[edit 2006-11-08]
I’ve noticed that this particular post is getting a lot of traffic, however I don’t know if those who find this post are going to the more comprehensive page on this blog that includes my general experiences with the M7 and some tips/tricks that aren’t necessarily obvious (where to put that darn reserve pen!). I’d recommend going there.. it has everything this post has & more!
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I have spent an insane amount of $$$ on a convertible tablet notebook – the Tecra M7. My mom – who has the credit card 
– ordered it online w/ my configuration on 09/24/06 (Friday night).
The breakdown of my www.Toshibadirect.com order:
Laptop Config – Tecra M7
- Intel Core Duo Processor T2500 (2.00Ghz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB) – sweetness! I’m glad I’m getting a Core Duo, and kind’ve wish I could get a Core 2 Quadro, but I’d probably be waiting another year in order to buy that. Once those chips come out, it will probably make the Core 2 Duo tablets a lot less expensive, but then again, the main cost of these tablets isn’t the processor anyway.
- “Genuine” Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005 – for all you MS bashers out there, hold back – Tablet Edition is actually the best OS out there for tablets at the moment in all aspects of pen integration.
- 512 MB x 1, 667MHz DDR2 PC5300 SDRAM – I intend to get a 1GB stick later, as they charge an exorbitant price at Toshibadirect.com for extra RAM)
- 14.1″ Diagonal WXGA+ Display (1440 x 900) w/ High Brightness and Wide View Angle – the largest size (inch-wise) display available for any tablet on the market, and the highest resolution (pixel-wise) for any display of this size inch-wise
- NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M w/ TurboCache and 128MB dedicated graphics memory – according to reviews / online forums, mainly a graphics workhorse for rendering or photo manipulation, not games. This is the best video card available for any convertible tablet notebook on the market as of 10/04/2006.
- 100GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial-ATA) – I didn’t opt for the 7200 rpm since most online reviews / whitepapers are saying that there is no significant performance difference between 7200 and 5400 rpm drives, and in some case higher spin drives actually did worse. Definitely need 100GB too! I’m pretty cramped w/ the 40GB notebook I have right now..
- DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive – sweet!
- Atheros 802.11a/b/g wireless-LAN – because there seems to be waffling on which is better (Atheros or Intel), and I wanted to be different
- Bluetooth (v2.0) + EDR – because I want to pay an exorbitant mark-up for wireless devices that can communicate with an internal transceiver, rather than requiring individual transcievers plugged into all my USB ports.
Warranty, Accessories
- Toshiba Tablet PC Reserve Pen – fits into a little nook in a compartment that is easily opened, in case I lose the original full-size one..
- 3 Year Standard Limited Warranty – actually pretty decent. Covers wear & tear, and any shipping costs back and forth.
- 3 Year SystemGuard + ServiceExpress – covers any accidental damage (dropping it down a staircase, or maliciously running it over with a dump truck). ServiceExpress just makes *my* tablet a priority – guaranteed deadlines for service.
- Toshiba Slice Expansion 6-cell Li-On Battery Pack – because combined with the original 6 cell that’s supposed to give 4 hours, this theoretically gives a battery life of 8 hours! And it doesn’t requires a $250 separate charger to charge, since I can charge it along with the regular one while it is attached to the tablet. Yes, it costs $80 more than another regular internal battery, but that’s a lot less than an extra $250..
- Toshiba Keyboard Protector for Satellite, Tecra, and Qosmio – b/c, after all, who wants a dirty keyboard after 3 years of use? Protect your investment, especially if it costs upwards of $2k!
Carry Case
I’m also ordering a Size 2 Monolith (black) carrying case from www.TomBihn.com. Their products appear to be of high quality (plastic outer shell, inner padding design), and fairly priced ($45 for the Monolith). They also have a guarantee that allows for returning the product if it doesn’t fit, or has a defect for a full refund minus shipping cost ($7 to get to my dorm room.. I don’t know how much back).
The Monolith is designed to be carried in a vertical fashion, and can be put in another bag (for me, my current backpack) that carries other stuff. I was concerned that if I had a the Slice Expansion battery attached, it would make the M7 too big to fit into one of their standard sizes (it adds 0.9″ at the thickest point, for a total thickness of 2.47″ on the M7). Their thickest case – size 2 – is only 2.25″, however I was assured by a CSR in an e-mail exchange that it would still fit since this is a fairly small margin of difference, and the internal padding can compress some. We’ll see!
Order Status, Shipping
According to Toshibadirect.com’s order status page, my tablet will ship on 10/10/06. They shipped the accessories (Slice Expansion battery, Keyboard protector) on 09/27/06, which later arrived on 10/02/06 (I picked’em up on 10/03/06 down at ISU’s post office). Everything in that package was in order. The manual for my battery had cute, juvenile cartoons to accompany each bullet-point of do’s and don’ts (like making sure it’s between 5 and 35 degrees C before using it..).
I just received an e-mail today (10/04/06) that Tom Bihn has billed / shipped the carry case. It is slated to get here on 10/06/06.
Bought on Sale!
My mom made the order on Friday night, 09/24/06 – the last day of a short promotional ToshibaDirect was having where they would pay for the tax on Satellite, Qosmio, and Tecra models (~$100 for my M7 config).
They also have a long-running promotion that pays for your shipping, but this cost was negligible anyway (~$10).
This is probably the best sale I would’ve gotten for the Tecra M7 in the latter months of ‘06 – Labor Day passed without any sales on the M7. I don’t expect much for the Black Friday / Thanksgiving / Christmas season since it is a top-of-the-line model that they usually don’t offer discounts on – especially since I got a custom-config model, rather than a pre-config that can be sold in stores.
To Be Continued…
I’ll be posting more information once the tablet finally get shipped here. I don’t have a digital camera, but might be able to borrow one from someone in the dorm for a little while in order to take some “opening the box” / “first time use” pics.
