Slate/Convertible for design, animation and illustration

[thezeronumber]

[Redacted due to presently obsolete information]

[doobiedoobiedum]

1. What is your budget?
Up to £700 (roughly $1,100).

2. Would you consider purchasing used/refurbished?
Yes but only if i have a money-back guarantee if there is a fault.

3. Do you prefer a media/mobile tablet like the iPad, Windows tablet PC, or notebook convertible?
Convertible preferred but i will go for a Slate Tablet if it has a Keyboard dock or there is a decent portable Keyboard i can use alongside it.

4. What size Tablet PC would you prefer?
Around 12-14", will settle for 10" if it has a decent resolution.

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

6. Do you have any preferences to brand loyalty or dislikes?
Had horrible experiences with HP customer service and a faulty Laptop. I am open to their products but would rather avoid.

7. How many hours battery life do you require?
Minimum of 2 (in a real-use scenario).

8. What will be the primary usage scenario of this tablet?
Using design, animation and illustration programmes such as Photoshop and Flash CS3-CS5. Possibly video editing.

9. Do you have an OS preference?
Windows XP or 7, preferably the later.

10. What software and tasks do you intend to run?
Photoshop and Flash CS3-CS5, possibly Sony Vegas Pro 9. Limited web browser use.

11. Do you intend on playing Games?
No.

12. Would you like to stream content through your home theater system?
No.

Screen Specifics

1. Any preference on screen resolution?
1280x800 sounds great, anywhere around that.

2. Will you be using the tablet outdoors?
No.

3. Do you require a pen? With or without pressure sensitivity? Do you prefer Wacom or N-trig?
Yes, a pressure sensitive pen is vital. Wacom preferred.

Component Specifics

1. What size Hard Drive and Memory do you require? Would you like expandable memory?
Not sure on HDD as it depends if i can upgrade the internal one or purchase an external, same for Ram as i need "enough" to run these programmes but i am unaware of how much i would actually need.

2. What sort of inputs do you require, if any?
USB slots are the only requirement, the rest are nice extras.

- - - - - - - - - -

This is a "test of the waters" type deal as i don't know if £700 ($1,100) is enough to get what i want. I have a lovely Desktop but due to certain circumstances i am unable to use it for long periods of time and getting any artistic work done is nigh impossible once i have completed everything else on my to-do list. It would be great to draw on something that is portable and powerful enough to cater for my needs, that way i can increase my productivity and feel much happier for it!

I can not get on well with the non-screen versions of the drawing tablets, something about it feels alien and my lines never come out like i want them to. Unfortunately that means a Laptop + Bamboo tablet is out of the question, so this is my last remaining hope.

Thanks for your time.

With your budget I struggle to see what you can buy outside of refurbished / ebay. You are like me in terms of the disconnect between drawing on a tablet and watching a separate screen.

Radical suggestion - you have a desktop you are more than happy with - have you considered a Wacom Cintiq 12WX? You can get the drawing screen / pressure sensitivity you desire and in the future you only need replace your desktop. The Wacom 12WX can be bought new for around £700 and they have greater pressure sensitivity than any convertible you may wish to buy.

Alternately like I did, try ebay and for around £200-300 (a lot more than our US counterparts have to spend) you can pick up an older used tablet. If you are prepared to go nearer you limit on ebay - you can find the occasional Toshiba Tecra M7 or Lenovo X200t but you have to wait for them to show up on the ebay UK site and the competition is keen when they do.

[stoneseeker]

I have been on the hunt for a powerful slate or convertible tablet PC for almost a year now that can do things like what you want to do with it. Running Flash and video editing software can be pretty resource heavy, and at your budget, I'd say you would be hard-pressed to find something that would run Vegas smoothly. A used X200t or Fujitsu T5010 upgraded to the highest RAM would do it, but I think they will be still just outside of your budget range... If you were willing to go outside of your budget by $800 or so, you could be looking at the most powerful machines to do the job: Fujitsu T901 (has dedicated graphics) or the HP2760p.

Otherwise, perhaps wait till the new Ivy bridge refresh/Windows 8 release (its what I am doing) to provide you more options as the windows tablet form factor will probably get more popular and the other models I just mentioned might drop in price some.

[Bronsky]

Actually, if you could order from the Lenovo outlet (which I think you can't from the UK) and you waited for a sale, you could get an IPS X220T which, with its HD 3000 graphics and 6 GB RAM could run Vegas at reasonable speeds ( do not think the X200t will). I saw these units for sale as low as $750 US with an I5 CPU and IPS display but you have to be ready to pounce when they appear as they don't last more than 15 or 20 minutes on the site. I think that they don't sell to the UK however, but I could be wrong.

[thezeronumber]

Sorry for the delay in replying, not had much opportunity to access the Desktop this past week.

Radical suggestion - you have a desktop you are more than happy with - have you considered a Wacom Cintiq 12WX? You can get the drawing screen / pressure sensitivity you desire and in the future you only need replace your desktop. The Wacom 12WX can be bought new for around £700 and they have greater pressure sensitivity than any convertible you may wish to buy.

As mentioned in the original post it is sadly not an option. Sometimes I cannot use the Desktop for a couple of days on end and time on there is often short-lived, at least when looking from a design point-of-view. Else-where in the house I have the opportunity to concentrate and sit down to work but i cannot do such a thing with a piece of kit that requires another computer to function. I did consider the Wacom 12WX but paying £700 or so for something i could only sparingly use isn't worth it. I also thought about buying a Laptop plus the Wacom 12WX so i'd have the portability i require but for anything decent you are looking at another £400 and i cannot afford to spend that much money on top of a Graphics Tablet. Plus it's extra bulk.

Alternately like I did, try ebay and for around £200-300 (a lot more than our US counterparts have to spend) you can pick up an older used tablet. If you are prepared to go nearer you limit on ebay - you can find the occasional Toshiba Tecra M7 or Lenovo X200t but you have to wait for them to show up on the ebay UK site and the competition is keen when they do.

Not heard of the Toshiba Tecra M7 but i have seen the Lenovo X200T and the issues that device has (or was it the X220T): As the pen nears the edge the cursor veers off from where it should be and it looks very finicky, which is a shame as it didn't seem too bad on first glance.

I have been on the hunt for a powerful slate or convertible tablet PC for almost a year now that can do things like what you want to do with it. Running Flash and video editing software can be pretty resource heavy, and at your budget, I'd say you would be hard-pressed to find something that would run Vegas smoothly. A used X200t or Fujitsu T5010 upgraded to the highest RAM would do it, but I think they will be still just outside of your budget range... If you were willing to go outside of your budget by $800 or so, you could be looking at the most powerful machines to do the job: Fujitsu T901 (has dedicated graphics) or the HP2760p.

It doesn't have to run Vegas, it would just be a nice extra. Flash animation is something i have wanted to get into for a couple of years but it's also not too important, I am mostly in it for the Photoshop (which I believe correct me if wrong, isn't as taxing on the system as video editing and animation). I cannot afford to go up to $1,900, effectively £1,200, so I guess those are out of the option too.

Otherwise, perhaps wait till the new Ivy bridge refresh/Windows 8 release (its what I am doing) to provide you more options as the windows tablet form factor will probably get more popular and the other models I just mentioned might drop in price some.

I am hoping that might affect the market but the wait is pretty frustrating from where I am standing!

Actually, if you could order from the Lenovo outlet (which I think you can't from the UK) and you waited for a sale, you could get an IPS X220T which, with its HD 3000 graphics and 6 GB RAM could run Vegas at reasonable speeds ( do not think the X200t will). I saw these units for sale as low as $750 US with an I5 CPU and IPS display but you have to be ready to pounce when they appear as they don't last more than 15 or 20 minutes on the site. I think that they don't sell to the UK however, but I could be wrong.

Hmm, i think i am able to but i doubt i'd be able to catch any sale prices due to how things are at the moment with my current Desktop use.

[darkmagistric]

What specific photoshop use? If you're just going to sketch, draw, or paint, any Modern Tablet PC would more then suffice. The Samsung Series 7 is a great tablet for use with Photoshop for those purposes, and most any convertible model would be fine as well.

Now if you intend on Batch Processing large amounts of high-res photos....that's a different story.

[thezeronumber]

What specific photoshop use? If you're just going to sketch, draw, or paint, any Modern Tablet PC would more then suffice. The Samsung Series 7 is a great tablet for use with Photoshop for those purposes, and most any convertible model would be fine as well.

Now if you intend on Batch Processing large amounts of high-res photos....that's a different story.

Good point! I'd be using it as a painting tool rather than a photo manipulator, creating Manga pieces and various artworks instead of altering images. But my method of work uses up quite a few layers and i like to work on a large resolution canvas in-case things need to be scaled up so that would be a concern of mine. As long as the delay between touching the screen and seeing the result of that action isn't too large and it doesn't affect my work then i am happy, i am not too fussed over slower load or process times outside of that.

I recall seeing a video of a person testing line-art drawing on Photoshop CS4 and CS5 with his Tablet PC and while CS4 was fine the CS5 version would lag every now and then, leading to straighter edges and pointier corners on what should of been a smooth stroke. I don't intend to use CS5 just yet but i thought that was a good example of what i would like to avoid when using other Photoshop versions; the device has to be powerful enough to not mess up the process of drawing on the screen in the first place. Now if i could just find that video again...

[Steve B]

I'm almost positive that video is from thatcomicsguy-- you should PM him, a I think that got resolved in some way. There's a thread in the software forum called something like "How to resolve lag in Photoshop with a neat trick" that goes into some detail about his method. As for layers and resolution-- I have an older generation x200t and I make images that have 10-20 layers with a resolution of up to 4000-4000 or so pretty commonly, and I've found the computer more than adequate. I don't know how big you're getting and how different PS is versus Artrage or Sai, but that's been my experience so far.

[thezeronumber]

Not looked at the forum yet but i found the video (plus the fix one you were talking of).



Here is the "fix" version too. Photoshop Speed-Up Trick - for Tablet PC - Tecra M4 - YouTube (Seeing as i cannot use more than 1 video per post).

I will go and find that topic shortly.

[doobiedoobiedum]

-- As long as the delay between touching the screen and seeing the result of that action isn't too large and it doesn't affect my work then i am happy, i am not too fussed over slower load or process times outside of that --

I have an old Fujitsu 4210 (paid £150) on ebay uk but one went yesterday for £60 in good condition. I have the max 4GB on it and windows 7 - apart from the base heating up when I do processor intensive work it's fine and has a great screen. There are quite a few Fujitsu T4220's on there now for £250 or so but these are still older machines. If you're OK with slightly slower machines then they would be fine.

I used one of the Powermac desktops with dual boot yesterday running Windows Enterprise and the performance was night and day. As long as you DON'T do that type of comparison, you'd be fine.