Fujitsu Lifebook P1500 now available with Tablet PC OS
By Barb Dybwad 
posted Sep 14th 2005 8:30AM
posted Sep 14th 2005 8:30AM
Aha, it looks like the Fujitsu Lifebook P1500 is finally shipping with a Windows XP Tablet PC edition option. You can still opt to get this with regular old Windows XP if you wish. It's all about options, yo. You can officially get your mitts on one starting mid-October, with base configurations starting off at $1,549.
I WANT ONE! Can you use tablet pc with your fingers yet?
"I WANT ONE! Can you use tablet pc with your fingers yet?"
Actually, this unit will allow you to use your finger tips to drag the cursor around the screen (because it has a passive digitizer like PDAs).
And that's what's so puzzling about this unit. I thought MS barred units without active digitizers (that requires EMR pens that allow for "hovering" of the cursor) to come with the TPC edition of Win XP Pro. Unless MS had a policy change recently, This might get Fujitsu a slap on the wrist for doing something like this.
I'm not sure I understand the limitation of using xp pro, as opposed to using the tablet edition. I was unaware taht you could use xp pro with a converible. (although until today I had never really thtought about it) I completely missed this unit because when looking for tablets this one wasn't listed. It looks perfect for what I would use it for. But now im confused as to what the benefits would be to waiting for the tablet edition.
can someone please help out here?
-diem
diem: basically w/o the tablet os programs won't recognize ink as text, so programs like gobinder and onenote won't work completely. the reason is that certain api's are only available on the tablet edition. this means that, for example in gobinder, u can only have what's written displayed as a picture. you can't search through your written text wihtout convertingit to... well text.
...and how are they offering tablet edition? are they switching from the passive digitizer?
XP TPC Ed is a superset of XP pro. It adds drivers and other necessities to the XP Pro to intergrate the pen input functionality (such as hovering cursor for active digitizers, right clicking via pen, etc..).
It also adds INK integration to the OS well as adding several built in apps that features INK functionality, such as Windows Journal. INK is really what makes a Tablet PC a Tablet PC.
But the quaility of INK really suffers from lack of an active digitizer, since passive ones have far slower sampling rates and lower accuracy. It's alot like the difference between writing with a ball point pen and a stick of crayon, IMHO.
"Unless MS had a policy change recently, This might get Fujitsu a slap on the wrist for doing something like this."
MS actually did have a policy change recently..
http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2005/09/hello_touchscre.html
so for sketching on the screen you reccommemd an active digitizer (pen based)
i would use this for drawing on the screen more than handwriting recognition
If you are going to buy a TPC for sketching/drawing/painting, then you definitely want an active digitizer, and you definitely want to avoid the TPCs not using Wacom digitizer.
I tried out one of the few TPCs not using Wacom's digitizer (because it was sub $1200), and I found the pressure sensitivity on the unit to be utterly shit. It was Averatec's C3500 using UC-Logic's digitizer.
Good thing is that almost all TPCs now use Wacom's UD series digitizer. Just make sure that you get a unit with a fast Pentium M, add plenty of RAM, and stick with either Corel Painter or Alias Sketch Book Pro for drawing and sketching. Photoshop's line smoothing engine is still shit compared to Painter and SBP.
Where's the bluetooth? In a unit this small, I especially want the ability to use bluetooth to connect to my phone. I also like the ability to use bluetooth to conect to an external keyboard and mouse.
I was glad to see that the internal memory can be upgraded to a total of 1 gig of ram. It's pricy, but I'm not sure I want to buy a new laptop that has less than that.
If you are going to buy a TPC for sketching/drawing/painting, then you definitely want an active digitizer, and you definitely want to avoid the TPCs not using Wacom digitizer.
I tried out one of the few TPCs not using Wacom's digitizer (because it was sub $1200), and I found the pressure sensitivity on the unit to be utterly shit. It was Averatec's C3500 using UC-Logic's digitizer.
Good thing is that almost all TPCs now use Wacom's UD series digitizer. Just make sure that you get a unit with a fast Pentium M, add plenty of RAM, and stick with either Corel Painter or Alias Sketch Book Pro for drawing and sketching. Photoshop's line smoothing engine is still shit compared to Painter and SBP.
Does anyone know if this has the view anywhere screen with wide angle viewing?
Yeah, that Averatec C3500 was poo-poo. Every TabletPC I've tried since has been much better, but not good enough to wash the bad taste out of my mouth from my experience with the Averatec.
Ooh, nice! :)
Oh joy, YASVGA display! :( Is it so difficult to implement an XGA panel? Maybe there's a dirth of small, high-res panels or something.
At 8.9", 1024x600 is pretty darn good. I can't imagine finer dot pitch LCD than this without getting raped on MSRP.
I've had a P1510 for about a month now, and I absolutely love it. While not the Tablet PC edition, I love that the touchscreen is calibrated to respond to the stylus or other small point, but not to fingertips, preventing accidental taps and cursor moves.
Pics on Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/celluloidpixels/sets/948093/
Shogmaster: Actully, the display is WSVGA, not WXGA. That would make it some variant of 800x600, probably something like 854x480. That seems to be supported by the information I've been able to Google on the unit.
Have you found a website with the resolution, or was that 1204*600 figure just a guess/supposition?
shogmaster / others:
Microsoft has opened the licensing for the Tablet OS to be installed on touch enabled systems. That news came out on Monday.
xVariable:
Dude, you went to everywhere but the official website? They tell you right at the model's site that it's 1024x600. :D
Rob:
Yeah, I went to TPC Buzz afterwards and saw the news item. Kinda expected I guess, but a bit worrying. Might dilute the TPC model too much.
This looks great except it doesn't have any PC Card, so broadband modems can't be connected
This looks great except it has no PC Card, so you can't use a broadband / EVDO modem
It has a PC card. Broadband can be connected. Screen resolution is excellent and optimal. Check out the actual vendor side for actual shipping specifications. Don't trust other sites. Here's the link:
http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com/www/products_notebooks.shtml?products/notebooks/tech_specs/p1510d_ts#11
I'm extremely interested in this little convertible as only the motion computing LS800 is anywhere close in size....but, I just emailed the support and sales reps at fujitsu's website and last week 11/2/05 and they tell me they are not shipping the P with tablet edition and don't know when they will. Yet the news online and their own news is full of the supposed change. What gives? Does anyone know if they actually ship with tablet ed. or not? and if so where do I buy one for 1500 and change?
What is wrong with Fujitsu:
- small memory
- the 512MB mem upgrade (to 1GB) cost $800!!! (instead of $140)
- slow and small hard drive: 30GB or 60GB and only 4200RPM, not SATA
- no DVD
- no PCMCIA card slot
- (no GSM support like Flybook)
- too thick! (see IBM for slim notebooks but they don't make 8.9")
- pen too thin – I can not understand why Fujitsu doesn’t care about ergonomics
I hope Fujitsu will fix these design problems before the upcoming new Intel chip (Yonah ULV) becomes available. I am planning to buy the Fujitsu then! For me the PCMCIA slot essential for communication.
The big plus from Fujitsu: it has a magnesium case!!!!! Great!!!
NO PC card slot!!!!
Only CF, SD card slot!
(please check your facts before submit your comment with source)
http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com/www/products_notebooks.shtml?products/notebooks/tech_specs/p1510d_ts#11