11. Paceblade Pacebook Tablet PC

Paceblade has been offering the Pacebook, very heavy at 2.08 kg, in a touch screen version since Summer 2002. The manufacturer uses a powerful battery (3600 mAh) on the tablet PC and integrates the tablet PC digitizer function in addition to the touch screen. When the special stylus is close to the display, the touch screen shuts off and the screen only reacts to the stylus. If the stylus is not close, the device can be operated with your finger or any other stylus.

Another plus is that a conventional 5-V connector can be found next to the four-pin FireWire port. Paceblade's proprietary external drives are thus supplied with power, along with stereo speakers or Nokia mobiles - provided the cable fits in the port. Unfortunately, there is no room for the tablet PC power supply in the sturdy bag that is included.

The biggest minus of the Pacebook, however, is performance. 7.7 dots in Content Creation Winstone give it the lowest value on the panel. The combination of the 867 MHz Transmeta CPU and the Silicon Motion graphics chip (8 MB video memory) performs so poorly that image loading is jerky when scrolling through a document - unacceptable in 2003. Moreover, battery life is second to last in the test, at barely three hours.

The unventilated Paceblade tablet PC may have some smart details and be very flexible, thanks to the dual-display function and the IrDA keyboard, but because of its weak performance and its heaviness, the device comes in last in the test.

The keyboard of the Paceblade tablet PC communicates via infrared with the Pacebook.