Dell’s newest desktop is an 18-inch tablet

Lots of devices are trying to combine the portability of a tablet with the full-featured experience of a laptop. Today at SXSW, Dell’s showing off a new computer that’s taking things one step further — the XPS 18 All-In-One is an 18-inch Windows 8 tablet / desktop hybrid that weighs in under five pounds.

Dell isn’t the first company to try and crack this form factor. Last year, Sony released the Vaio Tap 20, a 20-inch AIO / tablet that weighed in at a hefty 11.5 pounds, and this year, Asus is going with a docking design for its 18.4-inch, dual-booting Transformer AiO. We’re still not convinced that the plus-sized tablet is a viable design for the mainstream, but at less than half the weight of the Tap 20, the XPS 18 looks a lot more portable. We just hope that there’s enough battery life to actually get some work done outside the office.