Help me find the mobile device of my dreams

March 10, 2006 6:33 AM

Small, WIFI, USB, Externally rechargeable batteries, Tablet PC Does such a beast exist?

For the project I have mentioned that I am working on in my last several questions, I need to find a device that can run excel like a mofo, has *decent* battery life, can print natively (Rules out pocket PC devices because as far as I can tell with ours you need to use third party software to print excel files from it) and has USB and WIFI to accomidate a barcode scanner attached to it, and printing over a network.

I am leaning toward a tablet PC, but my major hurdle is I cannot find one that has an external battery charging station. I need the device to be accesible 24/7 to employees and have spare batteries ready to roll when one poops out. Does this device only exist in my head, or is there a tablet PC that I can buy a couple spare batteries for, and charge them while its not in use?

posted by JonnyRotten to computers & internet (9 comments total)

I don't know about the battery issue, but I love my lenova x41.
posted by batboy at 6:40 AM on March 10, 2006

I think that the charging station for Toshiba tablets (uh, convertible, but still) has double wells, for two batteries. Or it lets one charge an external battery and the device (with battery still in it) all at once.

I really want a Motion Computing tablet though. They sell a charger and one extra-duta battery in a combo for $279. Nail that puppy to a wall and you'd be all set.
posted by zpousman at 6:58 AM on March 10, 2006

An IBM/Levono Thinkpad X41? Pricey, but does everything you want.

It looks like you can buy external chargers for the batteries, but you might want to check on that more carefully.
posted by bonehead at 7:01 AM on March 10, 2006

Well, you could maybe buy two: One to use and one to charge the spare battery on. The charging one wouldn't need to have a working screen, though, so maybe you could find a dead one one ebay, although I doubt it.
posted by delmoi at 7:06 AM on March 10, 2006

zpousman, do you happen to have a link to the toshiba charging station, and associated tablets that use compatible batteries?
posted by JonnyRotten at 7:14 AM on March 10, 2006

The Compaq tablet PCs have an external bettery charger available. There is a 2-battery charger and, amazingly, a 10-battery charger. The tc1100 is a very light tablet PC and can do everything else you require.
posted by GuyZero at 7:18 AM on March 10, 2006

guyzero, you like a tiny god! I love how shiney that Motion computer tablet is, but I think I may run with the tc1100
posted by JonnyRotten at 7:25 AM on March 10, 2006

I know it's not recommending specific models, but didn't this just hit the news yesterday?
posted by WCityMike at 8:19 AM on March 10, 2006

wcitymike, yeah.. The origama would be nice, but I need a right now solution and not a slightly down the road solution. Our main buyer, wants this project done yesterday.
posted by JonnyRotten at 9:39 AM on March 10, 2006