Convertible or Tablet Computer Experience

[HungLikeJesus]

I thought that I would post an update for those people who might still be considering a tablet PC.

With the exception of art/drawing programs, I don't use the tablet functionality very often. But for what I do use it, I'm glad to have it. Below are two pictures I made using the free version of ArtRage 2.

The battery life (3 to 4 hours) is much better than my previous laptop, but less, I think, than the manufacturer's estimate.

I like the fingerprint reader, which substitutes a fingerprint scan for typed passwords. The password can still be typed in as an option.

Bootup and shutdown times are long; therefore, I rarely turn the computer off, but rather put it in sleep mode by closing the cover. Restart is almost instantaneous and battery use is minimal.

I've downloaded about 10 movies to the hard drive and found that this method of watching movies (with Etymotic ER6 earphones) is quite good. I watched two movies this way while travelling back from Germany last week, and one more at home.

The only video output available from the X61 is a standard monitor connection; there is no S-video or component video, so I don't know if I can connect it to my home projector.

I want to buy a large external drive and rip about half of my movies to it, so that I can transfer them to this computer for travel. A friend of mine estimated that it would take about 1.5 years to rip and convert 500 movies (i.e. 1 per day).

This computer came loaded with Windows Vista, which has worked fine so far, though it does have a few annoying "security" quirks and won't run my favorite synchronization program, FolderMatch.

Here are two flower pictures I'm working on. The first one is free-hand and the second was done using ArtRage's trace option.