Originally Posted by
SkiAdcock
I'm not a huge fan of touchscreen, although presumably the keys would be easier than iphone keys. I have seen some iPad folk that somehow have attached an external keyboard (I type really fast), but Amazon's site just shows a power charger & stand/leather case.
It's got Bluetooth, so any external bluetooth one would work; although technically that should not be used on an airplane.
I was chatting w/ some clients at the show today & they said I should wait for the Microsoft Surface
Meh, the OS is terrible. What you might consider instead is one of the Asus Transformer series -- essentially converts between tablet and ultrabook/netbook form factor with a genuinely compact and sturdy keyboard dock. My boss loves his, as do several FTers who've posted in other threads.
They also said w/ the Surface I could get a docking station for home office, and not need to buy a laptop as the Surface would become my laptop (they're obviously Windows-oriented).
At that point you're talking the full-power Intel-based tablet, not the Windows RT (ARM-based) one. Which is going to be chunky, and still very slow compared to a real Windows laptop.
Does it make sense for any of these tablet devices to fully replace laptops, or are they capable of doing so - programs, apps, connectivity to printers, etc?
Only the full Windows 8 tablets with the Intel processors (there are also a tiny handful of similar Windows 7-based ones now, either in the slate form factor or in the old convertible form factor. I rather like the Dell XT3, although from the market failure, it seems like nobody else did. I wouldn't have, had I gotten it full-price, rather than refurb with a 20% off coupon.)
As long as we're talking electronics, I do need to replace my laptop (HP running Vista) unless somehow the tablets are the 2nd coming & I won't need one anymore. I use my laptop as my primary computer in home office/on the road. Does it make sense to get a W7 one or wait until W8?
Windows 8 is one of MS's smoother initial releases, but I'm still not sure it's really ready for prime time. I expect it will have the rough edges sanded off by the time SP1 comes out, but UNLESS you are dead set on getting a tablet+dock (or a convertible like the XT3) I would not worry about it if you have to replace your laptop today.
Also, someone suggested I get a Samsung that has a keyboard that slides out.
I've got a rather dated Samsung with sliding keyboard (Sprint "Epic 4G" which is a version of the first-generation Galaxy S) -- I'm still pretty happy with it, although I am an atypical smartphone user (a lot more emails written, a lot of SSH, a lot less browsing.) The keyboard is the best I've ever had in a smart phone -- full 5 rows, and the only key I miss which I've had on an earlier smartphone is "tab" which doesn't make sense with Android.
HTC has also had a few models with a slide-out keyboard, although all the ones I've seen have been 4-row.
Originally Posted by
pinniped
(This is one thing Apple usually gets right...when they announce a device, you're pretty close to actually being able to buy it.)
Apple hasn't always been that way; they've gotten much better about it, in part because of some of the backlash to delays in the past.