On more than a few occasions we saw a brand called Evolve III appear in major keynote speeches here at Computex. Then while having a drink at one of the evening parties we met the guys behind the brand. And they’re from Sydney! Well played, lads!
We’ve seen a few Australian outfits try their hand (or Handii) at making tablets, and Kogan likes to throw his hat in the netbook ring now and then. Right up front I’m going to split Evolve III from these sorts of efforts. No offence to the other guys, but Evolve III is putting both innovation and build quality at the centre of their mission.
At Computex we saw Evolve III featured for their efforts in Atom tablets and in All-In-One PCs.
Their Maestro C tablet in particular was highly praised, incorporating nice features like an edge positioned kickstand and cover that incorporates a wireless keyboard. You can see all the specs here.
The Evolve III N-Gen All-In-One PC also takes a different design approach to the rest of the market. Instead of everything built directly into the rear of the monitor, Evolve III has built most of the guts into a rear stand section of the unit. It keeps the screen looking svelte and in quite a basic way it is a different design that people notice as they walked past.
There’s no question Evolve III is a minnow in the field, and their products won’t suit everyone’s price/performance sweet spot. What’s admirable is their avoidance of ‘cheap’ as a road to success. They’re aiming high, and in our brief chat it’s clear they want to make genuinely outstanding products. They don’t think it’s acceptable that Android or Windows based tablets are generally less smooth than iPad and they are putting as much work into their software implementations as their hardware to give their users a great experience.
We’ll catch up with these guys again in a few weeks to hear more about their efforts. But after noticing their brand up in lights throughout Computex, it was a great surprise to discover this is an Australian company.
The Evolve III Maestro C tablet on show at Computex
The Evolve III N-Gen All-In-One PC
Andrew
Friday, June 3, 2011 at 6:47 PMShame on you for not remembering the Aussie built triple-booting tablet from CES (IIRC).
I’ll happily spend a few extra bucks to buy quality tablets built on our shores. Hopefully they’ll have something ready to ship at launch of Win 8. The race is on guys, I’m a future customer waiting to happen.
P.S. Just in case you’re listening, I like active digitisers + stylus and non-pretencious designs without logos everywhere. These things are tools first and formost.. if I see a chrome accent, I’m outta here.
Geekonomics
Saturday, June 4, 2011 at 2:39 PMManaged to get the guys to demo their soon to launch products on video: http://youtu.be/HQKMycwxGE0
matt rollins
Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 11:50 AMSo as usual, Evolve Three showed the world that startup companies do not have to make a cheap imitation to get things off the ground. That has been the normal path in the past for many companies. These companies then have the arduous task of slowly increasing their quality and prices as they try to improve their brand name. This is not the case with Evolve. They are making high quality products that rival the well branded veterans in their industry. Check out this video below to see their newest products coming to the states very soon.
Toby
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 10:41 AMThe customer service from these guys has been appauling. They have not bothered to return any of my emails and phone calls for a tablet I purchased and then returned to them due to the wrong spec machine being sent to me. Be warned!
JamesE3
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 8:30 PMHi Toby,
Evolve III will launch their range of Maestro S and Convertible tablets before the end of the 2011. We have not distributed any of our Maestro tablets to the public as of yet, and once they are released they will be distributed through retail stores, not through Evolve III directly.
James
TG
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 2:52 PMAlmost end of the year, still no news on Maestro S and Convertible