Eve Tech launched a crowdfunding campaign in late
2016 for a 12.3 inch 2-in-1 tablet with a Microsoft Surface Pro-like display
and a starting price of US$ 699. At the time the company promised the Eve V tablet
would begin shipping in February. That didn’t happen, but now Eve says
components are on-hand, mass production is about to begin, and the first units
should begin shipping to backers of the Indiegogo campaign in May.
Eve has already been sending a small number of
prototypes to members of the Even community for beta testing, which makes sense
since the tablet isn’t only crowdfunded, it’s also crowd-developed: Eve asked
forum members for input repeatedly before finalizing spec and design choices.
The end result is a Windows tablet with a Surface-like design, including a 12.3
inch, 2736 x 1824 pixel display, a built-in kickstand, and support for pen
input (although the pen is sold separately).
But the Eve V has a few features that help set it
apart from Microsoft’s tablets. For example, the Eve V is available with Core
M3-7Y30, Core i5-7Y54, or Core i7-7Y75 Kaby Lake processor options. It also
comes with a wireless keyboard cover that can be used either while attached to
the tablet, or when separated by some distance. THekeys are also backlit.
The tablet has a Thunderbolt 3 port, two full-sized
USB 3.1 ports, a headset jack, and a microSDXC card reader. Eve plans to
produce 50 devices during the first production run in order to check for
problems, before doing larger production runs to get to 500 tablets and
eventually 2,000.
