XP Tablet Edition vs. Vista Business... and other random questions.

[shleesh]

Hi folks!

I'm new here (so be nice). I'm here because after a dreadful night with HP after ordering a PC, I'm now in the process of canceling that order. I should have researched it more, but excitement and that "3-day deal" got me. After doing a little more careful research this time, I'm leaning towards the Thinkpad X61 (that is after HP refunds my money). Here's how I customized it and the price:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo L7700 LV (1.8GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005
12.1" SuperView WVA SXGA+ TFT, 2x3 UltraConnect II antenna
2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
100GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
ThinkPad X60 Tablet 4 Cell Li-Ion Battery
Microsoft OneNote 2007
2 Year Depot Upgrade with 2 Year ThinkPad Protection


Price (including tax and 20% coupon code) = $1693.24


Alright, so my question is this: is there anything that sticks out that I should change? I'm not sure if I should go with XP Tablet Edition or Vista Business Edition. I've heard the handwriting recognition is not very good with XP, but then I've heard stories of Vista constantly crashing with these machines. I would love to hear some input from both sides, and even better, from someone who has used both.

Okay, and my last question pertains to the tablet functionality. The reason for buying this is for college (and extensive note taking), so the handwriting functionality is pretty important. Is it quite responsive? I've seen other video reviews of other tablets and there was quite a bit of lag. I'm HOPING this tablet is everything I need because frankly, I'm sick of reasearching. So, should I get this... or do you have a better suggestion?

Thanks!

[quantum]

1. What kind of screen are you getting? Lenovo offers 2 (used to be more) types.
2. What CPU are you getting? Again 2 options.
3. Yes Vista has more tablet functionality but use Onenote or Evernote for note taking, the character recognition is great on both.
4. Get less RAM and buy sticks of your own from Newegg, slash $100 off the price that way.
5. Hunt the Lenovo forums, find the cpp link that I posted somewhere (it's pretty recent) and see if you can take advantage of the prices there.
6. Again hunt the forums, Lenovo has a coupon for %20 off, which I can't remember which is why you'll need to hunt again...

Older tablets used to lag, it's not really an issue anymore.

The Lenovo has a dual mode screen with XGA resolution (finger touch and active digitizer pen input with pressure sensitivity) and an SXGA+ screen (only active digitizer, no finger touching). The dual mode screen is only available with the L7500 CPU.

[quantum]

Here is the cpp link:

%25 off Thinkpads

And here is the coupon:

USPAVEDEC

See what kinds of prices you can get...

[shleesh]

Alright, I updated the specifications. I was under the impression that I did get the dual mode screen -- I'm glad you cleared that up. In order to get that though, I would have to downgrade to 1.6Ghz. Is the dual mode screen the one that is good outdoors? What do you think is the better option? Also, the extra GB of memory added $60; how much of a price difference will it be if I buy my own? I plan on getting MS Onenote for an extra $20. That's a necessity.

What do you think?

[quantum]

To be honest neither of the screens are any decent outdoors. Having used various Thinkpads, I must say Lenovo doesn't seem to have the brightest screens. The only tablets truly usable in direct sunlight are a few slate models with transflective screens. Well, those and the new Dell Latitude XT but the entry price is 2.5 grand.

I'm a fan of the dual mode touch, but if you need the screen real estate, go with the higher resolution SXGA+ screen. At 2 gigs of ram the price difference is negligible (10-15 dollars) but above that (3 gigs, 4 gigs) the prices skyrocket. So if you plan on putting 3 or more gigs in it, get the least that you can from Lenovo.

Also get good screen protectors, they'll be worth it.

[Bossy573]

I have the SXGA screen. It is nice, especially with the DPI bumped up so I don't have to squint so much. I do find myself wishing I had gotten the MV/MT screen. That functionality seems to be worth the loss of screen real-estate but that's a personal preference I guess.
That looks like a good set-up. Vista is supposed to have better handwriting learning capabilities but I can't vouch for that personally.

[Frank]

Don't expect too much from the writing recognition. XP and Vista, both are
bad:
A few texts written in OneNote and converted the handwriting in XP and Vista to text. As you can see, both make the same mistakes.
writing experience on T4220 or T2010

So take the OS you're familar with or:
Take Vista if you have too much free time, if you want to play something new, with a few nice effects and lots of annoying messages, software and hardware incompatibilities and if you want something slow and resources hungry.
Take XP if you want to work with it.

The writing recognition is on both OS the same: Bad.
Vista has "more" built in tablet functions: Flicks.

To the tablet: I don't know the specifications of the X61T, but don't you think that the battery is a bit too small? If you want to study with it, then it would be wise to take a large battery so you're able to use it all the time without searching a power plug.

[tivoboy]

I have actually found the HWR to be quite good, in the input panel, in the notebook. I would just like to find one application that does some real time auto recognition?

[archiwiz]

Here is the cpp link:

%25 off Thinkpads

And here is the coupon:

USPAVEDEC

See what kinds of prices you can get...

Correction: The coupon is USESAVEDEC. The USPSAVEDEC doesn't work in the cpp link. I tried it when I ordered mine.

[daver]

personally, i've found Vista's handwriting recognition much better than XP Tablet ED. OneNote 2007 is pretty good at it too.

if you're a road warrior, i think Vista would be the better way to go, as it has more functions built into the OS for laptops/tablets. for example, Vista has the new Mobility Centre that makes making changes like volume, LCD brightness, swapping internal/external monitor, and stuff like that much easier to handle than with XP. Win+X brings it up, and it's much quicker than with XP where you had to go into Control Panels, etc.

i fly back and forth around Canada very often as part of my job on campus, so my tablet has gathered almost as many Air Miles as i have over the past half year. personally, i liked XP's wireless connectivity better: it was just easier for me to set up my own wireless network. Vista's wireless network management is supposedly more "robust", but it seems about par with XP IMO.

as for the whole tablet lag part, that's just probably because people have way too much stuff on their computer running in the background. i've never had any lag with my HP. all active tablets have a very slight "lag" in that the mouse pointer is only a few milliseconds behind the movements of your stylus; this is characteristic of all active tablets so i wouldn't consider it lag.

as for Vista crashing, that has nothing to do with the machine itself. it lies mostly on the people ("user error" as Microsoft calls it ). if your computer is brand new and right out of the box it should not be crashing at all: Lenovo (or any other company) would have at least made sure that the software is compatible or at least working with Vista. crashes are due to people installing software that isn't compatible with Vista, or they are tweaking way too many things within the operating system. the only crash I've had so far was because MatLab doesn't like me, and my neural network simulation doesn't like me even more. otherwise, i've yet to have a crash from day to day use.