What a Deal on a Tab Computer
Written: Dec 29 '03 (Updated Jan 17 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Light, Portable, Very Good Battery Life
Cons: NONE
The Bottom Line: Very cheap. Fujitsu still supports them. Works great in difficult environments that Laptops won't, has a serial port.
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| doctorjeep's Full Review: Fujitsu Stylistic LT C-500 (FMW4303TS256A01) Table... |
What to say first about a 2 year old Tab computer? Well first off I got a really good deal on it. Let me give you a break down on my costs:
Fujitsu Stylistic LT-500C $300.00 including docking station, wireless keyboard, 802.11g card, slip case, charger, extra battery, 12v car charger, PCM card CDR. I had to buy the WinXP pen tablet drivers from Fujitsu (who actually still sell stuff for this) as I elected to upgrade from 98 to XP. Cost was $45 including site license and shipping. The Tab originally came with a smallish 6GB HD. That went away and was replaced with a 60GB Toshiba 9mm notebook HD, cost $99. While I was ordering the pen tablet drivers I also ordered a pack of 12 screen protectors (essential to keep screen from scratching) and a pack of 5 pens cost was $88. You need the Fujitsu pen because it is spring loaded and will prevent making impressions on the screen protector just using a PDA stylus will not work on this, it will damage the screen.
So now the old girl has the following: WinXP, 512MB Ram, 60GB HD, 802.11g card. Total cost to me was about $550.00, a pretty good deal.
So why bother even writing a review? First reason is you can pick one of these Tab Computers up pretty cheap if its refurbished or closed out. New Tablet PCs are really expensive and processor performance tends to lag behind laptops. Mine was used for 4 months then sat in an IT office for about 18 months before I purchased it. They are perfect for use on the road, a GPS can connect to it (serial port) and you don’t have to mess with a key board if you don’t want to. I have a huge demand for the serial port for connecting to various electronic components that I work on. I also needed something that can hold tens of thousands of pages of schematics and piping diagrams and would allow me to view while in various locations. A PDA wont work and I found a laptop is a pain.
The Fujitsu Stylistic LT-500C has a 500Mz Celeron processor which is all it needs. The max RAM is supposed to be 256MB but I had a spare NoteBook PC100 512MB RAM card, put it in and presto 512 MB RAM, go figure. The display is made for indoor and outdoor viewing. Screen size is 10.5 inches and bright & clear. The battery pack will last for about 3.5 hours of continuous use. Operation with WinXp and upgraded drivers from MicroSoft makes a big difference compared to Win98; it runs so much better with Xp. I also loaded Office XP and downloaded the drivers from MicroSoft to use the pen applications with Office XP (these are free). I also use PenOffice 2.5 (another good recognition program)
Overall the operation of the Stylistic LT-500C I purchased has exceeded my expectations. It replaced a $2800 laptop that didnt have a serial port and just could not do what this Tablet PC does.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
doctorjeep
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Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 2 members
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