As a technology enthusiast, I constantly strive to maximize efficiency using various gadgets. In so far I have maintained an array of devices to satisfy my work and leisure needs amongst which is a desktop, a laptop, and a tablet. At home I pretty much have access to all of them so organization is less of an issue. However, one of the most stressful things I have to deal with is deciding which device to bring and which to leave at home. Since I work on all three devices (excluding phone) organizing files and deciding what to and what not to load onto the ‘Cloud’ has not reached equilibrium. Naturally, when talking about productivity one can never get away with the traditional pen and paper, at least not yet.
I had always wanted to consolidate my devices yet nothing on the consumer market is currently capable of satisfying all my needs, which are best characterized as those that require: speed, energy efficiency, portability, and style.
Recently I have been looking at some of the ultrabooks and quickly diverted to a class of ultrabooks that recently emerged yet rarely spoken about. The Sony VAIO Duo, Lenovo Helix, and ASUS Taichi, all fall under a special category of ultrabooks that on top of versatility, has built-in hand-writing input mechanism. The technology is called N-trig and has first surfaced on the vast consumer market in Samsung Galaxy Note. Dell Latitude XT tablet, released in 2008, is claimed to be the first convertible notebook to adopt the N-trig technology. Remember the days of Wacom screens on convertible notebooks? N-trig is a similar kind of technology albeit with less precision and of course less complexity and cost to integrate into capacitive screens commonly used on tablets.
Following strenuous comparisons what caught my eye was the recently released ASUS TAICHI-31, which is a next-generation device relaying the functionalities of TAICHI-21 yet boosting performance with a larger screen (13.3 vs 11.6) and longer battery life (rated 7 hrs vs 5 hrs). Of the reviews I have read so far have discussed the wonderful Full HD 1080p IPS screen, dual-display (one in front, one on back), SSD hard drive, availability with Core i7, and super thin (0.7”), nothing that meet or exceed the norm of the current ultrabook market (except maybe the measly 4gb of ram), but none have really done enough justice to one of the most useful attributes of TAICHI, and this class of ultrabooks as a whole: the stylus.
Here’s a video description of just how important this little piece is:
In order to understand the utility, one must understand the difference between a simple capacitive screen and N-trig. Historically, touch-screen has relied on pressure points to detect external input. Capacitive sensing is basically sensory technology that detects changes in electric currents, as opposed to pressure. It has already seen large scale applications even before tablets namely in laptop mouse-pads. It works by applying a grid of electric field through a surface. Disruption of electric field anywhere on this grid by an object that has capacitive potential (aka store electric charge) is translated into movements or extrapolated into actual coordinates of contacts on tablets. If one were to hold the tablet under a light source, reflections can be seen of the ‘wires’ that define the electric grid on the screen. Yes, the screen has really really thin wires! This is perhaps why if you have a cracked screen, chances are that part of it will lose sensitivity because of broken wires. However, if you’ve ever tried to write on a tablet even with the finest of capacitive pens (aka stylus with a soft tip) you would realize that it is not that sensitive, and certainly not enough to replace a simple pen and paper combo.
This is where N-trig DuoSense® comes in. DuoSense® is an extra sensor on top of the capacitive screens that also detects changes in electric fields, but those that come from an external source such as the stylus. The stylus is typically powered by batteries but there are also versions that are battery-less. Though it works under the same principle, it is far more precise than a multi-touch capacitive screen. Taking advantage of this technology, screens on the N-trig class of ultrabooks has a much more useable stylus input than regular capacitive screens.
Current reviews (Endgadget, Forbes, others) center on the traditional specs such as weight, battery life, screen, and performance, overlooking the importance of the N-trig class of ultrabooks: the stylus. ASUS TAICHI is definitely on my radar as it has a nice balance between style, speed, and versatility, as reviewed elsewhere, compared to the two contenders Lenovo Helix and Sony VAIO Duo. The release of TAICHI-31. the 13.3” version has just been announced and I am definitely going to grab one even if I have to sell some of my current gadgets. In fact, I’ve already signed up to the Amazon product alert. Yes, as expected of a new release, the price-tag can be prohibitive, but might be worthwhile depending on how you plan to use it.