This new accessory is both a Bluetooth keyboard and a stand for the Tablet 2.
It connects and charges via a micro USB cable as seen below.
A touch based scrolling mouse pointer is located in the centre of the keyboard. This is a much more usable arrangement than the old traditional red pointing stick that has been synonymous with ThinkPad laptops for years.
The keyboard does not physically connect to the ThinkPad Tablet 2, but it does have a pop up kickstand that helps mount the tablet at a usable angle. There’s not adjusting this angle though (same problem as the surface kickstand).
The keyboard fits nicely with the ThinkPad Tablet 2 in this ThinkPad Fitted Sleeve accessory.
Overall a couple of essential and stylish accessories for this very impressive Windows 8 tablet!
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About the Author: Brett Gilbertson was awarded the prestigious Microsoft MVP Award for Tablet and Touch in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Tablet PC Solutions has a strong focus on business grade hardware and software applications for Tablet PCs. Our expertise is sought after by Australia's largest and smallest organizations.
One of the great things about the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 is the fact that it charges via a standard Micro USB cable!
The ThinkPad Tablet 2 is a brilliant note taking Tablet. At only 600 grams it is micro thin and features the best active digitizer system available made by Wacom (for an even better pen experience buy the Wacom Bamboo Stylus Feel).
So for the rest of May, we’re offering the 3G, 64Gb version of the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 with:
Free Targus Backup Battery – 4800mAh of backup charge that plugs directly into your smart phone or ThinkPad Tablet 2
Free Microsoft Mobile Mouse 4000 – One of the most comfortable compact notebook mice available.
Tablet PC Solutions has a strong focus on business grade hardware and software applications for Tablet PCs. Our expertise is sought after by Australia's largest and smallest organizations.
Seeing the Fujitsu Stylistic Q702 pre-production sample late last year we were delighted to see a new and improved N-Trig pen. Unfortunately when the stock arrived we found that the old N-Trig pen reared its ugly head and was shipping with the Q702.
That’s it. Simple but effective. The thing is that the Q702 is a near perfect all round Windows 8 tablet. Unbeatable performance, great battery life, unmatched connectivity and features, robust and serviceable design that was all let down by not the best digitizer pen.
The new pen just takes it that much closer to the perfect road warriors tablet.
In the box you’ll find the pen, a Quadruple A (AAAA) battery, spare pen tip, pen tip removal tool and a pen tether.
We should also mention that the N-Trig pen fits into the pen bay on the keyboard of the Q702. The pen also works with any other N-Trig tablets such as the Fujitsu Stylistic Q572, Motion CL900/CL910, Dell Latitude ST and many more.
Tablet PC Solutions has a strong focus on business grade hardware and software applications for Tablet PCs. Our expertise is sought after by Australia's largest and smallest organizations.
If you have a Tablet PC with a Wacom Active Digitizer built in then you’ll probably be interested in this accessory. It’s called Wacom Bamboo Stylus Feel.
It is not to be confused with the iPad style capacitive styli that Wacom also make (Bamboo Stylus Solo, Bamboo Stylus Duo, Bamboo Stylus pocket).
The Wacom Bamboo Stylus Feel will work with many of the new Windows 8 tablets as well as most of the old Windows 7 Tablet PCs (a short list of recent compatible tablets below).
This is not just a capacitive stylus, this is the real deal. The Bamboo Stylus Feel is a Wacom Active Digitizer Pen and it will only work with a tablet that has Wacom Active Digitizer hardware built in.
So that’s a definite no for iPad.
Here is a list of some of the tablets that the Bamboo Stylus Feel will work with:
There are many more Wacom tablets than this brief list, so don’t be afraid to call or email to ask if your tablet is compatible before you buy.
What’s good about the Wacom Bamboo Stylus Feel?
When looked at side by side with the tiny Wacom pens that come with tablets like the Galaxy Notes and the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 it’s easy to see the key feature of the Stylus Feel. Size.
The Wacom pen that is housed in the ThinkPad is particularly thin and feels flimsy as a result. Bot the Samsung S-Pens and the ThinkPad pens are also too short for comfortable note taking.
The Stylus feel on the other hand is solid and long. It makes the other two pens feel like Pizza Hut pencils (does anyone remember those?).
Also, when compared to some of the more traditionally sized Wacom pens below you can see that the Stylus Feel is much more… well, stylish.
The Bamboo Stylus Feel has one button on the side (right click by default on all Windows Tablets) and a pocket clip on the lid.
In the box there is a set of tips and a tip removal tool. There are two hard white tips and three soft black tips. Personally I find the soft tips too resistive and slow on the screen for my liking. They also wear out very quickly. On the other hand the hard tips virtually never wear out.
The Stylus Feel comes in Black, White and Carbon. Carbon model is shown in our pictures above.
Wacom Bamboo Stylus Feel is available through our website here:
Tablet PC Solutions has a strong focus on business grade hardware and software applications for Tablet PCs. Our expertise is sought after by Australia's largest and smallest organizations.
The 3G 256Gb SSD version of the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T hybrid Windows 8 Tablet sold out within a couple of weeks of landing last month. Stock is due back in the next week, but in the meantime here is a video review:
As previously noted we never parallel import and our tablets are always supported with the manufacturers local warranty.
If you’re weighing up your options, the Fujitsu Q702 also sold out but arrived back in stock on Friday!
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About the Author: Brett Gilbertson was awarded the prestigious Microsoft MVP Award for Tablet and Touch in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Tablet PC Solutions has a strong focus on business grade hardware and software applications for Tablet PCs. Our expertise is sought after by Australia's largest and smallest organizations.
We’ve been able to secure some stock of the great new Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2Windows 8 Tablet with 3G and a 64Gb SSD. This stock is available for immediate pickup or delivery.
The ThinkPad Tablet 2 is a brilliant companion tablet. If you want a note Windows 8 note taking tablet to take to meetings and on the road then you should look at the ThinkPad Tablet 2.
As you’ll see below, this tablet gives most other tablets a serious run for money in size and weight. It is thinner than my Nokia Lumina 920 phone and is only 10 grams from being as light as my Galaxy Note 10.1 Android tablet.
It runs OneNote 2013 brilliantly and comes with a Wacom Active Digitizer Pen. This is the tablet that note-takers have been waiting for!
The Atom Z2760 “Clover Trail” processor is not designed to be able to replace your desktop or laptop computer. The ThinkPad Tablet 2 is not a gaming machine either. We’ve found that the performance of apps in Windows 8’s “modern” UI (touch apps) can be a little laggy at times.
However Microsoft Office Applications like OneNote, Excel, Word and Outlook run very well on the desktop and the system keeps up with every stroke of the Wacom Pen in desktop mode. Taken for its small size, light weight and great battery life this Windows 8 tablet is a real cure for desktop disorganisation!
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About the Author: Brett Gilbertson was awarded the prestigious Microsoft MVP Award for Tablet and Touch in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Tablet PC Solutions has a strong focus on business grade hardware and software applications for Tablet PCs. Our expertise is sought after by Australia's largest and smallest organizations.
Tablet PC Solutions has a strong focus on business grade hardware and software applications for Tablet PCs. Our expertise is sought after by Australia's largest and smallest organizations.
Following on from the pictures we posted last month below is a video of the Stylistic Case for the Fujitsu Q702.
The Stylistic Case offers good bumper protection for the Q702. The case is slim line, tight fitting and not easily removed. That means that it is more likely to be left on than removed.
The case allows easy access to clip on the keyboard so it doesn’t limit the functionality of the Q702. An integrated soft rubber hand strap on the back makes it easy to hold for long inspection and audit jobs. There’s also a shoulder strap supplied with the case.
Lastly, the Stylistic Case adds a pen holder to the tablet part of the Q702. This case makes the Q702 an especially compelling tablet for field workers.
Here’s the video…
Fujitsu Stylistic Q702 with Stylistic Case
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About the Author: Brett Gilbertson was awarded the prestigious Microsoft MVP Award for Tablet and Touch in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Tablet PC Solutions has a strong focus on business grade hardware and software applications for Tablet PCs. Our expertise is sought after by Australia's largest and smallest organizations.
Microsoft have announced that much awaited Surface Pro will arrive in Australia before the end of May. The initial stock of Surface Pro is expected to be available with big retailers only.
What we experienced at the Microsoft Campus and in the stores in our visit to Redmond in February was incredible demand for the 128Gb version of the Surface Pro.
One of the key reasons that I think the Surface Pro is so desirable is its design. The Surface Pro simply looks better than any current Windows tablet.
The Surface Pro invites you to touch it, and the screen is of the quality that you’d expect on a high end device. It is a beautiful crisp, wide viewing display with incredibly sharp Full HD resolution (1920×1080 pixels) that responds precisely to the touch. Up to 10 touches at once in fact!
But what sets the Surface Pro apart from consumer tablets is its ability to instantly be your laptop. The on screen keyboard and handwriting input in Windows 8 are heads and shoulders above the rest but sooner or later you need to knock out an essay like this one and touch is simply not going to cut it.
With the Surface Pro, you just kick the stand back, flip out the Touch or the Type cover and off you go. Both the touch and type cover keyboards are amazing to type on.
I initially thought that the touch cover would be unusable and I set about proving how bad it would be to type with. How wrong I proved to be! Although I prefer the feel of travelling keys, my output on the touch cover was easily on par with my regular keyboard. It was actually quite unbelievable.
You would be perfectly comfortable and seriously productive with the surface pro on your next interstate flight thanks to the Surface Pro’s portable and expandable design.
The Surface Pro also includes a Wacom Active Digitizer Pen which puts it on par with many of the Wacom tablets that we’ve been using for the last 10 years. After all this time, it’s still the best pen system out there and its inclusion on the Surface Pro shows that Microsoft would not compromise when it comes to user interface.
The 3rd generation Intel Core i5 in the Surface Pro is basically the same one that you’ll find in many of the current crop of Windows 8 Tablets – Fujitsu Stylistic Q702, Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T, Panasonic ToughPad G1, Motion Computing F5t and J3600. The i5 processor is essential for any tablet that proposes to replace your laptop. 4Gb of RAM and 128Gb drives are about middle of the road for Windows 8 Tablets but they offer performance light years ahead of any of the consumer tablets on the market.
Basically the Surface Pro is like a body builder in skinny jeans. It’s bursting at the seams with power. As it needs to be if it is going to help you to ditch the laptop!
The presence of the Microsoft brand name on the Surface Pro also carries a lot of weight in “techy” circles. And this in itself will ensure that the Surface Pro is a strong seller in corporate circles with a strong push from many IT departments.
Whilst we are looking to bring the Surface Pro to market for Australian businesses, there are a few things for companies to think about before rushing out on the Surface Pro.
Retail sales channel – Microsoft currently does not cater for the business market with the Surface tablets. It’s heavily focused on retail. But who is going to go to the local washing machine and furniture store to order 100 Surface Pros?
Device support and service - What will device support be like? The beautiful design of the Surface is unfortunately a complete compromise on serviceability. These devices are not designed to be repaired and service will likely involve a simple swap. That’s not usually as easy as it sounds and involves a major time and sometimes data loss.
Additionally Microsoft does not have an established support channel of the kind that is expected from hardware partners for corporate deployments.
Our experience so far is clear. The Microsoft name does not make the Surface Pro immune from hardware and software issues. What is important though is backup service and it’s really not clear how good this will be with Surface yet.
Lack of connectivity – The lack of inbuilt 3G connectivity on the Surface Pro is a big issue.
Desk bound IT folks often dismiss this as no big deal, but once you leave the desk for more than the odd meeting you’ll realise how fiddly and problematic tethering to your phone for 3G connectivity is. Anyone who spends a lot of time on the road will save themselves many wrinkles and blood pressure points by eliminating this complication.
But the beauty of the Microsoft Windows 8 Tablet ecosystem is that there is not just one tablet to cure all ills. There are hundreds of options and the Surface Pro is just one of them.
For many people there are better Windows 8 Tablet PC options than the Surface Pro. Here is a list of tablets to consider before the Surface Pro broken down by workflow:
What we see everyday though is that the pull of a brand name can outweigh logic and reason. Names like Samsung, Apple and now Microsoft give devices like the Surface Pro an irrational desirability.
As a Microsoft MVP I can certainly feel the pull of the brand name. Having a Surface Pro when you go into a meeting is bound to make you feel like a contender when compared to those pawing at a twitter feed (or disgruntled bird) on their big and small fruity tablets.
Tablet PC Solutions has a strong focus on business grade hardware and software applications for Tablet PCs. Our expertise is sought after by Australia's largest and smallest organizations.
Please note that we never, ever parallel import. All stock supplied by www.tabletpc.com.au is Australian stock with fully backed Australian service and manufacturers warranty.
Having personally experienced the dodgy aftermarket warranty service offered by parallel importers, we have chosen not to inflict that kind of service on our customers.
If you’re after a 3G Windows 8 Tablet make sure you pre-order the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T to ensure that your stock is secured in the next delivery. Alternately we have been receiving better numbers of the Fujitsu Q702s. We have a few left, but they are not likely to last long. Call us for a price on the Q702 better than we can offer on our website!
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About the Author: Brett Gilbertson was awarded the prestigious Microsoft MVP Award for Tablet and Touch in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Tablet PC Solutions has a strong focus on business grade hardware and software applications for Tablet PCs. Our expertise is sought after by Australia's largest and smallest organizations.
Tablet PC Australia offer the full range of
business grade Tablet PC hardware and software solutions.
Our specialist knowledge will help you to choose the best Tablet PC for your specific needs, so call us on 03 9999 1601 or email info@tabletpc.com.au.
