A pair of Fujitsu Tablet PCs. Photo by Media Commons.

By Jeremy Kahn

Nowadays many business men and women can be seen traveling with notebooks and tablets working during their morning and noon commute. Every now and again, you might see someone with a tablet PC. By allowing users to draw or write straight on the monitor, as well as having the ease of use and familiarity of a keyboard, the tablet PC is a piece of hardware that combines the best of both worlds.

A month ago I was looking for an alternative to my Wacom Cintiq. Since I use my Cintiq for most of my work, having a backup seemed like an obvious choice. Of course, I didn’t want to spend the large amount needed for a new Cintiq, so I went about looking for an alternative. While I found some drawing tablets in the low three and two hundred range, I just didn’t feel what I found would work for what I wanted.

As anyone with a Cintiq can tell you they require a decent amount of space to set up due to all the wires. It’s not a very easy set-up for anyone who travels often. While I take my laptop with me when I travel, I can’t do the same easily with my Cintiq. So my first priority was getting an alternative that was travel sized and could easily be attached to my laptop.

Through my search I eventually came across a few tablet notebooks. While not a new technology, this seemed like a good alternative to look into. Researching further I found out these notebooks could be bought for anywhere between one hundred and two hundred dollars and still satisfy my needs.

I went on to buy a Fujitsu T4215 which is a model that is no longer supported. This, in addition to the seller selling it off lease, helped keep the cost down. What this offers me is the ability to run XP Mobile Edition or even Windows 7 (which is what I settled with) without any problems. With the OS installed I could now use Photoshop and any Windows application I needed. With the ability to draw straight on the monitor, this has become my go to tablet instead of my Cintiq. All for $190.

Tablet PCs make great alternatives to drawing tablets, especially to those who are constantly on the move. I’ll dive into my Fujitsu, reviewing it’s features so you can get a better idea of what these tablets offer in a later article.

For now though, as a fellow student on a budget, you can’t go wrong with a tablet notebook.