So I basically love this thing. It’s not perfect, but it’s very good. Even a short period of using it reveals a number of obviously frustrating shortcomings, but they are only meaningful in the context of how successful the slate PC can be.
The battery life is about four or five hours, and it is so fast at going to stand by and back that it feels like an always on device. The built in wireless is solid and the form factor is such that it’s really pretty easy to carry around and put down in various places. For browsing and checking e-mail the pen interface is fine. The OneNote application is excellent, and works particularly well in combination with voice and pen. Voice recognition is essential for this device, and fortunately the quality of that as I’ve said before is quite good. The supporting interface needs to be improved even in the varying ways that different applications support it. But with a good headset, it’s just terrific. The only frustration is having to carry around a headset with a cable plugged in. The protective layer for the screen also makes it a little less sharp to the eye, and the lack of real tactile feedback when writing with the pen continues to be a bit disconcerting for me.
But with a one GHz Pentium M. chip and half a gig of RAM, it’s a real machine and it can accomplish real tasks for me. I can only think that in the future is going to get slimmer and brighter and better.