Tablet pc's

[Xionide]

man those acer laptops are like $2,000 and it makes no sense that they would dig those parts up from the grave to make this thing i mean for 2 g's you could get a way better laptop. this is just a scheme to make money. throw in a few cool features and pick sum parts up from the thrift store and sell it for 2 g's

WTH

 

[iamwiz82]

i think they are pretty slick. I'd buy one if i had any money.

 

[Xionide]

they are basically old laptops with touchscreens and xp they should sell these for 700 max

 

[kranky]

I just got approval to buy one for evaluation. It probably will take 4-6 weeks to get it in, though, as they seem to be flying off the shelves (at least the Toshibas).

 

[Pliablemoose]

Anyone catch the TechTV review of these where they were mentioning the battery life was poor & that they had some hot spots in the case that made them uncomfortable to hold?

 

[kranky]

For some apps you need the big screen. One of the things I saw demoed on a TPC was for an insurance company. They had all the claim forms stored in the TPC and the insurance adjuster would fill them out on the screen (using the pen), sign off, have the customer sign off, and print wirelessly to a portable printer using the infrared port. It's very convenient since the screen is approximately the size of a regular letter-sized sheet of paper. The screen looks just like the printed form, and you can draw sketches of the accident easily.

You could do it on a PPC, but with all the scrolling and zooming it would take much longer, especially with the sketching. And a PPC screen wouldn't cut it for CAD file viewing.

 

[DrRock]

I just bought Compaq's version of the Tablet PC and absolutly love it. I appraise real estate and this is totally changing the way I work. I have the form I use on the screen and fill it out onsite. I am going to use it with Verizon's Express Network for internet to access all of the comparable data that I need. This is going to decrease my turnaround time from 1-2 days to 1-2 hours in most situations. Its all about getting them to the client as fast as possible. In my field, there are two ways to make money, you can be shady or fast.
I agree that they are not for everybody, but if you have a need for the touchscreen, they are great. You really have to see and play with one to realize how small and functional they are.
Some of the concerns you guys had about them was about poor performance, heat, and battery life. I picked the Compaq knowing I would be sacrificing some performance for better battery life and less heat. The Transmeta processor is not as fast as the Pentium chip, but it runs very cool and doesn't use much juice. I can go for about 5 hours on a charge. I have read of some people turning their screens brightness down and using a Fujitsu utility to turn down the speed of the processor to get 7+ hours of use at a time. Another thing I really like about the Compaq is the geforce 2 go video card, it works very well. Overall I would recommend the Compaq to anybody because of its superior features, even if it is slower than the rest. If you guys have any questions about mine, feel free to ask.

 

[datalink7]

I really really would like one for taking notes in class, but I can't afford it. I might try to save up over the summer to get one.

 

[ETan]

Now, how does the writing capability work?


If I have a bunch of forms to fill out online, or on a software (such as word), can I just use the pen and write on it, and it will translate my writing to neatly typed fonts right away?


I am in a position now to find a solution for my boss, who doesn't care too much about price, but wants to be able to get online, do just about anything, from anywhere. He needs to log in to certain sites, and get customer information, and fill out forms for them. I was very very close to getting the Palm Tungsten T, but I reevaluated everything including what he wants to do at the last moment, and decided against it. It was too small for filling out forms on the web, and that was his main task.

I am currently looking at either Tablet PC's and the Dell Latitude X200 (less than 3 lbs.)

Btw, how heavy is this? And I know there are 3 basic types of Tablet PCs. Which should I go with? Weight and portability is the first issue, second is performance, third is support, fourth is price.

 

[ElFenix]

the pricing is in line with other ultra-slim notebooks i've seen. and it has a touchscreen. bonus!

i'd still rather have an albook.

 

[BCYL]

Originally posted by: ETan
Now, how does the writing capability work?


If I have a bunch of forms to fill out online, or on a software (such as word), can I just use the pen and write on it, and it will translate my writing to neatly typed fonts right away?


I am in a position now to find a solution for my boss, who doesn't care too much about price, but wants to be able to get online, do just about anything, from anywhere. He needs to log in to certain sites, and get customer information, and fill out forms for them. I was very very close to getting the Palm Tungsten T, but I reevaluated everything including what he wants to do at the last moment, and decided against it. It was too small for filling out forms on the web, and that was his main task.

I am currently looking at either Tablet PC's and the Dell Latitude X200 (less than 3 lbs.)

Btw, how heavy is this? And I know there are 3 basic types of Tablet PCs. Which should I go with? Weight and portability is the first issue, second is performance, third is support, fourth is price.

Take a look at Anand's Tablet PC review and most of your questions will be answered... If weight and portability is the most important then you should probably go with a slate TPC (if you dont need a keyboard all the time of course)....

Personally I think they are really useful... I would love to have one of those for classes... but they need to have decent battery life, not like some laptops which only last 3 hrs or so...

 

[y2kc]

We got a couple dozen of those in at my job. My impressions:

1. Screen is too small
2. The touch screen is nice but the people on my job that got the tablets are having problems using the stylus
3. They are quite slow in comparison to todays laptops

If they had a bigger screen and were faster, I might pick one up. I'll wait for the next generation when (I think) they'll be closer to what they are billed to be (laptop alternative). Right now they're more of a status symbol/novelty item.

 

[Sid59]

wish i had one. Was at CompUSA the other day and thought it was awesome> Just gotta find 2000 dollars of dispensible cash.

 

[CJZ]

I checked one out at Fry's when I was in LA. I can't remember the manufacturer. I do remember that the unit seemed a bit too warm underneath. Also it might be a little heavy to use for long periods. It's probably best suited for vertical markets like medicine.

 

[katka]

They would be EXCELLENT for college student, or anyone else that goes to a lot of lectures or takes a lot of notes. They are pricey, but maybe like everything else someone will soon develop software that makes regular laptops able to accept touch information.

 

[ETan]

I'd go with a slate, except I would need a keyboard at least 50% of the time.

If I go with a convertible, then the weight may be an issue.

If it's those dockable ones, I wonder how easy is it to set up the keyboard whenever I need it. A laptop I can take it out of the case, put it on my lap, and use it. A dockable I wonder if there are portable keyboards and mice for them.

 

[Soybomb]

I think one would be pretty cool and the pricing isn't too bad for being a new to market product. The touchscreen lcd, integrated 802.11b in most, etc makes it a pretty sweet package. I think they're fast enough too, its not like you're going to be playing quake3 on it with a touchscreen I'd like to see one with a low power consumption cpu like a transmeta crusoe and see how it does (maybe there is one, haven't looked much). For office apps it'd be really sweet.

 

[Xionide]

Originally posted by: ETan
I'd go with a slate, except I would need a keyboard at least 50% of the time.

If I go with a convertible, then the weight may be an issue.

If it's those dockable ones, I wonder how easy is it to set up the keyboard whenever I need it. A laptop I can take it out of the case, put it on my lap, and use it. A dockable I wonder if there are portable keyboards and mice for them.

keyboard and mouse are probably easy to get for it cause i think its got usb ports

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Soybomb
I'd like to see one with a low power consumption cpu like a transmeta crusoe and see how it does (maybe there is one, haven't looked much). For office apps it'd be really sweet.

The Compaq version of the Tablet PC uses the Transmeta CPU. IIRC it has the longest battery life of all Tablet PCs.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

they seem like a good idea for businesses, people can fill out forms, etc, as people have been saying. but for normal people, i dont think there is much use, and they're way over priced.

and i dont see why they would be good for data entry (taking notes in class, etc) - writing is alot slower than typing (and wears out my hand/wrist more)

 

[kranky]

There are some people who won't allow laptops to be used for note taking because the keyclicks can be irritating to others. And in meetings at work, same thing. So in some cases it's either write on paper, or write on a Tablet PC.

And if you need to draw graphs, equations, etc., no keyboard can save you.

 

[DrRock]

Just upgraded my Compaq tablet to 512 meg of ram, still pretty slow, but I look at it as the trade off for battery life. I am also about to have Compaq send me my third stylus, the other two have different problems that make them semi unusable. I am having some problems with stability and networking, but that could be an XP issue. Overall I am still happy with my purchase, Compaq tech support has a special unit for these and has so far been helpful and have been willing to replace the defective parts. If my stabilty issues persist, I am going to try to get them to send me a new one. Will update as I mess with it.

 

[Xionide]

ya but thats not the point i bet they are nice but they are WAY overpriced