Tablet PC's

[CommonCents]

Hi everyone i'm new here. i love the site and have learned alot of things. i have a ?

I'm interested in Tablet PC and want to get one. money is kind stiff so i cant really afford the 1500 ones that are out. where can i get one for pretty cheap. i dont mind a refurbished one either btw...thanks if anyone can help

[deddard]

Hi - Welcome Aboard!

First off, I'd seriously consider whether you actually need a tablet PC.
The majority of them are actually too heavy to use for any length of time as a tablet, (I've got an Acer c300)
Another consideration is how much memory the system has. Tablet PCs run windows Tablet edition (based on XP Pro) which was fine until service pack 2 came along, and it now chews up memory as if it's going out of style. I have 512MB on my system which is now a lot slower than before SP2 (the new handwriting system is the main culprit)

Perhaps someone else has good recommendations, but with a limited budget, I'd really think hard before getting one of these - you can get a really good laptop for the price of a mediocre tablet. If you really need the features of a tablet, then hopefully someone can give you details from another perspective.

[CommonCents]

thanks for the insight. i really do want a tablet, but i think i'll just hold out until the prive comes down alittle more. how much did yours cost? i think i'll just grab a laptop until then. so any recommendations?

[deddard]

Haven't checked out the details of the current crop of laptops, but IBM, Toshiba and Acer are at the top of the tree.
You can now get some reasonable gaming from laptops if that's important - bear in mind that these machines tend to be a bit heavy and power hungry.

My Acer C300 cost around £1300 a year ago - This is of course UK pricing (which is a lot higher than the US)

What is the laptop to be used for? If you will do a lot of travelling with it, then a centrino or amd mobile (low power devices) are the thing to go for. Don't accept less than 802.11G wireless, and try to make sure you can upgrade at least some parts (the acer has interchangeable hdd, dvd and battery bays)