The previous discussion about tablets seems to have disappeared, hence the new thread.

My laptop was stolen a couple of months ago and the insurance claim has just come through. Love that I get what I paid for it (4 years ago!). So, I remember Cool Matty in the last thread saying how tablets are just easier/faster for browsing and other likely tasks whilst sitting on the sofa at home, and I have a few friends for whom tablets have replaced their home computers for most stuff.

The main thing that has held me back is that I cannot stand trying to type on a touch screen. I can barely get through writing a text message with an on-screen keyboard, never mind an email. So, inevitably, the Inspiron Duo caught my eye. Reviews say that it is a bit slower and a fair bit heavier than an average tablet (or ipad, specifically), but as long as it functions for browsing and the occasional movie, I'd be happy with it.

Thoughts? Insults? Or am I better off looking at a 'proper' tablet with keyboard dock? (But then, looking at the ipad and logitech keyboard, you'd need a table to put them on, which sort of defeats the purpose in my eyes)
http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-duo/pd?refid=inspiron-duo&~ck=mn
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/dell-inspiron-duo-929995/review

You ever do work on your laptop? Use latex or anything?

Every been to a turkish prison?

that looks hella breakable

I have a work laptop, although once I've got something at home I'll leave it in the office most days. I might occasionally need to check emails or read a word doc or pdf at home, but that's it.

Tablets are definitely a love/hate kind of thing, and based on your comments it honestly sounds like you hate them. The touchscreen interface is the main point of a tablet. If you don't like it, or if you're going to spend most of your time with a hardware keyboard, I think you would be better off spending the same amount of money on a real laptop.

First off, what you linked to isn't really a tablet in today's sense of the word. It's just a regular PC laptop with a swivel touchscreen. It has absolutely none of the benefits of what you'd find with an iPad. If that's all you're going to get, don't bother. Get a laptop.

Second off, I'm not sure what you're relating your on screen typing experience to. If you're relating it to typing on a phone, I can assure you that it is nowhere near as infuriating. The keyboard is much larger, and for that reason alone it is much less difficult to use effectively. On a good day, I can get up to 60 words per minute on it, which is about 80% of what I get on my desktop.If you're unsure, go to an Apple store or find a friend who has one, and try using it for a while. It's not exactly going to be worthwhile to type novels on, but it's rather good otherwise. For instance, this whole post was written on my iPad.

Third off, unless you wait for iOS 5, the iPad needs a computer to sync to at least once. iOS 5 comes out in about a month. You only really need to sync it once though, to activate it.

But anyway, I'll just reiterate what I said before. If that "tablet" is the only tablet you're considering, DO NOT GET IT. Actual tablets like iPads run special mobile apps, have completely retooled interfaces designed for touch, have significantly different hardware inside that allows for vastly better battery life in a smaller size (10 hours on an iPad no matter what you do with it), and more. That laptop just runs Windows with some crappy thrown together touch UI laid on top for some basic functions. I can almost guarantee you'll end up using it as a plain laptop most of the time, and if you're going to do that, you might as well get a regular laptop, save yourself some money, and get better internals as well.

Edit: Oh god, I just noticed that "tablet" runs on Intel Atom. A netbook with a touchscreen and a crappy Dell UI layer thrown on top? That is going to be the most expensive, slowest netbook ever!

Double edit: Also, yes, an external keyboard is an option for most tablets. You don't have to get a dock, you can use any standard Bluetooth keyboard. While obviously this restricts portability, I'd honestly only use it if I was about to do a significant amount of typing (like that novel mentioned earlier).

This was my first thought as well. I'm sure an Atom cpu could provide acceptable performance if this netbook was running a version of linux specifically optimized for it, but it's not going to be a fun experience running Win7. I would think even for basic tasks like websurfing you are going to be frustrated every time you encounter a site which makes significant use of Flash.

Maevie, You should definitely try to get a hands-on demo of this tablet before buying it.

Thanks for the feedback guys
Jon`C: I'm not averse to touchscreens per se, for browsing, reading stuff etc. I think they're really useful, it's just the typing I can't stand.

Matty: That's what I sort of suspected, but I don't know enough to have made that judgement really.
In terms of screen typing, most of my experience is with phones, but I've also used my friend's ipad a bit, and I still really hated it. I guess I just like the feeling of actual buttons under my fingers. But perhaps I just need to go to a store a try a few out.
I can use my work laptop to sync a device to, although I'd really prefer not to get an ipad if at all possible.

I was mostly considering a tablet for the additional portability, speed for simple procedures, and as you mention, battery life (which this also sucks at, admittedly). The external keyboards all look rubbish though because you have to have a surface to hold the tablet and keyboard, rather than being able to sit it on your lap. Perhaps I should just go for a smaller laptop...

Just don't get anything with an Atom in it, those processors are absolute garbage and a pentium 3 era laptop processor is literally faster.
Wish they would just re-run the Pentium M or something.

A Pentium M would be pretty dumb when you can get significantly more performance out of a ULV i3 or i5 that has a lower TDP than Pentium Ms ever did. That's what you'll find in any decent x86 tablet these days.

IMO if it's not an iPad it's not worth getting a tablet right now. There's a reason that iPads own 95% of the tablet market



Regular tablet laptops generally are less portable (they're heavier and thicker), are slower (especially this one running on Atom), and the battery life is poor due to the wasted space on the flipping screen. The ability to touch the screen is essentially useless on Windows, it doesn't make anything easier. Even simple tasks like scrolling a window can be laggy with a touch screen. If you don't like a proper mobile tablet like an iPad, I strongly suggest you just get a regular laptop. You will be much happier with it. Tablet PCs have been around for many years now, and they were never successful for a reason.

Technical detail:
The reason these Windows tablets aren't any good compared to the gold standard iPad are the following:
1. iOS is a mobile OS built from the ground up to be poked. Everything is finger-sized, can be controlled by gestures, and the keyboard is ONLY used for typing. Windows is just Windows. Imagine trying to press some of the buttons and icons in Windows with your finger. It's not fun.
2. iPads run on ARM CPUs, which are significantly lower powered CPUs. In a direct comparison to a desktop, yes, they're slower. But since the iPad runs an OS designed for that CPU, you never see it. It's that optimization that makes a huge difference. The ARM CPU is not only lower power, it's also much smaller. An iPad's internals are almost entirely comprised of battery for this reason (~75% of the entire body). That's how they last for 10 hours straight of watching Netflix, etc. A regular laptop will struggle to get 3 hours under the same load, without adding significant bulk in the way of extra battery.
3. They're thinner and lighter, significantly so. Seriously, the iPad weighs 1.5 pounds. Even the lightest laptops weigh over 3 pounds. A more standard laptop would weigh 5 pounds or more.
4. Part of the iOS optimization is the fact that they simply don't try to do everything. They are capable of limited multitasking, but it's more of a suspend-resume system for the most part. This sort of optimization allows for their high performance and battery life under such a low power CPU.

Anyway, that's why a tablet like an iPad is far more successful than a PC tablet like you linked to.

I think you'll change your mind about typing on an iPad once you've used it for a few days. I was able to type quickly enough within 24 hours. A first generation iPad is also an option if you want to save some money & spend the difference on accessories (e.g., keyboard dock). I still have a first generation & am quite happy with it (not that I'm saying you shouldn't get the newest version if you don't mind spending the money).

Am I right in thinking that Dell screen-rotating mechanism and frame would probably be prone to failure after a few months of usage? It just doesn't look it could wear damage all too well, judging from a brief hands on experience at a store. The Thinkpad x220 has version with a rotating screen for tablet mode, but at least it rotates on one point.

I've worked on several Tablet Laptops & it has been a ***** each time. I don't know how prone they are to failure (not nearly as bad as Sony Vaio hinges) but if it breaks & you send it in for repair, you've ruined someone's day (especially if they have some sort of quota to maintain).

No one's using a crummy Inspiron Duo in the business world. They're using Thinkpad tablets or Toughbook tablets, and those aren't going to break nearly as easily (especially the latter).

This is pretty accurate and also somewhat impressive. Get an ipad, turn it sideways, have at. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to do it with relative ease. I personally find the lack of a clunky, physical, loud button to be somewhat irritating. Also the next ios is going to have some wacky keyboard you can split so you can still thumb the hell out of it. It looks hella neat.

If you are considering the tablet route, iPad 2 is not the only option. Check out the Asus Transformer. A tablet with a keyboard dock that adds USB host, a touch pad, and an extra handful of hours worth of battery life. I'd probably still recommend the iPad 2 to most people over the Transformer due to the app selection, but Android tablets are definitely starting to compete with the iPads. Much more power and flexibility, although no apps that really leverage these advantages yet.

That's really the problem with Android tablets and why I'd not recommend them right now. The complete dearth of apps just makes it little more than a fancy web browser. If that's all you want, you could have nabbed an HP Touchpad a week ago for $100

haha, noted.

Yeah, I'm now a bit annoyed I missed that. Maybe I'll go steal Baconfish's.

also try a Samsung galaxy tab or a Motorola xoom.