This post is for all the students and blog readers who write me about wanting a Tablet PC. As mentioned in my post (seen below) my current Tablet PC, a very pricey Fujitsu T902 purchased about 3 years ago for about $2000 US, had the power cord disconnect. It was not very robust a machine, as the cracks on the case reveal. I decided it was time to get a new Tablet PC, so I started my research.
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o date, over the last 10 years, I have owned 3 Tablet PC Convertibles, which means they act as either a PC laptop or notebook, and also have tablet functionality to allow me to draw on the Wacom digitizer monitor screen for art purposes. My first one was the best, a Toshiba Portege, however, Toshiba stopped making Tablet PC Convertibles awhile back. My second tablet PC was an HP Touchsmart tm2, but it never lived up to my Toshiba Portege. It finally bit the dust during my AU trip and has been long discontinued. I then purchased the Fujitsu T902, however, it is now out of action due to Ethan tripping over my power cord and disconnecting it. I plan to get this repaired so the Fujitsu becomes my backup Tablet PC.
The last few years have seen rapid changes in the Tablet industry, and is very confusing to most people, even tech savvy readers. I knew I wanted a Tablet PC, with enough system memory so it would run my favorite design/drawing programs like Photoshop Elements, Adobe Illustrator, and Art&Stitch digitizing software. The digitizer needs to be by Wacom, mainly due to the better performance and precision. This ruled out buying Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3, which instead has a digitizer called N-Trig. I also wanted an Intel Processor, and my Operating System (OS) could be anything between 7-8.1, since Windows 10 isn’t out yet.
I looked at all the current offerings, and trust me, there wasn’t all that many offerings which met my art and design needs. I could have spent anywhere between $1-3K, but then decided to try something that I recommend to students in my Tablet Design classes. That is to buy a slightly older, discontinued, highly rated,Tablet Convertible PC for a fraction of the original price.
So I went for it!! The Tablet PC Convertible I bought has all the specs that my Fujitsu T902 had, but instead is a fraction of the price at $659 US. I purchased a new, discontinued Lenovo Thinkpad x230. Since I bought it from a reputable retailer, if I do not like it, I can easily return it.
Watch for my upcoming review. It is supposed to ship to me in a few days. Free shipping, even. If this works out, I will have an affordable option to recommend for students. 🙂 Hugs from Carla
Carla Barrett 