A Question about Tablet PC, Android and Nomad

[Soom]

Well, all these are just too expensive for now...

[meslin]

That Lenovo Yoga X1 looks pretty good with the stylus performance, but it isn't cheap (starting at $1210).

About five months ago I set out to configure the smallest, cheapest useable TVPaint computer.
I ended up with a Toshiba Encore 2 Write for under $350 including all accessories:

The Good:
- Cheap
- It's a full Windows 10 machine (I bought it as Windows 8.1 but it decided to upgrade itself one night without my asking)
- The multi-touch and pen performance are both very responsive.

The Bad:
- The machine is now discontinued, and replaced by the upcoming 12" $650 dynaPad™. Pretty easy to find still, though. Future support is obviously questionable.
- Low resolution display (1280x800).
- Multi-tasking is so bad that I can notice a difference in my line quality if I have a blank Chrome window in the background
- Stylus is physically uncomfortable for me -- slippery aluminum, heavy, very shallow side switch buttons, and a metal clip that attaches it to the device and interferes with my grip. I have modified it somewhat to my liking, by adding a rubber sleeve from a ballpoint pen, and bending the clip 180 degrees out of the way (finally decided that I was okay with it snapping off). Still interested in gluing something to the side switch buttons. Saw that at CES Wacom announced an aftermarket AES stylus, the "Bamboo SMART for Select Windows Tablets" or something, for $40. Hope it's an improvement.
- A mandatory accessory is the Toshiba Connect And Charge adapter ($30 on eBay) to make a full sized USB port available while the unit is plugged in (for the TVP dongle). Ridiculous that this is not an option out of the box.

I also got a tiny, swivelling hub for $6, and a tiny bluetooth keyboard for $25.
I found that the palm rejection was not great, and I was making stray marks in TVP with the heel of my hand, so I got in the habit of disabling the touch digitizer before starting TVP. This got old quickly, so I researched a method to quickly toggle the touch features...ended up using a free utility called DevManView which allows you to control the Windows Device Manager with batch files. Then I assigned one of the stylus side switches to the Wacom radial menu and linked it to the DevManView Enable/Disable batch files.

The setup is about as fiddly as I expected for under $350, but the drawing experience is good.

If you can get away with the weak system specs, check it out. They make an 8-inch version too, which is almost identical (same resolution/higher ppi, but no micro HDMI out). Here's the video that convinced me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g7Xy_D-WTA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Soom]

Thanks for this thorough info - I will check into it!

UPD: I have just checked - they are not sold in Europe at all I checked ebay and amazon. Although they are plenty on the USA eBay, but shipping and import fees are extremely high to Belgium... My gf is actually in the States now, that's why I wanted to order something while she is there, but it's too late - she is coming back in 2 days... Will have to search for another occasion.

[meslin]

That's too bad about the international availability.
I did try one of my students' Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the TVP Android beta ran surprisingly well.
This guy has a good writeup of a bunch of devices:
http://www.jessebandersen.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.jessebandersen.com/2015/11/l ... blets.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.jessebandersen.com/2015/12/t ... -with.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
If you don't need it to be too portable or powerful, the convertible, penabled HP TC4400 (I've had one for 9 years now, still works fine) can be had on eBay for well under $100. Resolution is 1024x768 but the pen performance is good.

[Fabrice]

That Lenovo Yoga X1 looks pretty good with the stylus performance, but it isn't cheap (starting at $1210).

Indeed, I didn't check the prices ...

[schwarzgrau]

If you don't need it to be too portable or powerful, the convertible, penabled HP TC4400 (I've had one for 9 years now, still works fine) can be had on eBay for well under $100. Resolution is 1024x768 but the pen performance is good.

Especially the resolution is something worth considering: I used a Cintiq 12wx a while ago. The screen size (12") didn't bother me, but the resolution made it hard to draw while any menu was on screen. The Cintiq Companion 2 I use at the moment is barely bigger (13"), but the higher resolution makes a HUGE difference. Maybe others aren't bothered that easily by menus, but try to consider it.

[Fabrice]

I agree, I had a 1200x800 tabletPC in the past.
That was too small for all kind of work.

My current TabletPC (fujitsu X220T) is 1600x900. Much better, but there is a hardware lag issue with the stylus :(

[Soom]

So I checked again - Toshiba Encore 2 Write - just one (!!!) on ebay USA and none on others - I mistakenly confused with other models of Toshiba Encore, which are plenty and cheaper.
The price is 250$, but hell - the import charges to Belgium will make it 350 in total - still not a bad price.
I'm not worried about resolution - I actually need it to be very portable, and minimal - I'm not gona do any major job on it - just preliminary sketching...

[schwarzgrau]

With TVP Pro you can assign a room with no windows at all on a shortcut then you can use the complete display for drawing, but I don't know how to handle it with the standard version. But for sketching I can recommend mischief.

[Soom]

With TVP Pro you can assign a room with no windows at all on a shortcut then you can use the complete display for drawing, but I don't know how to handle it with the standard version. But for sketching I can recommend mischief.

No rooms in TVP STD I guess, but I don't mind that - I can hide all unnecessary panels, and leave just one for sketching - all I need is to rough out some animation and storyboard ideas on the go.
Mischief looks very interesting, I wonder how does it work - is it vector based??

I traded my cintiq (companion hybrid) and my laptop for a cintiq companion 2 so i have everything with me everywhere. With a second wide screen at home. It's ok for me I don't even use my big gaming computer at home when i'm working, nor the computers at school. It's quiet handy... Same shortcuts everywhere, same calibration, same way to work, powerfull etc.

I will never trade my MacBook Pro to a Windows machine... There exists though a Mac version of the same kind - MODBOOK PRO, but it's crazy expensive

About five months ago I set out to configure the smallest, cheapest useable TVPaint computer.
I ended up with a Toshiba Encore 2 Write for under $350 including all accessories:

Ok, I have ordered the Toshiba, will see how it goes. If I don't like it - I blame on you ( kidding)
If I find it actually useful, I will invest more money in the future into something stronger, but for now I think it will do...

[schwarzgrau]

With TVP Pro you can assign a room with no windows at all on a shortcut then you can use the complete display for drawing, but I don't know how to handle it with the standard version. But for sketching I can recommend mischief.

No rooms in TVP STD I guess, but I don't mind that - I can hide all unnecessary panels, and leave just one for sketching - all I need is to rough out some animation and storyboard ideas on the go.
Mischief looks very interesting, I wonder how does it work - is it vector based??

Something like vector based, but not exactly it seems.

Mischief is powered by a revolutionary patented shape representation, known as Adaptively Sampled Distance Fields (ADFs), co-invented by Frisken. ADFs have several advantages for creative applications: they provide high-quality stroke rendering; they are amenable to hardware-based rendering so drawing is extremely responsive; they are very compact, resulting in small file sizes; they can be scaled without introducing pixelation artifacts; and they can accurately represent much richer and more complex shapes than traditional vector-based stroke representations.

The free version is already pretty useable, but if you need layers you should consider the pro version and if you don't need it immediately you can sign up for the mailing-list, cause they got some discounts every month.

[Soom]

That Lenovo Yoga X1 looks pretty good with the stylus performance, but it isn't cheap (starting at $1210).

About five months ago I set out to configure the smallest, cheapest useable TVPaint computer.
I ended up with a Toshiba Encore 2 Write for under $350 including all accessories:

Hi Meslin - I have sent you a PM, please check it when you can, thanks - I might need some tips from you about setting it up for better performance and some tips about parts, like where to buy pen nibs - I can't find any...

[QualiaD]

Hi folks!

I'm in the market for a new laptop, and I'm looking into the pros and cons of a tablet PC (naively I would assume one with a Wacom digitizer would be best) versus a standard laptop in concert with a Cintiq 13HD. I was hoping some of you fine people on this forum might be able to point me in the right direction. Have any of you had particularly positive experiences with a tablet PC, and if so which one(s)? Generally, have any of them caught up to the Cintiq (or are the differences negligible enough that I shouldn't be worried about it?) or am I best going with the old standard? My only experience with a tablet PC thus far has been very brief exposure to a Surface Pro 3, which was admittedly a bit laggy on fast strokes (though maybe not enough to be a hindrance in practice). Any and all assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Qualiad

[Elodie]

I merged your question with this topic : you should have a bunch of answer already

[Soom]

Hi folks!

I'm in the market for a new laptop, and I'm looking into the pros and cons of a tablet PC (naively I would assume one with a Wacom digitizer would be best) versus a standard laptop in concert with a Cintiq 13HD. I was hoping some of you fine people on this forum might be able to point me in the right direction. Have any of you had particularly positive experiences with a tablet PC, and if so which one(s)? Generally, have any of them caught up to the Cintiq (or are the differences negligible enough that I shouldn't be worried about it?) or am I best going with the old standard? My only experience with a tablet PC thus far has been very brief exposure to a Surface Pro 3, which was admittedly a bit laggy on fast strokes (though maybe not enough to be a hindrance in practice). Any and all assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Qualiad

Hi there
Budget plays a huge role here-what's yours?
You can find most tablets covered already in this thread