Buy now or wait for Windows 8?

[kruzilla]

Hi Guys,

Long time, no post. So, my t4220 appears to be on its last legs and I'm debating whether I should buy a new fujitsu now or wait until some windows 8 tablets arrive. What do you think? Think it'll be worth it to wait? I think my current computer can probably make it till then. The tablet will be used primarily for Photoshop, Flash and web-surfing.

Thanks.

[Agent 9]

Do you envision using touch 'apps', or the 'desktop software' (art programs, full internet browsers, ext...)? because all that Win 8 really promises over any previous Windows is the ability to have 'touch apps' at your fingertips as it were. Win 8 is probably going to be out by the end of this year, then give it a month or two before the last few large bugs are worked out and things are as they should be (only thing is, it seems Win 8 is really making the move to touch, and actually reverting the pen support to pre-XP TE era levels, so support in the 'touch apps' will be limited, and the TIP among other things is now dumbed down considerably)

Also, be aware that still almost no art programs [save Art Rage AFAIK] support single touch properly, let alone multi-touch; at most touch will just act like a mouse and draw lines sans anti-aligning (it'll look jagged) so if you were hoping for touch to be integrated into drawing programs it is hopelessly far away before that happens to the point where it is worth it.


I say get something now, or soon; buy used/ refurbished from ebay -Fujitsu has a ebay front where they sell refurbished/ open box Lifebook Tablets (T730 & T900, and the newest T731 & T901); or one of the recent models by HP, Lenovo, or Motion Computing

[Shogmaster]

I think for you, waiting might get you more LCD resolution options than 1280x800 and 1366x768. I'm hoping for some 1440x900 or 1600x900 action...

[dceggert]

K,
Good advice so far, especially on the touch vs. desktop, and higher resolution stuff. Stuff available now is pretty good and you will get usb 3 on the T731 or T901 now.

But there is a refresh coming about mid-year for the Lifebook range. Likely they will be getting Ivy Bridge CPU's with better GPU's. They will still have Win 7 on them but from what I have seen WIn 8 may not be worth the wait unless you are going for a WOA device. Fujitsu is also planning a 'performance slate' that as of this time is undefined. It will be a slate that is detachable from a keyboard base. We are all hoping that the 'performance' aspect is an Ivy Bridge CPU and Win 7 as the OS but it could also be a multi-core AMD running Android. Time will tell.

Things may change for the feature set in Win 8 as the year progresses but I fully expect that by Q2 2013 all new computers will come with Win 8 and a downgrade license for Win 7...just like the Vista release eventually included downgrade rights to XP when the hardware manufacturers were not selling new stuff...

[kruzilla]

Thanks for the advice, folks. I'm still a bit torn. Part of me wants to wait to see what they do for a refresh and part of me is having trouble not pulling the trigger on some deals I've seen.

[Aicent]

K,
Good advice so far, especially on the touch vs. desktop, and higher resolution stuff. Stuff available now is pretty good and you will get usb 3 on the T731 or T901 now.

But there is a refresh coming about mid-year for the Lifebook range. Likely they will be getting Ivy Bridge CPU's with better GPU's. They will still have Win 7 on them but from what I have seen WIn 8 may not be worth the wait unless you are going for a WOA device. Fujitsu is also planning a 'performance slate' that as of this time is undefined. It will be a slate that is detachable from a keyboard base. We are all hoping that the 'performance' aspect is an Ivy Bridge CPU and Win 7 as the OS but it could also be a multi-core AMD running Android. Time will tell.

Things may change for the feature set in Win 8 as the year progresses but I fully expect that by Q2 2013 all new computers will come with Win 8 and a downgrade license for Win 7...just like the Vista release eventually included downgrade rights to XP when the hardware manufacturers were not selling new stuff...

That worries me a bit, perhaps I should have waited for the refresh :S, even though I am happy with my t731

[dceggert]

That worries me a bit, perhaps I should have waited for the refresh :S, even though I am happy with my t731

Well, knowing what I kmow I voted for a T731 as well. The refresh will be expensive for a while after release with very little improvement for what I need. We did the right thing...

[Aicent]

Well, knowing what I kmow I voted for a T731 as well. The refresh will be expensive for a while after release with very little improvement for what I need. We did the right thing...

Well you are more experienced than I am ,If you say so I beleive you, I'm happy with the T731, its a nice little machine.