Tablet Advice

[mattaggie]

I have been mulling over buying a tablet PC for some months now. The primary reason for it would be managing merchandise on the sales floor. Currently I use a laptop on a cart. I have never used a tablet and am wondering how it would work for my purposes. Essentially I am entering SKU numbers or scanning barcodes to look up info on an item and change that info if necessary. How do you "type" when in tablet mode? I assume you tap with the pen to put the mouse in a certain feild.

I dont need a powerful PC for what I do. Needs to run XP. Basically accessing one website, my business software suite (which doesnt take much), and maybe Word from time to time. So I hesitate the buy a new tablet because its expensive and I'd be paying for specs I dont need (motion computing has a model with a built in barcode scanner that sounds wonderful, but $2500 is just too much). I dont think they make "budget" tablets. I've been watching Ebay for a good deal on a X41 Thinkpad, which is the previous generation.

Any thoughts on a cost-effective option? If they made a "netbook" that was a tablet, that would be great. Or if I could figure out a way to carry an open netbook around.

[shadowpr]

There are several mods for eeepc's that turn them into touch screens. I'm not sure how to do it, or how hard it is, but it may be an option.