Sharp unveils 16-inch tablet

Japanese firm lays down the gauntlet to Samsung and Apple with huge tablet

Sharp has laid down the gauntlet to Samsung and Apple after it took the wraps off a huge 16-inch tablet.

The Sharp RW–16G comes with 15.6-inch screen with a 3,200 by 1,800 WQHD display and a Core i504200U processor. It also comes with 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD for storage, a Mini DisplayPort, USB 3.0 ports and an SD card slot.

It runs on Windows 8.1 and is predominantly aimed at businesses.

According to Sharp, the 1.2kg, 12.7mm thick tablet will come with a battery life of around nine hours.

There is no word on when the tablet will be launching, or how much it will cost.

Samsung and Apple's rivals

Samsung unveiled a 12.2-inch tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show last week.

The large tablet was part of Samsung's new TabPro range, along with 10.1-inch and 8.4-inch tablets.

As with the screen sizes, the specifications decrease with each model. While both the 12.2-inch and 10.1-inch models boast the same octacore processor as the also announced NotePro, the 8.4-inch variant runs on a quad-core Snapdragon 800 chip.

All three models boast the same 2,560 x 1,600 WQXGA resolution of the NotePro.

Apple is rumoured to be working on a new iPad Pro, which will have a 13-inch screen.

The iPad Pro is rumoured to be launching later this year. It is rumoured to be ditching the Retina display, instead opting for a 4K resolution.

Ben Furfie is a former freelance writer for T3.com who produced daily news stories for the site on tech and gadgets. He also live-managed the T3 Award websites during the 2013 and 2014 T3 Awards. Ben later moved into web development and is now a Technical Development Manager leading a team of developers.