Tablet

The Tablet PC, enabling one to doodle, draw and take notes on an LCD screen, has yet to replace pencil and paper because nobody has created a computer chip smart enough to read the chicken scratch that passes for handwriting in the post-cursive era. Gateway's new CX200X Convertible Notebook, really doesn't wow me as a computer notepad. But it more... than measures up as an all-round laptop because its designers pushed the boundary for a Tablet PC screen from 12 inches to 14 inches in a widescreen format. Much of the competition uses a 12-inch screen to help reduce system size. No one wants to doodle on a tablet as bulky as a printed volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Gateway has made a trade-off, sacrificing some portability for versatility. The 7-pound CX200X is a couple of pounds more than a typical 12-inch model from other vendors. But Gateway's 14-inch display helps tip the scales in this system's favor because its widescreen format is ideal for surfing the Web and watching movies. When used in standard computer mode, the screen's cinematic proportions (12 inches wide by 7 1/4 inches tall, and 14 inches diagonally) handles a DVD with aplomb. Those dimensions are also well-suited for displaying two text pages side-by-side, a convenience if you're using half of the screen for reference while composing a document on the other half. But, wait, there's more. The Convertible Notebook's rotating hinge allows the screen to pivot, reversing the dimensions to tall-and-thin, making the shape resemble a picture frame. The screen folds flat, leaving the exterior flush with the keyboard and the digital surface facing up. In this configuration, the computer is nifty for viewing Web pages because there's less need for scrolling. Of course, it's still a computerized tablet, and Gateway's stylus pen can be used for jotting notes or drawing directly on the screen. The $1,399 test model includes an ample 512 megabytes of memory, a 60-gigabyte hard disk and a built-in DVD burner. Despite its heft, the Convertible Notebook ...Read More