Tablet + Notebook

Which portege are we talking about? Because there are 2 diff models of tablet pcs.

Acer have quite a good one, and Asus have one as well.

Steve

Averatec C3500. Don't think you can beat the price.

http://www.averatec.com/notebooks/C3500.htm

Fujitsu also have a good Tablet PC for you to choose from.
Take a look for yourself. ---> http://webshop.fujitsupc.com/fpc/Eco...B&pgid=Tablets

You guys dont seem to know much about tablets. He was referring to the Toshiba portege 200 which has a 32mb geforce card in it. Most other tablets(all of those that you guys mentioned) have cheap ass video solutions.

College kid, the only thing that comes close is the TC1100 by HP. It comes with a 32mb geforce card but is limited by a 1.1 GHz P-M, while the Toshiba can be upgraded to a 2.0 Dothan I believe.

Check out www.tabletpcbuzz.com

They have a real nice forum with knowledgeable tablet people. There you will find lists of games that can be played on the Toshiba and the HP.

While the tablets will surely progress with time... and new models will surely keep rolling out, unless the market (which is already small as it is) dies out. You will not see a tablet with a P4 processor in it, so processing power will definetely still be less than that which you would find in desktop replacement notebooks.

Video cards/gpus will also always be behind because of cooling. Tablets are more-or-less, meant to be held in one's arm. Having a Mobility Radeon 9000, 9200, 9600, 9700, or the new 9800 are definetely out of the question, because of the fact that they emmit plenty of heat. As it stands, even these "low voltage" 900-1.1 GHz P-m processors that are used in current tablets get mighty hot, sometimes to the point that it is uncomfortable to carry one on one's bare arm.

I believe that is ultimately what is going to keep tablets from catching up with its notebook counter-parts. If power is what you are looking for, then tablets might not be for you, YET. They are barely in their 2nd-3rd generation and thus still have much more room for development ahead of them.

Another thing that might be holding them back is weight. Even today's normal 4 lbs notebooks dont carry great gpus in them. The one that comes closest is the Sony Vaio Type-S but even then, that one goes above 4 lbs. In the tablet world, weight is a big factor and thus 4 lbs (like the toshiba) is almost too much.

New tablets are released every year and I expect to hear about some new models around christmas time, but I wouldnt hold my breat on anything revolutionary.

Regarding the Portege... yeah, it uses SXGA+ resolution, on a 14 inch screen. Definetely uncomfortable for some.

IMHO, the biggest problem with TabletPCs is the screen resolution. Of all laptop areas, it is tablets where the extra space an SXGA or UXGA would prove most valuable.

I briefly owned the Acer tablet, and love the concept, but XGA just doesn't do it. The Toshiba does have an SXGA screen, but not having an integrated optical drive makes it a no go. The Compaq TC1100 is slow (1G Centrino) and is a tablet that docks with a keyboard. I just wouldn't pay $1600 plus for it.

It's not that hard to do a tablet/touch screen and in fact you can even buy stick on touch screens for your current laptop. In a year or so I think most lappys will have tablet abilities, certainly if any of the ones I own did I would be in heaven cos I can really use the technology in my work. Once you use one you realise why they are so cool.

But none of them quite get it together for the money, mainly because of lack of demand. I look at my laptop and all it would take to make it a great Tablet PC is a swivel hinge, and a touch screen.

If you must have a Tablet now, I'd get the Toshiba unless you need to use the CD drive a lot. Otherwise I'd wait.

Oh, if you only need the occasional touch screen stuff, Acer make a Pentium 4 laptop with a tablet-style touch screen. It doesn't flip around, but you can write on it.

Cheers

Steve

Oh again. Beware of some cheap tablet-style PCs which don't actually use Microsoft's TabletPC software. They don't work very well.

Most tablets use small screens such as 10-12 inch ones. Having UXGA or SXGA+ resolutions on 10-12 inch screens is plain stupid.

Not at all. It's very useful. With SXGA or UXGA you can have the same physical size screen but fit more information in while still having it legible. It's the same reason higher resolutions are good on larger lappys, but even cooler on a tiny screen.

Wander on down to Best Buy and check out the Toshiba.

Cheers

Steve

If people find 15 inch SXGA+ uncomfortable (some) I doubt they would like to have a 12 inch SXGA+ screen. It wouldnt take off. Even college kid who is relatively young already showed his distaste for the small size of everything on the SXGA+ screen of the toshiba...

The thing about my Toshiba m200 is, unlike a normal notebook, I'm reading things closer than arms length. That makes the higher resolution on a smaller screen usable.

The native 1400x1050 resolution is great.

The only tablet >1.1 gig cpu with a seperate video card is the Toshiba m200.

Truthfully, a tablet pc isn't a great gaming machine. The 5200go card with 32 meg vid ram on the m200 is okay but won't be cranking out the FPS in Doom3.

For a student though, I can't recommend a tablet pc enough. It is great. Applications like OneNote and GoBinder make the tablet pc a fantastic notetaking/study tool.

I had an Acer 1712 and sold it to buy the m200. If I want a gaming rig, I'll build one for the desktop. The m200 is really an investment in my education.

Having said that, I've loaded Diablo2:LOD on it with the NoCD patch form www.gamecopyworld.com It works great. Not that I have alot of time to play it but it's there if I want it.

Check out www.tabletpcbuzz.com in their discussion area. Great info for students.

I agree with Renac in that when you're using a Tablet PC to surf the web, write notes, draw / diagram, then you're holding it more like you would hold a text book and a 12" display is OK.

Back to your original question though of Tablet PCs with internal optical drives:

Averatec C3500 - 12" display - AMD Athlon - CD-R/DVD
Acer TravelMate C30X - 14" display - Pentium M Dothan - option to get with a DVD burner
Gateway M275 - 14" display- CD-RW/DVD

TabletPC2.com has a good comparison chart.

As to playing games, this is going to be a personal judgment because it has to do with what types of games you're wanting to play, how seriously you're using the machine to do that, and how much of your time on that machine is doing so. If you want to play Chessmaster, Doom, and things like that - sure, people play those on Tablet PCs.

Hardware wise, the second generation Tablet PCs are in-line with traditional notebooks. Most use one of three types of Intel Pentium M processor, which is optimized for long battery life, low heat, smaller space. This is a good choice for Tablet manufacturers because the more you use it, the more you'll want to carry it around with you, and the lighter you'll want it to be.

The Averatec is brand new (August) and there are changes being made to the lines all the time -- for example, changing CPU speed grades. The next major changes will probably be just next year like with standard notebooks, and not until Intel releases its new Sonoma platform with mobile PCI express so can swap out graphics cards.

Since you're using it for school, check out apps like Agilix GoBinder and OneNote to help you take notes, organize, complete assignments, etc. I think the advantages these apps offer will outweigh concerns about playing games.

hey renac..

How is the writing recognition these days. I have to say at the avertec price it is VERY VERY tempting for me to pick that one up.. although i want to have a look at the m200 - it's a convertible right?

GO to a local costco and try out the averatec there before you buy... I would suggest you spend an extra few hundred and buy a better tablet.