Seventh-Grader Plans to Build World’s Biggest Tablet [PICS]

17-Inch Windows Tablet Prototype

James Hardman, who is just 12 years old, build a prototype of a 17-inch tablet running Windows Vista. He wants to build and market a 17-inch Windows 7 tablet, if he can get the funding for his company, Aurkron.

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James Hardman has a dream. A tech fanatic, he thinks tablets are amazing, but the ones currently on sale simply aren’t big enough for him. While most large tablet designs, like the iPad, have displays that max out at about 10 inches, Hardman wants to go larger — all the way to a 17-inch screen.

“I personally love bigger screens,” Hardman told Mashable, “And I know other people did, too. I looked everywhere and nobody had anything even close.”

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So Hardman did what any tech-savvy person with a gadget dream would do: He set out to build one. Turning to Kickstarter, Hardman posted his plan to build a 17-inch Windows tablet, showing it could be done by creating a crude prototype with an old monitor, gutted and jury-rigged to run Windows Vista (you can see photos of his prototype in the gallery below). He set the modest goal of $50,000 in funding.

Did we mention that James Hardman is 12 years old?

Yes, the plan to build a world’s largest tablet comes from a kid who can’t even drive. The California boy talks about the project with a surprising level of technical know-how, however, and he clearly has a vision for what a 17-inch tablet should be.

First, he sees his potential creation as much more than a consumption device. Hardman wants to use his megatablet as a photo and video editor, so he chose to build it with hardware and software typically reserved for PCs. He’s targeted Intel‘s coming next-generation Ivy Bridge processors for mobile as his hardware of choice, and Windows as the operating system, as opposed to the more popular tablet OS, Android.

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“My tablet’s going to be way too powerful to run Android,” he says. “The new Ivy Bridge processors for mobile devices are meant to be way more power efficient than the previous ones. I also looked at all the current offerings in the 17-inch laptop market now and took that into consideration.”

Hardman also wants his tablet to be “fully upgradeable,” meaning users will be able to swap out everything from the RAM to the display itself whenever they wish. He sees his device creating a “premium tablet” market aimed at tinkerers like him who want a touch-screen device they can customize over time. And to make it gigantic.

Even though Hardman’s tablet will have a huge screen, he says it’ll weigh in at about 3 pounds with a maximum seven-hour battery life. He emphasizes that the tablet will be made in America, which he says will add about $45 to the cost of making each unit. As for the final price, he expects it to be between $1,100 and $1,500. If he achieves his funding goal, he hopes the first units will be available in November.

That might not happen, though, since his Kickstarter project has just seven days left and has only received about one-tenth of the funding it needs. As for his parents, Hardman says his parents have been “very supportive” and that they’ve given him a lot of help, including contributing about $1,000.

What do you think of Hardman’s idea of a 17-inch tablet? Mere daydream of a junior high school student or genius idea from a future tech titan? Let us know in the comments.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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