Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

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Published Thursday, January 22, 2004 11:39 AM by RoyOsherove
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Comments

Thursday, January 22, 2004 7:05 AM by Scott Galloway

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

Yup, I always set my screensize at 1600x1200, have an old Latitude C810 which has been pretty much perfect for dev work for just over a year. I've seen some decent Laptop / Tablet hybrids (on the MSDN show on tablets a few months ago for one) - but I haven't seen one which is as powerful or has as good a screen as I need - yet
Thursday, January 22, 2004 7:06 AM by Matthew Reynolds

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

Well, I'd buy the most powerful notebook I could, with the biggest, brightest screen that I could by. My gut reaction would be to go with a classic notebook.

Dell's typically have the best screens. Mine does a lovely job at running at 1600x1200.

Matt
Thursday, January 22, 2004 7:40 AM by SBC

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

TPC.. TPC.. I had a Motion Computing M1300 with 512mb for a project last summer. Great stuff. Make sure you get lots of RAM (>512mb), it makes a lot of difference.
Thursday, January 22, 2004 8:00 AM by Christian Weyer

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

Hm, mixed emotions here. I also, like Matt, love the power, the large things, the big iron (Matt knows I am huge ;-)). I have a DELL INSPIRON 8200, 2 GhZ, 1 GB RAM and a new fast HD - OK, this rocks.
But ... recently I purchased my new Acer TPC. It is the C302 XMi (maybe this exact model number is only available in Europe or Germany, but you get the idea). And it is great! It is a full blown laptop, as a convertible it is also a TPC with a 14" display. Cool. The only downside currently is that the screen resolution is limited to 1024 ... hm, not too good. But I use it excluslively for presentation sop it does not matter for me.
Ah, and its has a DVD burner (for '-' and '+') inside ... and of course it is a Centrino. So that means it has integrated WiFi. Additionally Bluetooth.

My 2 cents.
Thursday, January 22, 2004 8:21 AM by Jay Glynn

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

Take a look at the Toshiba Protege M200. Best compromise between the two world. It will be my next laptop purchase. The best thing is it's not limited to 1024x768. It has an SXGA (1400x1050) screen.
Thursday, January 22, 2004 8:38 AM by Tim Marman

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

Tablet tablet tablet.

As Jay said, get the Toshiba. It packs quite a punch and is fairly compact. Obviously get a convertible and not a slate model if you want to develop.
Thursday, January 22, 2004 9:31 AM by Yosi Taguri

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

When you'll come to Israel and visit the office I'll show you a powerfull TPC you will want for yourself.....
Thursday, January 22, 2004 9:36 AM by Roy Osherove

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

YOsi: Just give me the name of it, why don't you?
Thursday, January 22, 2004 10:20 AM by Steve

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

Make sure you get lots of RAM - as soon as the machine starts swapping to disk performance will die.

If you're doing development then you really need a desktop - the harddisks are significantly faster. Laptops poor dev machines.

S.
Thursday, January 22, 2004 11:07 AM by Shannon J Hager

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

If you get a tablet (I would), you should wait until the next version of the OS is released. March, I think? Like many (most?) MS products, the version 1.0 of the Tablet OS is more like v0.9 and the first update will be the real v1.0

Whether you get a tablet or laptop, I would HIGHLY recommend you get a docking station with a keyboard, monitor, and mouse. That way, when you're at your desk, you're using a "real" computer.

Thursday, January 22, 2004 11:08 AM by Roy Osherove

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

Shannon: Well, can't I just buy a tablet and update the OS as the new OS arrived on MSDN?
Thursday, January 22, 2004 11:25 AM by Shannon J Hager

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

I am sure you could upgrade but I think waiting would be a better option because either the newer versions of the tablets will have better hardware that is better integrated with the new OS or you can buy last year's model cheap because the price will drop when this year's model comes out.

Either way, you win.

I am not yet in a position to buy a tablet but I've been drooling over them for a while now so I read all the info on them that I find. You might hear differently from people who know better than I do, but from what I've read, those who are "in the know" say to wait.
Thursday, January 22, 2004 12:11 PM by Casey Marshall

# OQO

OQO is about the size of an iPod, has a thumbable keyboard and digital pen interface, etc.

http://www.oqo.com/hardware/basics/

Unf according to the website its not available till fall 2004 :(

Casey
Thursday, January 22, 2004 2:52 PM by Stefan Nilsson

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

Someone posted about this new tablet (Cabriolet) from L computers. It seems to pack a lot of punch. Might be something to consider.

http://www.go-l.com/laptops/index.htm

-S
Thursday, January 22, 2004 4:03 PM by G. Andrew Duthie

# re: Should I get a laptop or a tablet?

If I ever get rich and famous, one of the L laptops is definitely on my wish list. :-)