tablet pc question

richkid

hey, anybody rocking a tablet pc?

im looking to get one so i dont have to lug my old 20lb beast around with me anymore, and they are cheaper than a cintiq + portable

has anyone used the hp tablets? with the little spinner screen. i like hp a lot, and they seem to be one of the cheaper ways to go as far as tablets go. i was just wondering how it holds up as far as pressure sensitivity and being an actual painting tool. then i could take it to work as well and lounge around the couches when drawing :P

any other recomendations would be greatly welcomed too. i read daarken's review of the one he just got and it sounds awesome...but that will put me over 2k on it and i cant do that right now

Jeremy Lindstrom

you lose all keyboard functionality with most tablets, they end up being only good for sketching, I'd pass on them. I had one for several years, still ended up hooking the wacom up to it so I could use the keyboard.

Ferg

I've got a Lenovo Thinkpad X200 tablet and I love it. It doesn't flinch when I pump zbrush up into the 10 million poly neightborhood, and it runs large (2048x2048 w/50+ layers) photoshop files easily. Mine set me back around $2k, but has been well worth it. I use it as a second workstation at work and at home and everywhere in between. It's an ultra-portable, which means it doesn't have a cd drive and has a relatively small screen (12.1" widescreen), but it's also super light. I get a ton of battery life out of it, around 6 hours on high performance mode when just browsing website and such... around 4 hours when gaming/zbrushing/photoshopping etc. Another huge feature that most people don't consider is that it has 4 customizable buttons on the screen border, so you can still use hotkeys in full tablet mode. I use full flat tablet mode about half the time when drawing on the screen, the hinge is strong enough you can just have it open normally when you work if you want.

So yah, I recommend checking out lenovo's x200 tablet line. So far it's been a great investment for me.

ericdigital

Damn ferg the thinkpad is sexy. It's actually pretty cool that it's small so you can lug it around. How does drawing on it compare to a wacom? Does it have pressure sensitivity and the like?

Rwolf

ericdigital wrote: »

Damn ferg the thinkpad is sexy. It's actually pretty cool that it's small so you can lug it around. How does drawing on it compare to a wacom? Does it have pressure sensitivity and the like?

Well looking at wacom's website, they provide the tablet tech for them.

Ferg

yep, the lenovo tablets use wacom tech and are essentially portable mini-cintiqs

ericdigital

That's awesome. After some googling I did see they were powered by wacom but I just wasn't able to find any reviews or articles that mentioned levels of sensitivity. Sounds pretty badass.

richkid

nice, i hadnt really seen anything on the lenovo yet. yeah, im doing mostly concepts at work right now, and my creative director is kind of locked away in another room bored as hell all the time. so i figure i could get one like that, and do my concepts in there. then i can take it to the coffee shops and not lug around my 20lb laptop i have now.

anyone else got some experience with any of the cheaper ones, like the hp tx series. still not sure if i want to drop that full 2k on one of these

thanks a ton for the review

kendo

I've been looking for a suitable tablet for some time now and was almost set on getting an archos 9 when i saw a press release about Acers new line up. This consists of the 1420p 1820pt and 1820ptz, the 1820pt being the premium model specs can be found here http://us.acer.com/acer/product.do?LanguageISOCtxParam=en&rcond5e.c2att92=145&inu49e.current.c2att92=145&link=ln314e&CountryISOCtxParam=US&kcond47e.c2att92=145&rcond159e.att21k=1&kcond48e.c2att101=68403&rcond190e.att21k=1&acond23=EU&rcond4e.att21k=1&sp=page17e&rcond157e.c2att92=145&var9e=793&ctx1g.c2att92=145&rcond42e.att21k=1&kcond50e.c2att92=145&rcond45e.att21k=1&rcond158e.c2att1=0&ctx2.c2att1=0&inu53e.current.c2att92=145&rcond38e.c2att1=0&var13e=EU&rcond44e.c2att1=0&rcond186e.c2att92=145&rcond3e.c2att1=0&rcond28e.attN2B2F2EEF=3206&rcond189e.c2att1=0&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=155887841

Unfortunately there is no video currently available showing it off, but i have found that Acer have leased the design to HP which has basically released its own copy of the 1820pt called the butterfly touch of which there is a very brief video here [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgB1DTurxo8[/ame]

Currently hard to get specifics on price and availability but estimates are around $700 which means by my conversion ratio it will be roughly £750 (gotta love living in the UK) and should be available early December.