New Tablet (Acer TMC204TMI) has arrived.

The new tablet has arrived.

I spent most of yesterday evening going through the initial setup. Booting the machine begins a process of installing additional Acer utilities. This took about 30 minutes. The next step was to create an Acer recovery disk. 5 cds or 1 dvd. This was another 20 minutes.

I installed Norton SystemWorks 2006 Premier. Then ZoneAlarm Security. After that, the machine would not finish booting. Luckily GoBack was enabled with SystemWorks. I was able to go back to before the ZoneAlarm install and everything is fine (except no firewall).

I then went for the Microsoft update and the SystemWorks Live Update. This ran until I went to bed. In the morning the machine had rebooted and was waiting for me.

Ghost is running now to get a point in time backup. Then the app installs begin.

Initial impressions:

Screen angle - I was worried about the angle of the screen in laptop mode. It works fine, the viewing angle is good.

The weight - at first it seemed a little heavy with the 6 cell battery, but after walking with it to a meeting, the weight is good. I think the 3 cell will reduce that somewhat. It might be good to use when I'm in 1 or 2 meetings seperated by a few hours to hold down the weight.

Overall fit and finish - very nice, the screen slides nicely, no dead pixels.

Keyboard & Trackpoint - I was concerned about the lack of a wrist rest. So far, it doesn't seem to be a problem. I prefer a trackpoint device, but after trackpads for the last year or so, I'm having trouble adjusting.

Noise & Heat - This has been a big topic on the Toshiba forums with the M400. I can hear the fan, but it is not obnoxious. It is way quieter than my Averatec (a plane taking off is quieter than my Averatec). The heat is not noticable. I would often feel that the Averatec was way too hot.

Speed - it doesn't seem blinding fast, but it is not slow.

Inking - Excellent, way better than the Averatec. I would have brief periods when the ink gods would smile on me with the Averatec, but this experience is far superior.

Ports - There seem to be enough for my needs.

Other goodies - I haven't set up the fingerprint reader yet. Soon. The little scroll wheel dealy is odd, I'm not sure of the value in it.

Crapware (coined by Warner Crocker I believe)- none that I can see. There are some OEM versions of software on the machine (NTI DVD Creator and PowerDVD), but no obnoxious ads or anything else that I noticed.

Processes running - there are quite a few Acer utilities installed, I'm not sure what is running and what isn't. I haven't really dug down into this.

Software - both tablet experience packs are installed, nothing much else. They should at least throw in One Note.

Battery - I have no idea at this point. I'll try to report back with the 3 cell and the 6 cell. I'll have to fool with the power settings some too.

Next steps - start getting the apps on. I'm debating on Office 2007 vs. 2003. I ran 2007 on the Averatec and was generally pleased with it.

Overall Out of box experience - Very good. I'm very pleased with my purchase.

More to come.