SMB IT | Curtis Franklin » Scribble: Decent Tablet from Electrovaya

April 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Scribble: Decent Tablet from Electrovaya

TAGS: Mobile SMB

Using display technology from Toshiba, Electrovaya, a small tablet-specific manufacturer, seems to have climbed a nother run on the tablet's evolutionary ladder. (BTW, the picture above is of the previous version, the 3000, because the pic that Electrovaya had of the the 3100 wasn't real nice in my opinion. Then again a tablet is a flat piece of plastic with a screen, so you get the idea.)

It's newest product, the Scribbler SC-3100 is a nicely fleshed out tablet with enough smarts for field work, presentations and mobile notetaking. First, it's light with an optional keyboard, meaning it's way easier to carry than the convertible notebook I'm typing on now. It's got an enhanced display screen, called the BOE Hydis 180 (from Toshiba, I believe), that allows not only viewing from all angles but easy viewing outdoors as well.

Without keyboard and USB accessories, the thing has a rated battery life of 9 hours, but even if that's only 6 hours in real life it's still pretty good.

CPU is a 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M Centrino, which is good enough for where Electrovaya wants you to scribble (though I'm hoping they go Core Duo eventually). There are also a few nice-to-have features that come standard, including a high-quality microphone for audio notetaking as well as a fingerprint scanner for all us security nuts. Finally, there's even an optional docking station for those that want to try this as a desktop replacement.

Bad news? It's a little RAM-anemic as it starts at only 256MB and even the decked out config only comes to 768MB. Other than that, the thing looks pretty darn usable.

Posted by Oliver Rist on April 10, 2006 10:36 AM

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