If you know me at all you know that I go through phones at a pretty fast clip.  In the last 12 months or so I’ve had the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre, HTC Hero, Droid Eris and finally the Motorola Droid.  Well let me introduce you to what is sure to become my next phone, the HTC EVO 4G.

The spec sheet on the EVO reads like my ultimate smartphone wish list.  I’ve become a huge fan of Android since I got my Droid (Sorry Ari, couldn’t disagree with you more).  It’s very fast, stable, fun, has a ton of apps and does a number of things the iPhone can’t.  I won’t drone on about that since that really isn’t the point of this post.  But needless to say I’m an Adroid convert and I think this phone will go a long way with others to further that.

So what’s this thing got under the hood, well let’s check.  800×480 resolution display (that’s nearly 4x the resolution of the iPhone).  4.3” screen (yeah, that’s big and I am concerned it could be too big).  1 GHZ CPU.  1GB of ROM, 512MB RAM.  8MP camera with flash (yup, 8MP – good by pocket camera).  720 video recording (good by video camera).  HDMI output (hello playing video on friend’s TVs).  Front facing 1.3MP camera.  Removable memory (MicroSD).  Removable battery.  Virtually as thin as the iPhone.  Android 2.1 with HTC SenseUI (their very pretty interface stuff).  And a kick stand to hold it up for video, etc.  Holy shit.

So basically if it’s not too big for the pocket (early reports are it is not) then this thing is going to be amazing.  While I’m not trilled it’s coming to Sprint the great part there is it’ll be their first 4G phone (and the first 4G phone in the US).  Hello video conferencing on the go.  And goodbye iPad – with a device like this I think the iPad will be irrelevant to me.

One of the great things about my job is that I get to play with a lot of new, cool technology. A few months ago Brad wanted to try out the new generation of Tablet PC’s so we got the Compaq TC4200 which I didn’t like at all and predicted that Brad would hate. Well he didn’t, but he didn’t really love it either. But once IBM announced the X41 Tablet he wanted one as quickly as possible.

If you don’t know I’m a HUGE fan of IBM laptops. I have a IBM T40 that I’ve had for a while and I love it. It is by far the best laptop I have ever used in my 10 year career. So when IBM announced the X41 Tablet (and Brad said he wanted one) I was looking forward to playing with it. It did not disappoint.

So rather than do a big long review (there are plenty out there) I’ll just give you a quick good and bad on it.

Good

• Super bright screen
• That great IBM keyboard
• Very thin/light
• Excellent tracking of the pen
• Powerful: 1.5 GHz, 1 GB Ram, 60 GB HD, a/b/g wireless, bluetooth
• Strong screen pivot hinge

Bad

• No ctrl-alt-del button in tablet mode (not that I can find)
• Small keyboard (I’m NOT a fan of ultra-portables but this is a good one as far as they go)
• No Volume keys in tablet mode (they are hidden)
• A bit heavy in tablet mode

Again this is just a quick and dirty review. If you’re new to Tablet PC’s do some research before taking the plunge. Personally I would never go for one, mainly due to the screen resolution (my T40 is 1400×1050 – as low as I’m willing to go on a laptop – the X41 is only 1024×768). If you need a ultra-portable laptop that could double as a tablet then this is probably the one for you. It blows the Compaq 4200 away and if you listen to the reviews blows ALL Tablet PC’s away (at least the laptop convertables). While I still think that Tablet PC’s fill a very specific niche and aren’t really useful for everyone this one is a great cross-over product.

I recently purchased a HP Compaq tc4200 TabletPC for Brad Feld. He’s wanted one for a while, and had one of the first generation Compaq ones when they came out. Since he ddn’t like that one we sent it back and now he’s decided to give it another go.

My prediction: He’ll hate it. Here’s why.

If you ask me (and since you’re reading this you kinda did…) TabletPCs fit a VERY specific niche. A VERY specific one. They are NOT for general purpose computing. While the tc4200 is a laptop/tablet combo (meaning it has a keyboard and can be used as a standard laptop) it just isn’t useful in tablet mode. The main issue is that it’s just too heavy and hot. Ok, so Brad wants to use it in Alaska to read his email and blogs while lying on the couch (sounds good to me) so I figured that’s how I’d evaluate it.

As a Tablet
So this weekend I spent about an hour lying on my ass playing with this thing (after 5 hours of landscaping so don’t give me too much crap!). I figured I’d do what Brad will do, read blogs/sites and magazines. So I switched to tablet mode and started surfing away. First problem, man is this thing heavy! At 4 1/2 lbs it’s a lot to hold in your hands, and too heavy to rest on your chest/stomach. After about 10 minutes you really feel the weight, oh and next comes the heat. While it’s not nearly as hot as my OQO was (and man was that thing hot) it still gets uncomfortable. Then there comes surfing. The issue isn’t with moving in a page (the jog dial on the side is really nice, but it’s located too high) its with opening new pages/links you don’t have bookmarked. The handwriting software sucks for surfing. What I mean is this. I write slashdot.org (and I’m VERY careful with spacing) and it thinks I wrote Slash Dot org (since it tries to interpret what I’m saying). So I switch to the other mode (where you get little boxes) but that’s really restrictive. Ok, you could bookmark everything but come on… Next is the pen as a mouse – it SUCKS. Plain and simple. They should have put a small pointing stick on the front so you could use that…

As a laptop
Ok, so as a laptop it’s not bad, but it’s no IBM T Series (which is easily the best laptop ever made…). After using IBM’s for years there is just nothing that comes close, not even a little close (ok, maybe my powerbook, but still not as nice…). The keyboard just doesn’t feel right, the mouse buttons are TERRIBLE, the glide pad sucks, on and on and on and on.

Oh, and I didn’t mention the worse thing. The screen SUCKS. SUCKS!!! It’s just no where near bright enough. I have 20:8 vision and I can barely read the thing. Even in a low light room it’s just not enough.

So in short HP just missed it here. And I think tablets are just for VERY specific purposes, purposes where you would NEVER use a keyboard (think doctors, factory workers, anyone that moves around all the time). So, next it’s to Brad, we’ll see if my prediction is right. Hell he may keep it just to spite me