Fujitsu Announces Mulitouch Touting 10.1-Inch LifeBook T580

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If you aren’t sick of tablets yet you either haven’t been keeping up with the latest tech buzz or just love hearing about them. Literally everyday announcements, reports and rumors spill in notifying us of the latest tablet offerings.

However, as you’ve surely noticed, just about all of these newly announced tablets feature a slate form factor much like Apple’s iPad in the sense that they feature a touchscreen, few hardware buttons and not much more. Luckily, thanks to Bluetooth and in some cases USB ports, an external keyboard can be hooked up but when compared to a laptop, it’s not really the same thing.

While these tablets are pretty much a technological breakthrough and one of the hottest niches, it’s quite difficult for consumers to find out exactly what to use them for as traditional laptop computers have proven themselves to be much more productive. Luckily, some companies have taken note of this and are looking to give consumers the best of both worlds with convertible tablet PCs.

These convertible tablet PCs have been around longer than the slate tablet but as of late the former has been taking some design cues from the latter. A perfect example of this is the recently announced LifeBook T580 from Fujitsu.

At first glance, the LifeBook T580 may look like nothing more than a 10.1-inch laptop featuring the traditional clamshell form factor with a beefy Intel Core i5 chip thrown into the mix. However, to the trained eye this device is much more as it features a swivel screen that when closed bares an uncanny resemblance to a traditional slate tablet.

This isn’t really out of the ordinary for such a device but Fujitsu does say that this device will be “slate-beating” largely thanks to its four-finger multitouch capabilities. Couple that with optional 3G/GPS, 8 hours of battery life and a total weight of just 3 pounds and you can begin to see where Fujitsu is coming with.

Fujitsu says the LifeBook T580 will be out sometime this November at a currently unannounced price point so keep an eye out for it around then. In the mean time, check out a Fujitsu employee demonstrating the device’s multitouch capabilities in the below video.