tablet pcs

[PT Osborne]

does anyone know much about tablt pcs... which is the best to buy for the money? is there anything annoying about them one might miss after only playing with one for a few minutes?

I tinkered with a co-workers the other day.. liked it

[MGH]

How did you tinker? You mean you used Photoshop or Painter?
I read on another thread here or at Sijun that they're only good for word processing kinda stuff right now.
Alias/wavefront does sell a drawing program called 'Sketchbook'
for it though. Like to hear feedback from anyone that's used it.

[PT Osborne]

I played for a bit with alias sketchbook, the only thing slightly annoying was the small delay between pen and screen

was wondering if anyone has done much with them

[cagemarrow]

I actually own two different tablet pcs as well as the sony lx900 desktop that came out about 3 years ago. I love them all.

My favorite of the group is my Gateway Motion 1200 which is a slate form factor, meaning the keyboard is seperate from the tablet itself. It's very convienent to carry around and work on but you really need to get used to not using the shortcuts as often. Which is very tough for me in photoshop, painter, and illustrator.

Pen tracking on all of them isn't exactly perfect but I found the transition from pencil&paper to tablet much easier then to my old Wacom tablet. There's just something nice about being able to look at what your drawing as if it's paper.

I also have the Toshiba 3505, a convertable tablet, which worked well but was pretty heavy to carry around for everyday use.

Both the Toshiba and the Motion pc came with 40gig drives, support up to a gig of ram, and have wireless and wired ethernet.

The Sony box that I have is a desktop only version that is basically a proprietary version of Wacom's Cintaq.

I would seriously spend some time working on the demo units for a while before deciding for or against getting one of the tablets. It is vital that you calibrate the tracking software so that the pentip matches the screen and that you install the updated Wacom drivers if you want to get pressure sensitivity in Photoshop and other legacy programs. Sketchbook doesn't need this as it was written for the Tabletpc API.

I recently got a copy of Painter to play with and have so far loved it. The cursor does lag with some of the more cpu intensive brushes but I've been able to cope with it without much problem. Again it just takes some getting used to.

[AnarchyAo2]

I've never tried out a tablet PC, but I really wouldn't think it would be worth the money unless you were a professional artist and it was required. Because, if your using it for a hobby, and you don't have time to sit at home on your PC and work on your art. You probably won't have time to really work on it while on the go. If you have piles of cash and nothing to do with it, go ahead, its a pretty cool gadget.

I've also heard that the batteries can be kind of annoying. But theres always ways around that little annoyence.

[cagemarrow]

That's one thing I really wish was better is the battery life. I can get about 2 1/2 hours out of my Motion tablet and about 2 out of my Toshiba. However I've never had a problem finding outlets at coffee shops, restaurants, classes, or work when the batteries start to run low.

Yes they are expensive compared to other laptops but for me the ability to have a digital sketchbook was worth it.

[PT Osborne]

thanks for the replies...
I'm definetly looking into picking one up eventually,
I want something I can work on while my work system is chugging away a playblast or waiting to open a file

your comments have been helpful
later
Pat

[BadMange]

Make sure you check which processor the tablet PC is using. While it might be 1.7GHz, it might be a P3 instead of a P4. Looking at the Gateway site, their tablet PCs have 1.0GHz Centrinos.

And if you're using a program like Painter, which is dependent upon CPU power more than the amount of RAM you have, you'll be better off with a regular laptop.

-Bad Mange