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