Snowfly
September 7th, 2005, 08:39 PM
did a little research on the subject, and 'discovered' the Toshiba Tecra M4. it's being marketed as a business tool, but would work great for artists.
Screen:
unlink most tablet PC's on the market, this one has a 14" screen (as opposed to 12") and SXGA resolution (forgot the resolution, but it's 190% of 1024 x 768 or something like that). that's a real-world dpi of about 120. that's passable print resolution in my book.
Stylus:
it's also equipped with a Wacom digitizer, and the pressure sensitivity is something like 350? (weird number i know). as far as i know, the cursor does keep up with the stylus tip.
Performance:
on the hardware side, you can get up to a 2.13 Ghz Pentium M and 2 GB of DDR2 RAM. it also comes with a Geforce Go 6600 and can run Doom3 at about 100 fps.
The cons are:
-it's 6 lbs and gets hot. not ideal for cradling in your arms and sketching. you'd have to set it down somwhere to draw, which isn't entirely bad.
-narrow viewing angle. 30-45 degrees before color loses accuracy. although head on, it is supposed to be gorgeous.
-it isn't ICC profiled like the Cintiq21, although you could calibrate it yourself with much effort.
-the price is $1800 upwards (my setup would cost $2200). you can get a high-powered gaming laptop for that price, or a decent 3D workstation. depends on what you want out of it i guess.
-battery life is 3.5-4 hours. 8-8.75 hours if you get a dual-batt.
I think it's only a matter of time before we start seeing tablet PC's that are actually desirable as mobile art pads! anyone alse looking out for one? :) can anyone with connections start petitioning for artist tablets?
Screen:
unlink most tablet PC's on the market, this one has a 14" screen (as opposed to 12") and SXGA resolution (forgot the resolution, but it's 190% of 1024 x 768 or something like that). that's a real-world dpi of about 120. that's passable print resolution in my book.
Stylus:
it's also equipped with a Wacom digitizer, and the pressure sensitivity is something like 350? (weird number i know). as far as i know, the cursor does keep up with the stylus tip.
Performance:
on the hardware side, you can get up to a 2.13 Ghz Pentium M and 2 GB of DDR2 RAM. it also comes with a Geforce Go 6600 and can run Doom3 at about 100 fps.
The cons are:
-it's 6 lbs and gets hot. not ideal for cradling in your arms and sketching. you'd have to set it down somwhere to draw, which isn't entirely bad.
-narrow viewing angle. 30-45 degrees before color loses accuracy. although head on, it is supposed to be gorgeous.
-it isn't ICC profiled like the Cintiq21, although you could calibrate it yourself with much effort.
-the price is $1800 upwards (my setup would cost $2200). you can get a high-powered gaming laptop for that price, or a decent 3D workstation. depends on what you want out of it i guess.
-battery life is 3.5-4 hours. 8-8.75 hours if you get a dual-batt.
I think it's only a matter of time before we start seeing tablet PC's that are actually desirable as mobile art pads! anyone alse looking out for one? :) can anyone with connections start petitioning for artist tablets?