Advise on Purchasing an Tablet PC, require suggestions

[AlpAnA$]

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Tentatively I am looking to buy a Tablet PC (convertible form factor) rather than a standard laptop for my next purchase. I find it difficult to get an idea of available options, and my searches tend to be full of devices a slate form factor. The main reason I'm interested in a portable PC tablet is that they have begun to make extensive use of MS OneNote. I also imagine the possibility of scoring PDFs, draw mind maps and diagrams, and write mathematical equations would be useful in my work (research).

[Crespin]

• Lenovo X220t. $ 1600 will get a decently configured machine (with i7) in the U.S. It could be a bit more in the UK, though neither you have to get the i5 version.
  
• Laptop: Asus G51JXA1, Intel Core i7-720QM, 6 GB RAM, 500GB 7200rpm HD, Panasonic UJ-130A BD-ROM, nVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1 GB, 15.6 "Full HD Widescreen.
  
• Desktop: Intel Q9550, Asus P5B Deluxe, 4GB DDR2 1066, 1.5TB 7200.10 (two in RAID 0), EVGA GTX 260 FTW in a Antec P180B w / Neoh 500W, Logitech G15, G7, Z680 speakers and 2709W Dell.
  
• Tablet: Acer Iconia AMD dual-core W500 C-50 1.0 GHz, 2 GB DDR3, 32GB SSD, 10.1 "screen multi-touch, Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, dual webcams, keyboards coupling

[Kickapoo]

You mentioned you'd be fine buying a used or refurbished one. Is there any reason you're not looking at things like

• Lenovo x200t
• HP 2730p
• Fujitsu 5010 (a 13.3" screen)

They all have Core 2 Duo processors, and can take up to 8 GB of RAM, win7 run smoothly, and also the battery life very good. The difference is: 1) the prices are going to pay $ 750 up on ebay, and 2) you may have to buy on eBay. If you are comfortable with that, I'm not really sure what the benefits to the newer computers. I think it mostly depends on what kind of software you're running, but from what you've listed, I see no reason why these older models wouldn't run your programs just as well as the newer models, as the programs aren't super-intensive.

[Odalis]

The market for convertible tablets used on eBay UK appear to be very small, so you do not find much when I searched eBay UK, but I'm willing to buy U.S. or Canada and pay international shipping. If possible I'd like a good security device so you'd need to examine whether these bitlocker more support devices or hard drive passwords. However, if you buy a cheap second-hand tablet I serve as a secondary machine and buy a standard laptop for a core team, in which case safety is not much of a problem in the table.

[Illinois]

I like the high-quality safety. I do not want a thief to my hard disk / by-pass the Windows user account password and admission my files. So I guess I need a laptop with a password for BitLocker-compatible hard drive (I have an unused copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, if I have to use BitLocker). I do not know much about this, so I can be mistaken and advice would be appreciated.

[Beothuk]

You should prefer the below resolutions:

1. XGA - 1024x768 ~ Its big and simple to read text and graphic icons fits less on the screen.
2. SXGA - 1400x1050 ~ Small Text icons and graphics requires a better vison but the gain is a much bigger screen. (No longer available new, look for used or refurbished machines)
3. WXGA - 1280x768 ~ has a wider usable area XGA, ideal for viewing spreadsheets and other programs that require desktop space.

[Iroquois]

I would use the tablet on a desk / instead of meetings, while standing / holding with one arm. The tablet should also double as my computer just so you should be good as a laptop in general as well (see my answer to Q8 below) and would like good battery life (P7). The preferred size of my screen for a laptop 13.3 ", but it seems there is not much choice at this screen size - I guess because most people prefer books to be more portable tablets I am willing to go smaller, but the larger the better .