Can't they just have a stand on the back like the surface does?

Doesn't really give you a "laptop" experience, but at least you can still set up shop on a table.

Anyways, it sounds cool. To me, the specs seem pretty conservative so hopefully it's a low cost device. Something cool to hack on.

They're likely just contracting with an OEM to build the thing, and it's probably reusing a design of an existing Android tablet. It would likely be prohibitively expensive to get a bespoke custom designed tablet that has a kickstand like the Surface.

There are hundreds of different types of tablet stands on the marketplace, some as simple as a V-shaped clip that the tablet rests on. People who fly all the time (a general excuse for sticking to the laptop form factor) could velcro or suction cup cup the tablet the seat in front of them.

It's cool to see a "working" tablet that uses a bluetooth mouse & keyboard combo that debunks the stupidity of the "convertable" machines that nobody buys which mostly seem to be an excuse to make a machine with a touchscreen to also have a trackpad.

The Surface's hardware in general would be a great fit, as it is also very reasonably spec'ed for a laptop. Unfortunately, Linux lacks drivers for the touchscreen, camera, buttons and the typecover connection.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/3xhmu7/just_i...

Depending on the model, Linux drivers do exist, even if they aren't all in mainline kernels yet. Just a week ago I booted [1] on my Surface Pro 3 from a pendisk (didn't even need to disable secure boot) and pretty much everything just worked, including the pen, touchscreen, type cover and sound. Note that Linux Mint is much closer to Ubuntu than Chakra, which is based on Arch Linux.

The only thing that didn't work so well was sleep (only slept the first time); that's sometimes the case even with "normal" PCs, I'm sure that can be sorted out given enough effort.

The situation is not so good with the Surface Pro 4... a matter of time, I guess. I've been reading even Microsoft is yet to get Windows working perfectly on it, so...

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/3w8du2/outoft...

Well I looked at the images for the phones and they all say 33 minutes of talk time on their lock screen. Why wouldn't they put a higher number or leave that off completely?

The tablet also says "33 photos taken". Maybe there's a significance to the number 33?

The 33rd degree is the highest degree of initiation into Scottish Rite Freemasonry. Clearly they are in on the conspiracy.