Webcomic Artist tablet pc on a budget

[pbm_mc]

1. What is your budget?
Around 500.

2. Would you consider purchasing used/refurbished?
Yes

3. Do you prefer a Slate, Convertible or Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)?
Not Sure.

4. What size Tablet PC would you prefer?•Small and light ~ 5" to 8.9"
•Compact ~ 10"
•Mainstream ~ 12.1"
•Large ~ 13.3"
I would like a larger size screen, 14" would be good but nothing below 12".

5. Which country do you intent to purchase from?
US

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

7. How many hours battery life do you require?
NA

8. What will be the primary usage scenario of this tablet? (Email/Web Surfing/Drawing/Word Processing/Entertainment/Notetaking etc
Art mostly using Flash, Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I will be web surfing and doing some gaming if possible as well as blogging.

9. Do you have an OS preference?
Win 7 but will deal with any OS

10. What software and tasks do you intend to run? (Microsoft Office or other Word Processing Suite/Photoshop/3D Studio Max/Autocad etc)
Flash, PS, Dreamweaver

10. Do you intend on playing Games? If so please list.
Mostly MMO style games and some RPGs or flash type games.


Screen Specifics

1. What resolution do you prefer?
•SXGA - 1400x1050 ~ Small text and graphic icons which require good vision but the gain is a much larger screen. (no longer available new, must look for used or refurbished machines)
•WXGA - 1280x768 ~ has a wider usable area than XGA, ideal for viewing Spreadsheets and other programs that require desktop space. The mainly used resolution for new tablet PCs since 2008.

2. Do you require the screen to be readable in sunlight?
No.

3. Do you prefer your display to be glossy or matte?

No preference.

4. Do you require Touch? (without pressure sensitivity) (Which one: resistive or capacitive)
No.

5. Do you require a Pen? (with pressure sensitivity) (Which one: Wacom or N-Trig)
Yes, Wacom.


Component Specifics

1. What size Hard Drive and Memory do you require?
100GB HD and at least 2-4 GB of ram.

2. Do you require an Optical (CD/DVD) Drive to be built in?
No, but wouldnt be opposed to it.

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

Misc
1. Other non specific items ~ please add other items you require not covered above?

2. Additional requests ~ anything other you wish to take into consideration?



Im looking for a used tablet pc on ebay. I want to find something that is old enough to be a reasonable price, but updated enough so that it has enough power to run the applications I need to use on it.
I have been looking at the following:

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

Im leaning more towards the M4 because of the bigger screen but Im afraid its going to be too slow to handle what I need it to do. Any other ideas or comments on what I already chose would be great. Also, any other machines I havent listed would be nice as well.
Thanks guys!

[Hattori Hanzo]

I'd try to stretch the budget by 50 bucks and go for the T5010 and upgrade the memory to 4GB.

From what other artists here use and say it should be totally up to your drawing tasks. It comes with Win 7 already and also has a 7200rpm HDD, which isn't going to slow it down so much compared to the 5400rpm drives that were also sold with those. So you'd really be ready to use it like you intend to the way it's delivered. I'd just really suggest the memory upgrade to at least 4GB.

Concerning games I've no idea how well the GMA 4500 MHD in the T5010 handles anything besides flash, but it's definitely the best out of your three options.

[Agent 9]

While the M4 is pretty much the best Pentium M based Tablet PC, and with one of the largest screens, well that's about all it really has going for it in your case (the screen while large, is very low quality -poor viewing angles, dim backlighting, light shift, likely yellowing backlighting because of age of the CCFL bulb. While usable, the CPU and GPU can't handle much smoothly. The Build quality of the Toshiba Tablet PC's are rather lacking as well, they feel holow and cheap in many ways); the other Toshiba aren't any better (not the best GPU's at all, and nothing really going for them), and with the lack of large or even quality displays they aren't really worth it over something with one.

The T5010, while more expensive, is a far better option as it has a good 13.3" AFFS+ screen standard (not the greatest display out there, but it is very good), and it can be easier to upgrade and with better results (it uses DDR3 and a SATA II drive bay; compared to the DDR2 [something like 3x more expensive than DDR3] and SATA I on at least the M4), and it has a Full Voltage Core 2 Duo with the GMA 4500MHD (so it will be able to tackle all but the most complex Photoshop filters and such; and it says it has Win 7 Pro (way better than XP for Tablet PC usage IMO)

[Hattori Hanzo]

and it has a Full Voltage Core 2 Duo

The unit from the linked auction has a medium voltage CPU
But that's not really a disadvantage. Compared to the full voltage CPUs available in the T5010 they only half a smaller cache and in turn use less power.
At 2.4GHz with still 3MB cache the CPU's anything but slow, especially as it features the 1066 FSB speed.

[thatcomicsguy]

Also, the M4 needs corrective surgery so you don't burn out the MB.

Definitely not for everybody. You have to be prepared to do a lot of mucking around to pay for those extra couple inches of screen real-estate. But if you can manage that, as well as mount it at the optimum angle, then it looks great, and is a joy to work on.

[Shogmaster]

HP 2730p L9400 (1.86GHz) and 2GB of RAM for $350?

Even when you buy more RAM and Win7 for it, it's still under budget.

[pbm_mc]

Thanks for the great responses all.
I notice that a lot of users on this forum swear by the hp machines. Are they really that great?

[Steve B]

It's just a great base line model. Cheap, good screen, good build quality, core2duo. To me, it, the t5010, and the x200t are the three "best bang for your buck" intro to tablet pc models.

The 2730p seems to run the cheapest, but all 3 models can be found in your budget.

[Hattori Hanzo]

If the people here swear by them, asking those people if they are really that great has to result in a yes.

[pbm_mc]

Lol @ Hanzo.
Thanks again for such quick responses, you guys are great.
So, i have upped my game a bit money wise and can do closer to the 700 range.
I am no newbie to tablet pcs. I have had a few actually. I had a gateway m275 and a gateway 141xl which I found to be an extremely great machine, except for the screen brightness/quality.
I received a iPad from my job the other day and had already decided in my mind it was junk and I would never use it. Honestly though, after using the past few days I love it and wish I could use it as my art tablet. If I was finger painting and didn't like windows gaming, it would be the cats meow, but it's just not what I need it to be sadly. It did however get me looking into more of a slate option. I am intrigued by both the slate 7 and the acer iconia w500. Sadly, both have some of what I'm looking for but fall short of what I need. The Samsung has the active digitizer, but the graphics card isn't that great, the acer has a great graphics card that can run newer games pretty well, but doesn't have an active digitizer.
To me, the ability to run flash and photoshop on it come first, but I'm really liking the touch screen ability on the iPad and the ability to run games on the acer. Wish I could smash them all together and create one mamma jamma of a tablet pc.
Any suggestions on this new dilemma? Anyone using any of the slates for web comics or animation?