Dell brings 4G LTE wireless connectivity to Windows 8 tablet
Dell is offering something that's rare on Windows 8 tablets: 4G connectivity. As Apple iPad users know, the option for mobile broadband has been around for years.
Dell is now offering 4G LTE on its XPS 10 -- a feature conspicuously absent on most Windows 8 tablets.
"Today, we're introducing an AT&T 4G LTE mobile broadband version for US customers on Dell.com, providing professionals with the same fast, reliable, high-speed internet connection as on their smartphones for connectivity anytime, anywhere," Dell said in a statement Thursday.
The XPS 10 is a bit of an oddball tablet among the top-tier PC makers.
It's one of the few tablets to use the RT version of Windows 8. And it's even a rarer bird because Dell has opted for a Qualcomm ARM chip, not Nvidia's version of ARM (used by Microsoft in its Surface RT tablet, for example).
But in this case, that's an advantage. Qualcomm is very good at integrating LTE into its silicon, allowing Dell to offer its XPS 10 with a Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz processor-plus-LTE, courtesy a Qualcomm Gobi modem.
It's not cheap, though. Adding LTE bumps up the price $100 to $749, which includes 64GB of flash storage.
That said, by comparison, a 64GB iPad 4 with LTE is priced at $829 from Apple.
And expect more 4G Windows tablets in the near future. At least that's Microsoft's Michael Angiulo told CNET last month.