Details have emerged of the hardware requirements for tablets using Windows 8, with five-point touch among the demands on manufacturers.
In a definitive document released by Microsoft in the pre-Christmas rush and resurrected by the Within Windows blog, Microsoft laid out the hardware and performance requirements that it hopes will ensure a minimum level of experience from tablets and other devices bearing the Windows 8 logo.
“The touch digitiser must support a minimum of five simultaneous touch inputs. This applies to all touchable areas, including edges and corners,” said Microsoft, which also dictated that bezels should be flush with the screen to make the user interface soother and that screens should have a minimum resolution of 1366 x 768.
“Tablet device bezels must be flush with the display and border areas to allow for edge to edge consistency across the device's surface,” the company dictated.
“Raised or inconsistent bezels will interfere with user interactions and prevent the user from successfully touching user interfaces, located along the display area edges.”
Tablets built on the OS will also have to conform to a five hardware button policy – with all machines featuring buttons for power, rotation lock, Windows Key, and volume up and down controls for the required built-in speakers.
Out of the box, tablets will be expected to have at least 10GB of storage space available to users, as well as at least one USB 2.0 port.
This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk
