Recommend me a tablet

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All this talk of tablets has raised my interest in getting a touchscreen device. My knowledge is limited so I turn to the forum for advice.

I'm looking for a tablet pc for $1000 or less that will run Photoshop/Corel well, has touch sensitivity options, a good screen (bright colors, doesn't fade at different angles) and is mostly lag-free (brush strokes appear as they happen, not 3 seconds later). Basically, I want an art machine.

I already own a USB tablet but it's pretty much unusable with my current setup. My laptop's screen really sucks. It has that "faded look no matter what angle I view it" look. Terrible for choosing colors and editing photos. My second problem is the disconnect between my actions on the tablet and what I see on the screen. It's like trying to write properly while looking at the sky. I can't seem to get the hang of it. On the other hand, touch screen drawing apps have worked wonders for me and I'd like to it to the next level.

This is what I've been looking at so far:

- HP TouchSmart TM2 (specs at the very bottom)
- Fujitsu LifeBook T4410

If anyone can tell me what I should expect, inform me of better options or share their experiences, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

The current generation of touchscreen laptops is simply not suitable for digital art tasks. Screen size is definitely a problem. To have all your tools/palettes/workspace on a 12" is definitely a challenge. Screen tech is also an issue -- viewing angles for these touchscreens are rather narrow. On top of that, the sub $1000 solutions are likely to be underpowered. I believe there are Core i3 models available in Dell's Studio 17 line, but those are priced easily above $1300. Tm2, as it is, is definitely not suited well for for Corel and PhotoShop -- you will definitely see that brush lag you dislike so much. Although, Engadget reports that the newer models based on Core i3 and i5 are in the wings.

I have a Toshiba Touch Screen and I would not recommend it to anyone. The touch interface works like FAIL and the handwriting recognition is poor. It's not like and iPad, you have to use a special pen to do anything and the motions are a pain in the butt to learn.

Get a beefy pc /MAC and a nice wacom tablet. It's your best bet.

I agree with the other posters completely. I have never, ever talked to someone who bought a tablet PC for personal use who came away happy. The technology just isn't there yet.

This might be worth considering (although, only the 12WX is below $1000 (barely)): http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/

Thanks for all the input, guys.

Now I'm not so sure what to do. I really wanted a portable tablet but I was waiting for something that would fit my needs like the HP Slate. It's rumored to have been canceled along with Microsoft's model. I thought spending a little extra on a tablet PC would be a good alternative. Man, this is so disappointing.

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

Although, Engadget reports that the newer models based on Core i3 and i5 are in the wings.

What will this mean as far as performance goes? Still won't fit my needs?

sheared wrote:

This might be worth considering (although, only the 12WX is below $1000 (barely)): http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/

I was excited when I saw this but the reviews seem to be low across the board. Apparently, the 12WX model has a cheap screen which fades at different angles and there are some issue with calibration and "dead zones." Wacom released a new version of the 21UX but that's above and beyond my price point.

Edwin wrote:

Get a beefy pc /MAC and a nice wacom tablet. It's your best bet.

I might just do this. My current tablet is five years old and I'm sure it's missing many features that current tablets have. Maybe an upgrade and a new monitor will be enough while I wait for another portable tablet device. Though, I don't know anything about monitors either.

I'm in this same boat with you Mystic Violet. I just don't have enough desk space for a tablet and if I'm going to be sketching, I don't really want to be at my desk doing it. I need something that I can take to the library or Borders or the bedroom. Or lazing about the couch would be an ideal spot. I guess they just feel the market is too niche. I mean they have to sell the iPad as a book reader and web browser to get any hype.

We really need something that breaks the strangle hold Waccom has on tablets. They have been stifling innovation and charging an arm and a leg for it. There is no reason the biggest size tablet should be selling for $500 for what seems like a decade. There is no reason the 12" cintiq should sell for $1000, or the 21" cintiq for $2500 when you can get a 23" multitouch monitor for $400-500. I know its different similar technologies (multitouch/gesture vs. 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity) but they are drastically different and one technology isn't 5x more expensive. (of note, waccom makes a small multitouch/gesture tablet that is the same price as their small pressure sensitivity tablet)

I had high hopes for the iPad but it also came in at too high a price. I could get a netbook and a 5" knock off tablet (I almost impulse bought one of these at Fry's the other day for $39) and save myself $50-100.

edit: and as you see in the review for the touchsmart, the pen that comes with it has pressure sensitivity but its 256 levels. Modern Waccoms have 2048 levels so that is a huge difference. I don't really think you need more that the old Waccoms at 1024 levels but even then, 256 vs 1024 is huge! (especially for my hobby of digital sculpting)

I never feel comfortable sitting at a desk even when I draw and paint with traditional mediums. When I bought a iPhone, I purchased a painting app and really enjoyed sitting on the couch for hours messing with it. My complaints include the small space I had to work with, the lack of features and discovering that downloading my paintings in a higher resolution was reserved for Mac users.

I had hopes for the iPad as well but I didn't want to be tied down to the App Store and have to buy severely gimped drawing apps again.

fangblackbone wrote:

We really need something that breaks the strangle hold Waccom has on tablets. They have been stifling innovation and charging an arm and a leg for it. There is no reason the biggest size tablet should be selling for $500 for what seems like a decade. There is no reason the 12" cintiq should sell for $1000, or the 21" cintiq for $2500 when you can get a 23" multitouch monitor for $400-500. I know its different similar technologies (multitouch/gesture vs. 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity) but they are drastically different and one technology isn't 5x more expensive. (of note, waccom makes a small multitouch/gesture tablet that is the same price as their small pressure sensitivity tablet)

I'm really surprised with these prices too. The last time I checked was 5+ years ago and they're just as high. The surprising thing about the 12" Cintiq is how it hasn't been updated yet. There's no excuse for charging consumers $1000 for outdated, crappy tech. How frustrating. I want move into the digital art realm but I don't know if I'd be happy with these limited options. I only have a laptop and the screen is terrible for art and photo editing. Buying a new tablet now would be pointless for this thing. I'd new a new laptop/desktop first. Bah. :/

I had a Toshiba M200 for about 5 years. Rugged, light, and at 1400x1050 on a 11", still one of the highest density displays out there. The processor is probably comparable to the fastest of today's netbooks. Viewing angle was mediocre but the colors were great (once I peeled off the textured semi-permanant screen protector that comes from the factory). I always found it very accurate with the pen.

I used it for taking notes during my last year of college and for some graphic design work after, although I was never really an illustrator. It should run XP and maybe even Windows 7 these days. If you can find one used it would probably only be about $300, and at least you could find out if it is something you would really like to invest more in. I loved many things about it, but like all tablets I've seen nothing about it was perfect.

I actually still have mine, but I had to solder the power supply to the motherboard since it had seen so much "love" over the years.

I have a Toshiba M750 and love it. However, I'm not exactly using it for art tasks. In fact, I have never tried to sketch or photo edit on it. What I do want to say is that it's the perfect laptop for couch surfing, email, and light gaming (like flash and facebook games). The tablet pen input is actually very quick and responsive, and I've never had a problem with handwriting recognition (although I really don't use it often as I prefer the virtual keyboard). Really, my biggest complaint is that I can't get the tablet input to work with DOSBox games.

Anyhoo, when it comes to art that HP TM2 sure looked good during Project Runway. Every designer was given one at the start of the season, and while it is edited for TV, it sure looked good during their sketch sessions. Here's the You Tube sales-y video from that. Just beef up the RAM and the CPU, and be sure to get the Radeon graphics option, and I actually think you'd be pretty happy with it. Total price well configured direct from HP's store: $1,250 plus tax. You can probably find it cheaper elsewhere.

Would you be as happy as if you bought a 27" iMac and Cintiq? No, but then the cost for the high end iMac and Cintiq is about $4,200. So, for $3k less, not a bad way to go.

I'm really surprised with these prices too. The last time I checked was 5+ years ago and they're just as high. The surprising thing about the 12" Cintiq is how it hasn't been updated yet. There's no excuse for charging consumers $1000 for outdated, crappy tech. How frustrating. I want move into the digital art realm but I don't know if I'd be happy with these limited options. I only have a laptop and the screen is terrible for art and photo editing. Buying a new tablet now would be pointless for this thing. I'd new a new laptop/desktop first. Bah. :/

I hear ya, totally. Someday... we are almost there. They just have to bridge the gap. The HP touchsmart computers are almost there. They just need the enhanced pressure sensitivity. The price is right too. You can get a whole computer for $700 and up. Its not portable but its a self contained system and maybe a 30' extension cord would work. As a matter of fact I'd wager they'd already be there except for the fact that Waccom is probably neutering HP's pens so as not to compete with the Cintiq. (Waccom makes the latest generation of HP's pens with only 256 levels of pressure sensitivity)

Mystic Violet wrote:

I never feel comfortable sitting at a desk even when I draw and paint with traditional mediums. When I bought a iPhone, I purchased a painting app and really enjoyed sitting on the couch for hours messing with it. My complaints include the small space I had to work with, the lack of features and discovering that downloading my paintings in a higher resolution was reserved for Mac users.

I had hopes for the iPad as well but I didn't want to be tied down to the App Store and have to buy severely gimped drawing apps again.

Mystic -- have you seen this app for the iPad? Not saying it would be what you are looking for, but the app is certainly not gimped!

I'll be interested to see how the new HP TM2 model performs. Maybe it'll be my savior. I'd like to find a seller and try one out for myself.

sheared wrote:

Mystic -- have you seen this app for the iPad? Not saying it would be what you are looking for, but the app is certainly not gimped!

It looks like a good app but I'd have to research it to see what it can and cannot do. When I say gimped, I mean the app will have very few options. I'm so used to working with certain features that trimming them all down to an app like MS Paint really bugs me. I need a good variety of brushes, layers, the ability to resize and move layers individually, opacity, undo, redo, select, cut, paste, fill, palette section, the ability to save my work at a high resolution... I don't expect any $8 app from the App store to replicate Photoshop but these should be basic features. I'll definitely look into it.

sheared wrote:

Mystic -- have you seen this app for the iPad? Not saying it would be what you are looking for, but the app is certainly not gimped!

Thats pretty incredible. Any idea what stylus that is? I thought only fingers could be used. I had heard of some sort of 'sausage' stylus that worked but the one in that video looked more elegant.

Shame my tablet PC model line was discontinued, the Toshiba Tecra M7-ST4013 (that and it costed me $2600us when I got it 4y ago).

Also, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro is an awesome drawing app - it moves a lot of the menus off to the corner in a pop-up palette, leaving the whole screen for you to use for drawing. The whole app was designed for use with tablets, and they have version for the iPhone and i guess the iPad too. I suspect the pencil the guy used was one of those with a metal tip to simulate the capacitive nature of your fingers for the iPhone/iPad screen, I doubt the iPad has any pressure sensitivity levels.

Several brushes that mimic conventional drawing: pencil, pen, brush, marker, airbrush, latest version also supports custom brushes. Layers, rearranging and opacity, locking and hiding them - options for blending between laters isn't as featured as Photoshop, but you can always save it as a .TIFF and open it up in Photoshop.

Multiple undo levels, fill, colour palette (FINALLY, SBP 2.0 didn't have that, but latest SBP 2010 does). Also, the various move, resize, scale, zoom functions are all designed to work with a pen interface: a floating palette pops up and you move your cursor within it to do the action, i.e. to the left to zoom out and right to zoom in.

Yeah Sketchbook Pro is a good app. I was impressed with the drawing performance and capabilities on the iPad. However this section of Mystic's needs

layers, the ability to resize and move layers individually,

doesn't appear to be addressed performance wise. The translate and scale selection options in some other videos linked off the one you posted looked unmanageable. I can't imagine layers being much more manageable either.

polypusher wrote:
sheared wrote:

Mystic -- have you seen this app for the iPad? Not saying it would be what you are looking for, but the app is certainly not gimped!

Thats pretty incredible. Any idea what stylus that is? I thought only fingers could be used. I had heard of some sort of 'sausage' stylus that worked but the one in that video looked more elegant.

The stylus is likely one of these, although you can make your own, too.

fangblackbone, are you looking at the iPad versions of SBP, or the PC/Mac versions of SBP 2010? Mucking with layers on my PC isn't too chunky (depends on resolution of course).

iPad version. Don't get me wrong its incredible for what it is. And surely you can get a lot of mileage out of the convenience of SBP on the iPad.

I've seen a lot of incredible work on the desktop version on SBP and what I've seen of it on the iPad means we are one generation away from a break through. The problem is, will that generation be stalled as it so often has because of the conglomerates involved. Apple could do it but it would mean pissing off Waccom and Adobe. Those players hold a lot of weight in the digital art industry and I'm not sure how much Apple is willing to go to bat for that market segment.

Core i3 based Tm2 has popped up on Amazon. Everything is OK except the suckey Intel graphics.

as someone who has been searching for a similar solution.... the tecra m7....good tablet, though discontinued.....check ebay.... u can get a refurbished one with dual core processor for like 300 some bucks.... it also has a nvidia card.....sketchbook 2010 pro and artrage with paint should do you well for your needs, though the tecra might run gimp and photoshop.....until i got the tecra,I managed with a gateway m275.....just make sure you have plenty of ram. Do not get a ipad!... lack of pressure sensitivity is FAIL. Until cintiqs get cheaper , tablets like the tecra will have to do.
@fangblackbone.... from personal experience.... SBP handles layers well..... the 2010 version is fantastic!

Yes, thank you, but I was talking about the video for the iPad SBP. The layers chugged considerably on the iPad version of SBP. I blame the iPad, not SBP.

It is a shame as it seems that the descendants of the tecra m7, and tablet pc's in general, have gone backwards. And now we laud this "new" iPad. Though I must say that prices ($1500-1800) were a bit outrageous back then.

Just a quick heads up for all you artsy gwjers...

Sculptris 1.0 has just been released. Its a free digital sculpting and 3d painting program that is so easy to get into you will love it.

http://www.sculptris.com/

Apologies for the necro, Mystic, but I figured this was safer than starting my own thread.
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So... I may have been bitten by the tablet bug. I've traditionally had at least one laptop knocking around, but as my current one is on its last legs and I'm more committed to my desktop for gaming, I am looking for something that's light and portable for use when travelling on the train and for watching TV and movies around the house. I'm eyeing up a 10"+ screen, and would like something with a dockable or bluetooth keyboard for writing.

CES has been crazy good for me in terms of summarizing what's coming through in the next six months or so. Engadget's got a summary here that's been helpful.

So far, the Motorola Xoom is looking like the front-runner for me, as there's rumors of a WiFi-only option that doesn't require a 4G contract.

But there are also some interesting options from Asus (the Transformer and Win7 slate, particularly) and a Toshiba model coming out in Q2.

Any other options that I should be considering?

We're supposed to be getting some HP Slates into the office this month.

I'm with you Haakon. I'm interested in a 10" Tablet that isn't made by Apple. I want it for in the Living Room and around the house and maybe some travel. I don't want to pay for a 4G contract (What will they cost? $30 a month? Anybody have an idea?) when I will use it 95% around the house. Therefore, I need it to be WiFi only. It's looking like Android3 is my best (only) option and those products will start to hit the market in a few months.

Xoom looks good but if they don't release a WiFi version I'll move on to something else.

Thanks for posting those links. Good information.

Samsung Sliding PC 7 looks pretty good.

And Meego devices are finally starting to surface. What's interesting about Meego, if I understand it correctly, is that it will be able to run both Linux and Android programs.

The Blackberry Playbook is coming out as a wifi only device, and it was incredible as CES. Really amazingly fast. I loaded up Quake III and eight other programs and it ran them all live without pausing between task switching, without a single stutter. I couldn't even make it lag. No idea what the battery life is like, though, and I didn't get to toy with many other tablets (it might just be how awesome the Tegra 2 is.)

Copingsaw wrote:

I'm with you Haakon. I'm interested in a 10" Tablet that isn't made by Apple. I want it for in the Living Room and around the house and maybe some travel. I don't want to pay for a 4G contract (What will they cost? $30 a month? Anybody have an idea?) when I will use it 95% around the house. Therefore, I need it to be WiFi only. It's looking like Android3 is my best (only) option and those products will start to hit the market in a few months.

Xoom looks good but if they don't release a WiFi version I'll move on to something else.

This is me. Verbatim.

I want one of these things. There's so many good things about the form factor, but my hate for iTunes means the iPad is ruled out before it even gets started. Like you I really need a WiFi only device. I have zero interest in paying for a data plan for a device that quite simply won't get used anywhere but my house, friend's houses, and sometimes work. All places with WiFi.

I'm really looking forward to the day where a consensus is reached on which one of the initial wave is the best.

Thin_J wrote:

I'm really looking forward to the day where a consensus is reached on which one of the initial wave is the best.

The problem with that being, as of now, Apple is right. Their competitors are mostly just vapor.

Screenshots and Youtube videos are great, but Google and these manufacturers need to get off their ass and actually release some product.

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