2 responses to “what are the pros and cons of a tablet pc for a high school student?”

• 

  oamg823 January 26th, 2010 at 07:13

  Raul

  wow, they allow laptops in your high school? well, you’re right handwritten notes are faster to write than typed ones, though depending on what you get, laptops might have a bit less lag. playing games on them is near impossible on tablets with out a mouse, so no sneaking in a few games before class.

• 

  simshsia January 29th, 2010 at 18:16

  Fernando

  There are many other uses for a Tablet PC, but for now, I’ll limit it down to just the note-taking and inking features of it.

  A Tablet PC does have some advantages over a conventional notebook. Let’s say, your instructor is drawing a diagram of some sort, if you were typing up the lecture in a conventional notebook in Microsoft Word, you’d have to either a.) attempt to draw it out with Word’s Drawing Tools; or b.) take out a piece of paper and draw it down. With a Tablet PC, you could easily (and naturally) draw that diagram down, and when the instructor continues on by writing on the chalkboard (overhead projector, whiteboard, etc) you can continue jotting down notes. I’ve observed at some of my lectures, that when the professor draws diagrams instead of words on the chalkboard, students with a regular laptop will just look at it and not record or draw it, or draw it down by hastily searching for a spare sheet of paper and a pen or pencil.

  Some disadvantages include, screen size, which the majority of Tablet PCs are in the 10.1″ – 12.1″ range, and with very few in the 14.1″ (currently the Gateway C-140X dominates the 14.1″ display, as it is the only currently manufactured Tablet PC possessing such a screen size); graphics options, most Tablet PCs come with the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950 or X3100 graphics chipset. There are a few Tablet PCs that have dedicated graphics cards from nVidia or ATI; Firewire, there are a few Tablet PCs that come with a IEEE1394 (Firewire) 4-pin port; PC ExpressCard, there are just a handful of Tablet PCs with a PC ExpressCard slot (Asus R1F, HP tx1000z), which replaces the aging PCMCIA slot; processing power, a couple of Tablet PCs come with low voltage (Lenovo ThinkPad X60t/X61t) or ultra low voltage processors (Gateway C-120X, Toshiba Portege R400) – for the most part, Tablet PCs like the Fujitsu LifeBook T4220, Gateway C-140X and etc come with regular-votagle processors; and lastly screen resolution, the majority of Tablet PCs are either at XGA or WXGA resolutions, very few are offered with SXGA+ resolutions.

  Keep in mind that there are two different form factors for Tablet PCs: convertibles and slates. Think of convertibles as a regular, conventional, notebook with a single hinge to allow the screen to rotate and convert from “notebook” or “convertible” mode to “tablet” or “slate” mode. Slates, on the otherhand, do not possess a keyboard, and thus, in a way, the screen is the computer.

  There are also three different technologies that are used on Tablet PCs, called digitizers. Digitizers are used to accept and recognize the user’s input on the screen. There are three types: active, passive, and dual mode (active + passive).

  Active digitizers continously sense for the stylus pen, whether if it is hovering a few centimeters off of the screen and moving, the cursor arrow will follow, or if it is tapping (or touching) the screen will it select, say, a button or menu item. If you were to touch the screen with a finger or your palm, it would not recognize your actions, as it only accepts actions from a stylus pen. If you’ve ever used a Wacom Tablet before (ones that are attached externally to a computer) it’s the same concept. Such Tablet PCs with an active digitizer would include the Fujitsu LifeBook T4220, Gateway C-140X, and Fujitsu Stylistic ST5100 series.

  Passive digitizers or touchscreens, on the other hand, allow any input that is touch-based. A PDA stylus, finger, and any other object will be recognized. The hovering ability the active digitizer has is not found in a Tablet PC with a passive digitizer. Such Tablet PCs with a passive digitizer would include the HP Pavillion tx1000z and TabletKiosk’s Sahara i440T.

  Lastly, there are dual-digitizers, or active and passive digitizers. There are a few Tablet PCs that incorporate the technology of both worlds of the active and passive digitizer so the user has a choice of whether they want to interact with the screen with the pen or use touch. The digitizer will automatically sense whether the stylus pen is nearby (~0.5 inches away), and will accept only active, or if the stylus pen is not nearby it will accept only touch. There are Tablet PCs that have a hardware button to switch between active and passive digitizers (like TabletKiosk’s Sahara i440D). Such Tablet PCs that include dual digitizers are the Lenovo X60 or X61 with MultiTouch option and the Gateway C-120X.

  —

  Most manufacturers, like Fujitsu, Gateway, and Lenovo offer student discounts either online on their website or through their sales department by phone.

  Fujitsu has their own eBay store selling a few Tablet PCs at an incredible discount:

  Best Buy and/or Circuity City are selling retail models of the C-120X, known as the Gateway Convertible Notebook (Best Buy’s is the C-5815), you might be able to see a floor model at your local BB or CC store. If you have a Fry’s Electronic store nearby, there may be a Fujitsu LifeBook T4215 or T4220 on dispay.

  Laptop Authority (laptopauthority.com) offers a couple of Tablet PCs. Allegience Technology Partners (alltp.com) specializes in Tablet PC sales.