GottaBeMobile - Real time with the TabletKiosk eo i7210 : Tablet PC & Mobile PC News & Video Reviews, and Tablet PC Forums

Friday, September 15, 2006

« Beam Back Those Lost iTunes, But Only Once | Main | Josh Einstein's Life On the Bleeding Edge Of Vista... »

Real time with the TabletKiosk eo i7210

- Dennis Rice

The TabletKiosk eo i7210 Ultra-Mobile PC returns in a real life run through!

Okay, so I have had this unit for a week or so now, and had a chance to spend some time using it. What I decided to do for this InkShow was a quick and real run through using some screen recordings to show you what is actually on this thing.

I spend a few minutes looking at the installed apps and utilities, and giving some general commentary on hwat seems to work for me and what doesn’t. So if you are curious about the TabletKiosk Ultra-Mobile PC, or just about Ultra-Mobile PC's in general, check out this InkShow for a real world few minutes with a unit.

Watch the InkShow (22:55 minutes, 110mb, .wmv streaming or direct download.).
Visit the TabletKiosk website for more on the eo i7210

Enjoy the show.

All GottaBeMobile.com InkShows are sponsored by:

9/15/2006 4:39 PM MST

Real time with the TabletKiosk eo i7210 Comments [6] | Digg This | del.icio.us | Citations

Saturday, September 16, 2006 10:44:39 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Very nice review Dennis...I think you may have sold me on this unit......I was waiting for the ASUS, but the specs have put me off a little.

A couple of things though:

1. You briefly mentioned "Palm registration". Are you able to rest your palm on the screen at all when inking, and do you find the 80gm screen a better compromise? I seem to remember some of the owners of the original eo saying that it was quite difficult to use the dialkeys on the 120gm (I think) screen.

2. The machine seemed fairly sluggish...I assume this is because of the open apps, and Camtasia recording...can you confirm this?

3. When I emailed Tabletkiosk UK a few months back, they told me that they wouldn't be supplying a recovery CD, but that the machine would come with a recovery image. When I pointed out that the US site mentioned a recovery CD as an optional extra, they said that this wouldn't be the case in the UK. Any info on this would be appreciated.

4. How did you find the trackstick (or whatever) as an input method?

Again...thanks for the review
Neil

Neil

Saturday, September 16, 2006 12:19:27 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I'm speaking from the point of view of a Q1 user, but since it also has an 80g digitiser I suspect my experience will be similar.

I cannot rest my palm on the screen without vectoring. However, I don't find this to be much of a problem as the 7" screen is the right size to allow me to rest my wrist on the lower bezel (when writing at the bottom of the screen) or extend a "pinkie" to the upper bezel (when writing at the top and middle of the screen) to brace my hand and keep it clear. Some folks won't find this comfortable; they'd probably prefer the 120g digitiser offered by the earlier eo, or something with a "palm rejection" system like the new P1610.

If this isn't a problem for you, the added sensitivity does make using the touch interfaces with the finger much more responsive and comfortable to use.

(And I strongly suspect that the sluggishness was solely due to the number of applications running; even my older Q1 is usually more responsive than that.)

-- Steve

Anton P. Nym

Saturday, September 16, 2006 12:44:52 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Thanks for the comments Neil.

Answers:

1) Steve did a good job answering this in his comment, and I agree with his statements. If you noticed, I mentioned moving sticky notes to the bottom right hand corner. That makes is easier to write with no "registration". Bottom line is that as long as you have touch controlling your ink, this will be an issue. My hopes long term are for the auto sensing devices that know the difference bewteen your finger and a stylus. Bottom line though, the inking experience on any touchscreen is not going to be as nice as an active digitizer. The issues I had inking while doing the video were weird and isolated, and I have never had that happen again btw. Too many things loaded!

2) Yes -- the performance issue in the video is not normal at all. It is normally pretty snappy. I had like 6 or 7 apps open (to save time during the demo), plus doing the screen and audio recording. I am not at all displeased in the performance of this machine. My machine has 1gb RAM and I may go ahead and add another 1gb though, just to see how much it affects things. I was also running on battery, which I believe will step down the processor performance as well.

3)Not sure about the UK, but I did get the same information from TK. No recovery CD unless you pay a small extra, but a recovery partition will be on the machine with the ability to create your own CD's. Mine has none, as TK is working to finalize the image, which is a good move in my book. Initial purchasers will be provided the recovery CD's at no charge.

4) The trackstick works fine for me, but there is a small issue with it going left right now, I think due to the moding of the button itself. TK has acknowledged the issue with my unit and will replace it when I request it. Interestingly enough, you can remove the small thumbpad button, and there is a small rubber pointing stick like you see on laptops underneath. They could just extend that out a bit more and it would work well for those who like that type of pointer (which I personally do not).

Great questions and comments, keep them coming!

Dennis Rice

Saturday, September 16, 2006 3:06:03 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Thanks for the answers gents.

Dennis
As they're still finalizing the image, do you think it's worth getting one of these earlier units, or waiting a while?

I wasn't aware that the eo could take 2gb. As I'm going to be working with Visual Studio, and a lot of my projects rely on SQL databases, I'd certainly be interested in hearing your experience with this upgrade.

Cheers
Neil

Neil

Sunday, September 17, 2006 3:41:42 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I thought I'd just add a comment about writing on these devices. I have the Q1 and use it mainly for writing stories on. I've found that with the supplied stylus I have to be very careful not to get vectoring. However, if I use the stylus from my Toshiba m200, which is much bigger and better (like a real pen), not only do I find it much easier to write without having to worry about vectoring but the tip also feels a lot better on the screen.
Hope this helps.

John in Norway

Monday, September 18, 2006 7:19:05 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Thanks for that John...I do have a pen/stylus, so I'll give that a try when I get my unit.

I spoke to the UK distributor about 10 minutes ago, and they told me that the units aren't available in the UK yet. He was hoping for a shipment today, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen :(

Ah well...I've waited this long...what's another few weeks :)

Cheers
Neil

Neil

Comments are closed.