Buying a Laptop: Part Très

It's been seven months since I bought my last laptop, so I've really been itching to get a new one. Just kidding! I usually get new ones about every two years, not every six months!

Seriously, though… I really, really loved my Dell XPS M1210. The size was perfect, it lasted forever on a battery, it was super fast… overall an excellent product and an excellent buy. But recently I've gotten involved in projects that involve touchscreen user interfaces (my Little Caesars, video switching, and car computer projects just to name a few) and it has gotten to a point where it would be nice to have a touchscreen laptop to demonstrate, test, and use these apps away from my development environment. At the same time Brad mentioned to me that he was looking for a new laptop, so I decided to take the opportunity to sell my newest beloved computer and get one with all of the features that I have really wanted all along. Fortunately I had gotten an amazing deal on the XPS, and I was able to pass that along to Brad and still get a decent amount of money for a used machine. If I had paid full price for the XPS I don't think I could have parted with it at a price that anyone would be willing to pay. And Brad loves his new computer.

Tablet PCs (especially convertibles) have always intrigued me but they have always been way too expensive to justify their purchase for my needs. But within the last several months a few less expensive models have become available. I almost always like Dell laptops so that was the first thing I looked at… the Latitude XT. Super nice, super expensive (and multi-touch for anyone that excited about that buzzword). To configure a machine modestly for the way I was going to use it came to about $3200 (plus tax and shipping). Way too much. So I started to investigate other options. HP makes a much less expensive tablet, the tx2000, and I was planning on that one until I discovered it lacks a FireWire interface, which I need for capturing video for the video switching application. It also has a (slow) AMD processor and doesn't have any expandability via PC Card or ExpressCard slot, so I couldn't even add FireWire either. Brent suggested I look at what Toshiba had to offer and originally I thought they were going to be too expensive (as they have always been in the past) or missing key features. Turns out their Portege M700 model comes in lots of different configurations and can be setup with the features I want, and the price isn't too bad. I ended up selecting the M700-S7044V. Everything I wanted, and affordable.

So it arrived yesterday. And it is a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be. Here are some of its features, some of which I wasn't aware of prior to purchase:

• Super fast Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (new lower power 45nm chip), 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD. My fastest computer to date actually. Came with Vista Business (which is what I use normally) so I didn't have to format the hard drive and re-install Windows like I have had to do on my last several Dells.
  
• Both Pen and Touch-screen interfaces. I can either use the pen, or touch the screen with my finger. Whenever the pen is in proximity of the screen the touch feature is disabled so you can safely rest your hand on the screen while you are writing. The pen is also pressure sensitive so if you work in programs like Photoshop, you can vary the width or opacity of a line by varying the pressure applied. Not that I am an artist, but it give drawing on the computer a much more natural feel and better visual results. The pen also has an eraser on the top, so if you make a mistake you can flip it over and "erase" it. Or you can just cross out the mistake and it will remove it.
  
• The handwriting recognition in Vista is pretty amazing. I write really fast and have really bad handwriting and it still somehow manages to figure out what I am writing. Anywhere you would use a keyboard in Windows, you can write on the screen with the pen and it will translate for you.
  
• It has a fingerprint scanner and it works with Windows domain logins, unlike Windows XP. So to log onto my computer I just swipe my finger across the sensor, or use...
  
• Pen-based signature login. If I have the pen in hand when starting up, I can sign the screen and that logs me into Windows.
  
• Alternately, it can be programmed to automatically log you in if your cell phone is nearby (detected via Bluetooth). If this feature was setup I would never have to enter a password as long as my cell phone is nearby. For some reason it doesn't support my phone though, so I can't use this right now.
  
• LED backlight on the screen. The whole screen is more evenly lit than most LCDs, and it uses less battery power to do it.
  
• Accelerometer built-in. Not incredibly useful yet. But it does have a couple cool features. Like if I were to drop or knock the laptop off of the table it would sense the fall and brace the hard disk for impact. But based on some of the demos I could write games based on the tilt of the machine (e.g. get the ball in the hole). The included software doesn't have a lot of capabilities based on tilt/acceleration, but you can do a few things, like launch a program or bring up the Start menu if you tilt the computer backward then forward, or left then right. Interesting technology.
  
• Built-in webcam and microphone. Sure beats taping a USB webcam onto the back of the screen for video conferencing.
  
• Comes with Microsoft OneNote software. This program is amazing for taking notes. It even includes a search feature that lets you search your handwritten notes and any pictures you take for any text. Yes, even though you are handwriting your notes, they are searchable. So if I can't remember where in my notes I wrote about a certain topic or word, I can just click the search box and start typing. It also includes a feature that lets you record audio (from the built-in microphone or an external microphone), and as long as the recording is fairly good quality that audio is searchable as well! So you take it to class, take handwritten notes, record the teacher, and later you can tell it to find any words or phrases in the handwritten notes or the audio recording. It also syncs up the audio with the notes you are taking at the time so you can either listen to the recording based on any section of the notes, or view the notes taken at any point in the audio. Amazing stuff!
  
• It works with my existing APC universal power adapter, which lets me power the machine from AC, in a car, or on an airplane. (I had to buy a separate Dell branded power adapter to do this with them.)
  
• 802.11n wireless networking, Bluetooth 2.1, and gigabit wired Ethernet.
  

So I've only had it for about 23 hours now but I can already tell I'm really gonna like this machine. And as much as I loved and miss my Dell XPS, this new machine will take its place very nicely.