I've been watching TabletPC's from afar for a couple of years. My job doesn't really offer a compelling reason to have one, and they're a bit expensive to buy as a "toy." When I got the opportunity to go back to school a few months ago, I started seriously looking at them. I'm going to be doing a lot of reading, and I want all of those materials in one place, and that place to be anywhere I am. A dedicated e-book reader would be almost perfect; too bad the commercial approach to that market has been nothing but a failure. Of course, there are some other things I'd like to be able to do: surf the web on wifi, deal with e-mail from a variety of accounts, capture notes and thoughts, and bring entertainment media (music, videos) along on trips.
With these high-level requirements in mind, I developed and prioritized a table of specific requirements. Here it is:
| Feature |
Threshold |
Objective |
| Size (in) |
11.5x10x1.25 |
11x8.5x.5 |
| Processor |
1.0GHz Pentium M |
1.5GHz Pentium M |
| Networking - WLAN |
802.11b |
802.11b/g |
| Screen |
1024x768/100 deg viewable |
1600x1200/180 deg viewable |
| Memory |
256MB |
512MB |
| Disk |
20GB/4200rpm |
60GB/5400rpm |
| Battery Life |
4 hours |
8 hours |
| Weight |
4.5 lbs |
3 lbs |
| USB |
1x1.x |
2x2.0 |
| Networking-LAN |
10/100 |
10/100/1000 |
| PCCard |
None |
1xType 2 |
| Bluetooth |
None |
Yes |
| Warranty |
1 year |
3 year |
| Keyboard |
None |
Detachable |
| Memory Cards |
None |
1xCF Type 2, 1xSD |
| Firewire |
None |
1x400 |
I should mention that I've already decided on a slate form factor; if I wanted a laptop, I'd get another iBook.
A few comments on these:
- The threshold is the minimum acceptable; the objective is what I'd like (and more might be better, unless it starts cutting into some other factor, primarily battery life)
- The size is based on a standard 3-ring binder, which I would have in my bag otherwise.
- The Intel-world's real processor performance is baffling. I use a Pentium 3-M-based laptop running at 1GHz on a daily basis, and it seems fine. Yet I see plenty of reviews where anything less than a 2.5GHz processor is "too slow." I have a 2.4GHz Celeron on my PC... but the Celerons are "crippled." I haven't been able to find what's-it-really-feel-like performance ratings on these; any help would be appreciated.
- I plan on having this for a few years, so I'm considering where I'll be soon. For example, I'm almost certainly going to upgrade to 802.11g at home within a year. And rumor has it that Longhorn will ship sometime in the next few years...
- The "100 deg" on the screen is the viewable angle. I actually played around with my Sony LCD on the Mini to get a feeling for what was acceptable, given how I was going to use the tablet, but I think it's one of those things you have to see in person. Too bad you can't find TabletPCs in many stores (none of the ones I'm interested in, at least)
- Battery life: a whole day would be great... but four hours is probably enough to get me through under typical conditions.
- I left out any sort of CD/DVD requirement; I'd want one built-in, and slates just don't come that way (not sure why, since the DVD/CD-R drive in the Mini is really thin; seems like it would be an easy sell for the portable entertainment value alone). I already have an external USB/FW drive I can use for this purpose.