I need something between a PDA and a laptop

[pixillated]

General Questions.

1. What is your budget? N/A

2. Do you prefer a Slate, Convertible or Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)?
I would guess Slate

3. What size Tablet PC would you prefer? -- Compact -- no larger than a sheet of paper.


4. Which country do you intent to purchase from? USA

5. Do you have any preferences to brand loyalty or dislikes? No

6. How many hours battery life do you require? Lots and lots -- at least 3 hrs

7. What do you intend to use the Tablet for?
I'm looking for something to perhaps replace my Clie, that I can use to manage quicken, play solitaire, surf the internet, read books or online stories, store my offline brain, use the occasional spreadsheet or word document. If I fall off the wagon, I might load Civ. I have desktop at home, and work supplies a laptop.

8. Do you have an OS preference? No

9. What software and tasks do you intend to run?
MS Office, Quicken, browser

10. Do you intend playing Games. If so please list.
Simple games like solitaire, and maybe Civ.

Screen Specifics

1. Do you prefer standard or widescreen? Don't Care

2. What resolution do you prefer? SXGA

3. Do you require an Indoor only or Indoor/Outdoor screen option?
Indoor

4. Do you require a Passive or Active Digitizer?
I would prefer to be able to use my finger or any hand stylus like object as I tend to misplace my stylus frequently -- especially in bed.

5. Do you require Wacom or Finepoint Technology?
No preference.


Component Specifics

1. What size Hard Drive and Memory do you require?
Enough to be reasonably speedy. I don't mind storing file on flash drives.

2. Do you require an Optical Drive? No.

3. Do you require ability to add a second Battery or Hard Drive (Modular Bay technology)? No.

[quantum]

In all honesty, you won't be finding SXGA resolutions in the form factor that you are asking about. One option would be the HTC Shift, which is basically a teensy tiny but full fledged laptop. It runs Vista for a about a n hour and a half, but also has a separate partition that runs a cut-down version of Windows Mobile 6.0, which should go for about a full day of uptime. Currently the shift has Wifi, Bluetooth and GSM for connectivity (no voice capabilities though), and has a keyboard that you can neither touch type or thumb type on comfortably. The touchscreen is fantastic though...

On the other hand there is the HTC Advantage, which is a 5" Windows Mobile 6.0 device. It has a VGA screen, which Windows Mobile doesn't natively take advantage of but free open source software fixes that issue. It has an 8gb microdrive, a microSD slot, a powerfull set of processors (dedicated graphics on a PDA!), very good response to both touch and pen, decent (though not stellar) battery life (around 1.5 days with heavy use on a single charge) and a detachable keyboard (it's kinda heavy as a whole for thumbboarding for extended periods of time, but you can manage to single-finger type pretty fast in time). On the connectivity front it has wifi, bluetooth, USB host (with the 4 in 1 cable sold separately, definitely buy it), VGA and S-Video Out and GSM connectivity (voice enabled with excellent handsfree speakers which you COULD use to hold it up to your ear which is not what the speakers are designed for, but you would look like an ubergeek/maximus dorkimus and the bluetooth connection is really the best way to go. Get a good set of stereo bluetooth headphones and reap the benefits). It comes with the office mobile suite to view and edit office documents (powerpoint is view only), both internet explorer mobile and opera mobile (which is better IMHO) for browsing and a variety of other software. It also has GPS, which sucks the battery but still lasts for a good 6 - 7 hours and locks on pretty fast. There is plenty of open source and free software to use on WM6, and a couple paid programs that you may like. Multimedia gives you a high megapixel camera with an excellent flash that you can use as a flashlight, great video capabilities with open source software (the microdrive will take about 30 re-encoded DivX or XviD movies that you can watch without dropping a frame) and stereo bluetooth.

Last but not least, the HTC Tytn II, available as the AT&T Tilt or unlocked GSM version. Think of the Advantage but in a smaller form facter that is more like a phone and less like a PDA. The screen is smaller and has QVGA resolution but it's still a good screen with both finger and pen input. Both the Tytn II and Advantage have good handwriting recognition, but the full qwerty keyboards on both provide a better typing experience. The Tytn II keyboard is a slide out thumbboard that is fast and easy to use once you get used to the short distance that the keys depress into. The Tytn II also has GPS that is just as good as if not better than that of the Advantage, has a better custom HTC Today screen that I love, 2MP camera (no flash) and the same office suite as the Advantage as well as the same browsers. Both devices also have an e-book reader that I never use because all my text is in PDF which also has a separate reader in both devices. The Tytn II also has great handsfree speakers but you can actually hold it to your head and use it as a phone for normal private conversations. Connectivity is the same as the Advantage minus the video outputs and USB host connection. It has a blazing fast processor that makes everything load fantastically quick (but eats the battery a little quicker than I'd like) and has spades of RAM so you're never short of it when opening or closing programs. There is a slight delay when reorienting the screen when you slide out the keyboard but I find it's not something I notice that often. There is some user available memory on the Tytn II but just get a good 4gb SDHC card and live happily with all your media. The Tytn II also supports Slingbox, and will work with the same open source software as the Advantage for video playback. By the way, each film (700mb) reencodes to the required format (100-200mb) in about 15-20 minutes max so it's not really a hassle to watch movies on.

Other than these HTC devices (of which the Shift is the only one I haven't owned YET), I like the HP 6915 (sold as 6415 in the U.S. I think), despite the slower wifi.

I'm not fond of Palms or Blackberry's because my main PC is an XP machine, and Windows Mobile is similar, syncs easily and is very versatile. Plus I love the HTC slide out design more than smaller screens and small keyed keyboards.

On the tablet PC front, I think you could go for the Fujitsu P1610 as it's smaller than most but still has full PC capabilities. It's not cutting edge technology (previous generation in fact) and is desperately slow at times, but has good battery life and a good screen. I don't know if you can use your finger on the screen though... Another option is the Fujitsu U810 which is a tiny but very interesting machine that Runs Vista business, but the screen is really small, the keyboard is really small and the battery life could be better. Not to mention Vista runs like a hundred year old galapagos turtle. It is definitely the most portable full fledged tablet though...

The Sonu UX series micro PC is really neat, with good specs and a great touchscreen but it's bulky compared to the HTC devices and the U810. It also runs Vista, albeit not as slow as the U810. My old UX (first gen) had voice capable GSM as well, but I'm not sure what they offer on that front nowadays. It's a bit heavier than PDA's but it's definitely more powerful. The battery life isn't great though (except with the solid state HDD which is a very expensive option) and the keyboard is a hassle, just like the rest really (but it has magnificent backlighting).

Of all these devices, the Tytn II is the most portable, the Shift most powerful, the Advantage most full featured for its class, the U810 most intriguing, the Sony highest quality, the P1610 most outdated but sleek.

As an endnote, I have very limited experience with Motion Computing and TabletKiosk slate devices so I can't really say anything about them. I know that TK devices are dual mode (pen and finger) and are easy to use as reading devices, but other than that I can't say much.

Sorry if my suggestions were mismatched to your needs, just trying to share my experience with what I though you might want considering you already have a laptop from the company.

[pibach]

hey quantum, very nice compilation.

The Nokia n810 would also be quite a good choice as it is the most portable device featuring a 800x480 pixels screen. And Linux (Maemo) is another plus.

[quantum]

Thanks, I had totally forgot about the internet tablets. They should fit the bill perfectly.