I just purchased a light and efficient laptop for my ideal needs. After seeing its size, I was told by a close friend I would have been better off with a Tablet PC. I heve never been interested in Tablet PCs, and never understood what possible avantage they would have over a laptop. Most of the ones I've seen do not fit in your pocket anyway and you still need to carry it in your hand. Forgive my ignorance but, would the only advantage of a Tablet PC be carrying a 1 kg less weight in your hand? Or is it just another gadget you buy to keep up with the Jones'? Can anyone please point out to an important advantage one would have over a small laptop? (besides the obvious ones about the size and the use of a pen - neither of which really impresses me).
I never thought the size of tablets was a selling point. From what I've seen, they are the same size as laptops and the only selling point is the pen/touchscreen. I've definitely never heard anything about putting them in your pocket. Which you should have depends on what you do with it. If you're a student in some form of hard science, a tablet would be fantastic because you could take notes in class with it. I bought a laptop a few years ago for that reason, and have never been able to take notes on it because I can't type equations fast enough. If I'd bought a tablet instead, I could have organized all my class notes in one place. On the other hand, if you only intend to use the laptop for normal computer things, a laptop is better and probably cheaper for the same speed.
I have a tablet PC (a Motion LE1600). For my uses, it is the best of both worlds: I can use it as a PDA but with a screen actually big enough to write notes on (OneNote is pretty good) and get a detailed weekly overview in my diary; I can use it as a laptop to write my letters and reports, and do basically anything I need to while away from my office PC. I actually find it easier to comfortably lean back in a seat and cradle it looking down and writing on it like a notepad, than to balance a laptop on my knees and hunch over a keyboard. I download all my scientific articles in .PDF from Google Scholar and read them on my Tablet like I would on an e-book. I can even jot annotations in the margins with the right software. The best thing is its light weight, even with a double battery (one in the "spine", one very flat rectangle covering the bottom of the machine). Eight hours of continuous running time, right there, baby! Other people may find laptops more useful. It all depends what you use it for and what your preferred input style is.
The question is whether you want a dedicated tablet or a 'convertable' laptop...the former being lighter as it's simply a screen with a PC underneath (ie the Motion series), whereas most options available in standard retailers will be of the latter variety and have a screen which swings round to switch from notebook to notepad style. As crazybob said, it really depends on your application of the device, and you won't find many (well-priced) tablet PCs under 12". You just need to decide if you need a more powerful conventional option or a device geared more towards text-based work and note-taking. <A88>
Sorry for a late reply but I have read all the responses with great interest, and I am grateful for the information. Thank you all! I can see clearly now where tablet PC would have an advantage, expecially where battery life and drawing of shapes or equations are concerned. Now you've got me thinking about buying one too...
Dependant of usage, but i say laptop, so much more adaptable, i reccommend a laptop. my mate got a tablet pc and its crap in my view! Well i say laptop!
Keep in mind that only the Motion LE1600 offers 7-8 hours of ontinuous running time, due to its second (5mm thick) battery covering the back of the machine. But it's a pricey machine (though worth every penny --no expense spared in its construction) and rarely found on eBay (don't believe the ridiculously low price "surplus stock" offers you may see for them --they are all scams. Motion Computing is a small company. There is no surplus stock). Convertibles give you the best of both worlds, but have a much more modest battery life (typically about 4 hours) and they are heavier. This is only an issue of course if you carry it around in your arm a lot, not if you work on a desktop surface.
how fast can you type on a tablet?. ive tried doing work on pda's before and just cant get used to tapping an on screen keyboard. if the handwriting recognition on xp tablet is like windows mobile its useless too. a convertible on the other hand looks like it could be pretty good, if you could get a 12" one then it wouldnt be too heavy and for just web browsing or watching films you dont have to have a grea big laptop folded open on your desk or lap.
I have a Jornada 720. Touch screen and keyboard, and 10 hours battery life, 24 with extended battery. Its small too.
We have had quite a few covertible tablet PC's at work. The first generation were an absoloute nightmare and still dont work properly. We havent heard a peep from the users who have recived them recently which is always a good sign. I would definetly say that unless you have a particular need to use a tablet like you would use a paper note book then it is not worth the premium over a standard laptop.
Handwriting recognition on the Tablet is spookily accurate. It can even make sense of my handwriting and I have written whole reports in longhand. It really is very good. In OneNote, you can, of course, just write without this being converted to print (although you can do that afterwards, and it will still "read" your scribbles without converting it to print so you can search for handwritten entries). This is generally easier for quick and dirty note taking. You can later convert it and copy the printed text to a Word document.
Awesome looking tablet there nexxo, really want one of those now I got mine a few months ago off eBay, pretty damn good price too, an Acer Pentium M tablet laptop. Was originally going to get a normal laptop, but I thought having a twisty screen tablet PC could come in very handy. Unfortunately the one I bought didn't come with the pen (requires a special pen as it's not a normal touch screen, unlike a PDA) and I've been having trouble tracking one down. One of those times when living in the USA would come in handy. So as of yet havn't been able to use it's tablet functions yet, but I can see that it would come in very handy, especially for note taking and reading stuff like pdf documents. Unfortunately it's got the battery life of a normal laptop, so it's not really viable for taking to lectures unless I get a spare battery I can swap over.
