Tablet PC/ Toshiba Portege M205

Windows started Tablet PC in 2002


2005
TabletPC like Toshiba Portege M200,M205,M100 gets more sophisticated and I bought M205 after few years later.


Wacom is the only brand gets supported first by software developers and it became the only choice but they never put their latest technology on portable devices. Even in 2012 most portable devices are still equipped same old 2005 Wacom pens. The new Intous 4 has way better control for line quality and much better sensitivity. People like me find out the way to improve the pen, such as make the pen heavier but they are still not as good as Intous.


Here is couple things I feel about Tablet PC.
Windows OS such as Windows XP; Windows Vista; Windows 7 are not user friendly for Tablet PC so I never get good experience while I operating it without keyboard and mouse which make everything difficult to use.


All the current portable devices still equipped with old Wacom technology which is simply not as good as Intous 3/4/5. Even the Intous 4 is hard to achieve good line quality like real pencil/ Carbon pencil do.


Battery Life is short. Minimum 4-5 hours are kind of basic and most of them claims having more than under light usage which does not help since Painting software always need full power CPU to run it smoothly which reduce the battery to 90 minutes. Clearly the hardware and software are not designed for it.


Software like Photoshop or Painter are not designed for Tablet PC, there are many way to custom the key or custom it for Tablet PC and will be okay to use but it is still not there. Artrage 3 is one of the few software is great for Tablet PC users. Photoshop is simply not designed for this type of use.


Booting time is long and for things we carry with us should be instant on and ready to use but they take way too long to turn on and open Photoshop take another 30 seconds which simply not acceptable.


Weight of these products are still heavy.

With all the problems, the next generation of Tablet PC may solve some of the issues. Currently ASUS Eee Slate EP121 and Samsung Series 7 Slate are good products but there are other combination of new devices may offer the better solutions such as Tablet/Android or Tablet/iOS.




Wei-Che, Jason, Juan