Why can’t we have good graphics in a Tablet PC?

I was not an ‘early adopter’ of Tablet PC’s back when the Toshiba 3500 was released, or the HP 1000 but man was I looking at them every day. I knew the specs like the back of my hand. I remember going to Best Buy all the time and looking/playing with the Toshiba 3500 demo that they had sitting on the shelf. I kept watching and waiting for something I could use so I could plop down the money. I was in heaven looking at Tablet PC’s — but without any money to have a second computer they were expensive back then.

In my day job, I needed something that could be my only computer to use for everything. The early Tablet PC’s just would not fit the bill for being the ‘sole’ machine. Why do you ask?? Graphics and power. I use a really large program, very large data sets and VERY large aerial photo files. To use a Tablet PC as my only computer would have killed my productivity

Then came the Toshiba M4 early in 2005— guess what, I bit I ordered one and have been a Tablet PC owner ever since — has it really been 2 years already?? That M4 is what I was waiting for, it had a 2.13 PM (the fastest at the time of release), and a 128 Meg dedicated video card and the HD big enough for my files.

Today, things have changed a little. I use the Lenovo x60t as my daily computer. I also have a monster machine sitting at my desk with Dual Xeon 3.6 processors and all the other fancy stuff The x60t is a nice machine for my daily work, but when it comes to the big stuff — it’s the desktop for the crunching.

What’s my point you might ask??? Today there is a push to make things smaller and the battery last longer. There are people that might need something more powerful, but still want the function of a Tablet PC. I might be in the minority here in the Tabletscape, but GIVE ME POWER. There are some great machines coming out with Core 2 Duo processors, 7200 drives, ect — all the goodies that make a nice replacement for that desktop, with one flaw — no graphics. Why can we have all the laptops with 128, 256 or even 512 of dedicated video memory, but we can only get Intel graphics in a Tablet PC form factor?? I for one, this is where I might be in the minority, would give up some battery life for a Dell XPS Tablet PC, or one of the new Fujitsu T4220’s with a dedicated graphics card added into the specs. I get these 4 gig aerial photos for my ‘real’ job to review while visiting a client site and I just cringe thinking of how they are going to display on my Tablet to review

How about that 12.1 inch Tablet PC, but make it so I can hook it up to my 24” wide screen and really push out the video!! Maybe with the new Intel chipset the graphics will be on par with a dedicated graphics card and my worries will subside a little, but I sure would like to see someone slap a powerhouse out there with a full set of specs that included a nice 256 meg graphics card.