Tablet PC vs Intuos3 ??

[Tad]

Well I'm in need of a new comp.
right now I just have my work computer, and at home I have a cruddy old laptop (like a 1ghz pentium).

SO i'm thinking about maybe skipping getting a home desktop alltogether and getting a laptop.

NOW I am curious, how capable are todays Tablet PC's compared to an intuos3?
I tried a tabletPC once and it was HORRRIBLE, but this was a first gen, probably one of the first to come out.

I'm looking at the Lenovo line (closest to sleek clean black styling out there, the rest are fugly weird cyber style).

So any opinions?
A standard laptop or desktop would be a lot cheaper btw (which is why i'm not sure what to do yet.).

THANKS!

[Shogmaster]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMUUDYiKEKA

That video should answer your question.

BTW, you can get a nice 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Tablet PC that blows away my old R25 in that video in every way except for screen resolution for only $1250.

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529667902.php

[Tad]

hows about the responsiveness?
I kind of have the same question as that guy that posted the comment on your video.

Basically what really worried me about the tabletpc (vs a standard intuos, a cintiq is just too expensive, and if I didn't have the portability I'd just stick with a standard monitor+intuos).

Basically the tabletpc I tried out, had really bothersome delay.
like you'd press and move the pen around and the cursor would lag behind trying to catch up.. gross...

[Tad]

btw that gateway looks nice! cheap too

[Shogmaster]

This gets a bit complicated, but the answer is that yes, the responsiveness is quite good, if you make sure there are no conflicts that would add delay.

Unfortunately for Tablet PCs, one of those conflicts is between XP:Tablet Edition OS and the Wacom driver. That's probably why you felt a slight delay with all the TPCs you've tried. Any app that relies on Wacom's driver instead of built in TPC driver (just about every app we use excpet for the likes of Sketchbook Pro and Art Rage) will be subjected to this. This is one of those things that took me years to figure out. Finally had my confirmation over a year ago when Vista came out.

Here's graphical evidence of the conflict and the resulting pressure response delay:

Painter IX on XP:TE
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/Shogmaster/BtrackXPTE.jpg

Painter IX on Vista
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/Shogmaster/BrushTracking.jpg

P9 on regular XP Pro
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/Shogmaster/P9TPCtestXPpro.jpg

P10 on XP:TE
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/Shogmaster/TPCvWacomPX.jpg

P9 on Vista
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/Shogmaster/Painter9Vista.jpg

As you can see, there is a pressure delay only on XP:Tablet Edition

The simple solution is to use Vista with your Tablet PCs. They all come with them now, and I've use it for over a year without much issues. Give it plenty of RAM (2GB minimum) and it's a very nice OS.

[Tad]

Hmmm!
very informative.
And I was about to complain that the tabletpcs all have vista!
I guess it's worth switching over in this scenario.
(i'll stick with XP on my desktops though I think).

You're right about the ram, imo 4gb is about right.. which is ridiculous,
but I guess that's life and luckily ram is dirt cheap right now.

tpc seems like a good choice right now.
But I suppose i'll have to find one to try out first before I go ordering it blind (or only semi blind taking into account your wonderful examples, hehe)

[Brashen]

I dont usually support macs but in this case they have this MODBOOK out now with wacom technology just google that I think its a pretty nice deal!! apart from the fact that its mac....

[Sepulverture]

Sorry Tad, but you won't be able to access all 4gb of your RAM unless you're using a 64bit version of whatever operating system you're using. Doesn't matter what OS you use, the problem is the 32 bit layer, only so much ram can be recognized. I just built myself a new desktop in January, and decided to go all out with memory, and i slapped 7 gigs of some nice high speed ddr2 RAM, and was bummed when I installed XP only to find that 3.2 gigs of it was recognized, and after a little digging I found that bit of information I just passed along to you.

[Diphallia]

Sorry Tad, but you won't be able to access all 4gb of your RAM unless you're using a 64bit version of whatever operating system you're using. Doesn't matter what OS you use, the problem is the 32 bit layer, only so much ram can be recognized. I just built myself a new desktop in January, and decided to go all out with memory, and i slapped 7 gigs of some nice high speed ddr2 RAM, and was bummed when I installed XP only to find that 3.2 gigs of it was recognized, and after a little digging I found that bit of information I just passed along to you.

Yeah, but 4 gigs is still better than 2 or 3.
Plus, the RAM reads faster with more of them.

[Blue]

If you're willing to go the mac route, you can get a tablet PC that uses wacom penabled technology. Last i checked other tablet PC's don't.

http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook

[Hyver]

there's plenty of pc based tablet pc's that use wacom tech. the toshiba m700, to name one. rather happy with it, even though it uses vista. modbook sounds awesome too, if you can afford one.

[Duq]

If you're willing to go the mac route, you can get a tablet PC that uses wacom penabled technology. Last i checked other tablet PC's don't.

http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook


check again: http://www.wacom-components.com/english/partner/index.html