Another screen splurge....

Categories: artwork

Tags: Nomad Brush, Pogo Sketch Pro, Dagi, Sony, PC World, New Trent stylus, Doodlebombing, Doodle Bombing, screen art, Lenovo, HP, Screen splurge, Vaio

Date: 04 January 2014 14:42:31

Not that I think this is going to be a weekly thing sadly, but was allowed to pop into a different PC World today - the Woking branch - for a potter about while son boy had his feet measured and so on... Very lucky man, me, to get two slots of free doodling time to myself while others do all the hard work :) So, armed with a pencil case full of styli I went in to see which screens they had to play with. The answer surprised me, more than the other day in Guildford. Starting off - a Sony Vaio touchscreen laptop: Didn't have Fresh Paint installed on it (grr) so I loaded up Paint and had a play. Liked it, although not as much as the Vaio sliders which I think are an excellent design and have one of the best in class integrations of a stylus. The laptop (I really should take a note of model numbers and names when doing this) wasn't really in the right position for me to draw on - I couldn't move the screen to an angle I was happy with - but to be fair I don't think I'm the normal shopper that PC World displays are build around. Next up - a Lenovo laptop: Also didn't have Fresh Paint on it (grr x 2). It also, unusually, refused to connect with any of the styli I'd brought with me except for the Nomad Brush (which is normally one I can't guarantee a screen will like). It wasn't unpleasant to draw on but this fact alone confused me... I did like the design of the machine though - very eye catching and, obviously, something that is orange is inherently cooler than something that isn't. After that - the Lenovo desktop: Which I like LOADS having played with it on thursday in Guildford PC World. It's a good screen to draw on. Again it didn't have Fresh Paint on (grrr x 3) but it liked working with nearly every stylus except for, again, the Jot stylus. Odd. Lastly the surprise in store: Up until now I've had a couple of companies that I automatically dismiss for the anticipated (and often proven lack of) quality of their screens. Acer, Asus and HP are all companies that I've drawn on screens in the past and found them muddy and laggy so, except for the occasional new machine that I've thought - give it a try - I tend to not draw on them in a shop. The HP was next to the Lenovo and it struck me that I'd not drawn on one of them for a while. I also liked the design and the idea of a 20 inch tablet (although lets be honest that's an unusual and unlikely usecase for a good deal of the time). Even so - since I only had to step to the right by three steps I thought I'd give it a go, expecting very little. Take it all back - the tablet was speedy, the screen flowed beautifully and they even had Fresh Paint installed so I could test it out with that. Unexpectedly (and yes, I know I spelt it wrong :( ) it turned out to be the machine I enjoyed drawing on the most this morning... So there you have it. Back to work on Monday (sigh :( which is less an indication of not wanting to go back to work - although I'm unsure what my thoughts are on that one just yet and likely won't really know what I'm thinking until I unlock the door of my dungeon room but more the fact that I've felt much more at home with myself this holiday than I expected or anticipated) so the screen splurge will calm a little. But it's always lovely to draw on a range of machines, and chat to people as I'm doing so. Not bad for an hour of happy doodling anyhow :) Wonder what's next? (Incidentally - the keyboard on the Sony is my favourite. Not that that's been a huge need for me for a while, although I did have a dream that I'd gone back to writing the other day, and the blogs have been getting a little more and more blathery recently so who knows. But anyhow - the Vaio keyboards are very cool if that's a pressing need for tablet or laptop purchasers...)