New User need Advice...and wisdom....before I spent a chunk of $$$$$

Greetings….
I am a new member, but I have been reading these forums for a while now. I’m in the market to replace my ipad 1 -3G. I am so conflicted…..so I need some thoughts….

My biggest pet peeve with the ipad is the IOS eco system. I no longer want to be a part of that, nor do I want to support that. (Imho, I think apple is on the decline now that SJ is gone….) ..I digress.

I’ve been reading and contemplating on the new convertibles and slate/tablets. My top pick is the Fujitsu T902. Yes, I know the T904 is just around the corner and the T902 is based on the Ivy bridge, but the thought of lugging around a separate (disc) drive is really annoying to me. My notion of portability is that I have everything I need in that instant. Also the T904 does not seem as upgradeable as the T902. The flip side is that the T902 is one heck of an ugly machine….but very versatile….I see this machine having many more years of life ahead. Do you agree?

My second choice is the Sony Vaio Duo 13…..yes the other end of the spectrum….drop all my notions and securities of longevity and just leap for the future….and that’s my idea of what is one potential of PC tablets….and that is they are more console like now than ever. …Almost no simple user upgradeability….just a sexy looking but short lived console.

A bit of background, I've always built my own PC, since my first 386...486 w/ VLbus..IRQs.blah blah..my current workhorse PC is an old Core i7-965-20GB Ram Asus P6T-Deluxe. I’ve swapped out the video card maybe three times, and to this day I have not seen one game that does not run awesome on this machine. It’s got no casing….all the wires and guts are hanging out like a disemboweled beast….I call it the borg!

So you see my dilemma (Am I over thinking here?) What’s the future of PCs? Console like….a la ipad/surface or PC continues the tradition of user upgradeable parts…Borg-like?

Fujitsu T902 or Sony Vaio Duo 13? Apple or Orange? what's important to me? All things being equal....everything.....

Thanks for your input

 

The question is what's more important to you. For me, the 10% difference in performance and disc drive don't outweigh the sleeker design, better display, and better battery life. There are very slim USB3 disc drives that are very easy to carry around, and that opens up your options, like the Duo 13, the Flip 13 if they fixed the fan noise problems, the T904 for the IGZO display if you don't care about spending +30% compared to the competition, or the ThinkPad Yoga if you would like 12.5" instead of 13.3".

 

That's exactly my dilemma. I wonder if I should follow the herd or go solo again. I'm just not sure what's important to me matters as much as making the right decision.... While my associates have troubled themselves upgrading on a regular basis....I've been fortunate enough to watch them from the sidelines. Those purchases I made were not my preference.....just where I noticed the industry was heading, and it wasn't in the next guys direction. This time, I'm somewhat lost. What exactly is the tablet PC paradigm? Where is this all going?

I did consider the T904, but that won't come out till March!!! As for the Yoga...it bears another go around. The last time I played around with it, holding the keyboard underneath, even though it's locked, was a bit weird.... Agreed, I hope they fix the Duo fan issue. I'm loving the red edition....

 

@OP: I'm just curious... What do you need an optical drive for?

With the U904, you definitely need an external DVD drive to backup the recovery media. But, if you're like me (a do-it-yourself kind of person), I would only need a clean Win7/8 image to put on a USB drive along with drivers downloaded from Fujitsu's website to do a clean re-install...

Other than that, I can't imagine what you could accomplish with an optical drive that you can't with an external USB HDD or even an online storage service like SkyDrive...