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Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?
Darwin:
That Laptop review is A-W-F-U-L! Reading the comments, which universally state what I had intended to write myself (the tm2 is not an iPad competitor and targets a different demographic, etc.), I note that one person who owns the tablet states that Win7's built in support for touch screen technology renders the HP touchsmart software irrelevant, anyway.
Let us know how you get on, Superboyac. I'm already jonesing for one of these!
superboyac:
Nice, Darwin. You are only encouraging me more, which i'm glad to hear. Yes, I realize it's not really an ipad competitor. But we all understand that to most people, any device with a touchscreen is going to be perceived as an ipad competitor. For more knowledgeable people, we understand that there is a difference to having an oversized iphone and having a portable tablet+keyboard with a full Windows OS are very different animals. Unfortunately for us, we are in the minority of people who would prefer the latter. Most people truly do prefer the ipad over a full-blown portable pc, and for their needs, they are correct. That's why ipad is so successful, and why apple is brilliant in making it that way. That's also why we powerusers so often bash it. But we have to realize that it wasn't meant for us. And that doesn't make it bad, just different. Again, WE are in the minority, not the other way around.
But, yeah, I'm excited about it. I love the fact that I actually NEED it now that my laptop is breaking. It's going to force me to buy it. I was thinking of getting a small netbook, but I've realized that i just don't like the devices with small screens. I like big screens, even if it reduces portability. I don't do any portable computing, so any small screen device will quickly become useless to me after the honeymoon phase wears off.
Darwin:
Heh, heh, my two year old notebook is on the fritz (removed and cleaned the heat sink. The OEM thermal pads were so decayed I removed them and threw them out - on a garbage collection day. Unfortunately, the gap between the chip on my GPU and the heatsink is greater than I can fill with thermal compound and it now refuses to boot. Generic replacement thermal pads are on order, but there's no guarantee that this will work)... Do I *DARE* use this as an excuse to try one of these for myself? For the moment, no... but if you pick one up and start raving about it, I may be ordering one myself.
superboyac:
Ok, ok...bear with me here...
I have now begun my "seriously shopping" phase. I've been reading about tablet pc's for the last 3 hours now. And, surprise, a new contestant has emerged: the HP 2740p. The reason why I'm now considering this one is because it's more professionally built than the cheaper tm2t. But it's not so simple. The tm2t does SOME things better than the 2740p such as the wacom pen input, which sounds like a slightly more advanced technology than whatever is on the 2740p. However, it doesn't sound like it's a big deal.
Now comes the price issue. The 2740p is going to run me probably $2000 or a little more. So it's more than twice the cost of the tm2t. But I'm a professional, I'm not a student or a gamer. I can afford it, but do I want to afford it. I'm really a desktop user: I'm not much of a portable computing person. I like big towers, lots of big monitors, big chairs, big speakers, etc. When I'm out and about, you won't even recognize me as the geek that you all know and love here. But the tablet thing is very intriguing to me. You will often see me walking around with a notepad and a pencil. i write a bunch down then go to my computer and put it in Infoqube or Evernote, etc. I would love to transfer that to the tablet pc. I'd like to get familiar with that whole process. I know the technology isn't perfect right now, but maybe I'll experiment for a year or two, and then get a really nice, mature one. back to the price, I think it may be worth it. I'm at an age and salary level where I'll easily pay twice as much to not have stupid little annoyances like the battery bump and poor screen quality of the cheaper tablet.
On to the issues with the 2740p. Firstly, the touch interface will never be as good as the ipad, I have to accept that. Apple has the whole multi-touch thing practically perfected. I'm so jealous of that. Still, the touch interface appears to be good enough and that's fine. There is one thing that not many people talk about around the net: third-party software! The BEST thing about being a pc user! There are plenty (I'm assuming) third party tools out there to make the touch experience on Windows 7 much much better. One of them is RitePen, which I'll be excited to try out. But let me explain what is happening. A lot of the complaints people have about these tablets are really complaints about the touch features that are BUILT-IN Windows 7. But nobody said you had to stick with that! So not many people are talking about the 3rd-party tools, which I find a little surprising. They bitch about Windows 7 touch features, the popup keyboard, etc...but all that can probably be drastically improved by some great third party utility. I'm all about that.
So, I may actually splurge and get this thing. But first I'm going to look at a couple of the other higher end tablet convertibles like Lenovo, Fujitsu, heck, even Panasonic (doubt it).
Here are the good links I've come across:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSutEkZFrU0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCjovy6aDhM
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/hp-elitebooks/
Finally, a short little quote from a helpful user that demonstrates why I keep changing my mind:
Finally, if you don't truly need a tablet (I have no professional or even hobby need, just kind of "fell in love" with the tablet/touch/pen format and its benefits when I first took the plunge in long-bagged TM2-land. Unless you already know you must have a tablet, ask yourself: how much am I using the tablet functions/how important are they to me? The reason: there are now more than half a dozen truly superb ultraportables available with the 2740 features and more, for everywhere from much less $ to similar money but far more features and performance - except tablet - eg, Toshiba Portege M700 (various configs and features), HP 2540 (as good or better than 2740 in all respects, hundreds cheaper, more options), Lenovo X201 non-tablet (same comments as HP 2540, with usual Lenovo pros/cons) - just to name a few. The Sony Z series is, for many, the "gold standard" in ultraportables, and it doesn't cost any more than a well equipped 2740p.
--- End quote ---
superboyac:
You know what? I just don't need it. That's all there is to it. There's nothing like a notepad and a pencil for me. I do everything in my notepad and at the end of the day/week enter the important stuff on my REAL computer, which is more than a desktop--it's a console station. So, no new gadget for me. I'm done.
Maybe...
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