Well My budget is $1100 and I am willing to buy

[nskkam]

Well My budget is $1100 and I am willing to buy a used tablet pc but I am unsure about what I Should get.

There a few questions that I want to ask.

First of all I am a student, who goes to college and will be using the Tablet Pc to primarily take notes with the stylus.

Should I get a Convertable or a Slate?
-I Figure I could get a Slate because there so light and dont weight that much some weighing in at about 3.4 lbs, but with slates I am seeing that you have to sacrifice performance compared to regular convertibles. Im going to be placing the tablet pc on the desk in the classroom and maybe sit it against my lap while I sit on the couch, I dont plan on standing and doing much writing or work. So in that Case does it make sense to still get a slate becuase its lighter and the lighter the better, or I could give a pound up to go from the 3 lbs range to the 4lbs range and not lose much because I am using it for the classroom.

Screen Size?
- 10.4 Inch or 12 Inch. I currently own a 12inch laptop and I think that its pretty decent when it comes to writing essay's and doing other kinds of work. Would the 10.4 Inch be too small, because I am near sighted and I dont want my vision to deteriorate even further, I dont want to have to squint to see the text or my notes from class. There is a NEC tablet Pc but its only in 10.4 inch yet it only costs 400 dollars on ebay. Plus I have a desktop computer at home and I dont dorm, so I can always use that computer to write essay's if I feel the 10.4 Inch is too small to read or write essays for long periods of time.
But I dont want to get a 10.4 inch screen if it will inhibit me from taking notes or make it more difficult compared to a 12 inch screen. A smaller screen means less stuff fits and you have to write smaller right?

[CraigP]

Convertible or Slate:
This is often more of a personal choice than anything else. With regard to performance concerns though it is not so much that you give performance away for a slate - the smaller convertibles have similar specs. I use a HP TC1100 and a Motion M1400 regularly. Both have centrino 1.1 - 1.2 GHz processors and I can tell you from experience that for note taking and general MS Office applications this is absolutely fine. If you want to play 3D games on it then you would be better off with a Toshiba M4 and a small trolly. Most slates have a docking station and/or a removable keyboard option. I would recommend both for the most flexible solution. Docked it is just like a desktop. With the removable KB it is just like a laptop and in slate mode it is something else all together.

Screen Size. As above I use both the TC1100 (10" screen) and the Motion M1400 (12" screen). Both run at the same resolution (1024x768) and I really don't notice much difference when using them as a slate. If portability is important to you then you get a much smaller device without giving much away going for the 10" screen. Remember that you can use an external monitor when in your room - you will only be using the smaller screen when writing on it. This means that the device has to be reasonably close to you, so the small screen size will probably not be an issue - that has been my experience anyway.

[CamperMan]

An 8.5" x 11" piece of paper has a diagonal measurement of around 14". Because the shape isn't a 4:3 ratio the paper doesn't exactly fit on a 14" tablet screen, but it's pretty close. So, reading an letter-sized PDF file (or annotating on top of it) is harder the smaller the screen gets.

My Acer has a 10.4" LCD. For working with letter-size content, a 12" or 14" screen would be better. I think a 12" screen would be the best compromise between extra screen space and weight. This is especially true since the pages of most college textbooks are smaller than a standard piece of paper.

Jim

[deberha2]

I would get a used HP TC1100 (slate and convertible both in one), one spare battery (maybe two if you have classes 8 hours a day), an external battery charger, an eraser pen and a HP executive portfolio to keep the tablet in. Throw in the Agilix GoBinder software and you are headed for straight A's. I highly recommend having a keyboard for whatever tablet you get. There is no way to write and convert or input panel the text as fast as you can type. You'll be sorry if you don't have a keyboard for writing papers. My TC1100 has replaced my laptop, desktop, and PDA - all three. :) I wouldn't recommend the TC1000 for student use - the fan is kind of loud and would be a distraction in lectures. The TC1100 is quieter and should be no problem. Expect 3 to 3.5 hours of battery time on one battery. All of these items are available on Ebay - make sure you get one with a warranty left - you can check with HP if you have the serial number on the unit.

[CuriousMe]

The Lenovo Thinkpad X41 is just 3.5 lbs with the 4 cell battery and it's a convertible (gotta love those Thinkpad keyboards). I've been using it for my Math class and it's fantastic!

It's got a 12 inch screen which I like for writing....I don't think I'd like it much smaller though....the only concern is that it's above your budget.

Good luck in your search.

Peace,
Cathie