Review: Turn The PC Into a Tablet With Genius Pen Sketch 610

Tablet PCs are very well suited for vertical industries such as medical, education, manufacturing, shipping and receiving, public relations and inventory tracking. There are cases where users prefer to record handwritten notes or need to capture signatures. The benefits don't stop there. Users working with point-and-click applications find that using a tablet can be physically more comfortable than using a mouse. Tablets are popular with gamers, as well.

However, not all businesses have the budgets to replace existing notebooks with a tablet PC or convertible tablet. And why should users miss out on the tablet action just because they are tethered to a desktop? Solution providers can help businesses make the jump into tablets with a simple solution: The G-Pen F610 drawing tablet from Genius.

The Genius Pen Sketch 610 is an ultraslim tablet that connects via USB to a Windows PC or a Mac. The tablet features a 6 x 10-inch working area (it actually measures 10 x 12 inches) and 29 programmable hot key buttons. The keys can be mapped to a variety of Office, Internet and Vista functions and shortcuts. The black finish gives it a sleek look. Its thinness had reviewers worrying about accidentally snapping it in half by putting something heavy on top.

Solution providers can offer customers a simple solution for converting machines to tabletsand#8212;and it is very affordable at $139 a slate.

The surface of the tablet has a clear plastic overlay for slipping things underneath and tracing over it. The Pen Sketch also comes with two template sheets that map to the Windows desktopand#8212;one for 2000/XP and the other for Vistaand#8212;that can be slipped under the overlay. The hot key buttons are printed on these templates.

The cordless pen that comes with the tablet requires a single AAA battery and features two buttons and 1,024 level pressure sensitivity. About the size of a marker, it fits the hand comfortably. The buttons on the side of the pen can be programmed to work as left and right mouse buttons as well. The pen's sensitivity was just right, with the cursor moving precisely wherever the pen was. It took a few minutes to get used to it, but pen flick navigation was less painful on the wrist than using the mouse. Genius includes extra pen tips in the box.

The Pen Sketch was tested on both Vista and XP desktops. Vista's support for tablets is excellent, with handwriting recognition, e-mail signing and note taking. The tablet worked immediately after plugging into the USB port. For 2000/XP/Vista Basic/Mac users, the driver has to be installed first.

The G-Pen F610 comes with the MacroKey Manager software for mapping the hot keys, Power Presenter RE, Free Notes and Office Ink. An image editing program, Ulead PhotoImpact 12 SE, is also included. The Mac CD comes with the Mac driver.

Businesses are using tablets to boost employee productivity and workflow. While the keyboard and mouse can take on most input tasks, writing and drawing can speed up work processes, and as a starting point for workplaces switching to tablets, the Genius G-Pen F610 is a step in the right direction.