Toshiba Portégé Tablet 3500
Easily the best-equipped tablet, the Toshiba Portégé 3500 does it all with style and technological flair. With a weight of 1.8 kg and a thickness of 3 cm, the Toshiba is slightly bigger and heavier than some of the competition. Still, the Portégé 3500 sets the pace for convertible tablets with its flexible design, category-leading performance, and extras such as USB 2.0 ports, as well as CompactFlash and Secure Digital slots not found on other tablets. In spite of a few first-generation snags, the Portégé 3500 is ready for the rigors of business or the home.
Rotating Screen
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Tablet PCs |
Think of the Portégé 3500 as the schizophrenic of the computer world. You can scribble notes with the screen folded flat, open it up to type some details and description, then finally swivel the screen around to show a group what you've been working on. The more we used the Portégé 3500, the more we grew to appreciate this flexible design.
All those abilities translate, unfortunately, to a system that is the largest of the bunch. At 29.6 cm by 23.4 cm by 3 cm, the Portégé is one-third bigger than the Fujitsu Stylistic ST4110 and more in line with a standard ultraportable notebook than a tablet. It also weighs more than the Stylistic ST4110, but because it uses a tiny AC adapter, the total travel weight is only 1.85 kg, 200 gm less than the smaller, slower, and less capable ViewSonic V1100.
Good Stylus Slot
Compared to this group of six tablets, the Portégé 3500 has the best place to stash the writing stylus. Its handy storage place is next to the screen--not around the system's periphery. When you press the bottom of the pen, it pops out. Unfortunately, to keep the pen flush with the screen frame, it's flat on one side and doesn't feel as nice in your hand as a regular pen.
Thoughtful touches abound in this design, with a volume thumbwheel and five activity LEDs that show the system's status with a series of icons. There's even a switch to quickly turn off the tablet's Wi-Fi radio for use in sensitive areas and during flights.
If you expected that the keyboard would be hard to use, you'd be wrong. With 19mm keys, the system is easy to type on, although the 1.5mm of key travel is a bit skimpy, and the spacebar is anemic. The silver touchpad has smooth action but lacks a scroll key.
As good as the design is, there are some first-round glitches that mar an otherwise superior effort. First, the screen is 1.8mm below the surrounding bezel, so the writing experience is awkward at times compared to those that place the screen and frame at roughly the same level. In addition, aside from the LAN, modem, and external monitor ports, the other slots aren't covered, and the pen occasionally skips when writing quickly. Finally, the Portégé 3500's speaker sounds pretty good when the system is in notebook mode, but as a tablet, the speaker is covered and muffled.
Fast Processor
It's what's inside that counts, and the Portégé 3500 puts its competitors to shame with a 1.3GHz Pentium III-M processor (a third faster than most), 256MB of RAM, and a 40GB hard drive (double the capacity of its competitors). With a 12.1-inch XGA screen, there's plenty of room to work, and the system effortlessly rotates its orientation at the touch of a button. A Trident CyberAlladdin-T graphics accelerator with 16MB of RAM controls the screen, which was lightning fast and smooth.
You'll find ports aplenty, with connections for audio, an external monitor, a LAN, and a modem. In a move that shows Toshiba's engineering prowess, the Portégé 3500 has a pair of USB 2.0 ports; the rest of the Tablet PCs so far use the slower USB 1.1.
For those who use a digital camera or portable MP3 player, the Portégé 3500 may be a godsend. Like the other tablets, it has a PC Card slot. But unlike the others, it can use CompactFlash and postage-stamp-sized Secure Digital cards.
To say the least, software is scant on this system. All that comes with the Portégé 3500 is Windows XP Tablet Edition and a few Toshiba utilities, including the potentially useful Symbol Commander, which allows you to launch utilities with pen gestures.
Toshiba Portégé Tablet 3500
Company: Toshiba Australia
Price: AU$4840
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 13 30 70
