[Lillia]

I was wondering if anyone had some input for me. I'm looking to buy a new computer for the fall. I want something that's portable and lightweight with a good battery life. I need it to be relatively fast. I don't really care if it's a flashy notebook- price is also relatively important. Now, I know that tablets also function as regular PCs, but that the screens can be grainy. However, as a college student, I'd love to be able to take notes and draw diagrams in science classes. Also, the Wacom tablet would be so useful for photoshopping. But tablets do have drawbacks... Any ideas?I really appreciate your time!Thanks,Lillia

[Mills]

I have a Toshiba Tecra M4 series tablet (2005 model) and so far I have been disappointed with the overall performance of this computer. Tablets for the most part are currently overpriced due to the relatively new features that they provide while sacrificing performance. With the new Santa Rosa platform created by Intel being introduced, the price tag of the Tablet PC (approx. $2000), in my opinion, is better spent on a computer that supports the new SR platform. My experience with the tablet, and many of my classmates (my entire class uses tablets), using pen and paper has become more of a privilege because of the constant problems with driver malfunctions and slow performance. Overall though, the tablet offers great features that will most likely be implemented on all notebooks in future years but for the time being many of the features are vastly underdeveloped and not worth the hefty fee.

[orlbuckeye]

The new Dell Santa Rosa advertises 9 hours of battery life. Check out the dell website.