TechBlog- Lenovo x61 and HP 2710p head to head

Dwight Silverman has not been a big fan of the Tablet PC platform, Lord knows I've tried.  That may be changing slowly as he's recently been evaluating both the Lenovo ThinkPad x61 and the HP 2710p Tablet PCs.  He's written a double review of the two Tablets and seems to be impressed with the accuracy of the handwriting recognition that Vista provides.  Which one does he like best?  You'll have to read the review but I will give you this telling quote which helps answer the question why I bought a 2710p for myself (emphasis is mine):

But HP more than redeems itself with the 2710p, which is the best Windows Vista notebook I've tried this year.

Yowza!

Comments

[Rodfather]

Can't wait to hear your more of your thoughts on the 2710p. I've included 12" convertibles in my list of possible candidates for my next device.
Lenovo X61, Fujitsu T2010, and HP 2710p all look like great machine.
Wonder what's up with the LG C1 though. 10" convertible that never seemed to make it out of Korea.

[Kenrick]

Yeah, I was hoping the LG Xnote C1 would make it here. I have seen it at some Canadian retailers for a hefty price (alas, the exchange rate is not what it once was). There is really no 10" tablet on the market with a recent processor.

[GS]

Thanks James; this post/link finally made me decide on the 2710p (versus the X61t). Very difficult descision to make.

I do regret the lack of finger-touch on the 2710p and wish it had basic navigation buttons for tablet mode - but it seems like a fairly conscious decision by HP - to keep the tablet surface completely clean. The 2710p is undoubtedly more efficient than the X61. It's likely the future X70 will more likely mirror the kind of innovations already found in the 2710p (LED Backlight, Widescreen, Camera, etc) and perhaps yet may not still match the battery options.

Both notebooks seem upgradeable to solid state disk, and I don't think the X61 having a faster CPU and potential for a 7200rpm HDD is a deciding factor. You don't generally buy a subnotebook to crunch numbers or do rendering anyway - some other reviews (pcmag for instance) just don't make sense in that regard. Their 2710p review is like a marketing exercise for the X61 tablet and almost put me off it.

Only thing that worries me about the 2710p is the small pixel pitch (I've not had a huge amount of luck in the past with 12" widescreens and the "dim screen" reports of the 2710p aren't encouraging - although this won't be my primary system so it's not enough to put me off.) But again the reality there is that this is the direction the next Thinkpad will embrace regardless (like their T series did) so better get used to it (even the most basic Dell/HPs now come with 1280x800 LCDs so I think Lenovo's falling off the map with this one).

Thanks for this hugely informative post and excellent coverage in general.