Note added July 6, 2012: as we suspected, the driver in our pre-production unit wasn't final and had a couple of glitches that affected some of the benchmarks. Winmate ran new sets with the final production drivers and we added those to the table in parentheses.

The benchmark results, as usual, aren't without seeming contradictions, and they are never easy to interpret. That's because it's in the very nature of benchmarks to measure things a certain way, and when comparing different processors and systems, there will always be some comparing of apples and oranges. In our experience, though, the overall bottomline of a benchmark suite will always present a good measure of a system's perceived day-to-day performance.

Looking at the PassMark scores, the Atom N2600's dual core design presents a clear advantage over any of the single core Atom designs, and the CrystalMark scores confirm that. In terms of sheer computing power, the N2600 is almost twice as fast as any of the other chips. Disk benchmark scores are notoriously uneven across different storage technologies, and in this lineup we had various types of SSDs, mSATA, and conventional hard disks. Here, the Winmate tablet's 16GB SSD had a midrange score.

The benchmark results are confusing when it comes to graphics. The PassMark 3D Graphics Mark is twice what we usually find in Atom Zxxx series systems, but lagged behind our old N270-based Acer Aspire netbook. 2D graphics benchmark tests were inexplicably low though perceived 2D graphics performance was very good. The CrystalMark OGL test, however, was sensational, with the Winmate tablet outperforming any device we ever tested that did not have discrete graphics.

As far as perceived, subjective performance goes, the Winmate M970D did very well. The tablet feels quick and snappy, with performance reminiscent of a low voltage Core 2 Duo rather than an Atom system. HD video playback, likewise, was flawless. The overall impression here is that the N2600 is a happy choice for this class of machine.

Note, of course, that real world battery life varies with power settings (selectable either via the Windows Control Panel or a special Winmate Hot Tab utility), display brightness, and system usage.

A tablet's display can make or break the product. We expect a bright, vibrant screen these days, one that is rock-solid, displays every detail, and shows deep, rich color. The days where a bit of flickering or color-banding was acceptable are long gone, and color-shifts as you look at the screen from different angles are a definite no-no. To realize just how important displays have become, look no farther than the iPhone and iPad where Apple redefined the rules once again with their "retina" displays. The idea there is that individual pixels are so small that the eye can no longer see them.

For now, no one has a display like the latest iPad with its incredible 2048 x 1536 quadruple XGA resolution, and you wouldn't expect a rugged tablet to come anywhere close to that latest iPad. Yet, amazingly, Winmate accepted the challenge and came up with a screen that is far, far better than it has any right to be. In fact and everyday use, in most applications it looks every bit as good as the vaunted new iPad that has quadruple the resolution. If that sounds unbelievable, well, take a look at the pictures below.

The first picture shows the Winmate M970D and the new iPad side by side outdoors on a bright California mid-morning. Both have their brightness cranked up to the maximum. It's hard to tell a difference. Unfortunately, however, the Winmate tablet's screen shares a quality of the iPad display that we're not too fond off, the high gloss.

We always do test pictures from angles to check for reflections or deterioration of display viewability. In this case, both display surfaces reflected, but the picture stayed bright and clear, without any color shifts or aberrations.

Far too many displays suffer from narrow horizontal or vertical viewing angles that has users forever hunting for the right angle to get the best viewing experience. That's simply not an issue on the Winmate M970D. For all practical purposes, this display has a usable viewing angle of 180 degrees in any direction. Winmate describes their screen as an "IPS LED" panel. IPS stands for In-Plane Switching, a technology where the liquid crystals stay parallel to the panel as opposed to twisting at angles. This requires twice as many transistors and generally a stronger backlight, but results in those perfect viewing angles and complete lack of color shifts.

Overall, the M970D display is fantastic. Anyone who can live with an iPad's screen reflections, and tens of millions can, will find this Winmate display as crisp and vibrant, and even brighter.