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IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC Reviewed
JR writes "CoolTechZone.com has reviewed IBM's ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC that works as a standard notebook computer as well as a tablet PC. Generally with hybrid products, there are quite a few limitations attached, is that the case with X41? According to the article, "The notebook has a lot of drawbacks, lacks important features and tries to make up all that with its lightweight and a fingerprint reader that works like a charm. If you are looking for a small lightweight tablet and won't do much more than e-mail and note taking, along with basic office stuff, we would seriously recommend this one for it's battery life, the extreme lightweight design and the brilliant IBM support, but be ready to pay anywhere from $1800 to upwards of $2000 for a common purpose machine."
I will never use an electronic device that forces me to write on it in my own handwriting or any other PDAish grafitti like trash. Never. Maybe this is a niche machine for people who need to lug around electronic forms, blueprints, contracts and whatnot.
And please don't get me wrong I have a 12x12 Acecad digitizer tablet. I'm pretty familiar with using a stylus - - for things that it makes sense to use a stylus for. Like drawing.
Apple really needs to come out with something like this. I have a number of MAC shop clients and the artists have been seriously considering moving to XP for the Tablet functionality. The reason is that the Tablet can sense pressure, and a brush stroke is adjusted accordingly on the screen. The Waacom stuff can do drawing, but isn't pressure sensitive to this degree. There is about a 5k piece of equipment you can buy to do this with OSX, but its just not the same.
Vista is making some big strides on the Tablet end and is upping the sensitivity, so combined with the more accurate graphic color rendering, windows may be able to woo some artists away. Adobe and Quark products work well on both platforms. The only real thing Windows will be lacking is a decent font management tool.
This ThinkPad os exactly the kind of thing that I think could hurt apple at the end of the day. It may be easier for apple to get into this market now that they are moving to intel chips, since the hardware is already running on the x386 platform.
This is typical of IBM; they have always gravitated towards the docking station instead of building bulky devices on board. They expect the user to dock the device for charging and stationary usage, and mobilize it when making rounds, or whatever. http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/P roductDisplay?catalogId=-840&langId=-1&partNumber= 250610U&storeId=10000001 This is the docking station for the X41, including a cd-rw/dvd-rom drive. Perhaps you guys should investigate available accessories before beating on IBM's choice of how to design a tablet pc ;-).
Also, to all you guys beating on the IBM/Lenovo thing- IBM designed this thing. Lenovo was simply in charge when it made it to market.
Peace!
Get yourself a copy of OneNote, and let's try this again.
OneNote can search every notebook that you have in the thing pretty quickly.
Windows Journal isn't very useful, from what I've seen, compared to OneNote, which I use on my ancient ThinkPad X21 (which is most definitely NOT a Tablet PC, but it's a predecessor to the X41 Tablet).
I think as hardware improves the two platform will combine.
At the end of the day, Windows CE, Smartphone, and now Mobile 5 are only created because the hardware limitation can't support the full blown windows OS.
Eventually the hardware speeds will catch up, and my guess is that the Mobile OS will be phased out for a version of their main OS (Vista or whatever the next one is called).
then I'm not interested. Honestly, am I the only one who has trouble "writing" on these touchscreen tablets? I find it very uncomfortable due to the thickness of the unit. My arm/wrist is at an odd angle. I think they're fine for checking off forms or choosing from drop down lists, but free-form note-taking on these things is not for me.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
"When in tablet mode, the screen for some reason is not a touch screen, but works if we point the stylus at it."
Yeah, that's kind of the point. The idea is that you rest your wrist on the screen and write like you would on a piece of paper. If it was touch sensitive, that would be a little messy (virtual ink everywhere).
I guess this is Microsoft's problem: No one knows enough about TabletPCs to consider the benefits. Even the "reviews" seem to miss the point on some features. My Motion M1200 is almost 3 years old now and I still love it.
What if the Hokey-Pokey really is what it's all about?
But your father's old-fashioned planner can't beep to remind you of something. That is why my PDA is great... not because it's soooo fast to look something up (it isn't) but because it reminds me to do things. And when it beeps, it brings up the details of the event.
OK. Now, take his day-timer, and your PDA (or whatever), and throw them away.... Then do the race again. Assuming you're taking advantage of even the basic synchronization software available for most devices, it won't take you long to look up the calendar on your PC, the web, or go out and buy a replacement PDA, and resynch as soon as you get home. Either way, you're comparing lookup times, which is only a small part of the big picture. Really, how fast does it need to be? I think the question should be, was it relatively easy and painless...and yes, not too time consuming.
I for one, loved my Compaq Concerto (Pen for Windows v3.1 & Win95 UI). The pen is such a better interface than a mouse/track pad. Though I didn't ever try to write notes on it, because, at the time, handwriting regognition was terrible.
Give a hand, not a hand-out.