Background:

I’ve had the U a little over a month and to be perfectly honest with everyone, it was just a $2,000 toy. I haven’t used it for anything productive. I stopped using it in class, the X is just much better for that task. The U works well with the BT Keyboard & Mouse (I promise to review accessories, I’ve just been busy) and the handwriting recognition is excellent, but just a bit too slow for practical note-taking.

I kept hearing how Tablet OS was much better then XP on the U so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Several failed attempts let me to just purchase an MSDN Universal Subscription. Finally, my Tablet OS.

Installation:

I formatted the U and installed Tablet OS directly. It was up and running, no glaring problems. I unpacked the .pac file from the original U installation to restore the utilities and the drivers. Everything went through alright except 2 things.

1. ritePen - this is the handwriting recognition software
2. The onboard hardkeys - Zoom, Rotate, Brightness, etc

For the life of me I could not find these files. I called Sony tech support…it took almost an hour for them to admit ritePen came pre-installed…they swore they never heard of it. They decided to shut me up by sending me a restore DVD free. I tried the .pac off of that one…same problem. I found the files for the hardkeys online…but they were in Jap not Eng.

Finally, on a suggestion, I did a full restore then installed tablet right on top. Almost there. I uninstalled the bloatware (MS Office Small Business, Sony Connect, Norton, etc). The hardkeys worked…ritePen was installed…except FloatTip didn’t work (I’ll explain later). I finally located FloatTip online, now finally everthing works. It took about 1 month from start to finish to get my Tablet OS…took about 3 hours to install/uninstall everything.

Usage:

The major thing to tablet is the built-in handwriting recognition called Tip. Tip is similar to Decuma (for those that owned Clie’s). While you write it translates each letter individually…you click ‘insert’ to paste it in the program. At anytime you can fix a single letter if needed. IMO it is much quicker and more accurate then ritePen. It does not handle numbers as well as ritePen does, again, IMO.

One of the coolest features is that Tip can ‘float’. It knows when a program has a place to type and automatically puts a little icon for you to click and begin to write. This is great because you don’t need to move your stylus too far to do a lot of simple tasks.

Was it worth it?

It really depends. I don’t see this as a serious note-taking machine unless the presenter speaks really slowly. Yes, Tip is better then ritePen, IMO, but it will cost you a MSDN subscription…it’s not that much better. I guess if you have access to an MSDN (or Tablet) then by all means, load it up, you can’t go wrong. I personally wouldn’t suggest buying a subscription just for Tablet, but I’m nuts, we all know that.

Overall, I am happy with my U…hopefully when I decide to do a custom mount in my truck (GPS) I will get more use out of my toy.

I will do a short video of Tip (I already did one with ritePen) so that everyone can see firsthand what it’s like.

Thanks,
Erik

Thanks for the review, Erik.  I am really learning to just be patient with the evolution process of the Tablet PC.  I am happy to know that there is someone out there with the “big bucks” who is not afraid to spend those “big bucks” on the gadgets I thought I wanted.

I feel as if I owe you money or something.

[quote author=“TruthSeeker”]Thanks for the review, Erik.  I am really learning to just be patient with the evolution process of the Tablet PC.  I am happy to know that there is someone out there with the “big bucks” who is not afraid to spend those “big bucks” on the gadgets I thought I wanted.

I feel as if I owe you money or something.

Feel free to donate to ‘Erik is an idiot fund’...paypal .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Believe it or not I usually break sort of even at the end…I sold my TR for a decent price…or I just try not to think of the money wasted…lol.

Erik

Anyone has any idea if the successor is coming soon? “U2”?

I know of a music band that could assist Sony with promoting that product.  :wink:

Hey Erik,
Thanks for the review again. Always nice to see sincerity. I was just wondering: what initially attracted you the the U750P? Was it the form factor? new peculiar gadget? coolness factor? way of making your work easier?
It is amazing to me how some people find a lot of use of a particular gadget and others think it is useless.
Have you tried watching a movie on it? What do you think?

[quote author=“VAIOfreak”]Hey Erik,
Thanks for the review again. Always nice to see sincerity. I was just wondering: what initially attracted you the the U750P? Was it the form factor? new peculiar gadget? coolness factor? way of making your work easier?
It is amazing to me how some people find a lot of use of a particular gadget and others think it is useless.
Have you tried watching a movie on it? What do you think?

Honestly, it looked cool, I wanted it.

I haven’t really watched more then a few minutes of a movie…at least I don’t remember doing so. The screen is really sharp so I don’t see it as a problem…of course if you want to watch a real DVD you need to use the base station (for the sony dvd) because off the base it has no firewire.

I need to get that tablet movie done…maybe tonight.

Erik