Technology Tablet PC?

[PreMD86]

---

Members don't see this ad.

.

 

[kypdurron5]

I've owned a Tablet PC and found it's usefulness to be rather low. I ended up using it normally (i.e. not using the pen) 98% of the time. The other 2% was when I a) really forced myself to use it as a tablet and b) was reading a long web page or article and preferred the vertical orientation. Also, I'm not sure if it's true of all tablets, but I think the screens tend to be not quite as good as normal laptop LCD's because of the tablet compromise. Also, you're going to be more limited on hardware options, and comparable hardware will almost always be more expensive in a tablet model. I say if you really want the ability to navigate/write with a pen then get a normal laptop and buy a $70 Wacom Bamboo tablet- they're small, portable, and connect with a single standard USB cable. Viola, Tablet functionality with any PC- when you come home you can plug it into your desktop as well.

As for actually using tablet functionality- do you know what it's like to sign a credit card reader with digital pen? Your writing is probably much more messy, and that's been my experience. Don't get me wrong, for digital artwork there's no substitute- not because it's slightly easier to draw with a pen than a mouse, but because (Wacom tablets, not tablet PC's) are PRESSURE sensitive, meaning your paintbrush stroke in Photoshop can go from 0 opacity to 100 all depending on the pressure you apply. If in doubt- go ahead and buy a tablet and use it for a week. The only difference is that you aren't drawing directly overtop the screen, but of course the benefit is pressure sensitivity. If you don't like it or it convinces you that a tablet PC is the only thing for you, then just return it. Otherwise keep it and enjoy your new "Tablet PC" >).

 

[ShyRem]

kyp, what tablet have you been using?

I currently use a tablet and I LOVE IT! And I mean 😍 it. I was the only one in my class to have one (I have a Lenovo X41 - got it two years ago before I started med school) at first, but almost a dozen of my fellow students have played with my tablet and decided to convert to a tablet themselves. Now the folks who went cheap and got an HP haven't loved their tablet quite as much. The pen isn't as sensitive, the writing not as flowing or precise. The Lenovo tablet folks won't do without it. I am constantly taking notes on ppt slides with my pen (you can write directly on the slide - highlight stuff, circle things, draw things, etc), marking information for exams, highlighting typed material, copying/pasting stuff, etc. And with MS OneNote, you can "print" to a "notebook" that acts as paper. Get to class and have a chalk-talk? great. You can reproduce the drawing (provided you can keep up) in all it's colorific detail (and you can erase too!). Find you've run out of room on the "standard" paper size on the tablet? You can extend it to the sides or back as necessary and never run out of room. And yes, you can print it on real paper too if you desire. And my handwriting has been perfect on the Lenovo (I have played with the HP's and found the writing portion to be less than stellar however).

Having used a tablet for medical school, if anything happened to my Lenovo I'd go buy another in a second. Worth every stinkin' penny. Not every tablet is equal however. Go find somewhere to play with a bunch of them. I hear the Lenovo X61 is better than the X41, but I haven't gotten to play with it yet. Too busy studying.

 

[deleted77919]

I had a tablet computer given to me for one year in college as part of a pilot program. I hated it. Only had 512mb of RAM running XP and the file sizes were just way to big for that amo;unt of RAM. Took forever to switch between one note tabs. They have probably gotten better. I can't say I've used one in a long time.

What I do love is my Konica Minolta Magicolor 2450dl. It's a color laser printer. I print all of my slides in full color and take notes from the lecture mp3s. This works incredibly well for me. Printing all of my slides costs me about $600/yr or so.

 

[soonereng]

Now the folks who went cheap and got an HP haven't loved their tablet quite as much. The pen isn't as sensitive, the writing not as flowing or precise... (I have played with the HP's and found the writing portion to be less than stellar however).

You are probably speaking of the first generation of the HP tablets (tx1000z). These didn't have a true digitizing screen. It is only a touch screen which made it more like a large PDA screen, so it wasn't really that great for writing. The good of this is that one can navigate and write using any object, not just the special pen. Want to use your finger to open files, can do, but you couldn't do this with the Lenovos or other tablet PCs. If you lose the special pen on those you are screwed until you find it or get a new one.

The new HP versions (tx2000z) have not only the touch screen but also the true digitizing screen like other tablet PCs. Now one can get the best of both worlds! I am seriously considering upgrading to these (I have the older model).

I found that the tablet came in extremely handy for biochem pathways. I could just draw them out in multicolor at any time, over and over to help learn them.

 

[kypdurron5]

My experience was with a Toshiba tablet. It worked perfectly well, so I don't believe the brand of laptop affected my experience with it. My experience with Wacom tablets was identical to the tablet PC.

 

[CorpusERdoc]

I'm starting school in august and was thinking about purchasing one. Can any current med students that own one weigh-in on how usefull/practical they are? Any particular model you'd recommend? How many in your class use one?

You don't need a tablet. You won't be taking notes in class.

Get a Mac.

PC's will have the computer repairman over once a week....

 

[physics junkie]

Uhh tablets are pressure sensitive right now if they are wacom penabled. Most are. The fujitsu lifebook series comes highly recommended but I think it's overpriced. Stay away from asus--great tablet but tons of battery issues that asus refuses to look at. Toshiba's M700 is liked by many but I've never tried it.

Personally I just ordered a gateway c-141xl. It's one of the handful of 14" tablets out there and it comes with a normal processor(not the ultra low voltage types they use in most notebooks) and a graphics card that isn't integrated. Taking notes on these things is easy now if you have an active digitizer. To the guy who says its the same as using a credit card machine--no, not even a little bit. I'm guessing you didn't have an active digitizer but probably a passive one--or worse yet, a touch screen.

My only issue with the gateway is that I understand that it is quite bulky. Most people would suggest getting a slate instead of a tablet if you are aiming for notes. Most people in my classes had macbooks and audio recorded lectures with it. They found it useful to be able to play back your notes with the audio at the same time so you know at one point you wrote what you did.

I'll let ya know if the tablet turns out to do anything for me. I like the tablet idea because I can draw diagrams--useful in physics class.

Oh, and people say vista works best with tablets right now as compared to XP. If you go vista make sure you get at least 2 gigs of ram--I would recommend 3. I have 3 in the gateway. Oh, and you don't need to buy your RAM when you purchase your tablet(that will be very expensive). You should opt for the lowest amount of ram possible and then buy some off of newegg.com for cheap and install that. If you can't do that yourself you should take it to someone who can. It will, sadly, still be cheaper than buying RAM from the company that makes your tablet.

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/index.php is the tablet forum i frequent.

reading the posts at: http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1027 might help you decide.

If ya want send me a PM and i'll give you a writeup of my gateway when it arrives on thursday.

 

[physics junkie]

You don't need a tablet. You won't be taking notes in class.

Get a Mac.

PC's will have the computer repairman over once a week....

Maybe if you're computer illiterate? 🙄 Keep paying for applecare, sucka!

 

[CorpusERdoc]

Maybe if you're computer illiterate? 🙄 Keep paying for applecare, sucka!

There's really no need to pay for Applecare, since they need no maintenance.

Dell laptops are absolutely awful, and even experts need maintenance on theirs....

 

[kypdurron5]

Uhh tablets are pressure sensitive right now if they are wacom penabled. Most are. The fujitsu lifebook series comes highly recommended but I think it's overpriced. Stay away from asus--great tablet but tons of battery issues that asus refuses to look at. Toshiba's M700 is liked by many but I've never tried it.

Personally I just ordered a gateway c-141xl. It's one of the handful of 14" tablets out there and it comes with a normal processor(not the ultra low voltage types they use in most notebooks) and a graphics card that isn't integrated. Taking notes on these things is easy now if you have an active digitizer. To the guy who says its the same as using a credit card machine--no, not even a little bit. I'm guessing you didn't have an active digitizer but probably a passive one--or worse yet, a touch screen.

My only issue with the gateway is that I understand that it is quite bulky. Most people would suggest getting a slate instead of a tablet if you are aiming for notes. Most people in my classes had macbooks and audio recorded lectures with it. They found it useful to be able to play back your notes with the audio at the same time so you know at one point you wrote what you did.

I'll let ya know if the tablet turns out to do anything for me. I like the tablet idea because I can draw diagrams--useful in physics class.

Oh, and people say vista works best with tablets right now as compared to XP. If you go vista make sure you get at least 2 gigs of ram--I would recommend 3. I have 3 in the gateway. Oh, and you don't need to buy your RAM when you purchase your tablet(that will be very expensive). You should opt for the lowest amount of ram possible and then buy some off of newegg.com for cheap and install that. If you can't do that yourself you should take it to someone who can. It will, sadly, still be cheaper than buying RAM from the company that makes your tablet.

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/index.php is the tablet forum i frequent.

reading the posts at: http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1027 might help you decide.

If ya want send me a PM and i'll give you a writeup of my gateway when it arrives on thursday.

I agree it's better to go with a full processor and non-integrated video card...but Gateway, ouch. I assure you I've used active digitizers, and I've never owned a touch screen. I'm happy to see a difference of opinion, but you can't attack mine on the basis of experience- and it's been my experience that no matter how much resolution the digitizer has, my handwriting is at least 50% messier than with pen and paper.

A question though- which is it, do you have extensive experience using Tablet PC's and digitizing pens as you seem to imply, or are you completely new to the experience and only interested in the "idea" of what you'll be able to do with it in a classroom setting as this quote indicates?

I'll let ya know if the tablet turns out to do anything for me. I like the tablet idea because I can draw diagrams--useful in physics class.

I think we ALL agree that the idea of using a tablet is very sexy, and seems like it could open a world of possibilities in the space of PC-input. My point is that my real-world experience has led to the opinion that they're actually not quite so useful and that a small, portable external digitizing pad would be a better option in most situations- and, if you really do love the tablet input and use it like crazy, at least with a tablet pad you can use it equally with your desktop computer. But please, feel free to continue justifying your purchase to us.

PS- I find the single best way to reproduce complex diagrams from class is with a nice small digital camera. Not that a tablet pad wouldn't still come in handy- load the picture and then make your own markups on it. Digitizing drawings are not nearly as sexy as they sound....they're just easier than using a mouse.

 

[physics junkie]

I agree it's better to go with a full processor and non-integrated video card...but Gateway, ouch. I assure you I've used active digitizers, and I've never owned a touch screen. I'm happy to see a difference of opinion, but you can't attack mine on the basis of experience- and it's been my experience that no matter how much resolution the digitizer has, my handwriting is at least 50% messier than with pen and paper.

I know, I'm not a huge fan of gateway either but it was the best option for me. Well then, I apologize for attacking you on the basis of experience I come from a different background. This is actually my third tablet. My first was a horrible mistake--linux-based tablet from a company that went under. Second was the hp1000(much better but far from perfect). For how significantly better the lifebook is at inking compared to the 1000 I mistakenly assumed you hadn't used one. I opted to buy the gateway after playing around with my roommate's lifebook for a while. Yes, I took it to class and found it helpful that I could move things around and add space when my professor chooses to write all over the board.

 

[halekulani]

There's really no need to pay for Applecare, since they need no maintenance.

Dell laptops are absolutely awful, and even experts need maintenance on theirs....

awesome generalizations.

 

[CorpusERdoc]

awesome generalizations.

Do a survey if you don't like it.

 

[physics junkie]

Do a survey if you don't like it.

So, what exactly is the difference between x86 hardware running mac osx and x86 hardware running windows/linux/bsd?

 

[TMP-SMX]

So, what exactly is the difference between x86 hardware running mac osx and x86 hardware running windows/linux/bsd?

Viruses

 

[CorpusERdoc]

So, what exactly is the difference between x86 hardware running mac osx and x86 hardware running windows/linux/bsd?

The difference is that once every few months, Dell will tell you to get a new motherboard--due to some various malfunction, and you pray to God that you have Gold Tech Support to cover it.

You won't be replacing anything on the Mac.

 

[Bananas Foster]

The difference is that once every few months, Dell will tell you to get a new motherboard--due to some various malfunction, and you pray to God that you have Gold Tech Support to cover it.

You won't be replacing anything on the Mac.

So, among my circle of friends, several have mac, one did need to replace something, forgot what, had to send it by mail to get it services, and had to wait a few weeks to get it back. Now, i won't make generalizations off of one example, but that doesn't seem very convenient.

I've had my Toshiba Satellite for 7 years, only had to have someone look at it once, only as part of my schools (free) effort to wipe that internet worm off of our network back in... fall 03 or 04...

now everyone has a different experiences, and if you DO look at a survey, like Consumer Reports, mac's have reliability ratings very similar to lenovo's close to the top of the pack, but the difference between mac and dell is a few percentage points.

 

[Bananas Foster]

oh yeah, i was interested in tablet computers

 

[physics junkie]

Hi again posting this using the handwriting recognition on my tablet. I suggest trying one before you buy one. This gateway has been good to me so far but it's a bit heavy. Hopefully J can get a smaller battery to lighten it up.

 

[kypdurron5]

Speaking of tech support- I built my current desktop PC almost 2 years ago. After upgrading my BIOS last week I started having a problem with my dual channel RAM configuration that I just couldn't figure out. I sent my motherboard manufacturer (Gigabyte) an email- the tech support guy suggested I check the default RAM voltage and voila, the problem is completely resolved. Anyone know of an OEM (e.g. Dell, HP, Apple) that will give you tech support 2 years after purchase without paying a dime extra for "extended" support?

 

[TMP-SMX]

Speaking of tech support- I built my current desktop PC almost 2 years ago. After upgrading my BIOS last week I started having a problem with my dual channel RAM configuration that I just couldn't figure out. I sent my motherboard manufacturer (Gigabyte) an email- the tech support guy suggested I check the default RAM voltage and voila, the problem is completely resolved. Anyone know of an OEM (e.g. Dell, HP, Apple) that will give you tech support 2 years after purchase without paying a dime extra for "extended" support?

Costco gives you 2 years I know that much.

 

[physics junkie]

Gateway gave me an option of a 3 year warranty free or $100 off. If you order on the phone the sales rep will give you the deal if you ask for it. I took the $100 off. Dell actually showed up at a friend's dorm a few years ago and replaced her laptop for her because she didn't have a car to get to a repair center. That's service.

 

[DrJosephKim]

Get one that is rather inexpensive, but light. If you can afford the Thinkpads, these are the best. Some of the older Thinkpads are cheaper now (especially if you look at the IBM outlet site).