Tablet pc

[imposter]

Hey guys
I Have bad hand writing, and poor organizational skills. So i thought i should get myself a tablet pc. i currently have a 700m. notebook. 1.8ghz P-M , 1.25 Gb of ram

and i was thinking of getting this

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/17038/HP-tx2500z-Tablet-PC-Turion-X2-2-Ghz--3GB-DDR2--250GB-HDD--DVDRW--WiFi--Webcam--12-1-Touchscreen--Vista-Premium-600---Free-HP-Deskjet-D1560-Printer-After-70MIR

which is kinda pricey for me now.

So my next idea was to get a USB Tablet Pad. such as these
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=296&name=Tablets

then the plan hopefully is over the summer ill hopefully work full time and buy myself a Laptop, with a decent graphics card so i can phase out my normal desktop.

Has anyone any experience with these? Any that are highly recommended.

Thanks !
imposter


oh to add. At school, i have a Q6600, with a Ultra 120, p5k mobo, 4GB of ram, 2 x 250GB hdd's in raid 0, and a x1900xtx. I have a 24 inch westinghouse monitor that takes HDMI inputs. i use the 700m when i go to classes.
so my goal is to have a laptop with a "decent" graphics card enough to play CSS i guess. and use the westinghouse as secondary monitor when i am in my dorm room.

[cyberfish]

I have the tx2000 (basically the tx2500 with an older generation AMD CPU and nvidia integrated graphics). I have been using it since summer for my university work. Great machine. Has its share of shortcomings, but the value is unbeatable (the next cheapest tablet PCs are in the $1500-$2000 range).

As for the shortcomings,
1) Short battery life (~2.5 hrs on "balanced" with medium brightness, CPU largely idle, display always on, to simulate "office" work). A bit shorter on my friend's tx2500 (~2 hr and 15 mins) probably due to faster hardware.
2) Dim display. The display is not even nearly as pretty as regular laptops nowadays, due to the touchscreen overlay. It looks okay on 100% brightness, but that kills battery life. It's a bit fuzzy, too. Make sure you go see an actual machine before you buy it (instead of blind buying it online), and see if it's acceptable for you.

On the positive side, the active digitizer works wonders (pressure sensing works wonderfully, too). Performance is okay (I'm hoping you don't plan to play games on this). Audio is good (granted my ears aren't too picky). Keyboard feels comfortable and responsive. And the price is certainly right.

I don't really use it for note taking (although it was the intended purpose when I bought it...) since my profs post all the notes and slideshows online, but I still use the touchscreen a lot since I am touchpad-challenged, and it is much more efficient to just poke the screen than try to move the cursor with the touchpad. I have also tried MSN inking with my friends, and it works perfectly, too. Very handy when, for example, you need to draw some simple diagrams to explain physics to your fellow classmates the night before the midterm...

I would strongly recommend this tablet PC.

[cyberfish]

As for USB tablet, I also have one, and I say forget about it unless you are a professional designer or artist or something. They feel very different (takes getting used to), and not as convenient (since you'll have to carry it around with you). Not as good as a touchscreen for mouse/touchpad replacement, too, since you don't see where you are actually pointing under the stylus.

[zbo]

I have that very tablet (wacom bamboo) and I love it.

It takes a while to get used to it (read ~1 week), but then it feels great. I've replaced my mouse for general use, I only swap to a mouse for gaming. I use it to make notes in lectures, edit photos everything I'd use a mouse for.

A mouse doesn't tell you whats directly under it but everyone manages to use them fine.

If you have a questions about the tablet I'll try and answer them for you.

[imposter]

Thanks guys,
i a going to go to Circuit city to try out their laptops. if the feeling is good i might consider. in the mean time

zbo, is it like normal tablets where you dont have to touch the screen to move the cursor, and touching the pad is left click, and there is a button on the pen for right click? are there any neat features for scrolling with that?

thanks

[cyberfish]

There are two types of touch technology (both tablet PC screen and tablet), resistive and capacitive.

capacitive -
more expensive
more accurate
can "move the cursor without touching the tablet/screen" (~1 inch)
requires a special stylus

resistive -
cheap
any hard object will work
no moving cursor without touching the tablet/screen
lower resolution (I believe, may be wrong)

The original tx1000 only has resistive, and it's one of its most complained shortcoming. Both the tx2000 and tx2500 has both capacitive AND resistive (resistive overlay is turned off when a stylus is near the screen, therefore, it's possible to rest your wrist on the screen while writing with the stylus without making a big mess).

That particular tablet I am not sure, but I think most if not all USB tablets are capacitive (otherwise how does one know where he is going to click...)

For both USB tablet and tablet PC, touching the pad is left click, and there's a button for right click. Holding the stylus down (touching the pad) for 3 seconds is also right click by default. I don't think there is scrolling. On the tablet PC (not sure if the USB tablet has it), the back of the stylus is the "eraser", supported by some applications (eg, Windows Journal, MSN Messenger).

[imposter]

Wow thanks for the detailed response. going to go to the store after we eat dinner!

What do you think of the laptop posted above at slickdeals compared to these two

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=hp+tablet&x=0&y=0

the main difference i see is that one has Esata support a feature that i would like, but not a feature i would spend extra 400 dollars for.

[cyberfish]

It also has a bit more memory, but laptop memory is like $20 for 2GB nowadays.

The CPU is also a bit faster, so depends on what you are going to do I guess.

The slickdeals one says it only has WiFi G, but I guess you can customize it to a N for a few bucks more (and bluetooth if you need it).

[imposter]

Well i couldnt make up my mind so i might be up for a wacom USB tablet. but then again, i dont like the fact that i can't see what i am writing. I guess i should have jumpped on one of the tablets.

http://www.buy.com/prod/wacom-intuos3-4x6-widescreen-pen-tablet-ptz431w-wacom-intuos3-4x6/q/loc/101/202992356.html

what i am consider (because of sale) but it might be way to fancy for what i need. Maybe the cheapest model is what i need.

[zbo]

Thanks guys,
i a going to go to Circuit city to try out their laptops. if the feeling is good i might consider. in the mean time

zbo, is it like normal tablets where you dont have to touch the screen to move the cursor, and touching the pad is left click, and there is a button on the pen for right click? are there any neat features for scrolling with that?

thanks

sorry about the late reply.

Yes you dont need to touch the pad to move the cursor and there is a button for right click. There is another button for whatever you want - I have it set for scrolling. Also on the other side of the pen is a rubber - to erase anything really quickly.