I bought a few days ago a notebook (convertible,

[hrnt]

I bought a few days ago a notebook (convertible, i can turn the screen 180 degrees).

This notebook, Dialogue Flybook (1), isn't a true tablet PC because if i understood correctly, true tablet PC's have a digitizer, not a touchscreen. Also this computer runs plain XP home, not a tablet OS.

Compared to a "real" convertible tablet, what are the features I am missing? I know about the integrated handwriting recognition in XP tablet edition, but are there other features I am not aware of? I get handwriting recognition with RitePen which shipped with this computer, but it doesn't recognize finnish so I don't use it.

What are the drawbacks of a touchscreen compared to a digitizer?

I am using Agilix GoBinder on the computer to organize all stuff related to my studies (electrical engineering / telecommunications).

(1): TM Crusoe 1Ghz, 512MB, 40GB, USB 2.0, Firewire, 802.11b, bluetooth, 8,9" touchscreen (Penmount LPC, palm rejection), 1.2kg,
around 3 hours of battery life.

Yeah, the processor is slow but it is more than enough to run Gobinder, Opera and stuff like that.

[Guises]

you are missing the tablet input panel, which is more than just handwriting recognition and is very convenient for filling out short forms and things, though i don't know if it does finnish and i do know that it doesn't work as well as it might with firefox and probably opera.

also, you are missing a few handy utilities (some people would say that missing one note and journal is the biggest thing but i am not one of those people). don't know gobinder, but that may be a substitute.

in my mind the biggest loss is hardware - touch screens are not pressure sensitive and you can't rest your hand on the screen while you write/draw like you can with a digitizer.

that's what you don't have, what you do have is something that is as light or lighter than any of the tablets yet still has a keyboard. and it has a resolution that is actually slightly higher than any tablet except the M200. if the flybook had had a digitizer and an efficeon instead of a crusoe i would have gotten that for sure.

[tqc]

You're missing applications that were designed to run with the tablet API. A touchscreen will be ok for basic text entry into standard windows apps, but some of the applications coming out now go quite a way beyond that.

[hrnt]

quote:Originally posted by Guises


in my mind the biggest loss is hardware - touch screens are not pressure sensitive and you can't rest your hand on the screen while you write/draw like you can with a digitizer.

Actually I can rest my palm on the screen when I write. That is what the palm rejection on the screen specs mean.

(edit) Checked the flybook manual, it actually states that flybook has "LCD display screen and pressure-sensitive touch panel"

Later on the manual it says, quote, "The touch panel embedded in your computer is a pressure sensitive, palm-rejection type panel - you can write on it as you would a normal writing pad without your palm interfering with the computer's function".

(/edit)

[chaimberbell]

How much was it?

EDIT: Dang, is that the that red tiny VAIO + Acer Ferrari lookin thing? That's pretty sweet. Why isn't there a "tablet PC" that looks that small and light and sweet (and red! how cool!)?!?

[bluespapa]

All the touch screens I've ever seen show wear where you write on them. At least my Acer hasn't shown any yet, and I digitize quite a bit. Do you know if you can ink on Office 2003 documents? That's a big deal to me these days, especially with PowerPoint presentations. They come alive in a way standard ppts don't.

[Guises]

one thing i forgot: right clicking. and middle clicking if you have one of the two button pens. some of them have erasers too.

bluespapa: even if office doesn't allow for this, you could always use a third party program, like alias sketchbook, to take a screen cap and then ink on that.

[bluespapa]

Hmmm... that doesn't sound as efficient as inking on a slide in a presentation.

[bluespapa]

Very cute specs on the Flybook, though. Not sure with my eyes I'd want to go much smaller than the 10.4 inches on my Acer, but the 8.9 couldn't be that much different, and it's that much more portable.

[hrnt]

quote:Originally posted by chaimberbell

How much was it?

EDIT: Dang, is that the that red tiny VAIO + Acer Ferrari lookin thing? That's pretty sweet. Why isn't there a "tablet PC" that looks that small and light and sweet (and red! how cool!)?!?

I bought it for 1279,90EUR, which is 1668.42USD at the moment. Mine is silver, not red because they went out of stock :( The price if pretty cheap compared to other tablets available. I bought this from verkkokauppa.com, which is the biggest retailer of IT stuff in north europe.

The biggest retailer of north europe has only 3 types of real tablets for sale :/ HP tc1100, FS Stylistic ST5010 and Acer Travelmate C112TCi. The cheapest of these is Acer at 1822.90EUR (2376.24USD) so I really couldn't afford a "real" tablet.