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There are quite a few 4.8" umpc's on the market, with faster processors and various os.
How do they compare to the Advantage in regard to internet, office and outlook?
The wm browsers have fit to screen or one column options. What happens with the small umpc's?
arie_i said:
There are quite a few 4.8" umpc's on the market, with faster processors and various os.
How do they compare to the Advantage in regard to internet, office and outlook?
The wm browsers have fit to screen or one column options. What happens with the small umpc's?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, I have a laptop, a umpc, a pocketpc and a mobile phone.
Umpc vs pocketpc?
pocket pc can INSTANT ON/OFF in a way that not even hibernate or stanby can match. This makes pocketpc the best 24/7 anytime/ anywhere gadget for reading ebooks and typing down ideas, listening to music, using few things related to WIFI.
My only wish is that i can find a good enough program to do powerpoint slides editing using my pocketpc. For powerpoint work, i still use my umpc whenever i am outside. I have never found a good enough powerpoint editing program that I can use in my pocket pc. Viewers. yes but editing no. Will appreciate if someone can recommend or can create such a program.
The only thing to do is have a play around with some UMPCs- having used an original Asus EEE (which has similar specs and screen resolution to the UMPCs I've seen) I'd say it depends on what you want it for.
The Athena has crazy battery life, a good enough screen, can edit office stuff, good for email, plays video fantastically well, is pretty fast, and with Opera Mini 5 finally has a decent web browser.
A UMPC has all of these, and will run standard desktop applications but will have rubbish battery life.
Conclusion is- it'll depend entirely on what you need it for!
Personally I wouldn't drop £400-500 on a UMPC as I don't think they do more than I'd want from my Athena, but if I needed something bigger I'd be tempted to pick up a cheap 7" screened EEE again. Currently I find a Samsung NC-10, an Athena and a HTC Hero more than cover me for my portable needs.
The Athena and other WM-devices suck when it comes to browsing:
- low resolution (640x480 up to 800x480 on newer devices)
- huge waste of screen due to windows frame, URL-toolbar, status-bar, etc. or lack of all those when in full-screen view
- lack of Flash and Java support
- too little memory - surfing in forums quite often result in out of memory
- too slow
UMPC's suffer as well:
- too expensive
- either low screen resolution or too many DPI's to be readable
- though they have a fast CPU compared to WM, they have to run Windows XP/Vista and that turns them slow again
I own a lot of devices, as I kind of collect them...
Apart from the phones in my signature, I also own:
- Asus R2H
- Asus Eee PC 701
- Asus Eee PC 1000H
My experience says:
1) If you want a USABLE and RELIABLE phone, that simply works, entertains you and gets you to do some mails and internet browsing, then go for the iPhone. It is fast, responsive, huge usability and the best web-surfing experience in any phone I tried so far.
2) If you need to work on the road, prepare PowerPoints, do serious e-mails, etc., then get yourself a cheap netbook with 10" screen and 6 cell battery.
Cheers,
vma
May be the OP wants to clarify if he really wishes to compare UMPC to Athena or the more comparable MID vs Athena?
One poster said UMPC has "rubbish battery life" which is only true, but it is because those UMPC was yesterday designed, and not many newer UMPC have been built.
UMPC is defined as Ultra Mobile PC, which is coined by Microsoft, so mostly it is used to described Windows XP Tablet Edition OS devices. Similar form factor devices are appearing on the market again, but they are simply called tablets.
What Athena should be compared to, because of similar form factor, should be MID, which stands for Mobile Internet Device. MID can run Windows XP, or Linux, or other systems, and doesn't have a platform specific thing.
For example, my Samsung Q1 is an UMPC, and it has a 7" screen. For example, my BenQ S6 is a MID, and it has a 4.8" screen. One runs XP Tablet Edition (factory) and one runs XP Home (factory). My Q1 has only a 2 hour battery life (now only 1 hour as the battery wore out) w/ a 3 cell (factory) battery. My S6 has a 4 - 6 hour battery, while having a much smaller Li-poly battery pack, with much less capacity than the one inside the Q1. So you can see, it is not a fair comparison when you compare UMPC vs Athena and compare MID vs Athena.
I own all 3 types.
Fast and slow are all relative, I tell you.
WM can wake up in a flash, so you call it fast. But then if you want to play a high quality video, or Adobe Flash, it just doesn't have enough processing power, then you call it slow. Let's define what you mean by fast and slow.
Windows XP takes forever to boot, so you call it slow. But most modern device, including the lowly Atom CPU, even the low end Z series, can at least play some Flash videos without a lot of problems. So you call that fast? So what is true? Is it fast or slow?
The Atom Z series platform (in various netbooks and MIDs), can do standby to on in very quick time (about 2 sec). It is also very good on battery life, with very low power consumption, especially in idle or standby. That's why I wish the OP was trying to compare MID to Athena, because UMPC is just an orphaned platform without any new entries lately, and thus is a very poor case for going to battle here.
I disagree that the Athena "has crazy battery life" if you meant "great". When I had it on with 3G enabled, it didn't really last very long. Worst if you have Push enabled, or even pull (either way). I did read about the ROM making a diff. but in the earlier days, all I used was factory ROM, so there is nobody else to blame if that's the case.
I do agree with vma in general. I now use an iPhone for my daily phone, and I own 2 netbooks, with 1 having a 6 cell battery. They are the bread and butter of my assortment of equipments at my disposal (which is a lot), which I use the most in a real portable / mobile situation. iPhone as a daily phone and data device, while netbooks being used in meetings / gatherings etc.
I also will take out my Athena or my MID (S6) just to fill the gap, if the situation requires, but this gap is like a niche, so they don't get used very often because of that. For example, if I have to walk more than drive, and thus don't want to carry even a netbook, but at the same time I really need to have Windows (native, remote won't cut it case), then I have no choice but to carry the MID w/ XP (S6). But that doesn't really happen too often. More and more apps are available on iPhone that slowly replaced even some of the very niche apps on Windows.
Athena is worse, there is even less niche that I must have WM w/ me nowadays. Most apps have been replaced, and fewer required. For example, having a connected Garmin Mobile XT is nice, but I already own a GPS nav plus software on my iPhone, so I need WM even less even it does give me that combo, but it is not absolutely necessary. It is just nice to have (an also do case).
The saving grace of the Athena is SkyFire and Opera Mini 5 (compiled binary version especially), and latest cooked ROM on 6.5.x. Otherwise, the Athena is really outdated. Many apps are already duplicated and I can't think of any that still remains a huge advantage (no pun intended) on the Athena, except one (which is a niche app, most people don't need / use it, as it caters to only certain kind of people).
With all that said, Athena still has one slight advantage (no pun intended), and that is if you have a pretty stable environment / system, you don't really have to worry about maintenance down the road unless you add / subtract things from it. If it is stable, it should remain so, as the system doesn't get much changes, unlike XP which has constant security problems and thus updates and this and that. iPhone being a very fluid environment only because there are a lot of new updates which are either essential in order to have some new highly anticipated features (hard to ignore), and then apps compatibility afterwards. With Athena, if you can tolerate not having new ROMs or apps, and use it as a stable appliance, and you can actually achieve a stable env to begin with (not always the case, WM is not that stable, the more apps you install, the less stable it becomes), then it is rather reliable. Look at CE Embedded, many GPS nav platforms use that as the base core OS and it's stable. It's only unknown apps can affect it.
I can maintain my XP well, but it takes efforts etc. I also maintain my iPhone from time to time, but not as often, but each updates is a new battle to test everything once over again, lots of time and stuff. For Athena, it used to be like that, but now since one should find a stable ROM and be content with, then it's ok. But that may be because there aren't any new killer apps out there, that demands the newer versions of ROM / OS version, so it is no longer an issue.
But it doesn't necessary make it easy though. I struggled to make Athena stable and for the longest time, WM is very hard to tame (worst of all handheld platforms IMHO!).
I'd say, if you are very good in maintaining Windows (like XP), an XP based MID is actually a very good choice today, with the new Atom Z (or even N) series CPU. You just can't expect it to be a phone for voice stuff (even if so, I can't trust XP to be 100% reliable in voice handling), as a data only device. And that can replace Athena as a similiar size platform.
For example, my S6 is about the same size as the Athena except longer (should say wider, but the longest side), if Athena is in its leather case w/ keyboard. However, I can strip down my Athena w/o keyboard and leather case, and it becomes very thin, (and no protection), but I can't strip down my S6 any further. It is also hotter if run long also.
As for UMPC, I don't know if XP will be able to compete still, as there are surprising few new models as compared to Linux / Android based ones coming out these day. I found Vista very unsuitable (for just about anything) and even Windows 7 doesn't provide the efficiency like XP can (battery life, graphics performance), and only provide a bit more convenience, but tax a lot more resources that is not worth it in a low power, low resource small device. Leave the W7 to more powerful computers.
It all comes down to what apps you need to run. If you have apps that only is avail on one platform, you probably don't have a choice. If you only need popular apps that are avail on all platforms, then you have lots of choices and lots of debates.
But one thing is sure: if you need powerful stuff, even some video playback, just don't kid yourself, the Athena can't cut it, I tried pretty much everything. Even the Z500 + GMA500, considered the lowest end on an Intel based platform, will beat the Athena playing videos. Browsing is the same also. There is just so much an ARM based CPU can do, especially without modern GPU on the side (The ATi chip is really not helping much in the Athena, despite the brand behind it).
If I have to choose today, I'd take iPhone + netbook like vma said. But if I have other needs, then I'd take iPhone + MID, or iPhone + UMPC. My WM devices are now niche devices today, changed their roles from their past, no longer the centre.
After realizing that I dont need a powerful Core i3, i5, or i7 laptop for my daily use, but do need long battery life similar to the tf700 in a sleek chassis that's preferably fanless, I've been trying to find a good looking, Clover Trail Atom 11"-13" Windows 8 generation laptop/netbook, but it seems that everything is a hybrid I got excited when I saw the Lenovo IdeaPad 11", but to my dismay, it's running RT via ARM. Such a missed opportunity. Recalling my time with the Asus Transformer Infinifty TF700, and how that was a great piece of hardware (minus the flimsy dock + Asus' bugs) I've decided to fold and get a hybrid + a large DropBox account. After looking through the Googles, and YouTubes, it seems that my best bet would be the TF810. Only issue I'm having is I live in the states. Another issue is it's price. It's waaaay too close to a Acer S7 11" variant which was what I originally planned on buying, if that's what I'd have to pay then I'd pay it. From what I've seen and read, the new Atom processors
run Windows 8 relatively flawlessly. I do not plan on playing games on it at all.
My purposes for a laptop are:
YouTube, Netflix, Hulu+, HBOgo
Light Image editing via GIMP
Google Docs and Office Suit for on the go doc editing
(hence the need for long battery)
RSS reading when not using my iPad mini
Google Chrome + extensions
LTE would be a plus, but I can tether.
What are your suggestions for me?
Thanks for your time.
Your needs and observations are similar to my ones.
I have question though, and how is you being in USA an issue in all this?
From what I know at least you will get better price on your device than we in Europe
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Have you considered the Acer W510? From what I understand from your post, it should fit right in your pocket
Now one thing the build quality isn't on pair with say an ipad or a surface tablet, but then again its quite cheap, and personally I really like it
//M
W510 would be okay if you just wanted a tablet without a keyboard. The keyboard doesn't seem that good, and keyboards on a 10 inch tablet are too cramped. And if I was just getting a tablet, the upcoming ASUS ME400 looks a lot better.
I like the Samsung 500T, it's what I have. It's downside is the glossy plastic back is a bit slippery and no secondary battery. It's upsides is a full sized USB port on the tablet, front facing speakers (which are a kinda weak at times though), and a pen with a convenient storage slot. Also Samsung seems to be doing pretty well so far with driver updates.
Another possibility I like is the Lenovo Lynx. This huge downside to this one seems to be the 32GB limit on the micro SD slot (I'm kind of hoping this is a mistake in the specs, seems odd to not support SDXC), also has no pen. The upside is the quality looks really nice and Lenovo usually has great keyboards.
m.klinge said:
Have you considered the Acer W510? From what I understand from your post, it should fit right in your pocket
Now one thing the build quality isn't on pair with say an ipad or a surface tablet, but then again its quite cheap, and personally I really like it
//M
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I did. 10" is just not enough for work. 11-12" seems to be the best compromise between fun/mobility/tablet itself usability and work mode in laptop look (I don't know if what I just said makes any sense).
Since I want to use this device for watching films I am glad they are limited to 1366x768 res.
Netflix, Hulu+, HBO Go and 720 p mkv dont look that good on Full HD screen.
Also Atom would struggle even more with higher res and battery life would be shorter.
My takeaway from CES 2013 reports is that the second wave of Win8 toys will be better than the first (2012) wave in every way: availability/functionality/performance/price. These should start dribbling out in spring, and pricing will come down for back-to-school in Aug, perhaps sooner. I would not consider a 1st-gen Win8 device at this point, not unless there's a substantial discount--that includes the Surface Pro. Of course, it depends on whether you can wait.
My second takeaway from CES is that RT is on life support. Virtually all of the CES roll-out was about x86. Big vendors like Samsung and HP won't have RT models. Whether RT dies or not will depend on MS' handling of it, which has been spectacularly incompetent thus far. I think it will live on, if only because MS will need ARM to compete against Android at the $200-300 price points. But as of now, RT has no value proposition to speak of.
It's not only the hardware that is v1.0. Win8 is a v1.0 as well, and will take time to get over the teething issues. I fully expect a point upgrade (or SP) by summer at latest, in time for back-to-school. I think it'll be a point upgrade, as Windows 8 has a stigma attached in the eyes of the public, and a 8.1 or 8.5 is the simplest PR method to convey improvements.
Succinctly, Win8 RTM (and associated hardware) in 2012 was basically a second public beta. The real launch will be by Q3 and Q4 2013. Whatever you buy today will be substantially outmoded by year-end, so I would stay away from anything too expensive. Think stopgap.
e.mote said:
My takeaway from CES 2013 reports is that the second wave of Win8 toys will be better than the first (2012) wave in every way: availability/functionality/performance/price.
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Click to collapse
Isn't it the usually way with everything in IT/electronic world?
I can also bet that 3rd generation will be better than the 2nd and in some cases we might see it by the end of this year...?
I don't mind W8 issues and hardware that will be "old" in few months as long as it will do what I need it to do.
I also would not be so harsh with Windows 8. Either they run out of time or inconsistency between Modern Ui and Destkop mode was not that visible for those who created system as they worked with it every single day + they are advanced user not "Mr Joe Public".
They need small SP (mostly for essential programs like Mail or IE) so that they can work "as one" in both modes - sort of like Chrome today.
Second thing is inconsistency between operations in two modes. Right click on the mouse should show more similar functions (like lack of properties in modern ui).
Anyway - for me question is - which hybrid with screen of 11" will be/is the best and will last longest.
As much as I am scared of Asus Warranty service in Poland it look like TF810 is the best choice.
I just bought 128GB SSD for W8 in my desktop (old C2Q machine) and the only thing that bothers me is size of "HD" (64GB) in those devices... seems to me that W8 Pro truly needs 120/128GB + sd extension for nice, long-haul relation ship.
I agree with e.mote.
First generations tend to be the most rough. It's called the bleeding edge of technology for a good reason. Your second to third generation they usually have the design issues mostly figured out, the drivers issues resolved, and it's mostly about performance. But this first generation, there are lots of mistakes being made, lessons to be learned, and problems yet to be fixed. The first generation is the beta test for the die hards willing to pay for it.
I don't mind - just want to get the best device out of those bad ones
I need it for almost everyday work - I write a lot an I need something like that - at the same time ultrabooks are to big, laptop blow hot air... so... hybrid with atom looks like a best choice...
And will allow me to keep ipad "evening comfort"
>Isn't it the usually way with everything in IT/electronic world?
It's the old chestnut: Buy whenever you want, because tech will always get cheaper/better. But as savvy shoppers know, product releases are seasonal, and certain times are better than others to buy things. As well, veteran users of Microsoft products know that MS v1.0 is not where you want to be.
>I can also bet that 3rd generation will be better than the 2nd and in some cases we might see it by the end of this year...?
That's an interesting remark, as the usual PC cycle is annual, but recently we've seen multiple product intros within the same year, eg the iPad 3 & 4 last year. That's due to the quickened pace of competition n a wide-open market. Then, all the more reason not to buy into a v1.0 if possible, because a v2.0 is only a few months off. That's where the biggest functionality jump lies. 2.0->3.0 is usually more incremental.
>Anyway - for me question is - which hybrid with screen of 11" will be/is the best and will last longest.
Your selection will be broader come spring/summer, as opposed to the handful available at this point. This is the worst time of the year to buy new PC gear. As said, it depends on whether you can wait.
There is also the larger question of whether hybrid as a category will fly, or will it suffer from the neither-fish-nor-fowl syndrome. There haven't been enough models out yet to judge, but we'll find out this year. Surface Pro will be a bellwether.
For now I will wait since the only device in Polish shops is (are, as there are two) Ativ Tabs.
I will wait until I can compare them (touch them) in the shops and than decide.
I definitely have get device before summer as I will not be able to work away from home
Since I do not think 2nd gen will be out till summer I may get one now.
If W8 will be slow and if 1st gen hybrids with W8 will be slow I don't think manufacturers will rush with 2nd gen.
Atom hybrids are supposed to replace netbooks but not with this price level, especially that we have the likes of Asus X202 (small laptop with touch screen) that are much cheaper.
I guess we will see some premiers in autumn, lots of marketing talk, shows, etc... but it will take some time before they will actually get to the shops. Few manufacturers will make it in time for X-mass but again it will be worth to wait until all of them are in the shops.
This way I would never buy anything as 3rd gen would be "right behind the corner" .
If it will have nice screen, keyboard to write and will play movies + no fan and log battery life I can have it now.
It will be way better than Android Transformers
I have made up my mind that I want to upgrade from my old iPad 2 to an x86 Win8 tablet, but I have been trying to decide which one to get. The Surface Pro 2 looks nice, but the battery life seems a bit lacking from reviews that I have seen, and Bay Trail seems to be reasonably powerful for a cheaper cost and longer life, but I'm still unsure. The main reason I want a Win8 tablet is PC gaming. I know I won't be able to run games anywhere near the highest settings; I just want to run them, period. Would Bay Trail suffice, or do I need an i-series processor to get reasonable gaming capability? Second, I want the tablet to have a digitizer & stylus. I have been totally spoiled by my Galaxy Note 2, and now I use it to take notes in all my classes, but would appreciate the extra screen real estate. As for price, I don't want to spend over a grand for a tablet, as I already have a primary Windows machine. I would like the tablet to get at least 6 hours of battery (The Acer Iconia W700 originally caught my eye thanks to its 8 hours), since I'm used to iPad-length use and would like to have something that can at least manage 3/4ths of that. The Dell Latitude 11 looks promising, but with no confirmation on a US release date nor the cost of options, I'm not sure if it is worth the wait. Opinions?
I have an intel core i3 laptop running at 1.8ghz with the default intel HD4000 graphics. Runs BF3 on minimum *just* and skyrim with a config hack. I doubt baytrail will run either one at all sadly. Surface pro will definitely run both (and thanks to the updated graphics may not require the config hack, if not all you need is notepad to fix skyrim), its more powerful than my laptop is, just lacking in battery department as you say and rather expensive.
I would perhaps look on youtube for when people start posting their own unboxing videos and ask them *nicely* if they could test X program. Youtube user robaxx did a few demos of user requests with his clovertrail device.
If gaming wasnt a requirement baytrail would probably be overqualified immediately. The old atom chips from netbooks were quite happy with office and visual studio etc, VLC even seems capable of decoding 1080p video on my brothers 1.3ghz netbook (however he only has a 1024*600 screen or something so it certainly doesnt play at 1080p, the video file is natively 1080p). However minecraft with the optifine mod still only squeezes 15fps on both tiny and short render (seriously, same on both distances, weird).
I have this one and absolutely love it. It's a little bulkier than the Surface but runs really well. The only minor complaint I have is that the screen prevents you from viewing from multiple angles (basically the screen gets dark when looking at it from the side).
Otherwise, it's fantastic! I use it as a tablet most of the time, but having the option to connect to a keyboard with an extra battery and USB/HDMI ports really comes in handy.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/split-x...pp04-102?id=1219018164751&skuId=9432051&st=hp split x2&cp=1&lp=1
My main, 4-5 year old macbook pro, seems to slowly be dying. HDD making weird noises, dead pixels on edges, power randomly turning off all the way, the works. I know some of this stuff is fixable, and I'll probably come around to it later, but right now I'm looking into getting a new computer, preferably a windows 8/ windows 8.1. While looking around for what my replacement would be, I know that some tablets, such as the surface pro, run windows 8. I think it would be cool to have a computer i could develop on and then go to class and turn it into a tablet and take notes on it. I don't know much about development, since I am a noob at it, and I'm going to collage in computer science next year, I don't know much about computer specifications for development. So, what would be a good choice for a tablet pc for developing? I do understand that a laptop or a full on PC would probably be better, but I'm just looking at options right now.
The main criteria for serious development (note: nothing you do in the first year or two of a CS curriculum is likely to qualify, unless you're going to MIT or something) are:
A) High-resolution display (1920 x 1080 is what I'd consider to be the bare minimum for a dev box) with a large enough screen that you can read it easily at default DPI. This is needed so you can have multiple code views, or code + documentation, open at once.
B) A pretty good supply of RAM. Depending on the languages and IDEs you're using, and the size of the code bases you're working on, just what is *enough* RAM will vary, but I wouldn't want to use anything less than around 8GB in a dev box. That lets me have multiple IDEs open, and a ton of browser tabs and history (for documentation), all at the same time without swapping.
C) SSD if you can afford it; the performance boost on stuff like compiling is substantial. You'll want to make sure you have plenty of space, though; source code even for large projects is only occasionally into and rarely much past single-digits of gigabytes, but the full repository history for a long-running project can be huge, and you will probably want to have room for virtual machines too (which are literally full additional OS installations) so you can test on different systems, or learn to develop for both Windows and Linux on the same machine, etc.
D) A really good keyboard is a must. You'll spend a long time using it, and you'll use a lot of weird keys that you aren't used to hitting right now. You want a full keyboard (no missing keys; did you know that there are actually times when Scroll Lock is useful? No joke...) with full-sized key-spacings (a cramped keyboard will slow you down and be uncomfortable really quickly). What type of "feel" you want to the keyboard is up to you, but most people really like the Lenovo keyboards for laptops, for example; your basic cheap membrane keyboard is probably *not* going to be pleasant to use.
Surface Pro 2 might work, if you got the Type Cover, but I wouldn't really recommend it. You want a bigger display on a dev box, usually, and the keyboard is optimized for everyday use but not for development.
Different people have different preferences for development machines. However I think GoodDayToDies suggestions are all good ones.
I am currently a first year computer science student at the university of northampton. I went with just getting a laptop rather than a tablet hybrid of some sort. Ultimately settled on the HP Sleekbook 14. Its only an intel core i3 @1.8ghz with HD4000 graphics and 6gb of RAM, but for everything you do in first and 2nd year (and potentially 3rd if there is a 3rd year not really sure how things work in the US) thats actually plenty powerful. It isn't a solid state drive, which would have been nice. There is only one criticism with it for programming and that is the screen resolution, at 14" the physical size is fine, but it is only 1366*768 which I can fit my stuff onto but it would be much nicer to have a higher res screen as with a higher res you can fit more code on without having to decrease font sizes or hide task bars in your IDE or whatever (I decrease font size and unpin the solution explorer and toolbox etc in visual studio, eclipse I dont unpin anything because I am still trying to get used to it, its only when you use something else that you realise how good visual studio is).
I did computer science as one of my A-Level subjects. I didn't bother with getting a laptop for that, I used the school machines in lesson, took bus home, used my desktop PC at home (and seeming as I commute to northampton daily from home instead of staying on halls, I can still do the same, but for convenience sake I use the laptop still, with my setup its more comfortable). I did have a friend though that didn't have a desktop PC at home or anything, his only computer was a 10" netbook, 1.3ghz dual core atom on 1gb of RAM and one of those really sucky 600p displays. He did his entire A-Level computing coursework on it, didn't use the school machines for anything other than testing and viewing documentation (as in that school we weren't allowed details for the WiFi which also had a hidden SSID, even if we did connect to the network via wifi or plain old ethernet, there was a proxy server nobody had details for either, so no internet for unauthorised machines). He was perfectly happy to bash out code on a tiny keyboard and only see a few lines of it at one time, I really wouldnt recommend it though. Visual studio was also perfectly happy to run on that machine (albeit with about a 10 minute load time when first opening it), compiled and debugged ASP.net applications perfectly fine too.
Under default settings in eclipse and with the console window thing pinned open at the bottom of the display. I can fit 28 lines of code on a 768 pixel tall screen.
Tablets for taking notes dont last long. Only people still doing that since the beginning of term are either using a surface with touch cover and typing yet still having a pad of paper for drawing diagrams or there are 2 people with surface pro's who use the digitiser stylus. Under lecture note taking conditions capacitive pens and virtual keyboards dont cut it. Also seen a small handful of people using bluetooth keyboards with iPads. One of the 2 surface pro guys does also use the surface in lab sessions for doing his work, the other switches to a uni machine. If your fine with a small keyboard then yeah, you might be able to do devwork on a surface pro, but there are @"keys"^Which>'R'|arely {if ever} get touched during daily usage; They are often placed on smaller buttons on smaller keyboards, much harder to hit. If your going to spend a few seconds trying to hit shift+2 to type a " (I'm british, our keyboards arent the same) then its going to slow you down considerably, my mate with the netbook didn't have a problem with this, I couldnt do it though. I have used the apple wireless keyboard and can type reasonably well on that (even though its about netbook size), but I cannot use it for programming, although in my case thats because apple are morons who don't know what a british keyboard looks like so the symbols are in the wrong place for me (their idea of a british layout keyboard, because they do sell one, is slap a £ sign on the 3 key and give us a double height enter/return key, that is it, all of their changes), that wouldnt effect you in the US.
I would say anything with a core i3/i5 or even i7 will have the CPU horsepower to get your work done.
For first year stuff I highly doubt more than 4gb of RAM will be needed. but I will recommend 6-8 anyway for future proofing.
Unless you are doing a specialised pathway with graphics or gaming, don't bother with an integrated GPU, you won't really need it.
1366*768 screen res should be the absolute bare minimum, 1080p highly recommended though. When this machine is replaced one day, I will definitely be going 1080p.
You need a keyboard which is comfortable to use. Go to best buy or whoever else sells computers out there, use a few machines, see what features you do or do not want.
I cannot recommend something 10" in size for most people. I use 14", I wouldnt go smaller than 13". For that reason I wouldn't recommend a convertible. If you were to go convertible, at least go active digitiser to make up for it. Some of my lectures I just type up, most I just go old fashioned with active digitiser mk1 (also known as pen and paper).
I am however looking at either the dell venue 8 pro or the EVGA tegra note tablets as a note taking tool. Can't really justify the expense though on something that would purely be that, a note taking tool.
4 GB of RAM should be enough unless you plan to use emulators. If you use emulators, you might wanna boost that up to 8.
A video card is also useful, regardless of how "weak" performance it has in gaming. If you use a CPU built-in one, you will lose up to 1 GB of RAM depending on what you do.
The display is probably the most important of them all. You will spend lots of time looking at it trying to figure out what is going wrong, and if your eyes do not agree with the display, you will find your efficiency greatly reduced.
hello all,
my university gives a 400 pounds credit to buy from studentstore.uk i was planning to get a windows 8 tab but they dont stock sony,asus or dell products .i was planning to get a baytrail tablet like dell venue pro 11.with a maximum budget of 600 pounds(400+200).
so my only option is to get an acer w700 with i3,4gb ram 64 gb memory available for 570 pounds.or wait till samsung,lenovo and acer brings in 10-11 inch baytrail tablet.
so do you think its a good idea to get w700 or just wait till others comes with baytrail tablets(any idea when on earth they will launch it ).?
At this late date, what you see (in the MS store) are what'll be available for this Q4.
My suggestion is to ignore the one-device-fits-all PR hype and get two devices: a 12"-13" laptop for productivity, and a separate tablet for portable use. The meat-and-potato work box comes first, obviously. For my college days, I used a 12" IBM Thinkpad X series, which I lugged everywhere. It wasn't light, but it was built like a tank. The bottom line for me wasn't about best speed or battery life, but good old reliability.
rkoforever90 said:
hello all,
my university gives a 400 pounds credit to buy from studentstore.uk i was planning to get a windows 8 tab but they dont stock sony,asus or dell products .i was planning to get a baytrail tablet like dell venue pro 11.with a maximum budget of 600 pounds(400+200).
so my only option is to get an acer w700 with i3,4gb ram 64 gb memory available for 570 pounds.or wait till samsung,lenovo and acer brings in 10-11 inch baytrail tablet.
so do you think its a good idea to get w700 or just wait till others comes with baytrail tablets(any idea when on earth they will launch it ).?
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Your choice definitely depends on what you plan to do with it. Do you want something that will serve as a PC as well as a tablet, or just a portable typing device, or just for entertainment? I've also heard that those who do computer science/programming degrees, you'll want something a lot more powerful. However, for humanities subjects, i'm sure an i3 will be just fine.
If you ask me, you should never get anything Acer made.
SammiSaysHello said:
Your choice definitely depends on what you plan to do with it. Do you want something that will serve as a PC as well as a tablet, or just a portable typing device, or just for entertainment? I've also heard that those who do computer science/programming degrees, you'll want something a lot more powerful. However, for humanities subjects, i'm sure an i3 will be just fine.
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i dont want an ultra book or laptop since i already have a laptop.i want a windows 8 tablet which is thin light and with good battery backup.
Deusdies said:
If you ask me, you should never get anything Acer made.
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i had acer desktop (in 2005) then an acer laptop (bought in 2009) and then another one in 2011(which iam still using) my brother has an acer s3 ultrabook.
i never had any problem with acer till now, also one of my relative works at acer service centre.
rkoforever90 said:
i had acer desktop (in 2005) then an acer laptop (bought in 2009) and then another one in 2011(which iam still using) my brother has an acer s3 ultrabook.
i never had any problem with acer till now, also one of my relative works at acer service centre.
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My experience with the acer repair service isn't great, just got my w700 back and it has gained a load of scratches (came back quite dirty as well) and the rubber section on the back which they clearly removed to open it up hasn't been stuck down properly and now comes away from the case.
Also OP you should be aware that Acer support in general is awful, they delete posts on the forums they don't like (mainly people complaining about the terrible support) and there is a throttling issue with the i5 version which they refuse to fix, you should check out the 52 page thread on their forums which has been going on for over a year.
twisted89 said:
My experience with the acer repair service isn't great, just got my w700 back and it has gained a load of scratches (came back quite dirty as well) and the rubber section on the back which they clearly removed to open it up hasn't been stuck down properly and now comes away from the case.
Also OP you should be aware that Acer support in general is awful, they delete posts on the forums they don't like (mainly people complaining about the terrible support) and there is a throttling issue with the i5 version which they refuse to fix, you should check out the 52 page thread on their forums which has been going on for over a year.
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the problem is i dont have an option to purchase other than student store u.k and they dont have much options either.
you can have a look and suggest if anything better is there for the price.
http://www.studentstore.co.uk/getech/all-manufacturers/Tablets/for-students.aspx
What subject are you studying at university/what is the tablet required for?
SixSixSevenSeven said:
What subject are you studying at university/what is the tablet required for?
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iam doing mechanical engineering.mostly i need it for entertainment purpose, taking notes , power point presentations etc. but i have a laptop also .
rkoforever90 said:
iam doing mechanical engineering.mostly i need it for entertainment purpose, taking notes , power point presentations etc. but i have a laptop also .
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That should be fine. You don't need something very powerful for that. Actually, I only had an Android tablet (Xperia Tablet S) to do that and it handled those kind of tasks fine for me.
PowerPoint you can install on the device anyway so your fine on that front (uni may offer it for free too). Entertainment is up to you. Note taking should be fine, depends on if you are OK with touch keyboards/small keyboards or not, or using a touchscreen to write with (to my knowledge there is no wacom or synaptics stylus, only the bog standard touch screen).
SixSixSevenSeven said:
PowerPoint you can install on the device anyway so your fine on that front (uni may offer it for free too). Entertainment is up to you. Note taking should be fine, depends on if you are OK with touch keyboards/small keyboards or not, or using a touchscreen to write with (to my knowledge there is no wacom or synaptics stylus, only the bog standard touch screen).
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so which model of acer w700 you own?.how is the overall experience and battery backup?
rkoforever90 said:
so which model of acer w700 you own?.how is the overall experience and battery backup?
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I dont
Since I have an Acer W700 tablet, I would let you know something about the W700. I will compare it mostly with the Surface Pro because its a gold standard for Intel Core tablets
First thing first, W700 lacks the active digitizer. Don't expect writing and drawing to feel like the Surface Pro or Galaxy Note. Its far from it. I use Adonit Jot stylus, it helps a lot compared to other styli or finger input, but still nowhere as good as the Surface Pro.
Second, the battery last like Haswell tablets. This tablet is insane in term of battery life. I mostly get 6-7 hours for my usage. I use this tablets mostly for browsing, downloading, playing casual games, taking notes (OneNote FTW!), watching videos/movies and listening to music. If you look for an Ivy Bridge tablet that last like Haswell tablets, this is the only one.
Third, since I mentioned videos, movies, and music, I would say this tablet has great screen and speaker. The speaker is great for a tablet. If you enable the Dolby enhancement, the speaker will get louder (with some distortion), on par with cheaper multimedia laptops. Definitely better than the Surface Pro. The screen is also better than any tablet screen Ive ever used.
Fourth, it has no great keyboard solution. Unlike the Surface Pro which has options like the Type and Touch cover, the W700 relies on a Bluetooth keyboard or a case with integrated Bluetooth keyboard. Consult the seller first on which version you get. I would recommend the former since the latter is not comfortable (very, very thin), it is nice though. If you are a bit unlucky like me, youll get neither of them. I got a Perixx 804 Bluetooth keyboard for €25, and it works reliably over Bluetooth. This keyboard feels like a keyboard from Acer V5 or most Sony VAIOs (a bit harder than MacBooks)
Fifth, it has WiFi issue. This issue plagues mostly early generation of this tablet, but you might get this as well. On my W700, I have no problem with the disconnection. However, the signal is not as good as other devices. Usually, when the other devices still get 1 bar of signal, the W700 has lost connection.
Sixth, its graphic performance is not as great as how a HD4000 should be. The GPU suffers from bad throttling, making the performance only comparable to HD3000 GPU on most laptops (I tried with i5-2410M)
Overall, this tablet is geared towards entertainment (great screen and speaker) than business/work (no active digitizer and no keyboard solution). This device is great if you want to use one device rather than two (tablet+laptop), but don't expect too much. Since Haswell tablets are just behind the corner, I would suggest you to wait for some affordable Haswell tablets. However, if you cant wait, I would recommend this device over any Atom tablets unless you need an active digitizer.
My W700 is the i5-3317U model with 64 GB of storage. I wish I had the 128 GB model.
patrick_spd4u said:
My W700 is the i5-3317U model with 64 GB of storage. I wish I had the 128 GB model.
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Thermal throttling on the i5 model seems very common, yet rare on the i3 model
patrick_spd4u said:
Since I have an Acer W700 tablet, I would let you know something about the W700. I will compare it mostly with the Surface Pro because its a gold standard for Intel Core tablets
First thing first, W700 lacks the active digitizer. Don't expect writing and drawing to feel like the Surface Pro or Galaxy Note. Its far from it. I use Adonit Jot stylus, it helps a lot compared to other styli or finger input, but still nowhere as good as the Surface Pro.
Second, the battery last like Haswell tablets. This tablet is insane in term of battery life. I mostly get 6-7 hours for my usage. I use this tablets mostly for browsing, downloading, playing casual games, taking notes (OneNote FTW!), watching videos/movies and listening to music. If you look for an Ivy Bridge tablet that last like Haswell tablets, this is the only one.
Third, since I mentioned videos, movies, and music, I would say this tablet has great screen and speaker. The speaker is great for a tablet. If you enable the Dolby enhancement, the speaker will get louder (with some distortion), on par with cheaper multimedia laptops. Definitely better than the Surface Pro. The screen is also better than any tablet screen Ive ever used.
Fourth, it has no great keyboard solution. Unlike the Surface Pro which has options like the Type and Touch cover, the W700 relies on a Bluetooth keyboard or a case with integrated Bluetooth keyboard. Consult the seller first on which version you get. I would recommend the former since the latter is not comfortable (very, very thin), it is nice though. If you are a bit unlucky like me, youll get neither of them. I got a Perixx 804 Bluetooth keyboard for €25, and it works reliably over Bluetooth. This keyboard feels like a keyboard from Acer V5 or most Sony VAIOs (a bit harder than MacBooks)
Fifth, it has WiFi issue. This issue plagues mostly early generation of this tablet, but you might get this as well. On my W700, I have no problem with the disconnection. However, the signal is not as good as other devices. Usually, when the other devices still get 1 bar of signal, the W700 has lost connection.
Sixth, its graphic performance is not as great as how a HD4000 should be. The GPU suffers from bad throttling, making the performance only comparable to HD3000 GPU on most laptops (I tried with i5-2410M)
Overall, this tablet is geared towards entertainment (great screen and speaker) than business/work (no active digitizer and no keyboard solution). This device is great if you want to use one device rather than two (tablet+laptop), but don't expect too much. Since Haswell tablets are just behind the corner, I would suggest you to wait for some affordable Haswell tablets. However, if you cant wait, I would recommend this device over any Atom tablets unless you need an active digitizer.
My W700 is the i5-3317U model with 64 GB of storage. I wish I had the 128 GB model.
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Thanks a lot , and sorry for the late reply. iam getting a 450 pounds voucher of student store u.k from my uni and i asked them about the keyboard they told that it comes with the dock & keyboard + the case cover with keyboard out of box so i dont need to buy it seperately . also student store u.k dont have much options to choose from so either i need to wait till lenovo and acer comes out with baytrail or haswell 10+ inch tablets as the studentstore dont stock Asus, HP or Dell .
Also another thing i need to know is that whether the weight and thickness of w700 is an issue to use it as a tablet .
I'd wait to purchase a dell. Acer was terrible when I had it. Dell seems more reliable.
I have the i5 version that came with the dock and the keyboard case. Despite being labelled as having an i5-3317 processor on the box, mine says it has a i5-3337 inside. A patch has fixed the throttling issue for me. The tablet is relatively heavy, it gets uncomfortable to hold and use rather quickly. The thickness isn't a problem; it's actually pretty thin. It's fine to use with the keyboard case on the lap though.
I don't mind the keyboard case. It has full width keys, seems sturdy and keeps the whole setup light. The keys don't press down far due to the thinness of it though. I have to say I like keyboard docks more after using the Asus Transformer TF101, but that would mean adding weight to balance the tablet.
Changing the SSD inside is a bit challenging, but it's possible. It uses a standard mSATA interface according to those who've replaced it. The omission of a SD/microSD slot is a bit strange, but I'd say it has enough storage for most people.
I haven't had any issues with the Wi-Fi, although it seems many others are having trouble with it.
The recovery is on a couple of DVDs. If anything goes awry, you may need to get an external DVD drive. Windows 8 does have the refresh option, which makes things easier if Windows is the problem.
The cameras on the device work alright. Pictures taken look rather poor quality, but I find these things tend to be that way. I really don't know why they put a back facing camera on this thing; I think people using their iPads to take pictures is bad enough. I haven't used it for video chatting yet. Some have reported that the microphone isn't great. The mic is on the bottom edge, which might have something to do with it, but I haven't used it yet.
I enjoy having this tablet. It's as powerful as a laptop and it's fast.