Our latest Gazette product tester found Acer's tablet PC did not allow him to switch comfortably from working at home to being on the move or in the office, reports Rupert White




William Flack's housing and welfare benefits law firm has recently moved to scanning incoming documents, and he wanted to see if anything could supersede his smartphone/personal digital assistant (PDA). We decided to give him one of the tablet PCs that scored highly in our recent tablet review, Acer's TravelMate TMC202TMi (see [2006] Gazette, 7 September, 14).



Unlike most tablet PCs, which have a flip-and-swivel screen, the TMC200 series has a slide-and-tilt screen that means a smaller footprint, as the screen does not need to lean over the back of the machine when using the keyboard. It is not designed to be used as much as a laptop's keyboard, though - tablet PCs are allegedly designed for most use with stylus and handwriting input.



Unfortunately, the Acer fared less well in the field than in the lab. Mr Flack's experience was that there just was not enough life or comfort in the product.



'At first this was exciting, in that I was able to browse the Internet from any room in my flat on something about the same size and weight as a coffee-table book [using built-in Wi-Fi],' said Mr Flack. 'It felt liberating to do this on a tablet rather than on a laptop. Laptops have always felt vulnerable to me, if carried about when open. The need to have a keyboard and screen at up to 90 degrees from each other reduces the comfort of using them to read documents or websites.'



But the good times were not to last. 'The initial excitement wore off quite fast due to the weight of the tablet, the very short battery life and the amount of heat it generated. It is too heavy to be held like a magazine for very long, or to carry very far. The battery life meant that after two hours or so it had to be plugged in and recharged. These factors meant that it did not feel very mobile at all once I became familiar with it.'



Windows-specified tablet PCs are also often pen-only devices - in other words, the screens are touch-sensitive to the pen/stylus supplied, but not to a person's finger. This was very frustrating when the Gazette recently used another Windows tablet PC edition machine, the OQO, and Mr Flack had a similar experience with the Acer.



'I found the screen and pen rather frustrating,' he said. 'I couldn't use my fingers to open windows or links. I didn't find the pen comfortable enough to use for handwriting, even though the recognition software was much better than on my MDA Vario.'



He is now thinking of moving over to a keyboard-less device like Samsung's Q1 ultra-mobile PC (UMPC), as featured in a previous test (see [2007] Gazette, 25 January, 13).



'I would not use a PDA very much if I had a Q1, but I would use a PDA largely instead of the Acer tablet,' he said. 'A smartphone with push email is extremely useful for receiving and checking emails at a glance, and even the Q1 is too bulky to serve this purpose. There is also no need to wait for a smartphone to boot up, and battery life covers a fairly busy day. But a PDA is of little use if I need to do anything more than send a short reply.'



Mr Flack's MDA Vario is still a favourite work device, and if Acer made a similar unit with specific improvements, he might change his mind, he said. 'A smaller, lighter model with better cooling and a long battery life would be likely to make me much more efficient.'



But in the end, our Acer tablet was rejected. 'The Acer was too heavy to take away from my home office to my actual office, and it was too big to use on the bus or train, whereas a Q1 would be more comfortable to use in transit,' said Mr Flack.



The Acer TMC202TMi originally tested has now been superseded by the TMC213TMi, which has more memory, a larger hard drive and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Battery life is quoted as three hours by Acer, but only if using the supplied extra battery pack. There is, a little unusually for a tablet, a built-in DVD writer.



It seems that using a tablet such as the Acer is a matter of personal choice - you may find it useful, but you should try before you buy. You may find a UMPC, a 'proper' laptop, or even a smaller PDA better suits your needs.



William Flack & Co

London-based housing and welfare benefits law firm. Uses scanning of inbound documents and digital dictation



Acer TravelMate C213TMi (unit tested was its predecessor, the C202TMi)

Specifications: Intel Core2 Duo processor, Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition, 12" XGA TFT display, 1GB RAM, 120GB hard disk, 8X slot-load DVD-super multi double-layer drive, gigabit ethernet, 802.11ABG WLAN, bluetooth, 4-in-1 card reader, 3 & 6 cell battery, fingerprint sensor

Price: £1,150

Acer: 0870 853 1005

www.acer.co.uk