A Pen-Tablet PC for the Office and the Road

Fujitsu PC's latest pen-tablet computer offers numerous options for mobile computing and desktop use.

The company announced the new Stylistic 3500 pen-tablet PC, which can be converted for desktop use, on Monday. Targeted at people whose jobs frequently take them away from the office or outdoors, the Stylistic 3500 is available through resellers and system integrators, starting at $3899.

Weighing only 3.2 pounds, the pen-tablet PC runs on an Intel Celeron 500-MHz processor, has a 15GB hard drive, and supports up to 256MB of memory. For desktop use it has four optional docking alternatives: a mini-dock that allows full desktop functions with Universal Serial Bus ports, a PC card, keyboard, mouse, external monitor, floppy drive, serial device, and ethernet; a high-usage dock; a wall-mount cradle; and a portable port replicator.

Outdoors or Indoors

The Stylistic 3500 also features a new, reflective, 10.4-inch thin-film transistor SVGA outdoor-viewable color display, which Fujitsu says combines the outdoor brightness found in passive-reflective screens with the high contrast and fast speed of active-matrix screens. The pen-tablet PC is also available with an indoor-only display. Both screen options use technology that reduces glare and reflection.

Built-in connectivity features include a 56-kbps V.90 modem and integrated 10/100 Base-TX ethernet.

The pen-tablet PC uses higher-capacity lithium ion battery technology, so the battery will last up to 4 hours, Fujitsu says. Using a lower-voltage processor and a higher-capacity battery means a 30 percent boost in battery life over the previous version of the Stylistic, the company says in a news release.

The mobile PC supports Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. For handwriting recognition, it supports Windows Pen Services and Communication Intelligence's PenX operating system extensions.

Fujitsu offers several varieties of tablet PCs that combine a touch-screen device with a powerful mobile PC. The company has also signed on to develop systems based on Microsoft's Tablet PC platform.