Reviews
Toshiba
Portege M200 Tablet PC
What's a Tablet PC doing in Handheld Computing? We'll tell
you what.
We don't usually
cover notebooks in Handheld Computing, but I am going to make
an exception here. And even if you are the most diehard handheld
enthusiast, so should you. Doesn't the Toshiba on the right just
look like a big PDA? And can't you imagine doing some pretty cool
stuff on it? Or look at it this way: a lot of us, whether we like
it or not, are forced to carry around both a handheld and a notebook
because there is some stuff that you simply can't do on a PDA.
Or perhaps not as well. Or maybe a client or a friend needs something
she insists must be done on a PC.
Well, the way I see it, Tablet PCs are pretty cool, sort of a
compromise between a handheld and a notebook. They run "Windows
XP Tablet PC Edition," a mouthful for sure, but really nothing
more than a superset of good old Windows XP. A very useful superset
that adds inking, handwriting recognition, and a pen to replace
(or complement) the mouse or the trackpad.
The Toshiba Portege M200 shown here is perhaps one of the best
examples of this still relatively new genre (Microsoft formally
introduced the Tablet PC in November 2002 although earlier generations
of pen slates and computers had been around since 1990 or so).
In Tablet PC circles, the Toshiba is called a "notebook convertible"
because you can use it either as a standard notebook or as a slate.
You go from one to the other by twisting the display clockwise
180 degrees and then fold it down. The display now faces up and
the notebook has become a slate and you can use it like an electronic
clipboard. However, while it may look like a PDA, it's really
too big and heavy to be used like one. The M200measures 11.6 x
9.8 x 1.3 inches and weighs about 4.5 pounds. That is pretty handy
by notebook standards (the notebook guys call it an "ultralight")
but gigantic by handheld standards. Making up for that is some
industrial strength computing power.
The
M200 uses Intel's Centrino technology that here consists of a
1.5GHz Pentium M processor, a supporting chipset, and integrated
802.11b wireless LAN. Atheros 802.11a/b/g is also available. The
M200 comes standard with 512MB of RAM, a 40GB hard disk, Bluetooth,
integrated modem and LAN, two USB ports, a PC Card slot and a
SD Card slot. Best of all, it comes with a 12.1-inch display that
has a higher resolution than any other Tablet PC: 1,400 x 1,050
pixels. All other current Tablet PCs max out at 1024 x 768 XGA
resolution.
Unlike most handhelds, Tablet PCs use an "active" digitizer that
requires a special pen. You can't just use any old stylus, so
don't lose it, or buy a spare. The good thing about active digitizers
is that the cursor follows the tip of the pen even if you don't
touch the screen. And for right mouseclicks you simply tap and
hold the pen to bring up the right mouseclick menu. Another advantage
of the active pen is that it is pressure-sensitive, which comes
in handy in some graphics applications. I should mention that
even though the Toshiba uses an "active" pen, it does not need
a battery. The Wacom technology used here is based on magnetic
induction.
Now what about the pen functionality? Since this is a convertible,
you can either use the keyboard with its trackpad, the keyboard
and the pen, or just the pen. The Tablet PC Edition comes with
a handwriting recognizer that works better than most (and includes
the same CalliGrapher/Transcriber code found in Pocket PCs). The
recognizer lets you either write one or two lines at the time,
or free-form all over the screen. It does not require training,
and you can write either in print or cursive. As with all handwriting
recognition software, it works great for some and not so great
for others.
If you are uncomfortable using the recognizer, you can also use
an onscreen pop-up keyboard. Tablet PCs are very flexible that
way.
All Tablet PCs come with Journal, a nice and rather powerful notetaking
utility. You can use it to take notes in ink which can later be
recognized into text (or be left in ink), annotate, draw, and
then import those documents elsewhere, print them, or email them.
The latest version of Microsoft Office includes pen functionality,
and there is also Microsoft OneNote, a very sophisticated ink/pen-centric
application that goes well beyond what Journal has to offer.
Tablet
PC ink, by the way, is smart ink and not just pixels. That's how
it can be recognized later on, and that's also how drawings can
be cleaned up automatically: lines become straight, circles round,
and so on. And Windows processes the ink so that it looks absolutely
beautiful. No jaggies here; everything looks like it had been
laid down by an expert in calligraphy. Ink is portable, too. There
is even a free Journal reader application so that regular PCs
can display Journal ink documents. More and more software developers
are coming out with applications developed specifically for Tablet
PCs, and many others add ink functionality in their new versions.
As far as the hardware goes, Toshiba makes some of the best Tablet
PCs out there. The convertible format is very handy because it
means you get both a notebook and a slate. On the other hand,
Tablet PCs remain an emerging technology. Microsoft initially
envisioned Tablet PCs to be very light minimalist devices with
low power processors that didn't heat up and had great battery
life. This was supposed to be accomplished with Transmeta's Crusoe
processor technology, but the Crusoe's perceived low performance
soon had everyone switching to faster Intel Pentium processors.
As a result, Tablet PCs do get hot and battery life is not what
it should be. If you use all the many power savings options Windows
XP offers, you might get four hours out of the M200. Often it's
much less. Another inherent problem is that notebook LCDs simply
were not designed to be used in portrait mode. They have large
vertical viewing angles, but very narrow horizontal ones, which
means that the screen is difficult to read in portrait mode. There
are some new LCD designs that fix that, but so far only Sharp
and Hewlett Packard are using them in their tablets.
If you want more functionality in your handheld and don't mind
the higher price and larger size, check out this Toshiba Tablet
PC. It comes in different versions, with the high-end M205 model
adding an external DVD/CD-RW drive and a larger 60GB disk.
-Kirk Linsky
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