Here are my first thoughts on my new Toshiba M200, particularly in light of my experiences with the Acer of the past year and a half. I will be posting pictures of them side-by-side when I get a chance to actually take some.
The Screen
Many have said the screen is the best thing about the M200, and it just may be. The screen is absolutely beautiful. It's bright and sharp, compared to both the Acer and my EIZO LCD monitor.
The resolution makes a big difference when using it in slate mode, especially when combined with the larger physical screen. Sometimes the Acer felt a little cramped - 768 pixels is just too little, especially on a 10.4" screen. I feel like the Toshiba has a lot more room. It's almost the difference between writing on a full-size notebook compared to one of this little spiral ones.
It also seems that the pen is a bit more accurate around the edges of the screen. Part of this may be that there is no lip - the screen is "embedded" - and this may also be why there is extra space around the edge (perhaps they oversized the digitizer).
Performance
This machine is fast - but that's to be expected with these specs (1.8 ghz Centrino, 7200 RPM drive, 1.5 GB of RAM).
The Acer was fine for most things - even development - but was by no means a workhorse. The Toshiba is faster than my desktop (which, admittedly, is a bit dated at 2 years old). Games run nicely with the nVidia GeForce FX card (I've just installed a couple to test it out - C&C Generals runs nicely).
I haven't gotten around to installing VS.NET yet - I want to get a Ghost image before I start installing development tools, particularly VS.NET 2005.
Installing things and copying large files is SNAPPY.
Construction, Design and Size
Construction is very solid. The hinge feels a lot sturdier than I remember the Acer being when I first got it. (Obviously, it's hard to compare now after 1.5 years of use). The conversion is also a bit faster without having to worry about the two side latches.
I'm a big fan of the Pen buttons - programmable soft buttons off the side of the screen that are activated by the pen. These buttons can be programmed on a per-application basis to send a key combination. Extremely useful!
I'm torn on the size issue. The Toshiba definitely feels big compared to the Acer, especially in terms of thickness. My first impression was that, while very well designed, there was wasted space.
It's not that the Toshiba is big, really, just that the Acer is miniscule. It also feels like, while well-designed, there is some wasted space. It feels thicker than it needs to be (especially considering there is no optical drive built in). There's also about an inch of 'wasted' space around the screen (where the forementioned soft buttons are on one side). I do like the fact that the body houses a full-size pen as well as the small backup pen, although I still plan on carrying the Cross pen.
That said, as I've gotten used to it, I'm starting to appreciate the bigger size of the Toshiba - especially in the slate mode as I've mentioned before. It's a bit more to lug around and doesn't fit as nicely in my bag, but I'm getting used to it.