The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 5 (of 5)

Tablet PC Recommendations

I've been thinking of getting a Tablet PC, so I can use OneNote, etc for taking notes and stuff.

I've always wanted to scribble and then edit/save and good old paper and pencil works, but has some limitations.

Does anyone care to recommend a good Tablet PC that I can get in the UK ?

I tried looking on the Dell website (where I get all my PCs, etc), but they don't seem to have any available now.

Steve Jones (UK)
Tuesday, June 22, 2004

At work, we have 7 of the Compaqs (I forget the model) and they're ragin pieces of crap.

They're *incredibly* fragile (moreso than any laptop I've seen), they have few options for upgrades, and they're running embeddedXP... which is sort of XP, sort of Pocket PC, but really neither.

I have to admit that I love the idea of them, but you get all of the downsides of a fragile physical design along with all of the downsides of XP with few upsides... other than the mobility.

KC
Tuesday, June 22, 2004

I have an Acer TravelMate C110. It's great, although the battery life is a bit short.
I got mine from http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/

Martin Kerchunga (UK)
Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Dell doesn't make a tablet, but http://www.motioncomputing.com/ was started by a bunch of guys that left Dell to do tablet computers. I played around with one for a little while, it seemed to be a decent solution. You can even buy it through Dell if you wish. Someone here at work has a Toshiba slate tablet and absolutely loves it.

hmm...
Tuesday, June 22, 2004

I have a Toshiba M205 and I absolutely love it. I used going back to school as an excuse to get it, but I also use it in my side business taking notes at the client site and drawing mockups. It's a convertible model, so the screen rotates between slate & laptop modes. I can be taking notes on a lecture, then flip it around and use it like a laptop when the prof starts writing code.

It has a Centrino (1.5 GHz) with 512 MB of RAM, which is perfect for my uses. I use OneNote extensively, and then also VS.NET 2003, Visio & Office.

I put services for UNIX on there, and I use the CLI a lot for the UNIXy stuff at school. Works great.

The machine is really quiet. Even when the fan kicks it, I can barely hear it. I record the lectures with the built-in microphones, and I haven't noticed the fan when listening to the recording.

It's a good computer, built solidly, though I don't like how they moved the Win key up to the top right, and in its place is a Fn key. grrr. That's my only gripe.

nathan
Tuesday, June 22, 2004

I keep seeing amazing reviews for the Tosh m200 tablet

£1500 at most places, but most places are also mostly sold out...

Giles Gregg
Tuesday, June 22, 2004

I have a Motion Computing tablet and I think its great. Battery life is around 3.5-4 hrs. Built in wireless, bluetooth, voice recognition, fingerprint security. And it has a keyboard mounting stand that doubles as a cover.

Damn nice box.

Jeff Kotula
Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Arrg, stop talking about cool things that I want while I'm trying to save for a house.

Damn techies!

Wayne
Tuesday, June 22, 2004