PC Tablet anyone?

[xortam]

Has anyone here owned or used a PC Tablet? I've been looking at getting a powerful laptop (desktop replacement) but it's almost impossible to find rugged quality built laptops and very few mobile Core i7 laptops. In my frustration, I've started considering other possible scenarios for my home PC uses. One of things I want to do with this mobile computing platform is control my HT equipment and access video content and information via networking. My plasma can be managed via the web (both day-to-day functions as well as setup, calibration, and alerts) so it will be handy to sit on the couch and control it and the media on a separate screen. I think I can do most of what I want on the couch with a minimum of typing but that changes when I move it to the desktop and try to use the system for E-Mail communications, forum postings, and finance.

I would like to hear from any of you who have experience with PC Tablets as to the differences between that platform and a KVM platform. I would especially like to hear from anyone using Win7 on a Tablet as they likely addressed many issues in the newest OS.

[VJ]

I have been using a Fujitsu-Siemens P1510 for about three years now... It is an ultra-portable convertible tablet PC. As it is convertible, I mainly use it in laptop form (keyboard totype); the tablet form I have only used to take notes at conferences.

For proper text input, text recognition works surprisingly well, provided the language is supported (of course, English is; but e.g. Dutch isn't). There are several text input methods: on screen keyboard, letter-by-letter recognition and cursive writing recognition. The system is such that it shows a button every time there is the ability to enter text (in a document, on a webpage, ...). On XP Tablet edition, this button was not always ideally located, but Windows 7 is more advanced in that aspect; also, the text input tools are much better (both in recognizing, as in user inteface - e.g. to correct something that was incorrectly recognized). Clicking this button opens the text-input panel, and all input is done via this (using one of the 3 input modes). Once you have inputted what you want, you click the "insert" button of the tool and it inserts the text in the application.
Even using XP, I have not yet had an application that asked for text input but didn't show that button.

I'm not sure how convenient it is to input long text like emails or text that is difficult to recognize (urls, ...), but for on-couch-usage, I think it should suffice.



Jörg

[UtwigMU]

I have Thinkpad X61 Tablet, running Windows 7 Ultimate. It's a very powerful little thing: 5-6h battery life while notetaking, gorgeous IPS high angle screen with 1400x1050 resolution, 4GB (8 possible but expenisive), takes regular 2.5" drives (possibility of 500GB or SSD). I have two docks, in home dock I have optical drive. Bluetooth, n wireless, WWAN capability. Bought it mainly for high resolution in small form-factor and ability to comfortably read/study on it.

At work I spend most time in laptop form, at home I use external monitor. I put it in tablet mode mainly while reading, notetaking, casually browsing web. It's possible to acomplish most things in tablet mode, though typing and normal work is 99% laptop mode.

Win7 performs well (100GB 7200RPM drive), handwriting recognition is quite good in English and Russian, nonexistant in Slovenian. No issues with drivers, etc... from start

Also tried 64-bit OpenSuse 11.2 and it detected all drivers, wacom, external monitor, ... after update. Popped onscreen keyboard right after log-on.

The main drawback with tablets is that now they're mostly 1280x800 which is not enough.

[VJ]

I can confirm the resolution bit. Mine has an 8.9" display with 1024x600 resolution. You quickly run out of screen estate (I have all programs and things set to "small icons" where possible), and many programs don't like the low vertical resolution. I've seen many dialogboxes where I couldn't reach the OK/cancel buttons because they were outside of the screen (solution: rotate display or increase resolution so that it the desktop scrolls under the displayed portion)

Jörg

[xortam]

Just a quick note to say thanks for the feedback guys. I checked a couple out yesterday and they might just do the job. I'll try to post more tomorrow after stuffing the bird and putting her on the grill.

[xortam]

I picked up the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Multi-Touch Tablet last night on their CyberMonday sale (even bigger savings than their Black Friday sale). The resolution issue was a concern but all the models I looked at were at 1280 x 800 so I couldn't improve on it with another Tablet. The X200 will drive an external monitor at more than high enough resolution so I found the screen resolution limitations to be acceptable. I originally was looking for a high quality mobile Core i7 notebook that had BluRay and a 1920x1200 screen for HD video but the market just isn't there yet. The Tablet functionality at least will give me some new features to exploit and the ultraportability of the X200 Tablet will make it a more comfortable couch and on-the-road computer. I can see taking this with me shopping to take notes and look up info like my wine database. The Lenovo's do have very nice keyboards so that was a big plus. The multi-touch functions will be great for the couch as you use your finger to scroll through web pages and other functions. As a side note, this will be the first time I bought a pre-made computer versus building my own.

[VJ]

Hehe, it was the same when I bought a laptop!

Best of luck with it.

[xortam]

What was the same? 'Popping your cherry'* on pre-builts with a laptop?
*(Merkin slang for de-virgining)

Thanks again to both of you for giving me an idea of the usefulness of these devices, it was helpful.

What's with the reduced screen resolution now? Is that because they couldn't reliably handle touch and/or penning at the previously higher resolutions, a pricing issue, manufacturing issue ... what?

I saw rumours of Apple coming out with a tablet which would also function as an enhanced form of E-Reader. I need something now and I doubt we'll see anything from Apple on this in the immediate future. Apparently these rumours of a new Apple Tablet have come and gone a few times already.

[VJ]

The pre-built thing.

I find the touchscreen also useful when using it is a laptop: you can just point to the things you want to happen (drag stuff around); much easier than with a touchpad (IMO)...
I started with this way of work back on my Psion 5mx, and really liked the combination of touchscreen with keyboard. I'd go for the Sony Vaio P for an ultraportable now, if it had a touchscreen. Without it, I'm not convinced....

[xortam]

I like the idea of using a touch screen on the couch rather than juggling a wireless keyboard and mouse like I do now. I'm constantly getting up from the couch to go to my PC display while I'm trying to watch TV on the big screen with the wife. Now that I've made this purchase I can start formulating better on how I want to use my new systems along with my old systems to expand the overall functionality. I'm still thinking up things I can do with this new toy. I'm also still eyeing a new Mac ...

[VJ]

Only thing I have problems with is the mouse-over event using the touch screen. Mine is the type that you can touch with anything, so for right-click you have to touch-and-hold (which for some drag-movements can be confusing, but haven't had much issues with it), but it is very difficult to position the cursor somewhere without clicking...

Another problem with my laptop, is that if you run the display in non-native mode, the touchscreen becomes useless. In non-native mode, the display either just scales down or acts as a "moving-window" over a larger desktop. However, the corners of the touchscreen are still the corners of the desktop, so image and touch positions can be way off. My htpc - which has an lcd touchscreen - does not suffer from this, so I assume it is hardware/driver related (same on xp as on W7)

[UtwigMU]

I opted for stylus only and 1400x1050 over touch and 1024x768 or 1280x800.