Toshiba Protégé 3500 Tablet PC

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/pc/pc_tabletPcDetail.jsp?comm=CS">http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/pc/pc_tabletPcDetail.jsp?comm=CS</a><br /><br />Today is Tablet PC launch day, and Toshiba's offering looks quite nice: PIII-1.33 GHz, 12.1" XGA TFT, 40 GB, 256MB(x1), Modem, LAN, WiFi, WinXP-Tablet. Price? $2299 US. They have a model for $2499 that bumps RAM up to 512 MB, but I'm sure you could get the extra RAM from <a href="http://www.crucial.com">Crucial</a> for less than that. I'm looking for a new laptop early next year, and this might fit the bill. It has an integrated SD slot, which is excellent, but no Firewire! Boo-hiss! :cry: Firewire is a must-have for me, and although I have an <a href="http://www.getadaptec.com">Adaptec PCMCIA Firewire card</a>, having it integrated would make it so much easier.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.csd.toshiba.com/images/ui2/TabletPc_open_125x125.jpg" /><br /><br />You can also check out the <a href="http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/product/pdf_files/detailed_specs/portege_3500.pdf">spec sheet</a> for further details (European site).

[Timothy Rapson]

This and the new Samsung and HP all look like great big Sony Clies to me. I do hope they do better than the HPC clamshells, the Clie and what was the name of the CE HP clamshell? I really thought those would sell to high school and college students in big number for low prices (I thought for CE, around the $200-400 that QuickPads, and Dana-type models get down to when they are fully ramped up to sell.

Not that these will ever make it below $1000. They are interesting, but at the current price/configuration they are expensive very specialized market laptops.

[toshtoshtosh]

Don't forget a CF Type II slot (along with the SD) and Bluetooth!

Sweeet!

and USB 2.0 of course...

Brochure: http://computers.toshiba-europe.com/Contents/Toshiba_teg/EU/Others/Brochures/FLPO3500_1102E.pdf

[spg]

Yeah, firewire is a must for those who do digital video alot. But that isn't the reason most OEMs put Firewire in their Tablet PCs. They put it there to allow for external drives at a high enough transfer speed. The HP TC1000 and the Toshiba Portege 3500 (the one you posted about), don't have firewire because they have USB 2.0 instead of 1.1 allowing for the faster speeds needed.

Of course this doesn't help you alot if you are the faster smarter digital video guy, dude, geek, whatever. :lol: I do wish HP and Toshiba had gone ahead and put firewire in, but other than that the Portege 3500 looks like just about the best Tablet PC out there at the moment.

The hinge that allows the converting is much stronger than the Acer C100's, plus it has a 12 inch screen instead of a 10 inch. The only other drawback that I can find is that it weighs in at 4 pounds, one more pound than the Acer.

A guy by the screen name of captnroger from the forums on my site went out and purchased the Toshiba from CompUSA last night. He has done some little first impressions reviews, and posted some pictures too. Don't mean to plug my site, but thought it might interest you.
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=275

[alandashby]

I wish that it was as thin as the 2000 model, I will be waiting for something smaller.

[Mike Temporale]

It seems a little pricey for what you get. Why not just get a full laptop from Dell?? I haven't done any price comparisons, but for the same money you can get a much more powerfull latop. no? :?

[Tom Eichers]

Looks fine, but I will still wait for a 'real' tablet pc.

[Wiggin]

It seems a little pricey for what you get. Why not just get a full laptop from Dell?? :?

Blue, if you want a laptop, why are you looking at Tablets?? :lol: They're not equals. Perhaps you should do a bit more research on the capabilities of the Screen and imbedded SW and then decide if you want to "switch" from a laptop to a Tablet. :way to go:

[toshtoshtosh]

Looks fine, but I will still wait for a 'real' tablet pc.

Sorry, but what does this mean exactly? Are we supposed to guess? :lol:

[ECOslin]

What kind of stress goes on the monitor cable everytime this thing is opened and closed?
On the cable connectors?

Fewer moving parts, is a good thing!!

Edward

[TrojanUO]

Looks fine, but I will still wait for a 'real' tablet pc.

Sorry, but what does this mean exactly? Are we supposed to guess? :lol:

He's talking about the pure "Slate" Tablet PC's.

There are several form factors currently available.

The Laptop with Swivel Screen, like the Acer, and Toshiba
The Slate models, (optional detachable keyboards), like the HP, and ViewSonic models.

Check out the Tablet PC Hardware Showcase on the Microsoft TabletPC site for examples of all the currently shipping models.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/evaluation/tours/default.asp#

[toshtoshtosh]

oh okay. The slate tablet PCs are the REAL ones... Gotcha!

[dochall]

I attended the London launch event and got to have a quick play with the HP and the Tosh (the two that I am considering).

Everything I saw got me more excited about the possibilities.

The design of the HP is a stroke of genius. One of the presenters mentioned that tablet pc's come in two flavours convertible and slate. He could also have given thanks to HP for completely blurring the line. You can use it as a convertible or detach the tablet and use it as a slate.

The HP slate feels very solid and the postioning of buttons and the jog dial is great. Attaching and detaching the keyboard is very simple and it looks pretty robust (and unlike the Acer or the Tosh even if a part did break you are just replacing an optiona accesory which is basically a usb keyboard)

The Tosh also feels very solid but it much more like a traditional laptop.

The demos didn't really help me make up my mind though. I am still swinging between the two.

The extra screen size and SD slot (I have a 3870) is appealing and the faster processor but it is balanced by the shorter battery life.

The Compaq has the battery life and great design allowing me to carry a convertible or just the slate (and the weight saving). The screen actually looked very good and I think I could use it when previously I wouldn't have thought about a 10.4" laptop.

The UK quoted availability for Compaq was a couple of weeks. These are obviously salesman weeks as he mentioned the end of Nov.

Tosh were also talking about the end of Nov, with a further shipment in Dec and a large shipment (open availability) in Jan

[sweetpete]

I think this is by far one of the best TabletPC's out there, but I'm going to have to hold off until v. 2 comes out :)

Like Jason, I need Firewire and would prefer not to have to use PCMCIA. I love the fact that they included 802.11 and BT in the Toshiba (another must for me :!: )

The 2nd shortcoming is the screen. I'm happy to see they went for 12.1 over 10.4, but I would have hoped for 1280x1024 resolution.

The final shortcoming is price. I know a lot of development has gone into these machines, but I can't justify the cost given the processing power. I think this platform will take off and benefit from the Intel Banias processors slated to come out next year. More processing power and built-in 802.11 should help to drive the cost down.

Once we see $1500-2000 for the convertible models, I'm signing up for one. Right now, for the same amount, I'd rather get a fully loaded P4 Dell and forgoe the mobility.

[torring]

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/images/ui2/portege_3500_detail_619x120.jpg

What is wrong with this picture?
I got it from the Toshiba webpage. It looks absolutely HUGE.

There has got to be something wrong, or they hired 12 year old for the picture?

[TrojanUO]

We've got an Acer here for development work, had it for a couple of weeks now.

I like the size/weight, it's just at the right weight to be carryable/useable for extended periods, at 3.1 Lbs, though it is just a little bit too small to hold completely comfortable in the crook of my arm. I'm worried that the Toshiba at 4.1 lbs will just be a little bit too heavy to be able to use comfortably as a tablet. (And you're right Torring, the Protege in that image looks FAR too big for a 12.1" Tablet. The 10.4" Acer looks about 3 inches shorter than 3500 there, so something's not quite right.)

I do like the very solid looking hinge on the Toshiba however, haven't actually seen one in person yet, so it could just be silver coloured plastic, any comments on the construction of the Toshiba's hinge dochall?

The Compaq/HP is really leading my list right now, I like that it's a pure slate, with detachable keyboard, with the option for a full-on docking station, the Fujitsu is just too ugly to seriously consider. I don't know who came up with the styling on that thing.

[Tom Eichers]

To me that Toshiba is just a laptop where you can totate the screen. The tablet that I want is about the size of the toshiba, but no keyboard, just the screen. I had no problem using the Tablet additions to XP when i played with it.

[Mike Temporale]

It seems a little pricey for what you get. Why not just get a full laptop from Dell?? :?

Blue, if you want a laptop, why are you looking at Tablets?? :lol: They're not equals. Perhaps you should do a bit more research on the capabilities of the Screen and imbedded SW and then decide if you want to "switch" from a laptop to a Tablet. :way to go:

I'm familiar with the differences between the products. I'm just saying that the price is pretty high. I'm not sure how the market will react to these.

I thought that the Tablet were supposed to be priced in between a PDA and a laptop. So far, I haven't seen anything in that range.

[uvahoos]

I am in higher ed and I got our rep from CDW-G to come by last week. He brought us an Acer TravelMate C100 TabletPC to play with (for a few hours at least).

I was pretty impressed. It's similar in spec to the Toshiba, but includes Firewire but only has a 10.4" screen. Overall size and weight is nice and easy to carry around. The handwriting recognition was amazinglly accurate considering how bad my hand-writing is! The speech recognition was good too.

As far as price goes, it's pretty similar to the others out there. Just keep in mind that you're paying a premium over a "regular" XP-based laptop because the Table portion is extra $.

And to address the question about the durability of the monitor cable considering the swivel function, that was my first question for the Acer marketing guy. He showed me their testing stats which indicated that the screen had survived a ridiculous number of uses.

Good machine, by I agree with a previous post about waiting for version 2.0 .

[Wiggin]

I'm familiar with the differences between the products. I'm just saying that the price is pretty high. I'm not sure how the market will react to these.

I agree with ya, the pricing is very high.. but I'm confident that will only last for a handful of months before market pressures see them drop, not to mention the 2nd wave of models/features that will come out after the cruel world let's the OEMs know what they got right/wrong.
:beer:

[dochall]

To me that Toshiba is just a laptop where you can totate the screen. The tablet that I want is about the size of the toshiba, but no keyboard, just the screen. I had no problem using the Tablet additions to XP when i played with it.

Ah, you wan the motion computing tablet. http://www.motioncomputing.com

[Sven Johannsen]

Went to the launch today. Good thing they were giving out T-shirts. Used mine to sop up the drool.

The HP was the one that seemed to trip my trigger the most. Absolutly brilliant implementation allowing both laptop and slate capability. Very light in slate mode, and as small as my Vaio together.

What was very exciting was the integratiion of apps/utilities that were designed to make use of the tablet formfactor and paper pad paradigm. Just running XP on this would be neat, but the addition of MS Journal, and the other third party offerrings (in particular the Franklin Covey planner stuff), makes this very compelling.

What was odd was the identity crisis at the booth though. The booth and folks were dressed HP all the way. The literature was Compaq TC1000. (My Jornada complemented it very well by the way :))

I see $1700 pricing on that on the price searches. Doesn't seem to be too high to me. Price a lightweight notebook and see what they want. You can get an 8-10 pound behemoth for less, that does more, but I've lugged those through terminals and don't mind paying a bit more for the engineering that keeps the size down.

[sweetpete]

I have to agree with you that the HPAQ seems one of the better priced and versatile offerings. I wish I could have been at the launch to see it in action, but the specs and pricing look good. It would have been nice to see Firewire and Blutetooth added.
I'm kind of torn still. I like almost all the specs of the Toshiba more. It's got a faster processor and more features that I need. I think I will stick with my initial assessment and wait until the 2nd gen of these products get released. There will be a lot more user feedback about what works and doesn't.

[DerekTheGeek]

Hi All,

I had been waiting for the Tablet PC event before I purchased my next notebook computer. I am glad I did. Let me first say that I was impressed by ALL the tablet PCs displayed at the event. I spent all my time using each one of the various models instead of listening to the Microsoft presentation.
For me the Toshiba and HP led the pack. The fujitsu, Acer, and Viewsonic were also very nice and solid, but just not as good as the Toshiba and HP IMHO. Here is what I liked about the Toshiba and HP.
The HP was nice and small yet sturdy. The screen had a glass covering that was very solid and the case did not have any creaking (to the extent at which I could test this with the rep looking at me). The keyboard was attached and was somewhat similar in size to the Stowaway keyboard used for the Pocket PC but slightly bigger (perhaps 20%). The net effect was that the keybaord was very close to the screen. The HP is powered by a 1.00 Ghz Transmeta processor which I believe is comparable to an 800 Mhz Pentium III. The graphics system was a Geforce 2 with 16MB VRAM. I found this impressive. The HP has 2 USB (v2.0) but does not have 1394 firewire. I found it to be an impressive machine, especially for the price tag of $1700. HP said they were only selling them through HP online and "Franklin-Covery"..... go figure.

Now for the Toshiba. The Toshiba was also very solid. It did have a larger screen but the overall size is smaller than the picture posted earlier lets on. What wowed me about the Toshiba was the awsome built in keyboard, that by the way was much more solid than the Acer, and the specs. It has a PIII 1.33 Ghz and 512MB standard (max 1GB Ram). The graphics subsystem was a Trident Cyberblade with 16MB Ram. The Hard drive at 40 GB (expandable to 60 GB drive) was a lot bigger than the other tablets which has 20 GB. When looking at all the other tablets whose effective processor was 800-866 Mhz I felt the PIII 1.33 Ghz was best for me. As a developer I am using VS.Net, SQL Server 2000, Internet Explorer, and usually a few other apps at the same time. For me the Toshiba allows me to have a small laptop and a nice tablet at the same time. I have my iPaq if want a smaller form factor.

I would really encourage people to try out the models any way they can before purchasing because it is all a matter of individual preference. For me the Toshiba Portege 3500 was the best bet.

By the way I got mine at CompUSA, yesterday (11/7) for $2,499. Be advised in store they tried to sell it as $2599 but after showing their web price of $2499 they capitulated. I was also able to talk them down to $249 on the TOSHIBA 3 year extended warranty. My advice: Always try to talk CompUSA down on price. They start off inflated. Fell free to email me with any comments. I am hoping to send off a detailed review of the Portege 3500 to Jason later today or tomorrow.

- Derek
(No relation to Zorba) :wink:
[email protected]

[dochall]

By the way I got mine at CompUSA, yesterday (11/7)

*muttter mutter mutter* - The first delivery to the UK is 30/11. I have to wait :cry:

[Wiggin]

Here is what I liked about the Toshiba and HP.


Thanks for the quick summary Derek. Quick and concise...exactly what I was looking for from someone who had their hands on each Tablet offering at the same time. I am leaning toward the Toshiba as well, but am intrigued by the HP since it can be used as either a true tablet (sans keyboard) or a combined tablet+kboard. But Transmeta as the HP processor??? :evil: :pukeface:
I'll look forward to your longer post being sent to Jason
:beer:

[dochall]

Here is what I liked about the Toshiba and HP.


Thanks for the quick summary Derek. Quick and concise...exactly what I was looking for from someone who had their hands on each Tablet offering at the same time. I am leaning toward the Toshiba as well, but am intrigued by the HP since it can be used as either a true tablet (sans keyboard) or a combined tablet+kboard. But Transmeta as the HP processor??? :evil: :pukeface:
I'll look forward to your longer post being sent to Jason
:beer:

It is a gorgeous design. If it was equipped with a P3M I would have gone for it. At the end of the day though the ZDnet review gave it such a low score on performance that I couldn't convince myself to make the compromise.

Any tablet pc I buy is going to be my main notebook I didn't want to compromise on performance too much. Having said that I have no doubt from the solid feel that it would have operated fine as a notebook replacment.