11-09-2002, 01:07 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 5
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Derek
Great review! Makes me want to go out and buy one.
Is the event in Boston still going on? I can't find it with the link that you gave; appreciate it if you can tell me where it is.
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11-09-2002, 01:15 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 73
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I played with all the major vendors' releases today at the launch event, and personally, I love the HP form factor the best, since I value that I can have a slate, laptop, and docked desktop configuration all with a single device. Love the size of it, the bridge battery for on-the-fly battery swaps (that's genius!), and the dock's pretty cool too. Wish that the dock had FireWire, but oh well. No Bluetooth, but I can stick my Socket BT CF card into the unit, so that's fine. The performance of the Crusoe processor remains to be seen, but it's the latest Transmeta one, so it may be adequate. If it improves battery life, I'm all for it.
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11-09-2002, 01:20 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 54
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Hi All.. Lets me address some questions..
Did this come with a one or three year warranty?
It came with a 1 year warranty and I paid an extra $250 for the 3 year extended warranty from Toshiba. The rep at the Tablet PC event said Toshiba had this great "No Fault" warranty that would cover "anything" that happened to a notebook. I do however need to make sure that this is the type of warranty I got for the $249 at CompUSA. I will be calling Toshiba support after this post and I will report what I find out back to this thread.
it was due to the case forming a faraday cage.
Wow! I have not heard that term since college physics. Not that I ever understood it! 8O
I've often found the LCD wires to be a weak point both in the materials the wires were made of and the connector ends coming loose over a period of time.
Funny you mention this Ed, because the Toshiba reps mentioned specifically that there was only 250 or so wire connections to the LCD as opposed to standard laptops which can have several hundred or more. At least this is what the rep's said.
This thing is great, how's the handwriting recognition?
I have not really used it that much to give an informed answer but it does come with the Block Recognizer and Transcriber from the Pocket PC which I thought was way cool. To tell you the truth I have been afraid to put tablet mode through it's paces as I do not have a screen protector yet. Even though a screen protector is not "officially" required I would still feel a lot more comfortable having one on there. My hope is the guys at Pocket PC Tech might be able to come up with one. I know that I have always had one on my iPaq and I have never regretted it.
A better comparison would be that model with the optional docking station ($199) to the Toshiba (both at $2499)
Your right aboout that sweetpete, it would be a more fair comparison. I would still be interested in seeing how a Transmeta Crusoe 1.0 Ghz meaures up. For those looking for the smaller form factor I would definetly recommend checking out the HP. Also the docking station was in a word..Awesome.
I hate it when I get PC Envy.
I know the feeling, but take heart, in less than a month mine will be outdated and you all will have me drooling over your new Tablet PCs. Such is the nature of our disease! 8O
How did you find the weight?
This is an areas where the HP would win out. Roughly 4 Lbs for the 3505 is not good but not bad either. As someone used to hauling an 8 Lb Dell around I can say the Toshiba is not that bad. That said I do believe it was the "heaviest" out of all the tablets at the show.
Thanks for the feedback all. Please keep the questions comming and I will be happy to answer what I can. If there is a particular photo of the 3505 that you would like to see post here and I will try to accomodate. Thanks... - Derek
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11-09-2002, 01:24 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 54
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Newerjazz, Unfortunately the event was only 3 hours on Thursday. But check out the link in my original review and you can find one in your area. I know there is at least 1 more in Waltham and another in Nashua, NH in the next few weeks.
- Derek
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11-09-2002, 02:50 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 73
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Sheynk
This thing is great, how's the handwriting recognition?
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Actually, suprisingly good. I have - for quite some time - been able to adjust to a "neater" style of handwriting for pda's and such, so it definitely had no problems with mine, but I was totally blown away at how well it interpreted the pretty bad writing of the demo people and - this was most amazing - the total chicken scratch of one of my co-workers! I couldn't tell what she had written until it actually recognized it! Plus I love the intuitive gestures like scribbling over something to delete it or the shortcut to bring up the input panel. |
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11-09-2002, 02:51 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 441
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Klinux: the frame shares a substancial silvery braided ground wire with the motherboard(or the Tosh notebooks I've worked on have).
DerekTheGeek: Wait til I finish filling out the franchise paperwork on screen protectors for tablet devices! :idea:
- Does it handle the heat generated by the processor well?
- Maybe you could load some temp monitoring software to see how well it does in sweeping the heat away from the processor. Run a test of Imperium Galactica 3 movie/demo or convert a file from Mpeg to WMA to generate Mips and heat.
JonnoB: Yep, when I've gotten one laptop one year it has a touchpad, the next has a J-mouse or a pencil-eraser in the center of the keyboard. Or when I need to borrow one and get adjust my typing style to work around the mouse. Nothing like typing in some paperwork and finding out that you thumbed the touchpad to another part of the page.
Edward
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11-09-2002, 03:05 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 30
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by heov
Exactly how's the screen? Is it viewable outdoors (is it reflective)? Is the screen matte like laptops and the casio e100 series or is it, in a way, "glossy" like the iPaqs where it's clear there is a digitizer over the LCD...
Are there any Tablet PC screen protectors :lol:
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There is nothing over the screen that should interfere with viewing it. The TabletPC screens are not touch-sensitive, they use an electromagnetic pen/stylus similiar to Wacom Tablet.
The Acer model has a sheet of tempered glass over the the LCD, and I was under the impression that all the TabletPC's have a tempered glass screen (though I may be mistaken there) The Acer Screen has a fairly narrow viewable area. It's hard to read over someone's shoulder if they're using it, but if you are using it, it seems pretty readable in most lighting conditions. I haven't seen the Toshiba yet, so I can't comment directly on it's screen. |
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11-09-2002, 03:35 AM
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Theorist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 300
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The review was awesome... I think these are very powerful devices... and we'll start seeing them all over the place.
I'm going to constrain my excitement, however, not because I think the platform will fail, but because I think those "convertible" tablet PCs are going to develop problems with their hinges. Those hinges are going to cause problems.. make no doubt about it. If I did cough up the cash to get one, I'd buy the longest extended warranty I could get.
For those that are the "early adopters" I hope I'm wrong... but I'm not willing to test the manufacturer's claim for a $2,000 fee.
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11-09-2002, 04:08 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,352
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I got to play with one of the Toshiba's at a CompUSA Wednesday evening about an hour before close. I figured that the tech heads over there couldn't hold off playing with their new toys. And I was right. One of them had a Tosh out. Its a very nice device.
I went to the launch event here in Bloomington MN and got to play with all of them. They ALL are very nice devices, to varying degree’s. And therein lies the problem. There are a lot of compromises in these devices all in the name of batt life. Two many compromises IMHO.
I personally am going to wait until spring and see what the second generation of Tablet PC’s bring. Intel is coming out with its next batch of ultra low powered CPU’s and that should help heat and battery life tremendously. I like to stay on the cutting edge but not at $2,000+ a crack. If I’m going to shell out 2G I want something other then first generation devices.
Then again. That Toshiba makes me drool. I just hope on their next version they place the speakers in a better location. Being hidden under the screen in tablet mode sucks.
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11-09-2002, 04:36 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 99
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I'm so torn over the Tablet PCs. They look amazing cool, but even 3 pounds is just way too heavy for me to consider using slung over an arm in tablet mode.
Besides, right now I freak out daily about protecting my T-Mobile's screen from scratches. I can't even imagine how I would cope with a $2000+ screen attracting dust and scratches!
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