downsides to running Tablet PC OS?
 

Assuming roughly equal specs and pricing for two laptops, one running regular Win XP Home and one running Win XP Tablet PC version, are there any downsides (in terms of bugs, compatibility, speed...) to getting the Tablet PC version? - even though one would not use the handwriting functions.

The main reason for asking being that Tablet PC model is obviously lighter and more portable.

Thanks.

Does the particular Tablet PC you're considering have a real keyboard? A virtual keyboard takes up screen real estate and you probably can't type very fast on one.

The handwriting recognition on my Pocket PC ("transcribe" mode) is surprisingly good - I would expect that the equivalent function on a tablet would be more useable than you might expect.

I have a Toshiba Portege 3500, and am totally in love with it!

No bugs/speed/compatability issues at all.

Why do you say that you would not use the handwriting recognition functions? You know that the Tablet PC edition is only available as a factory-installed O/S on a tablet PC--you can't get it for a regular laptop.

The tbalet mode is very helpful for document markup, drawing, sketching, and writing out workflows, provided you keep the data in ink format.

The handwriting recognition is OK, but you really don't want to write more than a quick paragraph. Either you want a convertible that you can flip into laptop mode for anything longer or you want to use speech recognition for something better than handwriting recognition for longer writing.