A Toshiba Portégé 3500 Tablet PC looks and works like a regular laptop, but it doubles as a digital notepad that can transcribe handwritten notes that you write on the screen with an electronic pen. There's even an eraser on the end of pen for tidying up digital goofs. To achieve this transformation, the screen swivels away from the keyboard and then lays flat to produce the electronic tablet configuration.

It allows you to write notes on it, freehand, using the electronic pen and either have the computer convert such scribblings to typewritten notes through the built-in handwriting recognition software, or simply save them as an image file. The notes or parts of notes can be attached to an e-mail--circle an item, click and send--and transmitted via the Internet. Recipients can then read them and save them on their own computer for future reference.

The colour LCD screen on the Portégé 3500 is a decent 12.1 inches. Its heart is a Pentium III 1.3 GHz processor and 256 MB of RAM, expandable to 1 GB. At 4.1 pounds it's a little heavy for a notepad, but relatively lean for a laptop.

The lithium ion battery supplies power for up to 3.5 hours in continuous use, and can last much longer on standby before needing a recharge. And using the Tablet PC's built-in 802.11b wireless networking capability, you can connect to a Wi-Fi network to get Internet access. Wi-Fi is a common wireless network technology that is growing in popularity in homes, offices and even in public places like coffee shops and airport lounges.

The Portégé 3500 runs Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, an operating system that is, at its heart, Windows XP Professional, but with handwriting recognition add-ons. Hardware-wise, the system has two USB 2.0 ports for connecting peripherals. It also has both a Compact Flash port and a SD (Secure Digital) card slot for transferring image or music files from a digital camera, MP3 player or PDA. It doesn't have an onboard CD-RW drive. For this you'll need an externally connected device.

The Portégé 3500 is a mobile workhorse ideal for those that want to power to input handwritten notes and store them digitally but also want a lightweight mobile computer. It's great for people who like to write freehand, but want to store and work with them digitally on a device that offers all the features of a tradition laptop.
 

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