I don't know if this is relevant anymore. I am a mathematician and I hate
keeping track of paper. I also draw in Krita for fun. Here are the tablet
pc's I have used and the pros and cons:
1. Wacom Intuos S tablet with 2013 iMac
Pros:
-Beautiful screen. Great colos.
-very accurate
-buttons on the tablet can be mapped to different monitors so there was
*lots* of screenspace for me to work.
-ran Krita and Xournalpp just fine.
-I am not a professional but honestly Krita seems like it can get just as
detailed and vivid colors as real drawing. The iMac screen was really nice
and had high resolution so there wasn't a huge difference.
Cons:
-obviously not portable
-even though my handwriting was fine after the initial getting used to not
directly seeing what I write, I found my hand started to hurt very badly
after a while for some reason. I had to pay very close attention to how much
pressure I was using to avoid injury.
-Probably kind of expensive.
2. Lenovo X1 Tablet Gen 2 (Note: i was using this with Parabola on it, not
Trisquel, but most of this prolly applies anyway)
Pros:
-small and light
-High res screen
Cons:
-no hope of replacing wifi card
-far too few ports
-low battery life
-huge overheating problems specifically with Krita
-"wiggles" when drawing diagonal lines: not accurate
-too expensive
-delicate, cumbersome form factor. If you ever want to actually use it as a
computer and type on it, forget about it.
This was an overall terrible computer. I hated it. Definitely do not
recommend.
3. Fujitsu t1415
Pros:
-Awesome form factor. I love the swivel screen
-i really like this kind of stylus that does not require a battery. Screen is
accurate and works out of the box with linux
-Wifi card worked as is. didn't need to replace
-Lots of ports.
-Very cheap
Cons
-A little old. It has a dual core processor so it's kind of slow. I didn't
test Krita too heavily but Xournalpp was running just fine. The main thing it
seems to have difficulty with is multitasking
-Kind of hard to find a complete one this old in good condition. expect to do
some repairs.
-low battery life. Although it's okay considering the age. \
-Low resolution screen with dimmer backlight than modern laptops
4. Fujitsu t732
Pros:
-See above minus wifi.
-Plus, it's faster since it's newer.
cons:
-Seems to be a little bit more delicate than older models for some reason. Be
careful while taking it apart.
5. Fujitsu t938
This is the laptop I have currently settled on.
Pros:
-bigger screen
-lots of ports
-lightweight
-fast but doesn't heat up
-awesome form factor
-very sensible to take apart. just unscrew the back and you can easily repair
or replace any part. so convennient
-awesome battery life. i am getting about 8 hours of heavy use with
note-taking and wifi on and everything.
-all hardware is supported with trisquel (once you replace wifi card)
including fingerprint reader, smartcard reader, and cameras (not that you
care)
cons:
-way too expensive especially given the following:
-low resolution screen for the price
-The screen is honestly terrible in terms of colors and viewing angles. It
looks aweful. And this is why you shoulnd't feel too bad about not being able
to afford the newer models like this one. I can deal with it because I am
generally just doing calculations on my computer or taking handwritten notes
but if you're an artist, you probably care.
Final recommendation for tablet computer: If you can't get your hands on an
x200, try getting something like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fujitsu-LifeBook-T900-Core-i5-M520-2-40-GHz-2-GB-Ram-13-3-Boots-FT/324007357551?hash=item4b7057ec6f:g:lP0AAOSwgtdd7lgN
It's a fujitsu t900
They can range from $30-$200 on eBay but I think these older models have a
nicer screen than the newer ones anyway. If you put some time into it, I
think you can find one that is in good shape. Just send some messages to
confirm everything is in working order before buying it. You may have to
throw in your own SSD or replace the battery but honestly if my purpose was
for drawing, this is the type of computer that would best approximate what I
would need.
However, even after everything I've been through and all the computers I've
tried, for the purposes of drawing, nothing beats my wacom tablet with a nice
monitor. Even something super accurate etc like the apple pen just doesn't
replace the large size of the screen and the accuracy you can get with the
wacom pen.
P.S. sorry for never following up about those Fujitsu computers. I ended up
fixing them and giving them to people geographically closer to me to spread
more linux in the world. It seems like they are not really what you're
looking for anyway.
