TABLET PC: ACi Tablet PC

ACi tablet PC has a P M 1.4 GHz processor and Wi-Fi capability, which qualifies it as a Centrino, even though the notebook doesn’t have the Centrino label anywhere. It weighs 2.2 kgs without the battery, and the default battery that was shipped with it weighed 350 gms. The optical drive (we got a DVD combo) and floppy drive are not built-into the machine, and weigh another kilo. In all it comes to 3.5 kgs. It has two drives that are external with a USB interface. There is an Intel graphics controller with 32 MB shared video memory. Other than that, it has 256 MB RAM and 40 GB

HDD.

Performance wise the tablet scored well. It scored 24.9 in Business Winstone 2002, which makes it good for running routine office productivity apps. It got 29.3 in Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2003, that’s good for multimedia content creation applications. The tablet’s battery backup is also good, lasting 2 hrs and 40 mins. In 3DMark 2001SE it could score 2584 3DMarks and in Quake III Arena 80.9fps which are average scores, so don’t expect great gaming or graphics performance from it. 

Coming to connectivity, the tablet has all the regular ports, for modem, Ethernet, VGA out, and Audio In/Out. Plus, there are two USB 2.0 Ports; a PCMCIA type II slot, and a 4-in-1 flash memory card reader. An Irda is also there. There are no legacy serial, parallel, and PS/2 ports though .When you rotate its screen, you get three buttons and a scroll wheel. One button helps rotate the display from portrait to landscape mode, while the other two are for Tab and Escape. The scroll wheel can also be pushed and so it can function as the Enter button. Display screen is a 14.1” XGA TFT touch screen with an ordinary stylus to use it. Its keyboard layout and touchpad are comfortable to use A software has to be installed to get the left and right click features. There is a webcam that’s fitted into the frame of the display

Lastly, the tablet has an attractive price tag of around Rs 83K. Though you’ll have to pay separately and install Win XP Tablet PC edition to get the full benefits of the tablet PC, such as handwriting recognition, annotation. 

Siddharth Sharma