CT1000 may change your views on Tablet PCs

Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id

After having written about so many technological products throughout the years, I must admit that I am still yet to learn not to judge an orange by its skin.

Case in point is the Tablet PC.

When I first caught a glimpse of this type of mobile computing device, I guarded myself against being carried away by the hype surrounding it. I pondered the possibility of going back to handwriting after spending tens of thousands of hours pounding on computer keyboards. I simply assumed that many computer users would share my opinion that it was an extremely remote possibility.

But, when I recently had a meeting with my research team in a room where we did not have a whiteboard to share our ideas, I experienced first-hand the real usefulness of a Tablet PC. Courtesy of Hewlett-Packard, who had given me two weeks to play around with their Compaq CT1000, I happened to have this life- saver with me during the meeting. I was able to quickly sketch the diagram for our theoretical framework, show the drawing to everybody, refine it based on their suggestions, export it to a TIFF file and then e-mail it to my desktop computer at home, where I would later be able to redraw it in my favorite CorelDRAW.

It took me only a few minutes to complete the rough sketch on the Tablet PC, and because I was using the erasable digital ink I was able to quickly make the necessary revisions as comments poured in.

In the past, I used to say that mainly the people who worked a lot with sketches, quick diagrams and rough designs, as well as those who used pictorial characters in their writing, would be the ones to really appreciate the pen-based applications -- which were the Tablet PC's main advantages. I did not realize I might even belong to these groups of people.

* Rich Features

Clearly, my view on Tablet PCs has changed after using the CT1000 for some time. I have found that, regardless of my poor handwriting, the built-in handwriting recognition feature works well in interpreting what I write and converting it to editable text. I am now beginning to mull the idea of actually buying a CT1000 to replace my old work horse.

The CT1000 runs on the 1 GHz Crusoe processor made by Transmeta, which is supposed to give the device a longer battery life. HP claims that this Tablet PC can run for more than four hours on a fully-charged battery. It is clearly not as powerful as the Intel Pentium III M processors used in most other Tablet PCs currently available from the other vendors. Although it still has enough horsepower to execute the handwriting recognition task at a decent speed.

It has also been designed as a slate rather than a notebook with flippable screen. What this means is that the keyboard is actually an option. We can detach it and leave it at home since all of the live electronics components-processors, hard disk, memory, etc are in the same casing as the screen.

I especially like the metallic housing of the Tablet PC. It feels strong, yet at around 1.5 kg it is not too heavy for my left hand. The stylus is like a big ballpoint, and I was told by HP that, unlike the stylus in most other Tablet PCs, this one has a battery in it.

The screen is a bit too small for me, personally. I prefer a larger one. The 10.4 inch screen has very high resolution capability, though, 1024x768. This makes the characters too tiny for my eyes. Changing the font size to the larger 120 DPI helps make them more readable to people with limited vision like me.

Around the outer rims of the Tablet PC we can find the nicely concealed VGA port, the RJ-45 jack for the Ethernet connection, the RJ-11 jack for the modem, a flash memory reader and a PC-Card slot. When held in a landscape position, the audio jacks are found on the right side rim. On top there are the Tab and Esc keys, the Q key that will bring up Compaq's menu that allows us to configure the Tablet PC. There is also a joggle key, which, among other things, will add new pages to an open Windows Journal note.

Loading the Journal -- the writing pad on which we can scribble -- can be done with a slight tap with the stylus on an icon on the bezel of the screen. The icon next to it will change the orientation from landscape to portrait.

As I wrote in the past, one of the strengths of Compaq's Tablet PC, which I had noticed in the pre-production unit shown to the press in Singapore last October, was the fact that the screen remained cool even after hours of use. This is very crucial in ensuring comfort, as we would certainly not be able to continue writing on a screen that would slowly BBQ our palms. In addition, the screen is flush with the bezel, making it more comfortable for us to keep our hand on the screen when writing.

* Wish list

There is not much else that I could add to the feature set already available in CT1000, except, perhaps, a larger screen. However, a larger screen means more transistors and more transistors mean more thirst for battery power.

The detachable keyboard, which also has a TrackPoint-like pointing device, is a decent feature though not an exceptional one. Luckily we can always buy one of those much better USB keyboards that are more comfortable to use.

If I were in HP's design team, I would have added more rubber pads around the outer rim, particularly where our hands are most likely to be when we hold this tablet. In addition, more soft pads on all corners would give more protection during a short fall.

What do I think of this Tablet PC in general? I think it has a great design. It is available in different configurations, with prices ranging from US$1,700 to $2,200. For sure you should choose a model with the 802.11b wireless LAN capability already built in. There are also different hard disk capacities, from 20 GB to 40 GB. If you still have some cash left, you can also buy its docking station too.