Toshiba Protege 200m

[Kenshin17]

Ever since my laptop lost its "laptop" ability as a result of water damage I have been looking into buying a new computer. I finally settled on a Toshiba Protege 200m. For those of you who don't know its a tablet which means it can work like a sheet of paper. You can reverse the screen and us it like a writing tablet. I figured it would be great for notes and such in class and would also provide me with a fairly powerful system. The one I want has the following specs

Intel Pentium-M 1.5ghz with 400mhz bus and 1mb cache. Also Centrino Enabled

512 megs ram

60 gig hard drive

32 meg Nividia Geforce FX 5200 go card

sound board and 2 usb 2.0 ports.

The lcd is of course a touch screen and has a max resolution of 1440x1050

I was wondering if anyone has had a chance to see one in action or has heard anything about it. I have yet to read a negative reveiw and I get the feeling it is the best tablet avalible.

The only disadvantage I can forsee is that the dvd/cd drive is external. But I don't use my drive all that much anyway so I doubt carrying a small external would bother me.

Any thoughts?

[Mr. SmartyPants]

32 meg video card? Id perfer atleast 64 for my laptops. Never used a tablet before. And i never will. My handwriting is terrible

[Kenshin17]

32 megs is fine for me. Long as it can run Unreal Torny 2003 and Rainbow Six 3 I'm all good. My PS2 can handle the rest.

[LorentzForce]

1) Laptops aren't meant for gaming. Those that can game higher-end games only last 30 minutes on battery; not worth the price. So, that 5200FX should be fine.

2) Screen size? If it's bigger than 15" you'll be in trouble finding a nice bag for it that'll fit the laptop in.

And overall, doesn't look too bad, if you're going to use it for study.

[Kenshin17]

[quote="LorentzForce"]1) Laptops aren't meant for gaming. Those that can game higher-end games only last 30 minutes on battery]

(1) There are plenty of good gaming laptop rigs out there, alienware, voodoopc, etc. The thing is who is gonna play unreal on the battery? They know you are gonna be on an outlet when you play so battery life on max output is moot. Without max output you can get decent life out of the battery. The one I am after will get bout 3-4 hours acording to the documentation. I don't need more the 2 or 3 hours.

(2) 12.1 inch 1400x1050

Last point: It will be for study and play.

[LorentzForce]

I do know at minimum power usage a laptop can last hours on a single battery charge; mine goes for five hours, eight in total if I leave it to suspend mode and listening to music only. Point is that if you are going to game, and if there's going to be a power outlet, why not just get a shuttle PC that can run anything and is hundreds of dollars cheaper than a laptop that can barely perform half-way? Shuttle PC would be lighter than the 4 kilo 'gaming' laptop anyway.

About the display size, that is very nice. I wouldn't mind a 12" laptop. The resolution is probably high because of itself being a tablet-capable screen, but meh, good enough.

[Kenshin17]

The idea behind a gaming laptop is having everything you need in a neat package. Shuttle pc's are a good concept but you still need to take a moniter keyboard and mouse along. With a laptop all you need is possible an external mouse, and if you get a laptop with Bluetooth and a Bluetooth mouse the mouse conects directly to the computer rather than using a usb receiver.

Gaming laptops can outpreform all but the highest end gaming desktops. As an example here are the specs for an Alienware laptop I looked at:

3.6 Ghz Intel Pentium 975 with HT technology
2 gigs of ram
17" High Resolution LCD (exact resolution eluds me)
GeForce FX Go6800 with 256 megs of ram
Two 100 gig hard drives in RAID-0 array
Creative Labs Audigy 2 PCMCIA card

A laptop of that caliber could smoke anything out there. It would also weigh more then me I used to think a laptop like that would be cool and I still do, but I think a functional Laptop such as the one I would like to get would be better and then I could get a desktop that I could put Dual prossesors in.

Anyway I had a chance to see the Toshibas LCD at max resolution and it is beautiful. My friend switched it to tablet mode and it looked highly functional. Small form factor and a solid design. Now if only My dad would get home...

[LorentzForce]

I'd rather carry an extra keyboard, that's so much lighter than that Alienware. That and that computer will burn through the desk. Literally. Oh, and it won't fit in a bag. And it probably costs around $4000 USD, I can get a better gaming computer than that with $2000 USD :\

As I said, game with desktop boxes, work with laptops. It'll be good for your budget, your legs, and your back.

[Kenshin17]

I tend to agree but those little monsters are super cool

[Mr. SmartyPants]

oops, my ibook has a 32 meg video card ^^ not 64 megs ^^ sorry bout that

darn, i wish it was 64 megs, oh well

[Hitokiri]

Well, I've never seen that tpye of laptop (nor am I good with thier specs). However, I just bought myself a nice Toshiba Satellite laptop and it works great for me.