AuthorTopic: Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?  (Read 8888 times)

Offline Decroded

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Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?

on: July 03, 2011, 08:46:55 am
Hi guys. since recently becoming quite addicted to pixel art, I'm really wanting to be able to do this on the go instead of being chained to a desk.
Also I would like to say go have a coffee somewhere and do some sprites.
So I'm looking to get some feed back from u guys who use tablet pcs which are good and bad?
Where I live in brisbane australia it is really hard to find these in stores to see before buying so I'm trying to find out what is the key requirements.
I don't want to spend more than is necessary to run photoshop without lagging too much but I am also tempted to spend up to around $1000 if it was much better to work on.
I don't plan any high resolution stuff though sometimes I end up with quite a few layers.
I don't care if it runs win xp or win 7.

I realise it needs resistive/pen input and am wondering if pressure sensitivity is a big plus for pixeling?
I see that some models also have capacitive multi touch which seems great I can zoom in and glide around with left hand while penning with the right but I wonder if anyone has experienced this with photoshop and knows if it ruins the square pixels by making it blurry or odd shaped "crusty" pixels because that would put me right off.

I heard the motion brand is quite good and lots of features but what brands do u guys recommend?
Also if anyone is perhaps selling a decent one that works good then I could be interested.

Offline HughSpectrum

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Re: Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?

Reply #1 on: July 03, 2011, 06:57:22 pm
I have an HP compaq tc4400 and it has worked quite well so far.  We were lucky to get it cheap and already upgraded though.  I don't know the exact term for the type of screen, but it only accepts input from the stylus (which I got from another tablet PC I was using) and the stylus alone, meaning that I can rest my palm on the screen while I draw and not ruin anything.

Offline Argyle

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Re: Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?

Reply #2 on: July 04, 2011, 10:39:25 am
Here's a link to a somewhat recent-ish post about the tablet I purchased about half a year ago. I still love the thing, though my next tablet I might go for something with more power for sure.  Surprisingly it runs Photoshop CS3 more smoothly than Cosmigo ProMotion, just because of the processor speed slowing down some drawing modes like symmetry painting. But I digress..

If you can find a tablet in your range that has capacitive pen input that functions alongside multi-touch functions, though I don't think they would work simeltaneously (correct me if I'm wrong though). Usually a tablet that doesn't ignore any touch input when the pen is present leads to you smearing unwanted drawing marks whenever your wrist is resting on the screen to draw.

Having capacitive pen input is pretty valuable though, even for pixel art.  Sure, you can live without it, but if you do use photoshop you can take advantage of that pressure sensitively very nicely.

Also, photoshop DOES play nicely with pixel art, despite what a lot of people think - they're just not using the right tools or unchecking things like "anti-alias" on selection tools.  If you change the scaling method in the general options to nearest neighbor, the scaling tools will never blur your pieces.  If you use the paint bucket tool or the selection tools with '0' tolerance setting and 'anti-alias' unchecked, they will work just as you would expect them to in a pixel art program. And lastly, use the 'pencil' tool instead of the 'brush' tool (click and hold down on the brush tool button until the menu pulls out and select the pencil) and any size or shape brush you draw with will have crisp, solid, pixelly edges. You can also just turn off pressure sensitivity in the brush options panel under shape dynamics if it's ever interfering with your desired results.

Might also consider either getting a peripheral keyboard, or some type of programmable device that you can set hotkeys to just so you can keep your tools and shortcuts that you use often available in a snap instead of having to rely on manually using menus with the pointer if the tablet you end up getting does not have any programmable side buttons to work with.  If you're on the go it won't always be practical to use stuff that plugs into it, but when you are sitting down somewhere wanting to draw, it helps out a lot to use a miniature keyboard or something instead of doing your typing on an on-screen keyboard.  Some tablets do have built-in keyboards though - a lot of them are built very differently though so it's all subject to what you go with. Some just look like laptops that you can write on and swivel the screen around backwards and fold down. Some are just the screens with some buttons (like the one I have) on the sides.

I think if you have something running windows vista or windows 7, there might be some programmable 'gestures' you can learn and set up that are kind of like wrist motions/pen flicks that you can do to execute things like Undo or whatever you might want to do.

A lot of it is just looking at it with the mindset of figuring out what features will be the most important for what you want to get out of the machine.  Is the screen size going to be an issue with the programs you plan to use? Do you want something with a lot of processing power and memory? Is a hard-wired keyboard option going to be integral? Do these pants make me look fat? Can I afford this 34" quad-core 8GB RAM keyboard-having skinny-pants-making windows 7 tablet that I just decided I needed based on the previous questionnaire answers?

It is a very gratifying purchase; one that will really make you appreciate the mobility as you curl up in a chair and draw straight on the screen as if it were a sketch pad that has built-in easy access to porn email and tabbed up picture references. But keep in mind that you want to focus on just getting the features most important to you, or accepting that you might not need it to be as powerful and full-featured as you might think you want, in the interest of cost, because remember that you probably have another desktop PC or laptop that can handle other workloads better and more comfortably.  Get something that you will cater to your ability to just draw and do pixel art without all the fuss and stationary-ness of other machines, but will be able to run the programs you need most.

Also, one thing to remember, is to get info on the included pen/stylus/digitizer that the tablet will use, if the information is available. The default pen my tablet came with only had one side button and the pen tip, but I was able to find a compatible pen (that was meant to be used with a competitor brand of tablet, oddly enough) that had an eraser end, the tip, and two side buttons.  With some 3rd party drivers provided by Wacom, it enabled the computer to use it with all buttons programmable and the pressure sensitivity unlocked (the computer didn't really pick up on it in photoshop until I installed those drivers).

Hope that helps conflict your decision even more by making you think about features to consider :P

Offline EyeCraft

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Re: Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?

Reply #3 on: July 07, 2011, 03:01:42 am
Wow, reading all this is making me want to get a tablet PC. Of all people.  :huh:

Thank you for the very informative posts, Argyle. <3

Offline Decroded

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Re: Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?

Reply #4 on: October 11, 2011, 12:14:23 pm
 I know it's been ages but yes thankyou very much argyle! I was going to get one at that time but it's really hard to decide what to get so I've since spent that money on an all new beast desktop.
I have taken a few months off from pixel art (too much work as usual) but am getting massive cravings again and really wanting a tablet to draw on those long bus trips to/from work.
I'm thinking now id like to start cheap even used for my first one.
It doesnt need to be fancy, just xp and can run any cs photoshop for low res work would get me started.

Does anyone know where I could find something like that?
I get so lost looking at ebay not knowing what to go for.
Even if anyone is selling one suitable perhaps?

Offline surt

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Re: Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?

Reply #5 on: October 11, 2011, 12:46:06 pm
I recently picked up a couple second-hand convertible tablet PCs on eBay.
Both around $200 Australian.
Both Wacom Penabled digitisers.
Both are plenty capable of running any pixel editor, MyPaint, GIMP, even basic stuff in Blender.

Fujitsu Lifebook 4215
Core2 Duo 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM
Screen's a bit dim but supposed to be sunlight readable (haven't tried it) with good viewing angles.
Got a screen protector that runs past the edges of the display which is nice.
Resolution is a bit low for my liking at 1024x768.
Comes with a two-button stylus.

Toshiba Portege M700
Core2 Duo 2.0GHz, 2GB RAM
Nice bright screen, viewing angles not great, but not too bad either.
Screen protector beneath bezel, so can't carry stroke beyond edge of screen.
Decent resolution at 1280x800.
Only a single button stylus.
Become my primary laptop.

Got myself an Axiotron Studio Pen which is just like an Intuos2 stylus, with two-buttons, a nice thick grip and spring nib, though like every other two-button stylus I've tried the second button is a bit iffy.

Offline Decroded

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Re: Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?

Reply #6 on: October 11, 2011, 12:53:31 pm
 Wow thanks I didnt know there was so much choice!

Offline blumunkee

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Re: Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?

Reply #7 on: October 11, 2011, 04:33:16 pm
I got lucky and found a brand new 2006 Lenovo Thinkpad X61 for cheap. It's similar to Toshiba's tablet PCs in that they have the swivel screen with keyboard. If you like this form factor, Lenovo and Toshiba are the king and queen of tablet PCs and there are a ton of used ones on eBay.

I used the money I saved to max out the ram and get a smallish 80GB SSD. I heartily recommend anyone to get a solid state drive. It makes even slower computers feel brand new.

Offline Jakten

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Re: Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?

Reply #8 on: October 12, 2011, 02:50:03 am
After reading everything Argyle had to say I broke down and bought a Motion Computing LE1600, it's about the same as Argyles only larger. So far it is working fairly well, the battery life is poor and it chugs sometimes but for being a portable device it proves to be quite nice. I'm usually around an outlet so the battery isn't too much of a problem and it only holds a 2 hour charge.

Along with the Tablet PC I bought a small keyboard remote which makes it relatively easy to perform shortcut commands quickly and not take up a large amount of space in my bag. I would definitely recommend one, I paid about 20 bucks for mine.

Offline Argyle

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Re: Need tablet pc: good, the bad and the ugly?

Reply #9 on: October 12, 2011, 04:50:20 am
Awesome, and I like that keyboard thingy you have there!

My tablet would only get about 45 minutes off the wall charger just because many used ones that pop up on ebay were things that were just left on all day at the worksites they used without proper cooling or anything, so the heat damage sucks the battery capacity down good and hard. 30$ extended life brand new battery lets me have nearly 4 hours on a charge, 2 hours to charge it back to full from empty while it's in use or 1 hour if it's off and plugged in.  So I'm still pretty happy with it  :D

I like to just take it out on the back porch and work in the quiet away from the buzz of the house appliances for hours before the toddler wakes up and after she goes to bed.