buying used tablet.. how do I know if it supports mutitouch (pinch zoom functions for win 8)

[vap3]

hi i've been trying to buy a used tablet pc to use with windows 8 consumer preview and a lot of the tablets on the used market only support pen touch only. But the problem is some of them supports touchscreen as well but not being able to pinch or zoom (which they call muti touch).

Now I find out that some tablets can only zoom with 2 fingers and some up to 10 fingers! WTH how can I be able to test these functions out and how to tell if the tablet has the feature if the unit I am looking at does not have win8 installed?

espically when there are some units where the mutitouch was an option for that particular model... wish microsoft had a list of tablets that supported win8 platform -_-;

EDIT: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...endations.aspx

[vap3]

MORE LIST OF SYSTEMS

Experiencing Windows 8 touch on Windows 7 hardware - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

[Agent 9]

OK, eventhough jnjroach responded here Toshiba TECRA M7 the same as M700 protege? here is a more complete list of multi-touch enabled Tablet PC's (the ones worth mentioning anyways)

Lenovo: X200 tablet (only a handful were capacitive multi-touch, most were pen only or single point resistive touch)
X201 tablet (I am quite sure the touch models are all have capacitive multi-touch)
X220 tablet (the multi-touch is capacitive, but because of the dumb as hell 16:9 aspect ratio screen it is rather useless for most things but watching 16:9 movies)

HP: 2740p (optional capacitive multi-touch)
2760p (optional capacitive multi-touch)

Fujitsu T4410 & T5010 (13.3") (optional capacitive multi-touch)
T730 & T900 (13.3") (optional capacitive multi-touch)
T731 & T901 (13.3") (optional capacitive multi-touch)

ASUS: EP121 (has capacitive multi-touch)
B121 (has capacitive multi-touch)

[vap3]

THANKS AGENT 9!

what annoys me though is that even though these tablets can run win8, not all have the resolution to run the "snap" feature in metro... argh!

sometimes I feel its not worth it to buy a used tablet on the market and just wait for the "made for windows 8" logo -_-; im hoping used prices will drop once the ipad3 is announnced in a couple of days

edit: added roach post because it is useful stuff

The Tecra M7 was a third generation TabletPC that uses a Core Duo (32 bit) and IIRC is only Active Digitizer (pen). Most of the multi-touch ones are first Gen Core-I or second Gen Core-I and of course the Atom or AMD C platform.

Here are some to look at:

Used:

Lenovo X201t make sure it has multi-touch (not all models had it)
HP Elitebook 2740P
HP TM2
Asus EP-121
Fujitsu T-900 or 700

New:

Lenovo X220T
HP Elitebook 2760P
Fujitsu Q550
Fujitsu T-580
Fujitsu T-901 or T-701
Samsung Series 7

The above support touch and pen

Multi-Touch Only:
Acer W500
MSI Windpad 110
Dell Duo (used as well)
ExoPC and their knock-offs

[vap3]

MAN THIS IS DUMB the w500 has a dx11 graphics card but does not have the resolution to support snap, while the dell duo can but its graphics card is not dx9 capable so metro apps that need the dx11 does not run.

[Steve B]

If you're looking to get a Windows 8 "fully compatible" 2-3 year old computer, with multi-touch and the right ratio, I think you're going to be unsuccessful. The desired ratios for Metro and the new snap functions is not that common, particularly with tablet pcs. I'm sure there are lots of tablets that will run Win8, just not at 100%.

[vap3]

^ unfortunately I just started realizing this now

i'm hoping to pick up a dell duo or a acer w500 for cheap once the new ipad is announced tomorrow. People are charging like over 350$ for it but no way in hell I'm going to pay for something that isn't even produced anymore.

i would go with an ipad but there are native windows desktop apps I absolutely need to run, and I don't even know if they are compatible with win8 yet... but I gotta be a test bed somehow, which is why I'm being really cheap in purchasing a tablet haha.

all i ask is the resolution for snap, at least two finger pinch zoom, and the graphic card can support dx11 even though I"m not really looking to game on the machine but worried about not being able to run certain metro apps if they are released in the future

edit: if only microsoft allowed snap for 1280,800 resolutions... it seems most tablets are of that resolution... there was a hack that allowed snap on the developer preview but on the consumer preview that hack does not work anymore...

sheesh you think microsoft stock would soar with win8... but damn im such a sucker for touch and my legacy windows apps

[vap3]

ok so i got an acer iconia dual screen 6120 and am NOT HAPPY WITH IT using a stylus the screen skips so much that dragging windows is not fun. But besides that using dual screens is so uncomfortable I've been getting bad back and neck problems landscape or portrait! Doesn't help one side is heavier than the other argh !

so my choices are

sammy 7 slate for 750$ 2 lbs

or leveno x220T for 950$ 4 lbs (30% better performance)

ARGH CHOICES CHOICES the extra juice is nice for light gaming, but damn the portability of the sammy is good too... what to do what to do

[Agent 9]

You really don't need it to have the dumb 16:9 screen aspect ratio they are saying is needed for the app by app snap (I think this is the only feature it brings -aside from a less useful aspect ratio)... but if you don't want to do a work-around or registry edit once one is found for Win 8 to have the app by app on a normal device then going 16:9 or waiting for a higher res Win 8 Tablet PC/ Win 8 ARM tablet are the ways to go... new tablets and Tablet PC's should start showing up by the end of the year to beginning of next year, and they will have Ivy Bridge processors... otherwise your options now are the Lenovo X220 tablet, Samsung S7s, Motion CL900, and Fujitsu T580 -those are the pen & touch models with 16:9 anyways, though I'd urge you to just forget the 16:9 thing and get a better machine like the HP 2760p or the Fujitsu T731 or T901 (or their predecessors; or the Lenovo X201t or X200t)

[vap3]

what's this i keep hearing about the useless 16.9 ratio and how does that differ from 16.10 ratio?

I know i should wait, however, there are some good deals on the used market that was too hard to pass up! so i guess the machines you recommend does not use the 16.9 ratio (widescreen?) hmm

im confused

edit: not a fan of ARM since i got x86 apps i want to run :P although im starting to realize the blend of desktop and metro in win8 is poorly done, i end up in desktop most of the time because the metro apps are more frustrating to use than their desktop counterparts (such as viewing photos or listening to an mp3)