There have been numerous people here and on other blogs that have wondered about using a Tablet PC for development. Over the past year I tried a couple times coding on a first-gen Tablet, but each trial left me less than satisfied. All that’s changed.
For the last three weeks I’ve been using a Toshiba M200 Tablet PC 100% for development.
Here are some things I’ve noticed:
* The Toshiba’s 1.5 GHz Centrino is fast enough to comfortably run Visual Studio.
* One of the benefits of the M200 is the 1400×1050 resolution and the 12″ screen. This gives just enough room to run the IDE and an app being debugged. I have found that I prefer to enable the auto-hide feature of some of the property windows in the IDE though. So this indicates to me I’d ideally like more resolution–but 1400 is more than adequate.
* Although the Tablet supports an external monitor I haven’t been using one–so that I’d be sure to get the full experience. I haven’t noticed a huge drop in productivity, but I admit I do miss my multiple monitors.
* When working at home I watch more TV now. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if this is good or bad. With everything on the Tablet I find it too easy to plop down in front of the TV and work.
* My wrists get sore typing. This is a problem I have with all notebooks, but one I think is important to mention. And yep, when I’m programming I type. 🙂 I don’t often use the pen, although sometimes I do. And the fixed keyboard and often poor positioning of the notebook relative to how I’m sitting, often wear me down. I have to take frequent 30 second breaks to relax my wrists and elbows. On a desktop I have to do the same thing although not as often, because with a detached keyboard and monitors it’s easier to adjust things to get the most comfortable angles.
* I would probably benefit from a docking station. For whatever reason, I always thought I could do without a docking station, but I’m beginning to see how it could benefit me. When sitting at a desk, I’d like to have a quick-release docking station with an external monitor and separate keyboard ready for use. The downside, of course, is that the inking features would be more awkward to get to because I’d have to reach up to the screen. It would feel like writing on a wall. Writing on walls is a skill I seem to have lost after the age of four 🙂
* The Centrino is a good mobile workhorse, but it still warms things up. In notebook mode it’s not too bad, but if I push the display back (at a lower angle) more heat seems to get trapped behind the Tablet and it heats up until the processor steps down. At this point the Tablet runs too slow for me. So part of using the Tablet efficiently is doing things to avoid the processor from heating up too much. If I give plenty of room behind the vent area in the back as well as stay in notebook mode, things work fine.
* In Tablet mode (with the screen folded down) I’ve noticed that the Tablet seems to heat up faster. And as I mentioned before, once it heats up too much and steps down in performance, Visual Studio becomes too slow for me. It’s workable, but as a developer I want speed, so it gets in my way.
* Sometimes when I’m typing in notebook mode, I find myself wanting to make a quick note or drawing in OneNote and the easiest way to do this is to try to write on the display as I prop it up with my other hand. I haven’t caught the hang of this though. My handwriting is almost a total mess when I write this way, but I just don’t want to take the effort of folding the display around to Tablet mode to write something down.
* I use OneNote a lot more. Maybe it’s the SP1 Preview that’s making the difference or it’s possibly that I’m developing and keeping notes on the same Tablet so it’s easier to jump back and forth between the IDE and OneNote.
* I’m typing more and taking fewer handwritten notes. What, you say? Well, since I’m using the Tablet 100% as a development machine, I’m typing most of the time and I’m using the Tablet in notebook mode so handwriting is awkward since the display is basically vertical. I keep wanting to detach the display so I can jot quick notes on it or grabbing for a second Tablet.
* Developing in portrait mode works well with the IDE. The downside is that with the M200 there’s no practical way to use the built-in keyboard while in portrait mode. Again, a docking station might fix this.
* I code most of the time plugged into the wall, but I still grab-and-go quite a bit. I haven’t taken measurements yet on how long the battery lasts while compiling.
* I usually leave the WiFi on whether plugged in or not. In some of my first get machines I’d always turn off the WiFi when unplugged unless I really needed it since it consumed so much power. I don’t notice the power consumption hit as much anymore, although I’m sure it’s there.
This has been a surprising experiment. So surprising that I’ve decided to keep developing 100% on the M200. I’m going to go ahead and invest some money in upgrading to 1 GB of memory and I want to try a docking station.
Yes, I would be happy with even more performance, but then again I would say that about every single computer I’ve ever purchased. However, that being said the Toshiba is faster than a couple of my other, bulky desktops.
That’s about all for now. I’ll be sure to add more later.
Have you tried plugging in a second tablet (i.e. wacom)? I’ve loaded Tablet XP on a workstation (from MSDN Universal), and it works with an external tablet pretty well. There was one thing that didn’t work, but I don’t recall what…
Anyway, that would give you writing abilities, etc. as well as a cordless mouse (if you bought that as part of Wacom’s package).
I agree that the second generation of tablet PC’s is sufficiently powerful to run Visual Studio.
What I would like to see in Visual Studio is a way to integrate ink-based documents together with the code. For example, there are various times I would like to sketch a diagram or something, and have it right there as part of the project. It would be cool if the code pane of the IDE also accepted ink, like in Word or OneNote.
kenrick
Hey let me just quickly chime in with my comments as well 😉
http://www.marauderzstuff.com/news/568.news.aspx
Stephan, Yes I have the Tablet PC OS installed on a desktop machine too. Everything seems to work fine on it. Interestingly, it’s an older machine, so the Toshiba M200 runs slightly faster than it 🙂
Kenrick, I agree. I have two half-done projects along these lines. I recently had a chance to talk with a VSIP program manager and he was able to help me through a couple design problems I was having. I wish I could spend an afternoon or two with someone from the VSIP team. Sometimes it’s all about access to information that can make something doable.
1.5GHz? Less than a GB of RAM? Any idea when we’re going to see good hardware available for Tablet? I really want to get one, but my current machine that I’d had for a bit is slow when using VS.NET/MSDN (its a 3GHz, 1.5GB RAM), and 7200RPM HDDs. Until I can match at least that it seems like a tablet’s more for um, surfing the web or something…
My point was actually to have a small (6″-9″) tablet you could bring with you and put down next to your tablet (in laptop mode), which would allow you to ink into whatever you were running.
Stephan, yeah it seems like a highly mobile Tablet in the 6-9″ range makes a lot of sense.
Michael, yes, you can upgrade the memory on the Toshiba. If I remember correctly it supports up to 2GB of memory.
Also, note that the M200 has a Centrino processor so it’s tuned for mobile computing. Desktop processors are almost always going to be faster–although when you unplug them, Centrino notebooks are going to be on par or slighly faster. That’s because a notebook running a desktop processor is going to step down–just like the Centrino processor–which will step down less because of its design.
If you are always connected to the wall, the desktop processor is going to be a better match. If you really want speed, you can always use a full desktop with an external digitizer or a Wacom Cintiq and install the Tablet PC OS on it. Up to this point that’s the way I’ve been developing.
I need to run some compiling benchmarks with the Toshiba.
I too am curious about the performance difference between the 5400 RPM and the 7200 RPM drive. Drives performance can make a difference in compiling times. However, I’ve heard that I probably won’t see a difference here. I still want to see for myself though.
For the way I work (small editing changes, infrequent full rebuilds) I think screen real-estate is the limiting factor for me on a Tablet. On desktops I typically use multiple monitors with as high resolution as I can get.
I’ve got a few disks in my system. One of them is a Western Digital “Special Edition 7200RPM drive with 8MB cache. It’s MUCH faster than the other 5200RPM drives I have. Even so, I find 8ms access time to be way too long, so I’m looking at the Western Digital SATA Raptor drives, which are 10,000RPM with a 4.5ms access time.
I notice this the most when using MSDN — switching filters (say, from Platform SDK to .NET) is really slow.
None of the tablets seem good enough yet, for what I would want: carry around tablet, programs for keeping track of building projects on the run, and CAD.
Your article on using the tablet for development (using mostly the keyboard, but also the tablet – where its limitations show, in moving from typing to drawing) and the comments bring up another possibility: Buy a 17″ portable, loading Windows Tablet PC, and adding a tablet like the new Wacom below.
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/wacom-penparter-miniature-drawing-pad-015623.php
Would this work well?
I didn’t know you could buy the Tablet PC OS to put on a regular computer. Where?
Mike, if you are a developer and use your MSDN subscription you can get Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Otherwise, it is available preinstalled on a Tablet PC.
If you do have MSDN subscription, then you could technically install Tablet PC Edition on a desktop or notebook when a graphics tablet attached. However, the scenario wouldn’t be ideal mainly from the convenience of size, number of items, and reduced eye-hand coordination. (The slower physical reaction of your hand is much slower than the difference in processor speed grades, drive transfer rates, or amounts of memory 😉 )
Are you after a resolution higher than 1024×768 or simply the larger screen? (I’m asking because many 14″, 15″, and 17″ displays still use XGA so max is 1024×768.) If you just want a larger screen size so icons are larger, then look at the Acer C302 or Gateway M275 Tablet PCs. They have 14″ displays.
If you want higher resolution, then the Toshiba M200 is the only one with SXGA+. That may sound small on a 12″ screen, but honestly – you hold a Tablet PC more like a book than you do a traditional notebook and 12″ becomes a good size.
I’ve read recently on some of the web sites that Intel will be coming out with higher speed M chips in May, perhaps up to 2.5 Mhz, I forget exactly. They’ll use less power. Perhaps I should be a bit patient for the 3rd generation tablets
I’ve read reviews that the Acer and Gateway 14″ tablets have terrible screens. An additonal benefit is that they have the dvd rom. I’ve looked at the new Toshiba 200 at BestBuy, but wasn’t terribly impressed. Admittedly, one could only use the demo software; perhaps it’s better in real use. The Toshiba had a separate dvd set that weighed that added a lot of weight.
Which do you think would be better for my needs, one of the 14″ units, or the Toshiba 12″ with the higher resolution? Or, is waiting for the 3rd generation the best bet? How long would waiting be, maybe July?