Convertible or Tablet Computer Experience
 

I'm considering buying a convertible computer (converts from a notebook to a tablet by rotating the screen and laying it on top of the keyboard).

Has anyone had experience with any of these? Did you find it useful? Do you have a recommendation?

I searched this forum and noticed reference to a tablet from a thread back in 2003, but things have progressed a bit since then (I hope).

All major manufacturers seem to make them (Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, etc.) and sell them online, but I can't find any in stores. Last night I drove all the way to Colorado Blvd and I-25 to a CompUSA. They had two of them, a Gateway and an HP, but they didn't have the stylus for either, so it wasn't all that useful (the stylus is used to write or draw on the screen). I've been to BestBuy and Circuit City, and salesmen at both said that they stopped carrying them in the stores as of last year. I really would like to try one for a few weeks to see if I really use the tablet feature, but I think that that's not possible.

your in luck my friend, my job before this one was working for Panasonic, doing tech support on there Toughbook brand of laptop computers. Panasonic offers on Toughbook with the Tablet functionality it's the CF-19. The tablet is fully ruggedized meaning it's got a full magnesium allow casing, shock mounted HDD enclosure, and environmental seals covering all the ports. The laptop also meets the militaries 810F-STD. Another perk about this tablet is the brightness, you won't find a brighter LCD (1000nit). Here's something you may not know, the difference between a digitzer and a touchscreen. A touchscreen uses a stylus, which is just a plastic pen, you can also use your finger with a touchscreen in place of the stylus but touchscreens are less accurate than digitizers. Digitizers will only work with a digitized pen. The old digitizer pens used to actually have batteries in them but the new ones use a technology which actually draws power from the screen itself. Digitizers are very accurate and the best for drawing / hand recognition. Touchscreens are good for cop cars who are just pressing buttons on the screen. One last thing, digitizers usually come with Windows XP Professional, Tablet Edition which basically has some cool stuff like microsofts own hand writing recognition software, touchscreens dont. if you have any other questions let me know.

Rexmons,
Thanks. I do have questions, but I don't quite know what they all are. In other words, I want one of these convertible computers, but I don't know exactly how I would use it. I have (paper) notebooks full of hand-written notes and it's very difficult to look for tasks or to otherwise organize the notes, so I was thinking that if I had a tablet PC I could use that when I'm taking notes (for example, during phone calls or when at meetings), which would then be searchable. But I have a 24" Gateway LCD monitor on my desktop, and I don't know if I could plug that in to a tablet PC and get full resolution. So then I'd have two computers at work, and would have to transfer files between them. So there are those functional questions.

There are also questions about reliability. When I asked one of the salesmen at BestBuy why they did not carry the convertibles in the store anymore, he said that a lot of customers had problems with the screen or the digitizer and there were a lot of returns. He felt that the professional level ($2000+) were more reliable than were the home level (~$1,000) machines.

Are the Toughbooks reliable? Are there common problems?

I've used a tablet at work (Toshiba), but I can't get myself to use the writing capability that much. It's too thick for me to write general notes - I'll stick with paper for that. I don't mind it as much if I want to draw something to explain something to someone or just for fun. I've also found it difficult to close a window with the X button if the window is maximized; it becomes a bit difficult to control the cursor in the corner. The handwriting recognition capability is excellent, though.

I have used the HP corporate convertible laptop, tc4400, for taking notes with Microsoft OneNote application at school and it was excellent. I mainly used it as a electronic notebook and to print existing documents into OneNote to annotate them during class. I have since graduated and don't use the tablet function a lot, but is nice to have once in a while. I have not have any problems with my current tablet since I got about 10 months ago. (The Intel Santa Rosa chipset/processor laptops are coming out soon so their tablet may be updated.)

I have also used 2 other tablet only computers because I have access to them at work. The only issue is with one of then is that the cursor shakes around the border of the screen, but doesn't really affect usability except when trying to right click.

HLJ -

You will not find a more reliable laptop than Panasonic's Toughbook. The CF-19 (the only tablet in the Toughbook line) happens to also be "fully ruggedized" meaning it meets Military 810F-STD. Which is a standard used to ensure maximum durabilty. In one the test for this standard the laptop must be dropped from a height of 4 feet and still be able to function uninteruppted. However, with this level of durabilty come a very high pricetag. A CF-19, fully loaded is going to cost you around $6,0000 if you opt to get a lower end model you are still looking at around $3,000 - $4,000. You can configure one at config.toughbook.com or you can call 1800-Laptop5 and ask any technical questions there as well. Also, all of Panasonic's Toughbooks come with a standard 3-Year warranty, for the life of the product, as opposed to the industry standard of 1-Year. You may want to also considering purchasing a docking station with any laptop you get in order to utilize your LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, and internet connection at work, seamlessly.

Rexmons - thanks. I think the Toughbook is a little out of my range. I'll look at the Toshiba and HP models mentioned above.

I just wish that I could find a store that carries them, so I can at least try out the stylus. (I called Gateway last night and the salesman said "Why do you need to try it? It is what it is.")

dont feel bad, it's outta my range too, you might want to look at Lenovo's X41 Thinkpad too, that's probably what I would get.

My sister has a thinkpad and loves it. I haven't had a chance to play with it at all, but I've seen her use it, and it looked really cool.

glatt, is it a Thinkpad convertible? If so, do you know how writing on it compares to writing on paper?

I think it is, but I'm afraid I don't know what it's like. She was always using it, you see.

Thanks to all for the input. I'm considering the Lenovo Thinkpad X60 (the replacement for the X41) - but I'm going to wait a few weeks and consider how I would really use it.

Fujitsu was making tablets and touchscreen laptops before it was in vogue. You can find used units very easily.

I recommend high-quality software for the note keeping; I've heard good things about MS OneNote. If you can't find good software, bail. It's no easier organizing loose vector files than loose sheets of paper. And while the laptop can do other things (hold pdf's, videos, internet), what do you do when someone hands you info on paper? Gonna keep a scanner and printer in your backpack?

Every time I felt the urge to go digital, I always found that a 3-ring binder works even better. Sheets are loose so they can be rearranged, and those plastic paper holders keep info that's not punched.

If you're not certain what you need a tablet computer for, you might try the paper route (or perhaps a binder plus a normal computer) until you better know what you need.

I've finally ordered a tablet PC, a ThinkPad X61. But I have that voice in my stomach saying, "Are you sure you want to buy another laptop?"

The expected ship date is still four weeks off.

Please be sure to let us know how it goes. I have just started looking into them myself.

I looked into getting one when looking for a new pc after my old desktop died. I liked the somewhat textured surface on one in particular, I think it was the IBM. But even that could not convince me to part ways with my norm of taking notes in class on the good ol' spiral notebook. Even though the functionality is there with the tablet for things like highlighting, etc., it always just seemed easier and faster to use my notebooks. Not to mention you can get them for dirt cheap at back-to-school sales, which doesn't really make up for the extra cost of having a tablet over a regular laptop to me.

The ThinkPad X61 just arrived - 3 weeks early.

I haven't opened the box yet.

May I should do a photo documentary.

Yes!! Yes do.

Oh, dude! It's been five days, HLJ. Please at least tell us it works and how much fun it is.

Doesn't that give you a clue - five days without a note. Not have I bathed, neither ate, nor drank, etc.

I wish I had my camera with me so I could - wait, I have my phone! Hold the line.

Ok, the first picture below shows my current work set-up.

I used my phone camera and sent the picture to my e-mail, then opened it in OneNote 2007. I annotated it in OneNote, then took a screen clipping, which I saved to my desktop (as a PNG). I then had to open the PNG in The GIMP and save it as a jpg to upload to here.

Despite all that effort, it's a pretty crappy picture.

I've got the ThinkPad on it's docking station, in multi-monitor mode, with a Gateway 24-inch flat screen LCD monitor. I'm using a wireless mouse and an external keyboard. I have an external hard drive for backup purposes.

I'm happy to say that I've been able to get the computer to recognize the network, so I have internet, I was able to install both network printers, and I was able to get Outlook 2007 to work with our Exchange server.

The only thing I can't figure out is how to synchronize Outlook through a Wi-Fi or dial-up connection. (I really don't like Outlook Web Access.)

Last night I made a drawing using the digitizer tablet and The GIMP. I've added that picture at the bottom.

Sweet! I'm glad you're happy, HLJ. Thanks for letting us know.

The funny thing is, I'm using this at work, but, with the exception of the wired keyboard, everything in that set-up I paid for myself (Tablet PC, docking station, 24" monitor, wireless mouse, external drive, plus all the software).

Tax deduction.

lol

Update
 

I thought that I would post an update for those people who might still be considering a tablet PC.

With the exception of art/drawing programs, I don't use the tablet functionality very often. But for what I do use it, I'm glad to have it. Below are two pictures I made using the free version of ArtRage 2.

The battery life (3 to 4 hours) is much better than my previous laptop, but less, I think, than the manufacturer's estimate.

I like the fingerprint reader, which substitutes a fingerprint scan for typed passwords. The password can still be typed in as an option.

Bootup and shutdown times are long; therefore, I rarely turn the computer off, but rather put it in sleep mode by closing the cover. Restart is almost instantaneous and battery use is minimal.

I've downloaded about 10 movies to the hard drive and found that this method of watching movies (with Etymotic ER6 earphones) is quite good. I watched two movies this way while travelling back from Germany last week, and one more at home.

The only video output available from the X61 is a standard monitor connection; there is no S-video or component video, so I don't know if I can connect it to my home projector.

I want to buy a large external drive and rip about half of my movies to it, so that I can transfer them to this computer for travel. A friend of mine estimated that it would take about 1.5 years to rip and convert 500 movies (i.e. 1 per day).

This computer came loaded with Windows Vista, which has worked fine so far, though it does have a few annoying "security" quirks and won't run my favorite synchronization program, FolderMatch.

Here are two flower pictures I'm working on. The first one is free-hand and the second was done using ArtRage's trace option.