While we've seen and heard snippets of information about tablets running Windows RT—the ARM version of Windows due to release alongside Windows 8 on October 26—details about hardware specifications and pricing have been difficult to come by. Pricing information is still MIA, but Asus and Samsung have both taken the wraps off more-or-less final versions of their Windows RT hardware at the IFA electronics show today.

The Asus Vivo Tab RT and the Samsung ATIV Tab

Asus' offering, formerly known as the Tablet 600, is now officially named the Vivo Tab RT. Like Samsung's offering and Microsoft's own Surface RT, it's a 10" 1366x768 tablet with an NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC , 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and the normal tablet accoutrements: 1.9 megapixel front- and 8 megapixel rear-facing cameras; Bluetooth, 802.11n, and NFC; USB, Micro HDMI, microSD, and headphone ports; and an optional keyboard-and-trackpad accessory to help make it more like a traditional laptop when you need one. All of this fits into a package that weighs 520 grams and is 8.3 millimeters thick. Asus' experience building keyboard docks for its well-regarded Transformer Android tablets should also mean that the Vivo Tab RT's dock won't suffer from many first-generation jitters.

On the other hand, Samsung's ATIV Tab, part of the same product family as the ATIV S Windows Phone 8 handset, looks a bit more like what we've seen of the Surface RT so far, in form and function if not in SoC: a straight 10" 1366x768 tablet with a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB or 64GB of internal storage; 1.9 megapixel front- and 5 megapixel rear-facing cameras; Bluetooth, 802.11n, and NFC; and USB, Micro HDMI, microSD, and headphone ports. The Samsung tablet is slightly thicker and heavier than the Asus tablet at 8.9 millimeters thick and 570 grams. While Samsung isn't pushing a keyboard dock as a defining accessory for the device the way that Asus is, a dock connector on the bottom of the tablet suggests that it will be compatible with such an accessory.

Are they different enough?

For the sake of comparison, let's talk about the Surface RT that has, er, surfaced: a 1366x768 10.6" screen; a Tegra 3 SoC; a thickness of 9.3mm and a weight of 676 grams; 32GB or 64GB of solid state storage; attachable keyboards and trackpads. Sound familiar?

The biggest challenge the OEMs face with Windows RT is going to be differentiation—Microsoft won't let just anyone make a Windows RT tablet, and the OEMs who can make them can't attempt differentiation through extensive software tweaks and as they can with Android. To top that off, they also have to compete with the first-party Surface RT, which is going to be the standard against which all other Windows RT tablets are judged.

That means extra features and pricing are going to be the most obvious ways in which OEMs can distinguish themselves from one another, and the hardware in these initial tablets is all gearing up to be a bit samey. Both ASUS and Samsung will be relying on pricing and its existing tablet expertise to differentiate itself from other Windows tablets. Microsoft has alluded to the possibility of non-tablet Windows RT devices in its blog post on the operating system, and these might help OEMs distinguish themselves from one another. When making tablets, however, Microsoft's partners will need to figure out compelling and inexpensive ways to add value if they want to get around Redmond's offering.

Update: The original version of this article stated that the Vivo Tab RT included a stylus and Wacom digitizer. That was incorrect—the Intel-powered Vivo Tab is the unit that includes the stylus.

Listing image by ASUS