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Sharp goes big with 15.6-inch Windows 8.1 tablet

Sharp's tablet has a 16-inch-class display and laptop-grade Intel Core i5 processor.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
Brooke Crothers
Sharp's new RW-16G1 tablet doesn't have a catchy name but it has impressive specs.
Sharp's new RW-16G1 tablet doesn't have a catchy name but it has impressive specs. Sharp

Sharp's taking the high-pixel-density road with a new 16-inch-class Windows 8.1 tablet.

This could be the year of the large tablet and Sharp just chimed in with a 15.6-inch model with a 3,200x1,800 (WQHD) display and a Core i5-4200U processor.

Samsung announced a 12.2-inch tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show, and Apple is rumored to be working on a 13-inch class tablet.

The 2.7-pound, 0.5-inch thick Sharp RW-16G also packs 4GB of RAM, 128GB solid-state drive, a Mini DisplayPort, USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, and Windows 8.1 Pro.

It has a rated battery life of nine hours.

The tablet, targeted at businesses, uses Sharp's IGZO display tech.

One of the main themes of Sharp's pavilion at CES was IGZO. Sharp claims IGZO allows it to build smaller transistors, which, in turn, allows more light to come through the back of the display. Translation: thinner, lower-cost displays that can still deliver high pixel densities.

The 15.6-inch tablet follows an announcement last month of the Sharp Meibus Pad with a 2,560×1,600 IGZO display and an Intel Bay Trail processor.

Pricing has yet to be disclosed. The tablet will be sold starting in March.