But even saving handwritten notes can be a problem, Dulaney said. He recounted a time when he tried to impress colleagues at a meeting by taking handwritten notes on a tablet and then sending them around quickly to everybody afterward. "What they said back was, 'Thanks Ken, but I can't read your handwriting. Next time, type your notes.' "

By contrast, Brown said character recognition in the ThinkPad X41 Tablets has been "very good," when police officers have to write short descriptions on a form, perhaps one or two paragraphs.

"You have to train the software to recognize the handwriting," he noted. Primarily, having a tablet PC that takes handwriting input in the cramped police cruiser dashboard area means not having to provide added space for a keyboard. (The X41 is a convertible, which means the touch screen can be pivoted and placed on top of the keyboard, saving space over a fully opened laptop.)

4. Until Vista, tablet PC hardware needed a special operating system called Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

Until Vista, users needed Windows XP Tablet PC Edition to use such functions as handwriting recognition and touch screen. This has meant that a user would face the annoyance of not being able to write in a password to start working, Fiering said. The user would have to type or tap in letters and symbols of the password first before getting to the handwriting capabilities. With the new Vista Business Edition, the tablet capability is integrated, and if the PC is enabled to take touch or pen input, the OS will recognize it, she said.