I got mine, because I hate having to sit at a desk just to do some work. Now I can work, surf and read – in bed, on the couch, walking around, standing up, or sitting under a tree.

Sure the input is a little slower than a keyboard, but for me the creative process is greatly aided by pen and ink programs like Inkseine, rather than a keyboard and mouse that require a desk and make it impossible to sketch out my ideas.

As for tablets taking over, I wish! They’d be a lot cheaper!

I bought this tablet to be my primary computer and from the day I bought it through this day it has been. And having used it as my primary computer almost every day for the last 4 years, I’ll let you in on my opinions of a tablet: It can do EVERYTHING a laptop can AND MORE. This is the benefit of a convertible tablet. I also have a Nokia N800, which is purely touch screen and digital keyboards and don’t have a problem with that either. Yes, there’s a learning curve to various degrees, but there are learning curves on everything in life. You don’t quit driving after you take a car out for the first time because you don’t know what you’re doing.

Tablets suck at handwriting recognition.
This tablet shipped with XP Tablet PC Edition. The handwriting recognition wasn’t fantastic, but it wasn’t as bad as you make it sound. My ex had about a 75% recognition rate then and if that seems low, he’s the same person that, half the time, couldn’t read his own writing. The tablet PC could understand his writing better than he could. And that was on XP. Vista I have next to no issues with and the only thing that gives me a little grief there are 6s, simply because I make them backwards from the norm. The HWR is trainable though.

Tablets suck to carry around.
As many others have said, no more so than a laptop. Tucking mine under my arm isn’t a big deal because of the way it was designed. They’re designed to be held. My tablet certainly isn’t light (just over 5lbs if I recall) but it’s not unreasonable. I also have a laptop bag that I carry it in too, as I would do anyway if I had a regular laptop.

Tablets make you tired.
Not really. I understand the point you’re making but it’s not entirely true. Yes, tablets require more movement (though one pen stroke vs. 5 touch pad swipes is less movement overall) for the most part but that movement is more NATURAL. It’s really hard to explain without being experienced but everything just feels more natural. Like using a pen and notebook to write notes down or hold a book (maybe a bigger book but less awkward than a heavy hard cover book), it just feels better overall. Maybe you’re using more muscles in the end, but it doesn’t feel as forced.

Tablets can’t share nicely with others.
Tablets can share and exchange files exactly the same way as a regular laptop. Every handwriting application has some way to export the file in a way that another computer (tablet or otherwise) can read. Plus, they can handle every other file that any laptop can. They’re still computers if you’re talking about a typical tablet PC, not a MID or e-book reader.

Tablets suck at hiding smudges.
See comment above. This was fixed with a $20 matte screen protector that has been on my tablet for the last 4 years. I’ve had 0 problems with it since then.

Tablets are bad Web browsers.
They have exactly the same web browsers that a laptop has so they can’t be worse than any laptop web browser. That being said, in my experience, I have found them to be BETTER web browsers than laptops. I can slide my screen down to slate mode and rotate the screen to portrait (I have it set to do it automatically so it does this when the screen goes down) and I can use the pen to navigate any website I want in a NATURAL way. The great thing about this is that with the pen (or finger), you don’t need as much elbow room as you do with a touch pad or trackball so you can sit more relaxed and in less space. This is similar to what someone else said about sitting in coach while flying, and also similar to riding in the backseat of a coupe with two other people on each side of you. You don’t need elbow room at all. It’s absolutely wonderful to browse like this. The same applies to my internet tablet from Nokia, except that’s using either my finger or a stylus. Same great experience though. This feature WINS over laptops.

Tablets are priced poorly.
In 2005, I paid $1600 for my tablet and it came with an extra battery as well. Was this more than other laptops with similar or better specs? Of course, about twice as much actually. I knew this going in though because, looking at the actual specs aside, the form factor is worth the price. The ease of browsing, the natural interaction, and the benefits of a tablet PC while keeping all of the functions of a standard laptop. I got as much as I would have gotten on a laptop and MORE, so yes, it costs more. The benefits were worth the price for me.

Tablets suck at everything else.
Far from true. Again, this is my primary computer. I do all of my college work on it, I browse the internet, I work often in the full Adobe suite with the pressure sensitivity features of the Wacom penabled sylus (exactly like owning a graphics tablet without the extra piece of hardware), AND I game on this machine as well. I have yet to run into a situation where my tablet didn’t do something that a regular laptop could. Quite the opposite, in fact. My tablet PC has been able to do quite a bit that a regular laptop can’t do and has made my PC experience more enjoyable and easier because of it. Tablet PCs aren’t just viable in niche markets. Pretty much anyone can find a benefit.

The funny thing is that most of my colleagues who also bought tablets also don’t usually use them as tablets – they’re used 80% to 90% of the time as laptops. Why not just get a laptop then? Some have just given up on them. We’re all engineers and researchers, so yes, we’re comfortable with technology. In reality, the only two situations where I’ve found the tablet useful is when I teach, or if I have a fixed, long meeting in a pretty controlled environment.

The rest of the time… I use my MacBook Air (1st gen fires up and is ready to go in 1/3 to 1/2 the time of my Vista tablet) and a Moleskin or other journal pad and a pen. Go figure.

Name one portable computer that does handwriting recognition better! I’m drawing a blank.

As for lugability, you don’t seem to realize (or acknowledge) that tablets come in different sizes and weights. Look at the Fujitsu LifeBook P series; it has a 9″ WXGA screen, for goodness’ sake; it’s only a little bigger than a paperback book! Are you going to have more trouble carrying that around than I (5’2.5″ tall, 120-lb female) am? There have also been 10″ and 8″ tablets. They’d fit in smaller bags than the Dell Latitude E-series or anything Apple offers. My T2010 (12″ display, 4 lbs) doesn’t pull me off my motorcycle when I lean into a turn; when I’m toting my users’ E6xxs (14″ display, 8lbs) around, I feel those suckers. The tablet is so portable that I feel comfortable toting my hackin–er, a second computer around as well. No, I don’t NEED a second computer, but I like to play, and I like variety.

After too many years of too much computing, using a mouse and keyboard is very often pain-inducing. Thanks to my Tablet PC, I can use the pen to get my work done–and it does get my work done.

As for sucking as a web browser or anything else, my Fujitsu T2010 (a convertible; that means it has a keyboard, too) has very similar specs to my heavier (but admittedly thinner) 13″ MacBook: Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM (unlike my MacBook, which was ordered 16 days before the 2007 refresh GRRR, I can upgrade the Fujitsu’s memory to 4GB). I love browsing the web on my LifeBook with my pen; that’s TRUE point-and-click, not drag-the-pointer-and-click. It’s also a lot easier to keep track of “paperwork,” including the kind that needs to be signed, on my Tablet. No printing/signing/faxing for me; I just write it up and email it! I dare say no other device does THAT better.