I got a look at one of the Gateway convertible t

[dds2009]

I got a look at one of the Gateway convertible tablets the other day. It seemed nice, but from the side I couldn't really see the display. Also, it had the 14 inch screen. I was wondering how the 12 in. screen works for everyone, especially students. And, do the students on here use their tablets outside very much? Would you all recommend an indoor/outdoor or VA display? Thanks for the input. :D

[jcaldwell]

robrahm, I am not a student but will offer a couple of commments. I think the trade off is about size vs portability. The 12 inch display gives something roughly the size of a sheet of paper. There are several TPC's with even smaller screens that still have their popularity. The bigger you go the heavier you get. I have a Motion M1400 VA and love it. The VA helps also with fluorescent lighting glare. The M1400 screen has a very wide viewing angle which is a separate thing than the View Anywhere feature. (that was the problem with the TPC you refer to above). That does help a lot if you will be having others look on with you any (some have even mentioned liking the older models for privacy concerns because they are hard to see from the side, such as when doing business work on a plane).

[Trev]

The screen size and viewing angle are not correlated. As of right now the tablets I've seen with the best viewing angle are the M1400 (hands down winner) and the TC1100 (honorable mention, better than most)

Regarding screen size and students. I've only used a 12 inch tablet for school, so I can't really give you how the other half lives. I chose 12 inches becauses 10 inches seemed too small. If you hold up a piece of 8.5 x 11 (A4) paper to a 12 inch tablet you'll find that the screen matches up quite nicely to where you would write on paper.

The 14 inch tablets are too big in my opinion, all weighing in at almost 6 pounds-- that's not portable. Then again many students are happy with them.

If you have the option of a indoor/outdoor screen I would pursue it. It's not that you'll be planning to use it outdoors, but that time when you are outdoors and need to access your computer is going to be when you wish you got the option. It comes in handy in situations you never thought of. I realized that when I take BART to San Francisco I tend to be in bright unavoidable sunlight on the train. If I hadn't gotten the m1400va, I wouldn't able to use my tablet for about half of the ride.