Tablet PC Help

[Glasher]

My wife suffered from a head injury (TBI) from a wreck back in 1988. As you might know, she will never get better but she uses the tools to get by with determination, She has gotten used to and quite good at using a daily planned for the last fifteen years from Franklin Covey . It's time to be replaced and downsized, but when I told her about Tablets she got excited about it. Her interest in laptops has been growing for sometime.

I get a bit confused to what's out there and thought you might allow me to lean on your experience of what's out there regarding decent tablet PC's that are available. I realize the entry level tablets cost more than standard entry level laptops so I was looking at an opening budget of $800 to $1200 USD.

In the 13" or even larger screens? She hasn't shown any interest in gaming but if that changes I can install a Vcard later? I prefer AMD CPU, but I'm certain that doesn't matter in this situation. Having a DVD/Blue Ray player to quietly kick back with at night with headphones would surprise her. I'm not a fan of HP equipment in any regard if that helps.

For the uses I mentioned, do you have any recommendations? If my budget seems too low, for Renée, it will no doubt get bumped.

Thank you so much for your time and effort.

Glasher
(Mike)

 

[WR2]

Hello Glasher;
Your budget is looking pretty good. You can get a lot of laptop these days for a fairly modest amount.
I'm sure you know it's more about the software than the hardware for adaptive technologies.

One tablet you'll want to look at is the convertible HP TouchSmart tm2t @ ~$800
A low power, long battery life Core i3-380UM CPU, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD (optional external DVD or Blu-Ray drive) 12" 1280x800 touchscreen LCD and Intel HD graphics.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&series_name=tm2t_series
Will do an awesome job with HD video and iTunes type music player.
The convertible keyboard lets the tablet get setup and configured easily and can do double-duty in the family when not being used in tablet mode.
I think you can probably bypass the Blu-Ray option for the DVD reader (unless maybe the family is already using Blu-Ray movies). The next 'big thing' is probably movie delivery over the 'Net with Netflix, etc.

 

[WR2]

A second option just recently available is the Dell Inspiron Duo. A smaller 10" convertible Netbook with a 1366x768 touchscreen LCD.
It's less of a 'general purpose' laptop and more of a Netbook type system but could be in the running for a mostly music & video and light duty tasks.
Dell Inspiron Duo review:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2010/11/23/Dell-Inspiron-Duo/p1

 

[WR2]

In the 13" or even larger screens? She hasn't shown any interest in gaming but if that changes I can install a Vcard later?

In almost every system you're likely to look at it won't be possible to add in a different graphics chip later.
For all types of internet gaming - 2D gaming - like board, card and entertainment games you'd find online an upgraded Vchip won't be a requirement. It's only 3D gaming where you'd need to think about a graphics card to match the game's requirements.
Both of the choices above will easily handle the 2D type gaming. TouchSmart tm2t and it's Intel HD Grapics chip will do light 3D duty on some lower settings and with the optional Mobility Radeon HD 5450 graphics chip you'll get a good boost in 3D gaming performance.
A review on the HP TouchSmart tm2t here: http://computershopper.com/laptops/reviews/hp-touchsmart-tm2t

Another possible contender? The Apple iPad. Even less of a general purpose tablet than the Inspiron duo but if you can find the right Apps for what you want it could be a player too.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2010/05/07/Apple-iPad/p1
http://www.trustedreviews.com/editorial/2010/05/30/How-I-Learned-To-Stop-Worrying-And-Love-The-iPad/p1

 

[Glasher]

In almost every system you're likely to look at it won't be possible to add in a different graphics chip later.
For all types of internet gaming - 2D gaming - like board, card and entertainment games you'd find online an upgraded Vchip won't be a requirement. It's only 3D gaming where you'd need to think about a graphics card to match the game's requirements.
Both of the choices above will easily handle the 2D type gaming. TouchSmart tm2t and it's Intel HD Grapics chip will do light 3D duty on some lower settings and with the optional Mobility Radeon HD 5450 graphics chip you'll get a good boost in 3D gaming performance.
A review on the HP TouchSmart tm2t here: http://computershopper.com/laptops/reviews/hp-touchsmart-tm2t

Another possible contender? The Apple iPad. Even less of a general purpose tablet than the Inspiron duo but if you can find the right Apps for what you want it could be a player too.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2010/05/07/Apple-iPad/p1
http://www.trustedreviews.com/editorial/2010/05/30/How-I-Learned-To-Stop-Worrying-And-Love-The-iPad/p1

I was hoping I could be more helpful myself here.

I so appreciate the thoughtful effort you had put into your answers, impressive. They gave me a good deal of information to consider and ideas to use in my hunt. I mentioned in my question that HP wasn't an option for any system to consider because with every item my family has purchase from HP soured. Systems, printers and more. That's why HP products I wanted to avoid.

My very first system came from Mwave in 2004, even that went back in the first 30 days for warranty work. It had also went to the local PC repair shop in 2005. Since it came back, I learned how to figure out it's problems and replace wore out or broken hardware and do some upgrading. There's not an original component in this sys and some changed out 2 and 3 times over from upgrading.

I have been attracted to Acer and Asus (in that order) when I've thought about notebooks, but am somewhat confused when it comes to the terms. I believe Tablets and Convertibles are pretty much referring to the Tablet PC while Laptops do not. I get mixed messages regarding Notebooks. Leaving Netbooks out of the discussion. Your information has been useful but still a bit difficult matching the desires with your links.

If you could indulge me one more time knowing I may be reaching for the moon in what I'm looking for after thinking on your notes and what I think I know. The screen being 15"+ (15.6"?) or more, 3D capable for DVD's, streaming and HD TV, An SSD boot drive, A GB HHD, G DDR3,SUB 3.0 (maybe?) and Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. I always had a preference for AMD, but in this case either would do.

Maybe the components are available to build this tablet myself? You've been quite helpful and I don't wish to overstep your hospitality, I'm just trying to be as understood as possible.

Thanks WR2, you have already been more help than you might think and I hope I'm not pushing it.

 

[WR2]

Maybe the components are available to build this tablet myself?

That's not going to be an option.

Did you want to add touch screen capability to your latest list of what you'd like to have?

 

[WR2]

Win7 Pro (aimed at business users who need WinXP compatbility) probably won't be a requirement for what you're looking at.
You won't find any 15.6" laptop with room for both a SSD and HDD unless you sacrifice the Blu-Ray/DVD player also.

Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV5 with 3D Vision Techology (shutter glasses).
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?poid=488803
No touchscreen, SSD or USB 3.0.

'Not being a fan of HP' is not quite the same thing as 'won't consider HP in any circumstance'.