Tablet PCs

Preliminary Conclusions
I used the tablet PCs for several weeks. During this time, I came to some conclusions as I compared the different tablet approaches.

• XP Tablet PC Edition has some stability problems. While I was attending the Microsoft Research (MSR) Roadshow in Mountain View, California, Windows Journal refused to respond when I activated the TC1000 from standby. Eventually, I had to do a complete shutdown and restart, and when the unit restarted, I had lost about a page of notes.
As soon as I got back to my office, I called Microsoft. As this article goes to press (almost a month later), the problem has been acknowledged but not resolved. Microsoft has confirmed that other users have experienced similar problems, and once I knew what to look for, an examination of error logs on the other tablet PCs showed that every one had experienced at least one application crash. The crashes mainly occurred in Microsoft Word 2002 and in Windows Journal—probably because they're the two applications I use most often.

The errors I've experienced seem to have a common signature—they always seem to happen when I reactivate a tablet PC that I've placed in stand-by mode with the battery less than half-charged—but not every time; in over a month's use of the five tablet PCs tested, I saw just half a dozen errors. I now save whatever document I'm working on before putting a unit in standby, which doesn't prevent an application from hanging but does at least ensure that no data is lost as a result. I also perform at least one complete shutdown and restart sequence per day.

These steps seem to alleviate the problem, and although I find the lack of stability extremely annoying, in my opinion, the functionality of the tablet PC form factor more than offsets the instability, and I'm extremely reluctant to give all the review units back.


• Office XP is, for all practical purposes, required to take full advantage of a tablet PC and isn't included in the price of any of the units I tested. Although you can theoretically run earlier versions, Office XP Pack for Tablet PC provides significant enhancements, including "write anywhere" support for Word 2002, handwritten notes for Microsoft Excel 2002, handwritten comments for Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, and handwritten email messages for Microsoft Outlook 2002. And the only way to add words to the handwriting recognition dictionary that XP Tablet PC Edition uses is to add Word 2002's optional speech support feature.



• Windows Journal, although usable for note-taking, has serious limitations. In particular, the copy-as-text feature lets you select only one page of notes at a time for conversion to text, which can be clumsy and time-consuming when you're dealing with a long document.



• The performance of all the tablet PCs I tested was more than adequate. All were fast enough for heavy users of Office and built-in Windows applications. Users of performance-intensive applications such as CAD, computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), or presentation graphics applications might prefer a faster than average processor; but most business users will be pleased with the performance of any of the units in this review.



• The units tested all delivered the manufacturer's advertised battery life, but in my opinion, that life is barely adequate. By coincidence, while reviewing these units, I received a freelance assignment to edit chapters for a programming book. I took the opportunity to perform an informal editor's test, using each tablet PC to edit at least one complete chapter. The chapters were quite large (i.e., 400KB to 500KB Word documents), requiring 4 to 5 hours of continuous editing. In every case, I received a low-battery warning before completing the chapter. Battery life for these units is sufficient for a brief meeting while away from your desk, but if you plan to use a tablet PC on a transcontinental airline flight, take a spare battery (all the units in this review have removable batteries; most vendors offer chargers and automobile adapters at additional cost).



• All the units get quite warm when used for long periods. As an example, the M1200 has a 40 watt-hour battery, which runs continuously for fewer than 4 hours; thus, the unit consumes more than 10 watts of power. Imagine sitting for several hours with a 10-watt light bulb in your lap, and you'll begin to see the problem! You can minimize the heat (and extend the battery life) by using the notebook or laptop (or equivalent vendor-specific) power scheme and turning the backlight to the lowest setting appropriate for ambient light. The TC1000, which uses the supposedly low—power-consuming Transmeta chip, got just as warm as the others.



• The M1200 and Portégé 3500 have 12.1" displays; the others have 10.4" displays. The smaller displays are adequate when you hold a tablet in your hand or set it on your lap; but I found them small for desktop use. Using Extra Large Fonts helped this bifocals wearer.



• All the units have a security button to use in place of Ctrl+Alt+Del when a physical keyboard isn't available. On the TC1000, it's a recessed red button hidden between the Esc and Tab buttons on one side of the unit; you use the stylus to press it. On all the other units, it's a more obvious button denoted by a key symbol. The C102Ti also has a built-in smart card reader that you can use instead of typing in a username and password.



• The Portégé 3500 and C102Ti have an on/off button to enable and disable the built-in 802.11b wireless network cards, which helps extend battery life when you don't need the wireless network. The C102Ti's button is fairly obvious (above the keyboard) but a bit inconvenient when the display is covering the keyboard. The Portégé 3500 has a less-than-obvious slide switch on one side of the unit. The other tablet PCs don't have buttons dedicated to this purpose. You can still disable an 802.11 card by right-clicking the icon and selecting Disable from the pop-up menu, but then you must go through a shutdown-and-restart cycle to reenable the card.



• The advertised size and weight of these units can be misleading. If you're going to a brief meeting, you might carry just the tablet PC, but when traveling for a longer period, you'll certainly carry the AC adapter and probably a keyboard for the devices that don't have one built in.



• The advertised prices of these units are also misleading. They don't include optional desktop docking stations or any removable media (disk, CD-ROM, or DVD) drives.

So, what's the verdict? As I said earlier, after testing these units, I'd be comfortable with any of them as my primary PC for full-time use. However, I'm not going to run out and buy one just yet (although I must admit that I'm tempted to). When you add in the price of Office XP, an external CD-ROM drive, a spare battery and charger, and in some cases, a docking station, the cost is more than $3000 for any of these units—and that's a little too high for me.

In a year or so, though, it will be time to replace my current desktop PC, and at that point, I might decide on a tablet PC. The ability to take the unit with me to meetings and when traveling and to use the device as a portrait-mode display on my desk might well justify the added cost. In the meantime, I'll be watching the development of this market segment with great personal interest.

End of Article

   Previous  1  2  3  [4]  Next