Anyone own/used a Fujistsu LifeBook T900?

Malus

I was curious as to what possiblities were around for mobile artiness, specifically for use with Zbrush, Photoshop and Maya while I'm on the road.

I stumbled on the LifeBook T900 and it's specs seem pretty solid, I'm just not sure if its pressure sensitive.

Has anyone here used one? Know about the screen? Pro's / Con's?


http://www.fujitsulifebook.com.au/2084_Fujitsu-T900-Lifebook-Tablet-Notebook-Intel-Core-i7-620M-with-Win-7-Pro.php

Cheers

crasong

In all honesty this actually looks pretty good. Weight isn't heavy, and the specs look promising too with the i7 and 8gb RAM options. I reckon if you go with the SSD, you could pick up that thing and walk around without worrying about moving parts. Wonder if the heat generated is a lot too, those are some hot specs. This worries me though "Integrated Intel HD Graphics", how does that one fare?

pior

I would recommend checking out specialized tablet pc review websites. Because as usual with tablet PC specs, the most important is not stated on this page : stylus pressure sensitivity!

Try to see if 'penabled' is mentionned somewhere. If yes you are on the right track as it means the stylus/tablet parts are Wacom.

Then check for user reviews. For instance for my tablet PC I found out there was a specific wacom driver to install manually to get the stylus working the way it should - as opposed to the dumbed down driver and UI pre-installed on the tablet. It might also be worth checking wich Wacom stylus is compatible with the tabletPC. On mine for instance it was the one from the old Cintiq15incher. Found one online, and it gave me the two buttons i needed as opposed to the single button on the default stylus. But you seem good ot go on that page with that PC, according to the picture.

You most likely wont use the touch/finger functionality at all. Regular OSes are just not made for that, period.
Also for artistic uses you might not need the keyboard/foldable design. Slate, with some extra acessories is really good. (I use the cheap bamboo touch for it's 4 programmable buttons, I set them to Alt, Tab, [ and ]. It's super flat hence fit in the bag just fine with the tablet and the stylus.

Sorry I dont have exact answers, but that's all useful things to remember.

Have fun!

EarthQuake

Integrated Intel HD Graphics

roosterMAP

i would get an external hardware. wacomb is the best u can get!

Steve Schulze

You'll need a portable power supply if you want to go walk about with your Cintiq.

I've got an older Fujitsu Lifebook slate tablet PC. It is wacom penabled, though not quite as sensitive as an Intuos or Cintiq.

One thing you might consider is that my one can't run Maya at all. It's a few years old but should be able to get it running. It's entirely possible they've overhauled them entirely in more recent versions, but you'll definitely want to get some very clear reviews about 3d capability.

Malus

Awesome guys, thanks for the advice.

I'll do some more leg work and if I find anything promising let everyone know.

Malus

So far the top contenders are the following:

Lenovo Thinkpad X201t
http://shopap.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/auweb/LenovoPortal/en_AU/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=3634951826AE4D3881BFFF1AC5FCD957&current-category-id=5F3D323E86B74590ADD714AAD4CB5F99

Fujitsu LifeBook T900
http://www.fujitsu.com/au/services/technology/pc/notebooks/tseries/t900/

HP EliteBook 2740p
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/321957-321957-64295-3740645-3955549-4145567.html

All support:
- i7 chips
- 250 - 500GB HDD
- up to 8GB Ram
- Shader model 4, openGL2.0, DirectX10 Intel HD integrated cards (not sure on Max, Maya compatiblity yet)
- All are Wacom digitizer compatible so pressure sensitive (apparently the bamboo drivers work the best)

As far as being useful:
- Zbrush seems good to go since the ram and chip are good and the GFXCard isn't too slack
- Photoshop runs on it
- Autodesk products I'm unsure of the compatiblity of the graphics hardware


The Lifebook seems to be the leader so far, it has all the bells and whistles of the others and a larger screen.
Unfortunately it's the only one I found which had complaints about it. :P
Apparently the pen axis screws up and screen can bork out when converted to tablet mode...joy.

Anyway....time to start saving (starving), when I have the cash I might have more info to make a descision.

MagicSugar

So far as I know nobody's done a penabled 1024 tablet (my baseline to buy). With the current tablet prices I'd rather buy with that amount for an okay 15" laptop + wireless intuos 4 (2048 pressure levels).

If pressure sensitivity don't matter much, for sure anything that can run artrage, sketchbookpro or zbrush should still be usable. (but I doubt the tablet's batt can last long enough for a serious modelling/sculpting session)

This guy sketches a lot with his motion computing tablet which he bought used for $1200. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nycsubwayseries

Motion computing's latest Motion J3400 still cost over 2 grand and only has 256 levels of pressure sensitivity.

pior

Btw if it's only for sketching, the guy just wasted his money ... I got a used Motion Computing for 400$. Can't beat that!

Racer445

All of those tablet laptops have intel graphics which are quite honestly terrible. Have a look at the HP Touchsmart t2mt After some upgrades it's a decent machine without being too expensive.

Core 2 Duo 1.3GHz
4GB DDR3
ATI Radeon HD4550 (not the greatest but fairly beefy for a laptop)
500GB 7200RPM HDD
Wacom digitizer compatible, but only with 256 pressure levels

Comes to $1024.

EarthQuake

If you want to do any mud/zbrush the video on all of those laptops will be insufficient, intel gfx is quite terrible, ati mobile 3200 is just slightly better. Something like Racer has, or a decent nvidia 7600, 8500, 9400, 9500, 220, something like that.... Unfortunately i think its rather uncommon to find a tablet PC with a decent video card, but that should really be your main concern aside from quality of screen/tablet i would imagine. I wouldn't pay attention to the "specs" of the video, Shader model, DX10 etc because all of the video you will find will claim to "support" these features, but in reality the real low end stuff will not give you acceptable performance, and likely driver issues etc trying to get your 3d apps to work.

JacqueChoi

I've got the Lifebook T series, and I absolutely love it.

Zbrush runs like butter, but you need to upgrade the RAM to 4gigs. Make sure its Wacom Penabled.

Get a mini keyboard for hotkeys.

Firebert

EarthQuake wrote: »

Unfortunately i think its rather uncommon to find a tablet PC with a decent video card....

...I wouldn't pay attention to the "specs" of the video, Shader model, DX10 etc because all of the video you will find will claim to "support" these features, but in reality the real low end stuff will not give you acceptable performance, and likely driver issues etc trying to get your 3d apps to work.

100% true.
I was lucky enough to get a decent Nvidia card in my tablet pc, but the support for it from Nvidia is practically "0". It even says that it supports certain shader models, but it won't run engines and can't even run Mudbox. Now that was quite a while ago when I got it, but keep it in mind.

Also, don't know about other people, but mine runs hot as balls depending on what I'm doing. Can lead to crashes and data loss if you are not careful.

For on the go, tablet pc's are great. I run ZB and Maya on mine all the time with few to 0 hiccups, but like I said, can't run some things I want to run on it and have to move stuff back to the workstation.

kendo

i recently purchased the hp tm2 and have been very happy with it so far, unlike the Fujitsu range the tm2 has a graphics card as well, the only draw back is the cpu however they do sell a 1.6 culv dual core which i heard people are over clocking, it will run maya and zb decently enough and its a third of the price.

my recommendation if you must have a really good cpu is wait for hp to release the specs on the new convertible line and see if they are up to your requirements.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrOq5ScFLUo&feature=channel[/ame]

Malus

Heres another possible solution:

The Asus EP 121
http://www.asuseeepad.net/ep121-eee-pad.php

Wacom friendly
multitouch
i5 processor
Win 7

Not sure of ram or video card

Justin Meisse

I wonder how much juice it would take to power a cintiq 12wx? Get a decent laptop, remove the screen and Ben Heck a Cintiq 12wx onto it, TADA! NO WARRANTY!

Shadownami92

Fujitsu's are pretty good laptops. Only consistent problem my family has had with them is a loose AC Adapter Jack, which kinda stunk as I didn't know how to replace/fix it and having a tech company do it was super expensive. But it didn't really get loose until about 3 or 4 years after getting it.

Kwramm

zbrush uses its own renderer and works quite well with not so powerful gfx hardware. just needs lots of ram though and some cpu power. It worked quite well on some older laptops I had which had intel video. You won't be able to do serious detailing, but blocking out, quick sketching and doing some mid res details should work....then do pores, wrinkles, etc on your main PC.
Mudbox is an entirely different story though.

Malus

Hmm, this is looking pretty cool as a low end portable Zbrush/Photoshop sketchpad.

Some decent specs, nothing hardcore but for under $1200 its got potential.
I can't find any info on whether its pressure sensitive though.

http://tablets-planet.com/2011/01/05/check-out-the-asus-eee-slate-ep121-w-ips-display-wacom-digitizer-core-i5/

There's even a vid floating around the interwebs of some dude playing COD4 on it so its GPU isn't a complete dud.

Intrigued....

JacqueChoi

Yeah still using the Lifebook T series.

Made my Dwar mini dude with it, so I can vouch for it. You really need to go into a store and try it out to really understand how awesome it really is.

Most of those stores should have a demo version of Photoshop installed.

seriously.. Zbrush runs like butter... But I wouldn't use it for really high end gaming, and modelling is a pain without the mini keyboard.

kendo

Although i love my TM2 it really could use some front facing buttons, i use a program called modlock which enables me to use shift/alt/ctrl/space in tablet mode but tbh i find after a while i end up switching back to standard laptop mode.

Worth checking this out
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYLVD0qYwA[/ame]

oXYnary

Per the ee slate 121

"CPU/GPU Core i5 with integrated HD graphics"

IE Intel Graphics. Bleh. If someone comes out with the new ATI with integrated graphics, that might be just enough for 3d work.