I'm looking for Tablet PCs (or a vendor) that are known to be sturdy/reliable. Problem is, that cost is a factor right now for my employer. We're looking to get 10 of them for our road warriors, and they'll be running .NET CRUD apps with SQL Server and Office so they don't need to be super powerful by any means, but all of the ones we've gotten so far have broken easily or have serious mechanical or power issues.
I'm avoiding the use of 'rugged' right away, because it implies I'm looking for a ruggedized Tablet PC, which are more than the company is willing to spend.
So far, we've gone with:
- Gateway M275's which worked fine, but they were too large, and the screen pivots had a tendency to break.
- Toshiba Portege M200's where the AC jack was easily damaged, the batteries stopped charging (altogether) on a number of units after a few months.
- Thinkpad X41's which have been the best ones so far, but I've gotten 2 now, after 2 months usage that won't charge, and the screen pivot sensor's on all of them are pointless; they need to be turned off because the sensor is too finicky and will either not detect the screen flip or will be 'touchy' and flip back and forth between landscape/portrait like a cheetah when in tablet mode.
It's also common to all of them that the AC adapter shreds at the point of contact on the adapter. This is a bit of a user training issue, but it's still one more pain in the ass thing to have to constantly order new ones and replace them.
So I ask
Does anyone have any experience administering a deployment of Tablet PCs, and which brands/models do you recommend? Either style are fine (fixed position or laptop style with 'tablet mode')
