After several failed attempts to use a Dell 7″ Windows tablet with my SDRs and D-Star DVAP, I decided to purchase either a Surface Pro (like my pal Mark Fahey used at the SWLing Post DXpedition) or a small Windows notebook computer.
This morning, I noticed a good deal on Woot.com: a Lenovo Rugged ThinkPad 11E-G2 11.6″ for $199 US. Woot actually had an identical deal about two weeks ago and I passed on it–since then, I’ve read mostly positive reviews about this notebook.
I’m a fan of Intel processors, but I’m pretty sure this AMD quad core processor combined with the speed of an internal solid state drive should handle most of my SDR spectrum recording needs. The Thinkpad also has a USB 2 and USB 3 port for external storage.
This small notebook is also MIL-SPEC Tested and comes with a full one year Levono warranty.
So I bit the bullet about 15 minutes ago.
I have purchased several items through Woot (hard drives, tools, telephones, etc.) and have only had good experiences.
If you’re interested in this deal, you must act quickly. It will only last until Woot sells out of inventory or the end of the day today (whichever comes first).
Hello Thomas I’m curious to know if the Lenovo 11e has lived up to your expectations. I’ve recently purchased the Celeron N2940 version and am wondering if it will handle most SDR applications.
73 de VA7EQ
Ray
Hi, Ray,
Yes–so far, so good. I’ve mainly been using the laptop to read spectrum files. It seems to do a great job of that. I’ve yet to do any field work with it, though. I know it’ll get field use this spring/summer!
Cheers,
Thomas
My only concern with this laptop for it’s intended purpose would be the display resolution – any modern processor is likely fine for working an SDR radio and decoding various modulation schemes, and memory/storage requirements are also quite reasonable.
The display would concern me, but with an industry standard 1366×768 that shouldn’t be an issue – plenty of room for panoramic displays and waterfalls.
I am curious, what were the tablet challenges you faced Thomas? I have an off-brand Windows tablet a while ago with an 8″ screen, 2 gigs RAM and a real, full-size USB 2.0 port I was thinking of using with my SDRplay and assorted RTL-SDR dongles…
I meant to write a post about this at some point, but so much time has passed since I experimented with the Dell Windows tablet.
Part of the problem was that I was trying to limit the total price to about $200. I ordered used/refurbished Dell tablets from Blinq.com–I returned a total of three! Sadly, most developed the same problem: the inability to power up after about one week of use.
I know if I would’ve purchased a new tablet–something beefier–I probably wouldn’t have had a problem. I liked the Dells because they had more RAM than comparable tablets and accessories were rather inexpensive.
In the end, though, I abandoned the idea. I realized quite quickly that I needed a bigger display than 7-8″. Also, by the time I added a dongle for external power and a full size USB port, it wasn’t as handy as I would’ve liked. I began to realize that a laptop would be just as easy.
With that said, I think using a good tablet (like Mark’s Surface Pro) would be a totally different experience. Frankly, I just didn’t want to sink that much money into it. I’m just not a tablet guy since I spend the bulk of my time online doing content creation.
I’m sure you’ll have a blast with the SDRplay and your tablet. Please report your experience, Ken!
-Thomas
What I have used in the past with my SDRs is a Dell Inspiron 11 with a touch screen (it is a ‘convertible’ laptop that can fold into a tablet) that I got for around $200-250 about a year ago. It has a Pentium processor and a 13xx by 768 screen) and it works great.
I’ll try my cheap Winbook tablet from Microcenter AND my Dell tablet (bought new, works great ;^) in the coming days – I’ll report back Thomas!
Thanks, Ken!