More Tablet Woes...

Ok dudes, more considering for Tablet here... Let's look through the current products on the market:

Toshiba Tablets
Toshiba can go and die. End of story.

HP TX2000 Series
Consumer-level Tablet. Uses AMD CPU. Battery life worst of the lot. Need I say more? Next...

HP 2710p Series
Business-level Tablet. High-res screen (1280 x 800). Decent battery life at almost 6hrs max and 4-5hrs effective life. Has an additional secondary battery that doubles battery life, but given my experience with HP external battery and their high failure rate, I think I will stick to a 2 x Standard Battery configuration this time round. However, this Tablet uses a ULV. Normally, I will not consider ULV, but with the recent shift to ULV... it seems that I may be forced to take the route.

Fujitsu T2010 Series
Business-level Tablet (I think). High-res LED screen (1280 x 800). Woot!!! Like the HP 2710p, this uses a ULV CPU. Excellent battery life with its 9-cell battery reach 10-11hrs max and 8-9hrs effective life. This is really sweet, as it may seem that a single high-capacity battery is sufficient to meet my computing needs.

Fujitsu T4220 Series
Business-level Tablet (I think). Has low and high-res screen options. Most powerful of the lot as it runs a full blown mobile CPU, which btw I think is the only Tablet that does so from the leading brands. Max battery life is 5hr, with effective of 4hr... so even with 2 battery configuration, battery life is going to be weak. Also, I don't like the fact that it has an integrated optical drive, waste money and waste space. The bay battery is also too expensive to consider purchasing (S$300 at student price!!! Yikes!!!). Furthermore, the T4XXX series has a known heat problem that was really bad in its first 2006 incarnation. I read that it's been improved since then... but still not as good as other solutions out there.

Lenovo X61T Series
Business-level Tablet. Has a superhigh-res screen option and multitouch option. Uses a LV CPU that IMO is the best compromise. With 9-cell battery max life is 6-7hr with 5+hr effective. That makes a 2 x 9-cell configuration really sweet... Not to mention Lenovo batteries appear to be the cheapest out of HP and Fujitsu. One drawback is the bezel design problem that has not been corrected since the X60T incarnation.

So... there's the lineup of current generation Tablets. It is not difficult to see why WL is so hardup on the X61T. It represents the best compromise between battery life and CPU power, and has the cheapest battery replacement cost out of the 3 brands. Should note that Fujitsu batteries are traditionally a pocket breaker.

At the end of the day, WL ask himself "What do I want out of my next Tablet?"
That perhaps is a difficult question to answer, as I would list everything. But I know what I don't want for my next Tablet purchase, to get one that is equivalent to my current TC4400. I want something that is better, that gives me a noticeable improvement.

So what changes and improvements would give WL a better Tablet experience? Well...
- LED LCD Screen. Brighter screen means more comfort when writing.
- High-resolution Screen.
- Bidirectional Turning.
- Lighter Tablet.

What happened to Multitouch Screen? After some consideration, I think Multitouch is not essential at all, as the time when I really get to use it will not be frequent. Besides, I won't feel good using my dirty hands to touch the screen all the time.

So what about next-generation solutions then?

HP 2710p Series
If the trends follow, there will be a refresh when ULV Penryn comes out. That's going to be late... in Q4 2008.

Fujitsu T2010 Series
Similar to HP 2710p.

Fujitsu T4220 Series
If the trends follow, there will be a refresh when normal Penryn chips come out. That will be in time for Q3 2008. Arguably, Penryn which saves about 5-10% battery life vs Merom may boost the T4220 successor battery life to make it a decent option.

Lenovo X61T Series
Rumor is that a new X200 class of ultraportables will be released in Q3 2008, and the X200T to succeed the X61T will arrive in Q4 2008. Once again, Lenovo in their arrogance decide to update their models late (like back in 2006).

DA Analysis

If we're assuming a Q3 2008 purchase date, the strongest contenders will be the Lenovo X61T and Fujitsu T4220 Refresh Model. Without much confidence, I would say that the X61T will win the day. If one were to consider ULV options, the Fujitsu T2010 triumphs the HP 2710p.

If we're assuming a Q4 2008 purchase date, things get a little tricker as by then we would in theory have access to both current and next generation products. If one were to consider ULV options, it may be better to wait for the Penryn refresh for ULV... but how certain are we that the release dates won't be pushed to Q1 2009?

EDIT: Oh ya... What happened to the new Dell Tablet you may ask. Dell, well know for its cheapness has gone to the dark side by releasing their Tablet a price that is worse than the traditionally rich and useless Fujitsu. Something about their unique N-Trig multitouch screen.... Yayaya... Fuck off Dell...