BIG tablets, or a virtual & portable screen?
July 11, 2011 9:43 AM   Subscribe

Can I use a tablet as a roaming interface for my home desktop, and as a standalone tablet when I travel?

My dream laptop would have a 15.6" multi-touch screen, 500 GB+ HD, and be configurable in either tablet or laptop modes (or with a dockable keyboard).

Such a dream beast could let me take handwritten notes with OCR (which is good enough now to work for me), and use with a stylus as a quasi-"Wacom tablet" for photo manipulation. It would otherwise stand ready as a small portable screen, or on my lap to watch a show or two before bed.

I don't think that's here yet, however. 12" seems to be as big as tablet screens make it. Larger touchscreen monitors or conventional laptop configurations exist, but they won't allow me to use the tablet for taking notes on the fly.

Some apps like LogMeIn can allow intranet or internet desktop linking, at good speeds, but I assume I'd have to transfer videos in the background, and watch them on the local machine.

As far as OS, I'm willing to use Android, 'nix, or Windows.

So, my Mefite geek gurus, what are your recommendations for me? Biggest & best tablets, and any recommendations on how to best link my tablet to my PC while I'm at home?
posted by IAmBroom to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)
 
Response by poster: Thanks to both of you. Hadn't heard of the ASUS EP121, and that led me to the Lenovo ThinkPad X220 (an earlier model, the x201, is described in one review as "As close as it gets to the perfect tablet laptop". Screen touch response may not be quite as good, however.

And Splashtop sounds great, if I go Android.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:14 AM on July 12, 2011


Response by poster: Sorry, that's the x201t and x220t, where the all-important "t" suffix indicates the tablet form of the laptop... in case anyone else is using this thread for online purchase advice.
posted by IAmBroom at 12:49 PM on July 15, 2011


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