I’m guessing that the folks at Microsoft aren’t exactly pleased that the Remix Ultra Tablet looks so similar to a Surface, both in terms of hardware and software.
The Remix Ultra Tablet is slated to go on sale this year at a starting price of $349. Whether or not it actually makes it to market remains to be seen. If it doesn’t, you may be interested in the Nexus 9 and its Keyboard Folio.