I like Th3ph17's thinking here. I am a tablet PC user and do occasionally find that the stylus gets in the way. On the other hand, I can just move the stylus out of the way and get a better idea of what is going on. It is only really an issue when doing really really fine stuff. I often use a combination of a mouse and stylus in those situations. Zooming in to do fine work usually is sufficient for me.
You might consider changing the tap and hold time for the right-click function of your stylus as well. I find that it switches to right-clicks a little too easy for me in default mode.
ThePhil also makes a good point about laptop power. It is possible to get a fair bit more power for the same price in a non Tablet PC.
Having said that, I know that Acer has finally released a super option in the new C302lcmi with a dual layer DVD + CD burner, Sonoma 1.7ghz processor and can have up to 2GB of RAM and a 32MB Nvidia GeForce 3D graphics card. I have the C302xci which just has the DVD read + burn CD function and no 3D card. It works pretty well. I have 512MB ram and would like to have 1GB.
I've heard that DVD's don't last as long as CD's, so a lot of people still use CD's for archiving. 3D graphics aren't used by photoshop. My 1.6ghz Dothan series chip isn't really that much slower in practice.
Windows XP for Tablet PC 2005 is a newer version than standard XP. It has roughly 80MB more memory overhead than standard WinXP, although this may not be so true anymore when using an external WACOM digitizing pad. Many of the SP2 additions were beneficial to the Tablet version. My computer has experienced no conflicts or difficulties in using SP2 except what appeared to be a conflict with Nortion Antivirus which more than doubled the boot time. I got rid of Norton because it let in 3 trojans in 3 months even though I kept it fully updated and paid for. I haven't had any problems since in using Avast.
One of these days I do intend to make re-install WinXP using a slipstreaming process. I had a boot disc that made older 1ghz desktops boot full in 12-15 seconds. I want my Tablet to do that too.
The only other issue I know of falls back to using Firefox browser. It has some conflicts and occasionally goes into mega memory hog mode (100+MB).
There are other Tablets out there, but Acer makes a really good product that doesn't really shine in any particular areas, but has no glaring flaws, while keeping the price at a reasonable level and providing the rare on board optical drive so it would be my recommendation, particularly if this will be your only computer.
If you have any questions, I have done a significant amount of research on the subject as well as having gone and visited headquarters for Tatung company (who make another really great and very very slim tablet) and spoken with several different individuals in the business. Feel free to PM me with your questions and your hopes and expectations for this type of computer. |
