Tablet PC Trial: Electrovaya Scribbler

David Schatsky | December 08, 2003, 02:57 PM

I've been testing the new Scribbler SC 2000 tablet PC from Electrovaya. It is a sexy device, with integrated Wi-Fi capability, courtesy of the Centrino chipset; integrated speakers and microphone, that allow Windows to do its voice recognition magic; and an integrated fingerprint reader for the latest in biometric security fashion.

The pen/tablet combo is highly usable. My 4-year-old resident artist was able to make the Alias Sketchbook drawing program, that shipped with the product, sing with no training.

The machine excels as a tablet-first computing device. I expect to see it adopted primarily in vertical computing markets, such as health care, where the primary interaction mode is via the tablet and pen.

It comes with a detachable keyboard and ingenious mini mouse. This makes for a very light machine when the keyboard is not needed. But when you do need to attach the keyboard, the fact that you cannot control the angle of the display, and that the display is hard to read beyond a few degrees off center, means that it's not a good choice for users who will be making extensive use of the keyboard.

Still, it's an impressive device and conveys the power of the tablet paradigm in the first few minutes of use.