- Posted by sondreb on March 30, 2008
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During Easter this year I ordered myself a Sahara i440D Slate Tablet PC from TabletKiosk.com. This was one of my top 3 favorites that I was considering buying (read the Showdown of slate Tablet PCs).
You can read the standard specifications on this great tablet PC on TabletKiosk's site, but my customization option was:
Pearl White
4GB RAM
100GB 7200 RPM HDD
Sunlight Viewable Display
No Operating System Pre-Installed
I took only a week from the device was shipped from California until it arrived at my office here in Norway. While we had some issues with the online payment transaction, the employees at TabletKiosk has been very helpful and responsive on e-mails.
I won't write a lengthy review on the device, but I will give a few comments and suggestions for others who might install and configure their i440D without an pre-installed operating system.
Installation
First I decided I wanted to try out x64 edition of Windows Vista Ultimate. After burning a DVD-R and booting the machine using an external USB DVD-burner, it notified me that my CPU was not 64-bit? I thought all the Duo CPUs happen to be x64 based, but I guess I was wrong.
Either way, it doesn't matter much cause the 64-bit support from major software vendors is ridiculously poor (not even Adobe Flash is available in 64-bit!).
You will be better off with 32-bit OS until things improve, especially if you're running a Tablet PC. For standard laptops and desktops, I would advocate using x64 edition of any OS as long as you can get hold of the correct drivers and software (remember, you can run 32-bit OS virtualized on your machine using free software like Microsoft Virtual PC).
I decided to download the Windows Vista with SP1 slipstream release and installation went quick and smoothly. Most of the hardware was recognized and installed with the built-in drivers, but there was a few ones that you need to download and install yourself.
All the drivers you need can be downloaded from TabletKiosk:
http://www.tabletkiosk.com/support/downloads.asp
But to save you the trouble of downloading everything and installing everything, I found only the need for:
- Bluetooth 2.0 Drivers
- Authentec Fingerprint Reader Drivers and VitaKey Application (You'll find the license key for VitaKey inside the battery bay on your device)
- TouchSet Utility (Touch Screen Drivers)
I would avoid installing the Function Button Application and instead get a third party button tool that can be found on the TabletKiosk forum section on GottaBeMobile.com. Just download the utility and make a shortcut in your Startup folder and you'll be much happier than with the original app.
Don't know if you need any extra drivers for the eSATA port which I have not tested yet, but the Windows Device Manager reports that there are no un-recognized devices so I'm sure everything is working perfectly.
Software
I'm a heavy user of Microsoft Office, so the first thing I download and install is the full package of Office 2007, Visio 2007 and OneNote 2007.
Next on my list is Autodesk SketchBook Pro (previously Alias) as I'm fond of drawing things. But to my big surprise, I was unable to purchase the software from Autodesk because of my shipping address. What's up with that? I choose the Download option when I added the software to my shopping cart - but still they don't allow Norwegian citizens to order their software online. That truly sucks. How am I going to get SketchBook now after Autodesk acquired Alias? I'm running a 15-days trial version now and I won't be happy when I'm not longer able to edit my artistic creations...
Sidenote: I hope we one day will be allowed to sue these corporations that blocks citizens of countries other than USA. I fully understand and respect their rights to choose to sell and do what they want with their own products, but we're living in a digital and online world without boundaries - please grow up and realize that your business can earn more money!
Next I get a lot of utilities and activity applications like the Windows Live package: http://get.live.com/
And of course the Zune software which is heavily used by me and my wife as both of us has one. She has a pink edition of the 8GB flash memory device and I have one of the old 30GB HDD devices. While I have an iPod Touch, I don't want to install iTunes on my device just yet - we have a music subscription (Zune Pass) which allows us to download and enjoy hundreds of thousands of songs for only $15 a month.
There are thousand of other utilities for Tablet PC users and I'm sure you'll find your own favorites if you happen to get a Tablet PC or already own one, but two more tips is Mind Manager from Mind Jet and InkSeine from Microsoft Research.
Hardware
As a previous owner of a convertible Tablet PC I have always had a fond interest in the slate Tablet PCs and now was the time to get one.
After a few days working with the Sahara i440D I'm happy with the results, it's a great device that has a good layout on buttons, speakers, microphones and ports. The addition of an eSata port is great, but they could have dropped the old analog modem - I'm sure there are places in this world that still is dependent on analog phone lines, but still... it could be used for something else.
I don't get why they made the FireWire (1394) port the large type when everybody else have change for the smaller ones long time ago (required me to buy yet another FireWire cable).
The speakers have decent sound, and the device itself is somewhat quiet. You do hear the fans when they are running and they can be a tiny bit annoying if you're in bed or somewhere else were there is no ambient noise.
But - the weight on this device is a bit too heavy. It's a relatively tiny lightweight device, but I still wish that the weight was half or less than what it is. the size is ok and it wraps the 12" screen nicely, but the thickness should be half or less. I realize this is limitations to the current state of computers, but I'm expecting that these devices become lighter and thinner within the next few years.
Inclusion of the finger print reader is essential - without it you would beat yourself in the head every time you need to enter username and password. It works for both logon to your local Windows account and for network shares and web sites. You should avoid a slate Tablet PC that does not have a finger print reader. The finger printer reader can also be used for scrolling up and down.
Calibration on the device can be a bit hard, I've so far not been able to make a calibration that makes the pen work and hit correctly all over the screen. It appears that the pen surface is a bit too far away from the actual LCD display so it's a bit hard when I'm drawing artistic, but for regular pen recognition and note taking it's perfectly fine. I think this might be due to the extra dual mode that the i440D supports, it has both an active digitizer mode and a touch mode. The touch mode is nice and I'll probably be using it a lot when I dock the device in my car.
Conclusion
The Sahara i440D is a great device, while it has it's flaws, this is primarily due to the state of computer technology today. Battery life seems to be decent enough, but I think my old HP TC 4200 Tablet PC had somewhat better life (single core 1,86Ghz, i440D has dual core 1,86GHz).
The performance is good and I'm happy that I choose the 7200 RPM disk option, but 100GB is very little these days so I'm hoping for a future replacement of +250GB SSD (Solid State Disk).
Later I will do an post on how I'm using the device to take notes and how it has improved the ways I'm doing my every day work- and personal tasks.