Digital artist looking for a new convertible tablet PC...

[mkkmypet]

General Questions.

1. What is your budget?
I don't even want to consider budget until I'm looking at actual models. This is a necessary purchase for me, so I'll pay what I need to. That said, cheaper is obviously better (since I'm going to be a poor college student very soon).

2. Would you consider purchasing used/refurbished?
Maybe. Refurbished would be preferred to used, but new is better than both.

3. Do you prefer a Slate, Convertible or Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)?
Definitely a convertible tablet PC. It will function as my only computer, so it needs to be a fully-functioning laptop.

4. What size Tablet PC would you prefer?
Large is preferred, but mainstream is acceptable. The convertible tablet PC I've used for the past four years had a 14-inch screen, which was awesome. Sadly, that size seems non-existent in the current models...

5. Which country do you intent to purchase from?
Doesn't matter, though I'm in the USA.

6. Do you have any preferences to brand loyalty or dislikes?
Well, I had been using a Gateway C-140XL for the past four years, and it was perfect. I loved that Gateway laptop, but unfortunately, they don't make tablet PCs anymore. So, I'm not sure what is the best nowadays.

7. How many hours battery life do you require?
I plan to use it plugged in almost always, so anything above 2 hours should be fine.

8. What will be the primary usage scenario of this tablet?
I will be using it mainly for detailed 2-dimensional drawing in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (both CS4), with some large canvas sizes (like 6000x3000 pixels). I'll also be using this laptop for internet use, notetaking, Microsoft Office use, and maybe some light gaming.

9. Do you have an OS preference?
I won't use a Mac. I like Windows. My previous laptop ran Vista, which was fine. I imagine my new laptop will run Windows 7.

10. What software and tasks do you intend to run?
Mostly Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator CS4 (as well as various other similar 2D art programs), Microsoft Office, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome.

11. Do you intend on playing games? If so, please list.
Maybe some light gaming, nothing very intensive. I'll probably mostly play little indie games-- nothing like World of Warcraft or Crysis or whatever.


Screen Specifics.

1. What resolution do you prefer?
My last tablet PC was 1280x768, so I don't want anything smaller than that. Bigger is better.

2. Do you require the screen to be readable in sunlight?
No, that's not important.

3. Do you prefer your display to be glossy or matte?
Probably matte. Having good viewing angles is very important to me.

4. Do you require Touch? (without pressure sensitivity) (Which one: resistive or capacitive)
Not required, but capacitive would be okay. I am curious as to how this affects (or doesn't affect) the use of a pressure-sensitive pen...? My previous tablet PC was pen-input only, which worked great.

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


Component Specifics.

1. What size Hard Drive and Memory do you require?
My last laptop's hard drive was only 80 GB, and I didn't even fill it over the course of four years. I'm sure any fairly recent hard drive would have enough space for me. As for memory, I'm not sure-- I don't know much about that.

2. Do you require an Optical (CD/DVD) Drive to be built in?
It would be a definite plus if there is a CD or DVD drive, but it's not required.

3. Do you require ability to add a second Battery or Hard Drive (Modular Bay technology)?
No. I have a 500gb external hard drive that I can use if I need more space, and battery life isn't much of a concern for me.


Misc.

1. Other non specific items ~ please add other items you require not covered above?
I'd like at least two USB 2.0 (or 3.0) ports, but more is better. And since I'll be using this laptop in tablet mode a lot, having customizable buttons (and perhaps a scroll bar) next to the screen is important. Also, a built-in webcam and microphone is a plus.

2. Additional requests ~ anything other you wish to take into consideration?
I'm going to be entering art school this year, so I'd like something that will last me through college. This convertible tablet PC will be my only computer. It comprises basically the entirety of my investment in art supplies, since I am a digital artist. My primary concern is being able to draw on this laptop.

[jnjroach]

The Fujitsu T901 is a 13" Convertible, IIRC it has a full voltage CPU and dedicated graphics option. The Lenovo X220T is a 12.5" but uses an ULV CPU and Intel HD Graphics (it is also 16:9).

[mkkmypet]

Yeah, I've been looking at the Fujitsu T901, the Fujitsu T900, the Lenovo X220T, the HP 2730P, and the HP 2760P. I'm having difficulty comparing them and making any decisions, though... I like the larger screen and dedicated graphics of the T901, though the Lenovo X220T has a higher resolution. The Fujitsu T900 has a scroll sensor next to the screen which is usable in tablet mode-- does the T901 have that as well? I'm not sure what features stick out the most to users as being the advantages (and disadvantages) of each of the models I'm considering.

One thing that will affect my decision is concerning the affect of capacitive touch on the pressure-sensitive pen use. Can anyone tell me about that? I've heard that the HP 2730P and the Lenovo X220T (with a certain outdoor screen) are pen only (just like my previous convertible tablet PC), which might be my best options if it turns out that the capacitive touch interferes with pen use. How good is the palm-rejection in each of the dual-touch type tablets? Or, is it possible to disable the capacitive touch so as to be sure the pen accuracy is at its best?

[Agent 9]

For those art purposes you are going to want ~8GB ram; on the 2730p this will be expensive because it uses DDR3 (about $170-180), I say get something with DDR3 as its ~$30-40 for 8GB DDR3 (only look at 'good' brands like Crucial, Kingston, Mushkin, Patriot and others, avoid any kind of OCZ products at all costs); you may also want to upgrade to a SSD eventually [biggest reason is high resistance to bumps and shocks as well as being faster and improving battery life by about 10%] and for the 2730p it will be both hard and pretty expensive because its a 1.8" SATA compared to the common 2.5" SATA (you can get Crucial SSD's for about $1/ GB so a 128 Crucial will cost about $130, and a 64GB will cost about $85 currently [from Newegg]; only bother looking at Intel, Crucial, and Samsung SSD's as the rest are not up to par)

If it were me buying I'd go for one of the Fujitsu's because after having a good number of Tablet PC's I can say that the modular bay in the Fujitsu's is well worth it (it can have a DVD/ CD reader/ writer, a second 2.5" SATA HDD/ SSD, or a second battery, or a plastic 'weight saver' -all of which can be hot swapped so you can customize on the fly), and Fujitsu's dock is one of the better (it has very little contact with the bottom of the unit allowing it to breathe and get plenty of air flow, unlike the docks the HP or Lenovo have that will result in a build up of heat , nothing severe, but its more than it should be)... If you can get a T900 for around or under $700 that would be pretty good as it will be a little step-up from the T5010 (around $400-500 -still one of the better options IMO, it is also typically pen only), but also not a large difference from a T901 (too expensive for the performance it offers IMO)

As for pen vs pen + touch, you CAN turn off the touch screen but keep the pen working fine on these systems (either through device manager manually of through something like 'Touch Control') but the touch screen's effects will still be present (they bring a bit of graininess and lessen the clarity of things on screen when viewed at something other than straight on), as far as I've found that capacitive touch is more of a gimmick as its good for simple internet browsing, playing a few touch games, and navigating windows basically, and at best a touch keyboard (heck, most art programs do NOT support touch really at all, at most you should expect it to be recognized as a mouse input), Windows 8 is supposed to be bringing windows into a world of 'finger friendly' but it also seems to be shunning pen input and going to pre-XP support of it which is a real shame as touch is way better suited to only casual use and all that... the units that are pen + touch will have the touch get disabled when the pen is within range before a touch event occurs, but once the pen leaves range then touch is immediately active again; but when you manually turn off touch touch will remain off.

The screens: all current Tablet PC's use the standard 12.1" 16:10 aspect ratio screen @ 1280x800 (10.26"x6.41") and the 13.3" Fujitsu's [T5010, T900, T901 all basically the same] use a 13.3" 16:10 aspect ratio screen @ 1280x800 (11.28"x7.05" so its like the 12.1" ones, but slightly less pixel density), and then there are the X220t and Samsung Series 7 slate that use the 12.5" and 11.6" [respectively] 16:9 aspect ratio screens at 1366x768 (10.9"x6.12" and 10.11"x5.68" respectively -to put it simply these are a few steps backwards in usability because of how the screen becomes squashed and narrow and looses a lot of functionality in portrait mode, their only merit is you an watch 16:9 movies without black boarders. Win 8 wants a 1366x768 res screen for the metro app-by-app snap to work, but that is the only benefit to Win 8 there is)

[haya-t]

Haven't read all, but did you consider the ASUS EEE Slate EP121?

[mkkmypet]

haya-t: As nice as the Eee Slate looks, I'm definitely only looking for a convertible tablet PC, not a slate.

Agent 9: Wow, thank you so much for all the great information! I'll definitely make RAM a priority. (Although, surprisingly, my old Gateway C-140XL only had 2GB RAM, and it performed quite well even while working on large images in Photoshop.) I expected that the capacitive touch would be somewhat of a gimmick, and I don't want to get that feature if it causes graininess or dehanced viewing angles. I'll keep that in mind, and try to get a pen-only input device. It's looking like the Fujitsu T900 (or T901) is what I need. You mention $700 as a good price for the T900, but I'm not seeing anywhere online selling it in that range... Where should I be looking to buy a tablet PC like that?

[Agent 9]

... unfortunately only buying used/ refurbished on ebay will net you a reasonable price; there are none currently for a lower price than $1000 listed, but looking through the recent sold here fujitsu t900 | eBay you can see there were quite a few that sold for $435-750 and a few above that, its only a matter of waiting around for a good auction or buy it now (on the auctions, take note of the end date and time and then bid only at the end, otherwise you only serve to drive up the cost)... as to the reliability of ebay, 99% of the time it is a completely legitimate sale and the item should be in excellent condition, only very occasionally is something ever mis-listed and even then its easy to get your money back if it is; personally I've bought many from ebay and have had only positive experiences... only a few T901's sold recently and they were for $960 $1300 and $1500 so it is still quite a bit more for a T901 even on ebay, the difference in price is not worth it IMO

Ram is more of an issue once you are used to a system that's running well and setup properly, or something that is simply powerful, because you notice the difference between running with programs caching to ram, and programs caching to ram and overflowing to swap space on the hard drive... not that 8GB is entirely needed, but it will really help keep the system running as good as it can once you load it up with heavy documents or heavy multi-tasking.