I finally made up my mind of buying a tablet pc.

[Zem]

I finally made up my mind of buying a tablet pc. I quite like the light design of the Acer travelmate so I think I'm going for it. "Fortunately" Acer only offers the c102-series over here in Germany so I don't have to waste a lot of time on chosing the right one for me. But there is one choice left over nevertheless and I hope you can help me with that one: c102t or c102ti.

As the integrated wlan-card in the c102ti seems to consume quite a lot of power I'm wondering if it would make sense of staying with the smaller model (c102t) and buying an extra wlan card. What about those CompactFlash-WLAN-Cards (with adapter) normally used with pda's? Would that help extending the battery life any further? Are there drawbacks when using CF-cards?

Thanks for your advice!

[dcpetral]

well, while i'm sure there's someone out there who might disagree with me, the idea of using a pcmcia wifi card when you have the option to get an integrated 802.11x chipset, is a positively silly one. not only do pcmcia wifi cards suck down the juice (not sure where you got the notion that the integrated feature uses more power... quite the other way around), but you can't use the pcmcia slot for anything else (bearing in mind that the acer has but one slot). a CF card + adapter is just as silly, given that not only would you be using almost as much power, you would be sacrificing a lot of performace in terms of range. i used my old wifi card in my acer (i have the 102ti) just for a test, and i got barely 1.5 hrs of battery life out of it, compared to nearly twice that when the integrated wifi is in use.
of course, it depends on how much you'll use the wifi feature. given that that's the only way i get on the internet, and i can find/use a connection quite literally almost everywhere i go, having the integrated wifi is indispensible. i couldn't imagine going back to the crappy battery life of my old pcmcia card, nor that annoyance of having something delicate sticking out the side of my computer all the time. believe me, get the 102ti... you won't regret it.

[dcpetral]

well, while i'm sure there's someone out there who might disagree with me, the idea of using a pcmcia wifi card when you have the option to get an integrated 802.11x chipset, is a positively silly one. not only do pcmcia wifi cards suck down the juice (not sure where you got the notion that the integrated feature uses more power... quite the other way around), but you can't use the pcmcia slot for anything else (bearing in mind that the acer has but one slot). a CF card + adapter is just as silly, given that not only would you be using almost as much power, you would be sacrificing a lot of performace in terms of range. i used my old wifi card in my acer (i have the 102ti) just for a test, and i got barely 1.5 hrs of battery life out of it, compared to nearly twice that when the integrated wifi is in use.
of course, it depends on how much you'll use the wifi feature. given that that's the only way i get on the internet, and i can find/use a connection quite literally almost everywhere i go, having the integrated wifi is indispensible. i couldn't imagine going back to the crappy battery life of my old pcmcia card, nor that annoyance of having something delicate sticking out the side of my computer all the time. believe me, get the 102ti... you won't regret it.

[azndoodle]

I currently own the Acer TMC102T and I had to buy a PCMCIA wireless card...and i can tell you after a few hours of going wireless the spot under card got really HOT!..

I'm not sure how heat intensive it is with a built-in WiFi, but i'm just here to share my experience.

I'm currently looking for a way to install a miniPCI WiFi in my laptop to hopefully eliminate the extra stem from the side of my laptop and to reduce the heat produced.

[azndoodle]

I currently own the Acer TMC102T and I had to buy a PCMCIA wireless card...and i can tell you after a few hours of going wireless the spot under card got really HOT!..

I'm not sure how heat intensive it is with a built-in WiFi, but i'm just here to share my experience.

I'm currently looking for a way to install a miniPCI WiFi in my laptop to hopefully eliminate the extra stem from the side of my laptop and to reduce the heat produced.