So this is in essence a spin out of the what are you currently using thread mixed at least in my case with uncertainty about the tech’s usefulness or value.
So for me two things.
A large Android Tablet- specifically the new Samsung Tab S8 Plus- great display, top level overall specs, of course the S-Pen.
Reason I haven’t pulled the trigger yet- Google’s continued neglect of tablets as a platform. Though 12L is a smallish step in the right direction.
Smartwatches generally- I’m all in on their possible benefits and utility especially the notifications and health features.
Reason I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, haven’t seen any from anyone that approaches the beauty and aesthetic of a conventional watch or for that matter the fun factor of my handful of GShocks
OTOH I’m likely to capitulate soon as both family and doctor are on me to get at least some level of heart health tracking
I have and still use a Samsung Gear S2 Classic, but I can’t justify replacing it. Sure, it has the useless Bixby instead of Google Assistant, I can turn my lights on and off using Alexa on my Echos. The battery life has always been poor, so it doesn’t come on weekend long trips, but all full smartwatches are still just as bad years later.
I also have a Polar M600 for exercising. That is looking more likely for replacement as it is pretty bad at acquiring GPS. But even then, I’ve taken to carry my phone with me on runs and the M600 does well enough in the pool.
Large ePaper device
I recently bought a small one that I’m loving, but the cost of larger ones is just not something I can justify. Some of the old Sony DPTs/Fujitsu Quadernos are now pretty cheap, but they are limited and have the worse styluses.
The Tab 8 Ultra does look enticing, very tempted once Sammy lowers the price (around release om iPad Pro M2?).
The one unicorn device in my dreamworld right now is a nineinchish e-ink color device that will run both OneNote and Samsung Notes. Now if that was a foldable I’d be all over it like white on rice or brown on you know what.
iPad mini. Seems really nice and portable, but overlaps too much with my 2021 Kindle and my 10.5" iPad Pro.
An 11" iPad Pro. Can’t bring myself to buy it until it’s either miniLED, microLED or AMOLED. Hanging on to my 10.5" Pro until that day comes. (whoops… pulled the trigger)
Surface Studio 2. Looks so sleek, but its internals are outdated and sadly it cannot function as an external monitor.
Yeah, I’d like a large tablet, either an Android (so it’d have the same stylus as my GB12 and Note 10+) or iPad (so I could try the Apple Pencil and try Sidecar and Duet &c.)
I’m also seriously considering a Wacom Cintiq and a Mac Mini.
SDuo 2 - Really like to have the upgraded version seeing how much SDuo 1 has improved and served me. Would also, love to use the dual SIM and not have to carry more devices. The ATT Duo 1 doesn’t support esim and physical SIM use.
can’t justify that purchase now, not with a well-functioning Fold 3 & Duo 1.
Garmin Venu 2 lineup comes close. AMOLED display, a lot of the good garmin function, & in the plus model you get assistant support too. Plus, at least 4 days of battery life. I bought Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE(new when it came out last year) after my Gear Sport had a button that stopped working & battery started to show it’s age after nearly 4 years of usage & it’s been refreshing not worrying about battery life. Plus, I don’t have to deal with the less than stellar combo of Samsung apps needed.
As for the topic on hand, I want a new Flip with the stylus but knowing myself I may break it either on the trail mountain biking or in the rain the 3 days a year we get it. lol
An SP8 would also be nice, but I kind of want to wait & see if an SP9 or a new get SPX gets announced with a better ARM cpu & hopefully AMD/ATi gpu(a gal can dream).
Sort of on topic but most definitely in the rumor realm. we are hearing that along with the Fold 4 and a new Flip, there will be a third device “with a new form factor” as well.
No information whatsoever about what it will be, but I’d think has to incorporate Samsung’s folding screen tech in some manner(s)
Did the rumors say if the new Flip will have S-pen support & internals(ram & camera) that is closer to the even the S21? That’s the device I really want, S-Pen enabled Flip.
The Venu 2 comes close, but that’s still about 3 days less than a MiPs display device without an always-on display, OLED is still horrible to read in bright sunlight, and Garmin’s sleep tracking… leaves a lot to be desired. I would like Garmin Pay though… but then I wouldn’t get my sweet points for purchases…
As with anything and like almost everyone here, I fear I will be perpetually seeking more.
Speaking of which and back on topic too, I’m waiting to see what low-powered AMD stuff is coming (I have no hope for Intel with the mess that is Alder Lake).
The idea of a light weight, compact, long battery Android tablet is enticing. It would make a nice sketchpad for drawing and line art, and add a bit color if I want to.
That was just excuses, here is the main reason : I just want to try out the new tech
The reasons I can’t justify it:
i already have a pile of wacom enabled tablets in my room, some of them barely used anymore.
I’m also not sure about the performance of pen on third party drawing apps and Super Display, which is the main things I want to try on it.
I don’t read on tablet, which is quite a wasted potential. I’m more of an audio book listener to rest my eyes ( TTS had gone a long way).
The price of the penabled variant isn’t cheap enough for me to justify buying just to try out new tech, maybe if some days I find an used deal.
@CrazyCat one of our engineers has a Boox Nova color and loves it. I’ve played with it multiple times and it would make my list of devices I actually regularly use if I didn’t already have the Kobo Elipsa.
The other appeal is the active and growing hacking/mod community around it. There are some very cool hacks and uses.
One other thing that tempers my enthusiasm is that while its color e-ink display is a big jump over previous color e-ink, it is IMHO still has a long way to go from the overall quality of experience for what I think e-ink is/should be for which is a full reading experience .
However all that is highly subjective and for instance the engineer that has one actually finds it better for reading over monochrome e-ink because of the color. I’m 100% sure that’s a perceptual /visual processing difference between the two of us, and as I"ve mentioned in one of the other threads is the subject of significant research and experimentation by all of the OEM display makers regardless of tech in question.
And FWIW for pure ereading I find I still prefer eink. For general computer use, I still give the edge to the best LCD tech , especially the MiniLED in the iPad Pro 12.9 and just to perplex all, I find OLED in a phone to be my strong preference.
There have been a lot of studies about memory/retention and it seems colour really does help people remember.
One thing that I’m sure many of you have noticed, is that girls/women seem to have greater tendency to use colours in their notes. Of the students I’ve taught over the years, boys really do tend to stick to monochrome with the odd highlight or change of pen colour. Girls of the other hand often have colours all over the place, some even very intricate.
My poison when I was a student was a dark blue ink and I almost never veered from it. That said, I did always remembered better from colourful revision books than from my (neatly-written may I say) notes.
All that said, for straight reading, like of a novel, colour can be a distraction and break the flow. And if you’re going to go monochrome, then good contrast is becomes more important. With colour ePaper having ‘muddier’ whites, it doesn’t make devices using it the best for text reading. But as multi-purpose-reading and notetaking devices it’s good enough.
Surface Pro 8 - Want, but can’t justify. Gonna try to wait for 12th gen. One thing that is sort of a catch 22 for me, my new job will be getting me a Surface Laptop Studio as my work laptop. Unfortunately the company is stressing they are for work only and non-work software cannot be installed. So the likelihood of me being able to install Clip Studio or Photoshop might not be allowed. (To that end, I am wondering how easy or practical it would be to swap SSD’s back and forth with the Studio.)
Mac Studio - For a triple monitor family desktop rig I set up, I got a 2nd Intel NUC hades canyon thats been more than fine. It was more of a stop gap solution, because I really wanted a Mac Mini with the M1 Max Chip for that desktop (triple monitor support an all). However the Mac Studio with the M1 Max…is unfortunately bigger then I thought and it wouldn’t physically fit in the set up I made (the smaller mac mini would), and the color would also clash. The Hades has also performed quite perfectly for its uses, so all that excess power in the Mac Studio would get wasted. I think I might just stick with the Hades and wait for a 12th or 13th gen NUC.
New thread idea for 
