Handheld PCs with Touch Screens and UMPC
(these run Windows XP or Vista)

Tablet PC Reviews and Information

Non-tablet Notebook Reviews are Here

UMPC and Netbook Reviews are Here

Introduced Nov. 7, 2002, Windows Tablet PCs feature color screens that you can write, doodle, and draw on using a special EMR pen included with the notebook. These tablets are not touch sensitive, which means you must use the pen rather than your finger or any other handy object to write on or point at something on the screen. They work much the same way Wacom digitizer (graphics) pads work, only you get to interact directly with the screen rather than using an intermediary accessory tablet. You can also use the stylus as a mouse, pointing at items on screen, clicking buttons, highlighting text and so on. If you've never gotten along with the trackpads and eraser sticks built into notebooks, you'll probably love the stylus.

With the advent of the capacitive touch screen, first widely used in the iPhone, and Windows 7's significant support for both pen and touch input, we're seeing more tablets that offer touch. A few offer just touch (generally in non-tablet, traditionally designed notebooks) while others offer optional touch and some come with both a capacitive touch screen and active (pen-based) digitizer. Very few tablets use passive resistive touch screens. These dual digitizer models include the HP TouchSmart tx2z (outgoing model), HP TouchSmart TM2, Fujitsu T4310 retail store version, and the Dell Latitude X22.

Convertible and Tablet Designs

Windows Tablet PCs come in two variations: convertible and tablet. The tablet design looks like a slate and has no keyboard. Early in the Tablet PC's history, there were quite a few models and brands but now there are relatively few and these are targeted at vertical markets such as medical, insurance and field force automation. The convertible tablet is by far more common and it ostensibly looks like a standard 12 or 13 inch laptop, but you can swivel the display to use it in tablet mode where it looks like a large slate. Thus you get the best of both worlds: a full keyboard and trackpad and a tablet. The drawback is obvious: convertibles weigh more since they have the traditional notebook 2-section design with a display panel and a bottom panel that contains the keyboard and guts of the computer. Convertibles weigh from 3.5 to 5 lbs. and the lightest ones are generally more expensive since miniaturization increases cost. Convertibles run from $999 to over $2,000. Mainstream models that are often available at chain computer stores in your neighborhood generally cost $950 to $1,200 and these are made by HP and Fujitsu.

The HP TouchSmart TM2 convertible tablet.

The Electrovaya Scribbler pure tablet design.

Display Issues

Tablet displays are generally a tiny bit to very grainy since the digitizer layers reduce clarity and introduce visual artifacts. Most aren't that bad, but you can tell the difference vs. a mid to high end traditional notebook display. There are a few exceptions: the HP TouchSmart TM2 has no grain and looks just like a regular gloss notebook display. Lenovo has some wonderful matte tablet displays with nearly no grain and they're bright too (and also expensive).

Tablets come with gloss and matte displays; that depends on the particular model. The HP TouchSmart tx2z was matte and the TM2 is glossy. The Fujitsu models generally have an anti-glare coating and look matte. Gloss displays increase contrast and make for deeper blacks, but they also make viewing more difficult in certain settings and certain angles because of glare. Professional graphic artists and outdoor workers should opt for matte displays.

Viewing angles are generally reduced on Tablet PCs thanks to the digitizer layers. That means if you're doing graphics work where color accuracy is paramount you'll want to look dead-on at the screen, or choose a model that features a wider viewing angle. Wide viewing angle models generally cost more. Be sure to read the actual specs since manufacturers will describe their products as wide-view when they're not particularly wide. Rule of thumb: if it costs around $1,000 to $1,200 and it has both an active and touch layer, it's probably doesn't have a wide viewing angle.

General Tablet Features: Handwriting, Inking and Digital Art

All tablets allow you to handwrite in any application using the tablet input panel even if the application isn't handwriting-aware. If you're a graphic artist, you'll love drawing directly on the screen using Corel Painter (a fantastic natural media paint program) and Photoshop. The pen technology used in many tablets was developed by Wacom, the big name in digitizer tablets, and N-Trig entered the market in 2008 with their dual digitizers that feature both a capacitive touch screen and active digitizer. As of this writing, Adobe Photoshop supports pressure sensitivity with Wacom digitizers but not N-Trig.

Wacom digitizers typically have 256 levels of pressure sensitivity (vs. 1024 on higher end Wacom tablets that sit on your desk and plug in via USB) and the pen has a single button and an eraser. All current Tablet PCs with active digitizers use EMR pens that are battery-less (the display provides the power rather than the pen).

Since superb handwriting recognition and digital ink technology are built into the Windows operating system, don't expect much variation between competing brands and models. Windows can handle even terrible handwriting and you can write quite quickly these days. In the old days of tablets, you had to write slowly to give the recognizer engine time to turn your scrawl into text, but that's no longer the case.

There's also an on-screen keyboard and Windows 7 detects whether you're currently using a pen or finger and puts up a different on-screen keyboard to suit each. The finger-friendly keyboard is much larger and you can resize it to suit your finger size.

Applications that are well-suited to handwriting include MS Office (particularly OneNote and Word), Windows Journal (included with Windows) and art applications like Corel Painter, ArtRage and Photoshop.

Models with capacitive touch screens generally support multi-touch and two touch points, so you can pinch zoom and rotate documents using your fingers.

Power vs. Long Battery Life: Two Design Camps

You'll find convertible tablets fall into two general categories: fairly powerful all-in-on machines that have the same specs as a mid to moderately high priced notebook and those that opt for low power CPUs and fewer ports to increase portability and battery life. If this will be your only notebook or only computer, you'll probably want to select a model that has an internal optical drive, a fast CPU and plenty of ports. If you want something that will last a long time on a charge and don't need gobs of CPU speed, then go with an Intel CULV processor model. The Toshiba M750, Fujitsu T4310/T4410 and T900 and the HP tx2z fall into the all-in-on category. The HP TouchSmart TM2, Dell Latitude XT2 and Lenovo ThinkPad X200t fall into the longer battery life CULV camp and have no internal optical drive.

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