i've had two tablets. a gateway c-140x is my current one. centrinoduo/santa rosa chipset (cpu = t7300 2.0 ghz x 2), intel wifi, ati hd2300 (directx 9.0=mediocore), 200gb 7200rpm HD and 4gb of ram. it runs a little warm but does amazingly well with everyting i've thrown at it. it's a 14" widescreen convertible, so the size might be too big for some, but it's perfect for me. i will likely be upgradeing the CPU to a penryn in a few months to help cool it down and run it faster.
my old tablet is/was an acer c301xci-g. centrino chipset (pentium m @ 1.4ghz), old intel wifi, intel 845 Igfx, 80gb 7200rpm HD and 2gb of ram. also a 14" tablet though this time fullscreen. ran great with xp except for xp's tablet functions were/are resource hogs, crashed regularly due to that and video card driver conflicts.
both now run Vista Ultimate, the only troubles i've had are one that i caused. my advice is if you want a tablet go with something that runs vista. Vista's tablet functions outshine XP by so much that there is almost no comparison. The only downside to that is that Vista Tablet functions run considerably better on better hardware. I'd recommend a minimum of 2gb ddr2, 1.8ghz core 2 duo (penryn if possible), and at least a mid-range discreet gfx card. luckily you can find all that in a year old tablet desing for about 900 ~ 1,200 with an acceptable warranty.
I second the Gateway E-295c a.k.a C-140 convertible. The best one available currently with its own dedicated graphics and active matrix touchscreen. Toshiba downgraded their M-400 line, so Gateway is the only one wih dedicated graphics hardware on the market today. And Unlike the reputation of their other lines, this Gateway is particularly well-built.
The Lenovo X61 is pretty good from what I've heard, failing that I use an Acer TravelMate C213 and it's met any task I've thrown at it. Whatever you do, don't get a Modbook, it's a waste of money. OS X is good, but it's not a good Tablet PC OS and won't be until Apple jumps on the Tablet PC bandwagon, which might not even happen. Get a computer running Vista (much better tablet support and you'll be able to run the 64-bit version, but you need one of the higher versions. Shell out the extra for Ultimate, you'll regret it later if you don't) with Onenote 2007. Onenote 2003 was absolutely indispensable, especially for schoolwork, and Onenote 2007 is even better thanks to built-in ink/image/audio search and integrated clipping tools. Plus, if you have a Windows Mobile PDA it comes with Onenote Mobile, which is good for taking notes on the run.
Also, use Firefox with Firegestures, Grab and Drag and GeckoTip as your browser, gestures work brilliantly with a pen and Grab and Drag is awesome.
I'll third the Gateway E-295/C-140X recommendation about tablets generally, but it's not something you'd want to carry around a ton. I use it for office project management work for software design, and the ability to snap screens off web apps with OneNote, draw modifications right on the image, and send this to my developers is invaluable to me. Even without discrete graphics, it does everything I need it to do, including Photoshop, etc. Taking it around my office or on trips isn't fine, but if you loaded it into a backpack and tried to carry it around with a bunch of books, it'd be pretty heavy.
Gateway also makes a 12 inch model, the C-120, and it you want to go the cheap route, Gateway has been selling refurbished models via e-Bay. I don't think the 12 incher has a Wacom screen like the 14 inch model (my screen is a joy to write with), but it does let you use either a pen or a finger, and allegedly work really well. It's a more manageable 4.5-5 lbs, and included an optical drive at that size. It uses the Core 2 Duo ULV, so it's no powerhouse, but it doesn't sound like you need that.
Whatever you get, check out OneNote for notetaking, it has wonderful tablet integration.
Suggesting a Mac is simply foolish when recommending a laptop, especially when it's not really an *official* Apple product and simply a creative usage of a regular MacBook.
I've owned a few Tablet PC's since they first surfaced and demo'd quite a few as well. The latest offerings aren't all that impressive as they haven't really shrank too much in size and manufacturers can't seem to get the form-factor right. That being said, I'd recommend one of the slate editions and forgo the attached keyboard of convertable Tablets for a bluetooth model. I've used a Compaq 1100 for quite a while, which served it's purpose quite well, and have found it tought to really find a quicker replacement that matched what I already had. I demo'd the new HP versions for a few weeks at a time, but they when to heavier/clunkier models that actually went backwards in terms of form-factor development.
What I've actually settled on right now is a HTC Shift, it's a lot smaller and portable than the 10" slates and seems to meet myy needs in terms of portability. My chief complaint with it is lack of ability to switch to portrait mode (What the hell was HTC thinking!!!), but other than that and the overzealoous pricing, it's an awesome little system complete with biometrics, novel approach to integrating a sliding keyboard, and runs pretty well. It's a solid device, yet small enough to carry where ever you need (it's about the size of a couple DVD cases stacked). Check YouTube for a video of someone demoing the unit and hit up eBay for a less wallet-burning price.
I meant TabletPC in my above comment, not "laptop," as Apple laptops are pretty good for what they give you, but not in the realm of Tablet PC funtions.
Regarding the Gateway Tablets... I also demo'ed a couple of their models for about a month. It had a nice large screen and solid build but was way too large for a TabletPC, heavy to boot. We actually requisitioned one for a few members, but they were pretty much shelved after the first month due to weight & size.
Fujitsu has been in the market since the beginning, but they also tend to be on the heavy side and tend to stick with the clam-shell form-factor.
An Eee laptop is not a TabletPC, and while I'm seeing here that you *may* be able to replace the screen with a touch-screen, Asus really blew it with the tiny screen and all that wasted real estate which the display should be filling. Lots of wasted space and the screen is a lot smaller than the pictures make it out to be, go to a local shop and demo one before even thinking about buying one. You'd be better off with a Kohjinsha TabletPC, it's around the same size but is an actual TabletPC and the screens a tad larger (still just as cheap too!).
Stay away from the super-small screend you find on some UMPC's, such as the OQO, Fujitsu Loox, Gigabyte UMPC or anything that's 5" or less, you'll hate the size of the screen and the thumb-board keyboard... a recipe for frustration and such a pain! I own an OQO, but I'm soon to be a previous owner mainly due to the problems mentioned above and it's just too small for my needs. Recommending an iPod Touch or iPhone is just silly as well, too small for anything PC-useful but definitely fun for portable media in your pocket. There's a lot of software out there for them, but nothing that would replace your laptop/TabletPC.
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Axiotron: Modbook.
I agree. Axiotron ModBook FTW.
Does the ModBook operate in portrait mode? A table that can't do portrait is pretty useless to me. Might as well be a laptop at that point.
eee pc with modded touch screen.... sorry for hijacking but it's the cheapest way and works well
i've had two tablets. a gateway c-140x is my current one. centrinoduo/santa rosa chipset (cpu = t7300 2.0 ghz x 2), intel wifi, ati hd2300 (directx 9.0=mediocore), 200gb 7200rpm HD and 4gb of ram. it runs a little warm but does amazingly well with everyting i've thrown at it. it's a 14" widescreen convertible, so the size might be too big for some, but it's perfect for me. i will likely be upgradeing the CPU to a penryn in a few months to help cool it down and run it faster.
my old tablet is/was an acer c301xci-g. centrino chipset (pentium m @ 1.4ghz), old intel wifi, intel 845 Igfx, 80gb 7200rpm HD and 2gb of ram. also a 14" tablet though this time fullscreen. ran great with xp except for xp's tablet functions were/are resource hogs, crashed regularly due to that and video card driver conflicts.
both now run Vista Ultimate, the only troubles i've had are one that i caused. my advice is if you want a tablet go with something that runs vista. Vista's tablet functions outshine XP by so much that there is almost no comparison. The only downside to that is that Vista Tablet functions run considerably better on better hardware. I'd recommend a minimum of 2gb ddr2, 1.8ghz core 2 duo (penryn if possible), and at least a mid-range discreet gfx card. luckily you can find all that in a year old tablet desing for about 900 ~ 1,200 with an acceptable warranty.
good luck,
hoffmanbike
i apologize for my typos.......
I second the Gateway E-295c a.k.a C-140 convertible. The best one available currently with its own dedicated graphics and active matrix touchscreen. Toshiba downgraded their M-400 line, so Gateway is the only one wih dedicated graphics hardware on the market today. And Unlike the reputation of their other lines, this Gateway is particularly well-built.
check out these tablets by Gigabyte:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/03/hands-on-with-gigabyte-m912-and-m724-convertible-mini-tablets/
they're cheap, portable, and tablets. you said it wouldn't be your main machine, so to me these seem perfect.
The Lenovo X61 is pretty good from what I've heard, failing that I use an Acer TravelMate C213 and it's met any task I've thrown at it. Whatever you do, don't get a Modbook, it's a waste of money. OS X is good, but it's not a good Tablet PC OS and won't be until Apple jumps on the Tablet PC bandwagon, which might not even happen. Get a computer running Vista (much better tablet support and you'll be able to run the 64-bit version, but you need one of the higher versions. Shell out the extra for Ultimate, you'll regret it later if you don't) with Onenote 2007. Onenote 2003 was absolutely indispensable, especially for schoolwork, and Onenote 2007 is even better thanks to built-in ink/image/audio search and integrated clipping tools. Plus, if you have a Windows Mobile PDA it comes with Onenote Mobile, which is good for taking notes on the run.
Also, use Firefox with Firegestures, Grab and Drag and GeckoTip as your browser, gestures work brilliantly with a pen and Grab and Drag is awesome.
I'll third the Gateway E-295/C-140X recommendation about tablets generally, but it's not something you'd want to carry around a ton. I use it for office project management work for software design, and the ability to snap screens off web apps with OneNote, draw modifications right on the image, and send this to my developers is invaluable to me. Even without discrete graphics, it does everything I need it to do, including Photoshop, etc. Taking it around my office or on trips isn't fine, but if you loaded it into a backpack and tried to carry it around with a bunch of books, it'd be pretty heavy.
Gateway also makes a 12 inch model, the C-120, and it you want to go the cheap route, Gateway has been selling refurbished models via e-Bay. I don't think the 12 incher has a Wacom screen like the 14 inch model (my screen is a joy to write with), but it does let you use either a pen or a finger, and allegedly work really well. It's a more manageable 4.5-5 lbs, and included an optical drive at that size. It uses the Core 2 Duo ULV, so it's no powerhouse, but it doesn't sound like you need that.
Whatever you get, check out OneNote for notetaking, it has wonderful tablet integration.
Suggesting a Mac is simply foolish when recommending a laptop, especially when it's not really an *official* Apple product and simply a creative usage of a regular MacBook.
I've owned a few Tablet PC's since they first surfaced and demo'd quite a few as well. The latest offerings aren't all that impressive as they haven't really shrank too much in size and manufacturers can't seem to get the form-factor right. That being said, I'd recommend one of the slate editions and forgo the attached keyboard of convertable Tablets for a bluetooth model. I've used a Compaq 1100 for quite a while, which served it's purpose quite well, and have found it tought to really find a quicker replacement that matched what I already had. I demo'd the new HP versions for a few weeks at a time, but they when to heavier/clunkier models that actually went backwards in terms of form-factor development.
What I've actually settled on right now is a HTC Shift, it's a lot smaller and portable than the 10" slates and seems to meet myy needs in terms of portability. My chief complaint with it is lack of ability to switch to portrait mode (What the hell was HTC thinking!!!), but other than that and the overzealoous pricing, it's an awesome little system complete with biometrics, novel approach to integrating a sliding keyboard, and runs pretty well. It's a solid device, yet small enough to carry where ever you need (it's about the size of a couple DVD cases stacked). Check YouTube for a video of someone demoing the unit and hit up eBay for a less wallet-burning price.
I meant TabletPC in my above comment, not "laptop," as Apple laptops are pretty good for what they give you, but not in the realm of Tablet PC funtions.
Regarding the Gateway Tablets... I also demo'ed a couple of their models for about a month. It had a nice large screen and solid build but was way too large for a TabletPC, heavy to boot. We actually requisitioned one for a few members, but they were pretty much shelved after the first month due to weight & size.
Fujitsu has been in the market since the beginning, but they also tend to be on the heavy side and tend to stick with the clam-shell form-factor.
An Eee laptop is not a TabletPC, and while I'm seeing here that you *may* be able to replace the screen with a touch-screen, Asus really blew it with the tiny screen and all that wasted real estate which the display should be filling. Lots of wasted space and the screen is a lot smaller than the pictures make it out to be, go to a local shop and demo one before even thinking about buying one. You'd be better off with a Kohjinsha TabletPC, it's around the same size but is an actual TabletPC and the screens a tad larger (still just as cheap too!).
Stay away from the super-small screend you find on some UMPC's, such as the OQO, Fujitsu Loox, Gigabyte UMPC or anything that's 5" or less, you'll hate the size of the screen and the thumb-board keyboard... a recipe for frustration and such a pain! I own an OQO, but I'm soon to be a previous owner mainly due to the problems mentioned above and it's just too small for my needs. Recommending an iPod Touch or iPhone is just silly as well, too small for anything PC-useful but definitely fun for portable media in your pocket. There's a lot of software out there for them, but nothing that would replace your laptop/TabletPC.
Sorry for the typo.