Tablet PC - worth the money?

[rockthecasbah]

Does anyone here have a tablet?

Is it worth the extra couple hundred bucks to have that touch sensitive screen? And the convenience?

And most importantly, are they durable? I have heard that sometimes hinges on laptops can give out (the hinges on my laptop seem to be fine, thus far) so I imagine with all that swivelling, it could distress the hinges. Thus break down, quickly.

I've been considering getting one because I've been feeling some carpal tunnel syndrome pains in my wrist from using the mouse. So the stylus might be nice for that. Plus the picture above, being able to WRITE, is so neat.

Thoughts?

 

[ImaGiNe.]

It really depends on your work enviroment, tablet PCs are ideal for travel and cramped/awkward places as the advantages of having a keyboard diminish.

 

[stealth_thunder]

Tablet PC and laptops has their advantages and disadvantages.

The money is not a problem of worth, its the expectation and requirement of your type of environment. You might want to look into some kind of checklist.
I will list down some here.

- Do you need it at all ?
- How much do you use your computer ?
- How much do you travel using a computer ?
- Is it a solution to solve your current problem ?

You see Tablet PC is actually design more for business usage example, when a company relies on computer to record down their stock, often a laptop will make things not convenient since you have to have some support then able to type down current information of the stocks. therefore, a Tablet PC will be a good idea since you have to move about the warehouse, and you have to send data to another department or store it up to company's server database.

Or

If you are really someone who goes around and need a Tablet PC as a notes keeper or other jobs which requires you to record alot of data and need to reference or an artist who likes to do digital arts.

Other than those above.... if you have lots of money to spend and wants a tablet PC for fun you can go ahead.

Tablet PC and Laptops are almost the same except their specification and usage is on a different type of form. Durable or not is depend on user usage. There's no such thing a Tablet PC will be much more durable than a Laptops.

 

[Spartan Erik]

Carpal tunnel syndrome pain in your wrist? Won't writing just make that even worse? IMO a normal laptop with a touchpad would be ideal for you, as you move your fingers rather than your hand

 

[rockthecasbah]

Yeah, for me, it's not so much for the whole business aspect nor the travel/cramped areas reason. Mostly, it's the novelty factor, because it just seems kind of neat and could be useful for certain tasks (like graphics/illustrations).

I no longer am a college student and I currently don't have a job that requires something like this. It's more for personal enjoyment, I guess.

Carpal tunnel syndrome pain in your wrist? Won't writing just make that even worse? IMO a normal laptop with a touchpad would be ideal for you, as you move your fingers rather than your hand

I currently have a laptop with a standard touchpad. I absolutely hate this touchpad (I think I'd prefer IBM's eraserhead but I don't have an IBM laptop). I'm currently using a regular mouse connected to the laptop and the pain is mainly coming from clicking and the wrist position. Sometimes I use a wristpad but I find that gets in the way sometimes. It all started from a data entry job I did for awhile, which involved tons of clicking.

So with a touchscreen, I'd mostly use it for "clicking" stuff on the screen. Typing I am fine with (though writing on the screen, just seems neat).

BTW there are some tablet PCs on sale at Best Buy. Cheapest one being $1099 (CAD). http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/subclass.asp?logon=&langid=EN&catid=20356
What do you think of the specs, worth it?

They also have had better or comparable laptops for cheaper. (I'm also playing around with the idea of a Macbook but with that price, I could get a better tablet PC)

 

[GamingX]

Yes, If you are a businessman and want one purely for work purpose, it will be good to have a Tablet PC. It is neither cumbersome and is slightly lighter than a normal laptop, Of course a stylus is in some ways good to have, to jot down notes faster, But on the other hand if you want to manage it between work and entertainment, I would recommend a laptop...:/

 

[chunsiang]

nope not worth it at all. my tablet pc that i bought a year ago eats alot of battery. and i dun really use the pen function even in college. with that price, i can buy a better performing laptop.

 

[Trixter]

yes and no. Depends on what your going to use it. For doing art and graphics I'd suggest you look into Tablet PCs that use Wacom pressure sensitive technology. For note taking the one your looking at is ok. Just keep in mind that the battery life will be atrocious compared to a normal laptop.

Do you really think you'd use the touch function, as most people (myself included) only use it only about 1-5% of the time they use the Laptop the rest of the time its a mouse or touch pad, the reason for this is not all programs are touch compatible meaning even if you had a touch screen you'd end up using a mouse to use these programs anyway.

I'd suggest looking into what programs you use the most and finding out if they support touch screen technology.