Tablet PCs

[Jeff Waegelin]

I'm currently in the market to buy a new laptop, and I've been giving some serious thought to buying a convertible Tablet PC. Specifically, I'm looking at the Toshiba Portégé M200 series. Has anyone used one of these, or any other Tablet PC before? If so, what did you think of it? Also, if anyone else has any input on this subject, feel free to speak up.

[Aaron Knight]

A friend recently bought one of the Toshiba models (I don't remember off-hand which model), and I was pretty impressed with it. Even with my rather pathetically bad handwriting, OneNote (the MS recognition software) was pretty good at figuring out what I had written on it. I'd buy one in a heartbeat, if I had 2 grand or so kicking around

[Nate Smith]

I actually had the opportunity to use one of these Tablet PCs at the Kettering Kickoff last year(Sorry, I don't remember exactly what model)...I quickly fell in love with it and ended up using it to post the alliances in real time to the scoring system courtesy of the built-in WiFi and my router sitting upstairs at the control table. I didn't work too much with the writing recognition, but if it's anything like that recognition on my Pocket PC, it shouldn't be too bad...

[Marc P.]

I have an older tablet, a Fujitsu Stylistic 3400. It's a P3, 400mhz, upgraded the hard drive to 20 gig, running XP Pro. It works pretty well, I'm using it primarily as an MP3 player for my car. The passive touch screen works wonders when driving! It's nice to just tap the "next" button in Winamp, or browse through the playlist without looking at a tiny MP3 player display. Heck, the thing even saved Tom's party after Battlecry

Overall they're cool things, although the handwriting recognition isn't quite perfect (not sure how it is in XP Tablet Edition, haven't had the chance to install it yet). In any case, definitely worth it if you jot down a lot of quick notes, or like the idea of carrying around a laptop like a book. Much easier to work and move at the same time.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I've been thinking about this a little more, and while I really like the Tablet PC concept, I'm a little concerned about trying to use one as my primary PC. I can really only take one PC with me in the fall, so if I buy this tablet, I'll be using it all the time. Do you think this is something I could use as my regular PC, or is it too small and specialized for that?

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

Thanks for the input, everyone. I've been thinking about this a little more, and while I really like the Tablet PC concept, I'm a little concerned about trying to use one as my primary PC. I can really only take one PC with me in the fall, so if I buy this tablet, I'll be using it all the time. Do you think this is something I could use as my regular PC, or is it too small and specialized for that?

If you have the money, they have laptops where the screen can flip around and lay down flat, like a tablet.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by Texan

If you have the money, they have laptops where the screen can flip around and lay down flat, like a tablet.

That's the kind I'm looking at, if you read my initial post... I'm looking at "convertible" tablet PCs.

[Jeff Waegelin]

So... I've been looking at this some more, and while I've alleviated my concerns about using a tablet as my primary PC, I'm still not sure if it's worth the price premium. Tablets are a lot more expensive than comparably equipped notebooks, and I can't decide if it's worth the extra money. Anyone else have any more input on this subject?

[Joe Matt]

My local doctor's office is using HP Tablets, so I'd look into those. They look fine, are slim, and come with these cool docking stations. But hey, I'm a Mac user, so take it with a grain of salt.