Zbook X2 Just Announced

Something I really dislike about the device is that when you bring the kickstand out it hits an internal hardware button to disable the touch keyboard from coming up when selecting text boxes with touch input. Even putting the device into "tablet mode" doesn't override it.

Since I use the device on my lap with the kickstand out, I want the keyboard to pop up even with the kickstand out, and I don't want to have to hit the button on the task bar.

I called HP and they weren't very useful sadly. The guy I spoke to went from assuming I have a pre-production mode, to basic steps for enabling the settings in windows that disable the touch keyboard from popping up with a hardware keyboard attached.

But I did find a solution!
There's a registry value called ConvertibleSlateMode
You can find the registry value under:
HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/PriorityControl/ConvertibleSlateMode

You can set the registry value to 0, and then disable the system write permission and the touch keyboard will appear regardless if the kickstand is out or not if a textbox is interacted with via touch.

Hopefully this helps someone else! You can read more about the value here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...soft-windows-gpiobuttons-convertibleslatemode

 

Well I broke down and bought a zbook x2. I've been eyeing one on ebay that had the 8650u processor with 512 GB ssd and 32 GB ram, they lowered the price to $1999 and I couldn't pass it up, figured since the warranty is till 2021 I should be good. I'm both excited and nervous, looks like this will fit my needs and happy about having EMR tech again, but this is the most I've spent on a single machine and worry about how it'll perform compared to the vaio z canvas. Despite it's age there are some places where the z canvas' processor outperforms the newer processor according to some CPU benchmark sites I checked. I know synthetic scores are one thing and real world use is another, but I hope the zbook x2 will at least feel as fast as the z canvas in all my uses. I've grown more and more frustrated with the vaio z canvas, the performance is great and stays quite all the time, but lacks customization and every step seemed like I had to find hacks to get something close to what I wanted, so plan to sell that off once zbook x2 arrives.

I have two questions for owners:
The unit I bought doesn't come with the pen, should I buy the actual zbook x2 pen or could I get by with something else. I have a modbook pen from before, that I love the feel of, and I believe I read someone said 2 barrel button pens could be used but the second button wouldn't work. If the modbook pen is okay to use, am I going to loose out on some pressure sensitivity and tilt, or does that have more to do with the panel than the pen? I also have a wacom classic pen, but assumed that wouldn't work as wacom always kept the pens for its tablets and cintiqs separate from the penabled tablet PCs.

The second question is about the express keys. If I assign the spacebar to a key, can I use that key with the pen to pan around the canvas? I ask because it seems that functionality was killed on the z canvas in the latest windows update. I was actually enjoying the update for a bit, I stopped getting stray dots that I normally would when sketching really quickly, then when I created a vector path over the sketch and tried to adjust the handle which required holding the alt key, it wouldn't work. Nothing worked that involved holding one of the vaio's software based express keys and using the pen at the same time, I could use them and a mouse at the same time but no pen. At this point I feel like vaio dropped support for the z canvas and so figured it was time to move on.

 

Since the Zbook X2 pen works well on my Samsung Galaxy Book 12, any of the newer 4096 pressure-level EMR Pens should work well, but I'd get the real thing, since it's nice to have a side button _and_ eraser.

 

I have build 1803 on my Z Canvas and the software keys work fine for modifier commands such as panning with Space.

It could be that your VAIO Control Center is out of date, as I remember that VAIO issued an update for JP users that never made it to the US site. At some point, I'm planning on making an updated driver install guide for us early adopters, as this device needs some serious documentation for optimal setup.

 

@carnageX12, nice! That's a fantastic steal!

I agree with @WillAdams, definitely get the official Zbook pen. The modbook pen will work, but it will have an offset. The IAF is not as low, but you do get tilt.

The official pen is fantastic and not too horribly expensive. Do recommend.

 

@WillAdams and @Selofain thank you for the insight about the pen. I see the official pen is in stock, I was hoping to wait till I found a deal at $50, but I guess I should just get it.

@Marty first wanted to say thanks again for telling me about the Radial Menu before. My Vaio Z canvas is on build 1803 as well, but no dice with the software keys, double checked with a couple of apps. Was it easy to find the Japanese control center update? Did a quick search and just brought me to Sony store site saying no longer for sale. Reminds me of what happened with the 2012 Galaxy Note 10.1. At this point I still plan to sell the Z Canvas, but wouldn't mind getting the software keys working correctly again beforehand.

 

I followed the Japanese articles on the Z Canvas for a while, so I stumbled upon it. The link is at the VAIO JP site: VAIOの設定 Ver.1.6.0.04280.

It's kinda sad to see so many ZC users leaving...for such a truly cutting-edge tablet, feels like it deserved a better end than a silent death lol.

 

Thank you for the link, hope to check it out after work. I'll agree it's a bit sad the users are leaving the Z Canvas, it did a lot of things right, still like the kickstand implementation. I guess it never sold as well as Vaio hoped, they never made a successor, and it feels like stopped caring about it, at least in the U.S. market.

 

interesting, sounds like i need to investigate more. Do you tweak your performance settings at all? I wish there was a way to reliably benchmark photoshop pan tilt zoom, and the brush performance. I do use smart objects and vector objects sometimes, but i usually rasterize them pretty quickly.....

 

does the lag completely disappear when you drop the resolution in one of those files to say 8000x8000? One thing to mention is I mostly use basic round brush with minimum spacing and a chalk brush. I rarely use complex brushes like Kyle's stuff. I use pretty basic performance settings: