Tablet PC Blogs

I had been lead to believe that a service plan was a smart option, by looking around all the forums and seeing all the trouble people were having with Gateway systems. I really liked this one, and wanted to give it a chance.

But I've had to send it in for repair twice now. This is only the third month I have had it. The service plan I bought from Best Buy was $360 and is supposed to last for 3 years. They have this No-Lemon policy which I figured was a good choice. After all, if it's a lemon, why live with it?

What I did not know was that when this policy is enacted (which is on the fourth call for repair) the entire service plan is scrapped. That took the oomph right out of the security I thought I had with this purchase.

If I had known in advance that I was paying $360 only to have that money thrown away if they ever replace the machine, I would not have bought it with money I didn't have (and still don't). This has me hopping mad, and it's taking all the self-restraint I can muster not to walk into Best Buy and demand all my money back (for the $1,100 dud and the $360 waste of money). The computer has not even lived past the 1 year Gateway warranty. Why would it make sense for Best Buy to scrap the machine and the plan? Oh, that's right, they'll still have all my money...

I asked what assurance I had, if the computer was ever replaced, that the unit it's replaced with will work any better. They gave me NO assurance. Yeah, I'm feeling real good about that $360 I spent now.

I'm probably going to take this up through the ranks and tell them that this policy of scrapping the plan when the machine is scrapped so soon is horse apples.

If Best Buy's policy will not change, I'll have no choice but to take full advantage of the privilege I bought myself, hang on to the computer until the end of the term, and THEN exchange it, which was my original plan anyway..but if the computer fails after the first year, I'll be left up *** creek without a paddle.

Signed,

fu "I'm-not-happy-Bob" ry

• The pen has been replaced twice since the initial Thoughts... post. The second replacement, the one I'm using now, is also defective and I am awaiting that replacement as per the suggestion of the tech I called on the phone. I suggested defective digitizer as a possibility, but he agreed with my assumption that the symptoms are in favor of a defective pen. The fact that all I have to do to reactivate the pen is swipe it a bit along the magnet on the left side of the screen and tap a few times indicates that the digitizer is not at fault, but the pen.
• I have since bought the extended battery and the modular bay battery. They both arrived today, roughly half-way charged. I installed them and charged them to full capacity, then unplugged and did a bit of testing. Nothing thorough, and haven't done a calibration yet since I don't have that kind of time on my hands during the week, but some very assuring preliminary numbers.
  • Unplugged and with full power-save mode (screen dimmed to minimum, processor set to half speed)
    Estimated 9.5 hours of battery life
  • Above, with a video playing
    Estimated 6.9 hours of battery life
  • Full performance (maximum brightness, full processor speed)
    Estimated 6.5 hours of battery life
  • Above, with Quake 3 playing in the foreground, in windowed mode at 640x480 and 5 bots for AI usage
    Estimated 4 hours of battery life
  • Above, in full power-save mode
    Estimated 7-7.5 hours of battery life
  So according to the numbers I've seen thus far, the extended battery plus the bay battery is quite a powerful combination. 9 hours of battery life without swapping batteries or plugging in is a big plus for me, since it essentially means I can go a full work day without pulling out my power adapter. Then there's also the 4+ hours with the standard battery that I can just swap in when the other two get low.
  
  The bay battery came with a primary battery cover that you can use if you don't like the hump. In practice, at least for me, this was a step down in usability of the tablet, because I'd gotten used to grabbing onto the hump when I was carrying it, and with the cover, it's just a flat surface with some rubber on it. It didn't feel as solid as either of the primary batteries.
  
  The extended battery of course has an extended hump. I kind of like it so far. It seems about as solid as the standard battery so I probably won't mind just leaving the extended battery in by default. As long as I've got something I can hold on to while I'm carrying it from one desk to another, or even in my arm while I'm sitting in at a meeting, I welcome the hump.
  
  Overall, the added battery life from the two extra batteries is a welcome addition to an already excellent computer. I anticipate much more productive use out of it now that I don't have to tether to a power outlet every few hours.
• Someone should work out a Tablet PC drinking game that involves taking a shot when you read the word "hump" and it's not in a dirty context.
• I've noticed that it isn't so fun wearing shorts and using this computer literally on my lap. The size of my lap puts the computer at an awkward position, with the exhaust fan blowing onto my bare knee, and the rubber feet at the back of the computer taking a few more leg hairs out every time I shift positions.
• The pen is REALLY accurate when it works. I didn't think it'd be this much of a deal since I'd gotten used to the edge issue on a Wacom, but being able to use the edge of the screen is that important to me that it's hard to go back to do anything on my old M1200. The start menu for me is auto-hidden on the right, and it was a chore way back before I got used to the lack of accuracy around the edges to get to it. Now that I have more screen real estate, I still have it auto-hidden by habit, and because there are no accuracy problems with Finepoint technology, it just feels so much more robust and smooth. I feel that if the pens weren't so unreliable, that a Finepoint tablet would be just the thing to use to demo the idea of a Tablet PC to a prospective user.
• I've gotten used to the higher-than-Wacom sensitivity on the pen, but I would still really appreciate some control over this, if anyone at Finepoint is reading this.. (doubtful, but couldn't hurt to try)
• I still love the EZ touchpad software. The scrolling is superb - much easier and more compatible than a mouse scroll wheel. I can use the touchpad to scroll through a file in VB6! Major thumbs up for that. It saves me a ton of time now in large projects with hundreds of thousands of lines of code.
• My cat enjoys sitting on me and watching me work/play on the tablet. Every time I sit down at home to use it, she jumps up on the chair/couch. She even tries to help me type.
• Speaking of typing, this keyboard is still taking some getting used to, but when I'm purely typing and not trying to edit, I am fairly decent; I would say roughly half of my maximum typing speed, which I can accept considering it's just a flat keyboard. (Microsoft Natural Pro for life!!)
• I bought a 3 year Best Buy performance service plan with accident insurance. I feel that it's worth the extra investment now if it means basically I can get a new one if the computer has to be repaired 3 times. I'm sure I can manage to rack up enough wear and tear on it before the 3 years is up. I'm sure that's not the intent of the No Lemon policy, but normal wear and tear is covered under the plan anyway.
• The optical drive for the modular bay is more handy than I thought it might be, coming from slatesville. I would usually rip a CD on my desktop and use Daemon Tools to do a virtual drive with the ISO image. But now, not only do I not have to do that, but I can now make DVD backups straight from the tablet at 4-8x. Pretty convenient, and quite a bit faster than transferring even on Wi-Fi G. (I don't have a crossover cable or a hub/router capable of joining them with an ethernet cable)
• It's really hard to type with a cat sitting on your arm.
• The latch that shuts the screen in either mode does not stand up to swiveling the screen while it's shut, nor does it stay latched all the time while in my bag. This isn't a huge problem but it takes me a few seconds to pull it out of my bag when the screen catches on something. Minor annoyance for sure, for now, at least until this causes me enough frustration to pull it out in a hurry and break the hinge.
• I have noticed on several occasions when opening the screen while the computer is in standby, it will resume. This does not happen all the time, and is also not a big deal, but can present certain problems such as if the latch opens while in my bag and turns it on, thus number 1 draining battery juice without being any kind of useful, and number 2 heating up the inside of my bag. I don't have to tell you what kind of problems that can present.
• The computer is leaps and bounds faster than my old M1200 and yet still struggles with mere web pages (mostly blogs with long listings, but some pages using Flash will occasionally employ bad scripting practices and slow the system down to a crawl). I'm not sure if this is localized to Firefox, to this computer, or to Windows in general, but I figured I should mention it, as it's much more noticeable an issue now that my processor is supposedly fast (at least, compared to a P3-M at 933mhz)
• They should really make cord retractor(s) for this obnoxiously long power adapter. I wouldn't mind it as much if it were about as long as the one that came with my M1200, which only took a few wraps to be able to throw back into my bag. This adapter is so long it's just wrong. Seriously, it must be at least 20 feet. Does anyone know of a place that makes retractable power adapters that can completely replace the one that came with my computer? I mean including the cord that goes from the computer to the brick and from the brick to the wall.
• I don't know which is the bigger shame: the fact that I can't warm-swap the battery in this computer, or the fact that I didn't save my work before trying.
• I think one of the first things new users of this computer would/should appreciate is how well-built it feels, overall. At least, mine does.
  
  • The locking mechanism for the battery so that you can simply grab onto the battery and carry it around.
  • The firm but smooth motion of the hinge. It moves effortlessly but stops solidly. I even experimented with a half-converted mode where the screen was set to portrait and rotated halfway around on the hinge, so that I could still use the touchpad to scroll. This was a pretty nifty way to use it, but can't be done unless you've got a leg or two (or more?) propped up for the computer to lean against.
  • I swear the screen protector is made out of something harder than diamond. Since I got it, I have not seen the screen ripple a single time.
  • I like the touchpad for the very simple reason that it's solid and never moves, so it'll probably be one of the last things to break
  • The damn thing does not flex when I grab it at either end and start twisting. That was one of the bad points of my M1200 - it'd flex, which made it feel more fragile.
  • The physical feel of the pen and its retention mechanism is superb.
  
  All the little things that really add up to making it feel built to last. Not rugged, but stylishly well-built. And then there's the magnetic latching. Oh well, can't win em all.
• Screen rotations are noticeably faster than on any other tablet I've seen, which is a nice touch (now all I need is a way to auto rotate). Is this a feature of Intel 915 graphics? The CX2620 I saw at Best Buy had a Radeon in it and was about as slow in switching orientation as my old M1200 with 8xx Intel graphics.
• I REALLY like the touchpad
• So does my cat
• Her breath smells like cat food

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