The rational behind tablet PC's?

[aReda]

I've recently seen these tablet PC's that people can write on via a special pen, in some cases only one pen works with it too. I've also seen them connect to a laptop and used as a screen. Can someone please explain the rational behind buying a tablet PC? What are they used for? In my eyes, they are something totally useless, but perhaps there is a reason behind making them? A sensible reason?

Red.

[Ruahrc]

I think it's the cross between a PDA and a laptop. A PDA is convenent because you can "write" data into it, but is limited in screen size, storage, processing power, etc. A laptop is great because it can be just as powerful as a desktop but it is large and can be cumbersome in some situations (i.e. you can't type while standing up?).

The tablet PC gives you the input abilities of the PDA, but with the large screen and higher performance of the laptop. Now wheter this works in excecution or not is up to a little debate I guess. I have not seen many tablec PC's around- I will have a professor next quarter who will lecture using his tabletc PC. He can present PPt slides on the projector- and if handwritten notes are necessary he just writes it into his tablet PC (these are also displayed on the projector). That way at the end of lecture he can save his handwritten notes as images and post them online for students to look at later. Seems pretty handy to me I guess.

The thing that I don't like about Tablet PC's right now is the battery life. Granted it is very hard to power a laptop size screen with a small battery but I think they should strive to cut some superfluous features (I've seen a few with Optical drives?) in order to make room for a bigger battery.

Ruahrc

[HeadBand]

yeah i wouldnt have one...all i can see them being used for is like if a secraterry was in a meeting and wanted to take notes for you but didnt want to disturb the meeting with clicking on a keyboard....personally i think my pda is fine for taking notes in class though

[Pexster]

I have had an iPAQ 3600 for several years now. I quit taking a laptop on trips because it was too bulky and I use my iPAQ to check email. But you can't really even view a web page easily on a PDA -- you have to scroll around and it's a pain. So I thought about these tablet PCs. But just recently I saw a notebook that is so thin, it's much smaller than even a tablet PC.

So now I don't see the rationale for the tablet PC, either. The handwriting thing is not that big a deal to me. I think when I can, I'll just get one of the ultra-slim notebooks with a 10" screen. If I remember right, they are less than 1" thick and weigh less than 4lbs. I think Toshiba and Sony Vaio and IBM Thinkpad all have them.

[chapmc]

It might be nice to be able to draw in certain situations; flow charts, organization charts, etc, without trying to type the info.

[FreakyOCR]

They are really quite neat. You can open a notepad and write onto it just as it was a pad of paper. You can print it and e-mail it or you can have it convert it to text.

Great for drawing stuff too.

I sold my aunt one and she loves it.

[butch81385]

i liked one that i saw at my schools computer store. it was a laptop that you could turn the screen around and close it so it was a tablet pc. now that is a good idea to me

[Big Calhoun]

Being in the telecom field, I get to see (and sometimes play with) alot of interesting toys at customers' premises. Tablet PC's are pretty functional critters. One of the biggest advantages is being able to use alot of them as a tablet PC or a laptop. That in iteself increases usability. The real advantages come with software. I witnessed a hospital where the doctors and nurses use tablet pc's with WLAN to record, share, and transmit patient information. In the demonstration I saw, a doctor had a patients digital x-ray images minutes after they were taken. I've heard of uses in graphics and publishing industries. It would be great to sit and write a book and then OCR it to an editable format. I also work with a gentleman who swears by them. Whenever he visits, he loves to show it off by giving presentations on it.

Personally, I wouldn't get one right now.For what I use a computer for on a daily basis, it would just be a waste. The devices have their merits though. Now when a tablet PC is produced that is as thin as a Sony X505, I'm there!!!