Lots of questions floating around about how the Motion Computing CL900 handles touch and handwriting at the same time.
Overall, I have to say that I’m fairly impressed with the CL900 and N-trig’s latest digitizer. My experience is much better than on the HP Slate 500. As demoed in the video, I rarely experience stray ink, but will occasionally register false touches while writing. In addition, the pen-on-screen noise is quieter than the Slate 500, but not quite as good as Wacom-based tablets. Overall, I’d say the noise is still distracting. I shot an email over to N-trig’s Gary Baum, asking him the difference between the two units. According to Baum, the Slate 500 uses 3rd generation hardware, whereas the CL900 uses 3.5 generation hardware. The palm rejection technology in the CL900 has more memory and computing power, thus providing a better handwriting experience. This is mostly due to the time difference in the tablets being brought to market.
Here’s a quick video demonstrating handwriting on the CL900. My apologies in advance for the screen flicker. Filming a computer screen is very difficult 
Rob, thanks for the video. Is the screen size the same as on the Slate 500?
Thanks Rob, inking apppears fairly smooth and fluid. The few issues you experienced seemed to be something one could live with and the clicking noise was not that obtrusive. Did I understand correctly that N-Trig may have a pen upgrade this fall? If so, could you speculate what overall effect it may have? I’m sure there are many others who appreciate what you do – thanks again!
Is that ticking when inking a constant factor?
That pretty annoying isn’t it?
Not so good for lectures and meetings I’m afraid.
That ticking would disturb the audience.
I have tested using a prototype Ntrig pencil and it was a little quieter than the included CL900 pen – not Wacom quiet, but quieter.
The clicking noise is constant. Like I mentioned above, the prototype pencil Ntrig sent me is a tad quieter, but still noticeable.
Slate 500 is 8.9″, CL900 is 10.1″
@Tuur, Agreed. At least on the Slate 500, which has a similar pen, the noise is very distracting. I think Rob said that the noise is slightly better on the Motion version, but it sounds from the video like it is still quite noticeable.
Rob: If you have a Flyer pen, try it on the CL900; the second (eraser) button should work!
Based on a tip from Techgeek32, I went back and tried my Flyer pen on the Q. Sure enough, it works! The Flyer pen is probably my current favorite pen…
Steve – I don’t have one. I do have a prototype pencil that is quieter and it works fine, too. Still not “wacom quiet”, but is a tad quieter.
Rob, could you ask the N Trig man, Gary Baum, to confirm if there will indeed be a new digitizer release after this summer that should be quieter than the current CL and Q digitizers.
Someone mentioned this on this site I think.
thanks.
I will ask
Tuur: I posed your question to n-trig and here is there reply:
“we are indeed continuing to work on new refinements. The next area to address is to allow the high accuracy to be more visible in use. We plan to do this with a new tip. The tip material will also be examined for feel and noise on a chemical strengthened glass (gorilla glass™, dragon skin™, etc.) and finally, we have a few more refinements within the pen to minimize noise. The new tip will be thinner to allow a better user experience of where the pen will land. It also will make less noise.”
Rob:
…By the way, in addition to being a bit quieter, your prototype pen should featured “improved” pressure sensitivity. Do you notice anything in that regard? Possibly the pen draws more smoothly from light to heavy pressure (the existing pen is somewhat coarse in this regard)?
Tuur:
…The “improved pen” is supposed to be available in the Fall.
Rob, thanks. Could you test out the Dell XT digitizer. Would be a great pen on the CL
Turr – the digitizer on the XT is not compatible with the battery driven pens. Conversely, The pen on the XT will not work on newer generation digitizers.
Steve: the ink is a bit smoother with the newer pen, too.
[...] already provided a video and commentary of the handwriting experience on the CL900. I guess you could say, I’m becoming more of a [...]
Thanks Rob. hope that they release the improved pen soon
Hi! Regarding the writing noise – is the tip of the pen replaceable? Wacom offers felt tips, which I’ve made good experiences with on my Lenovo X200t. If they’d fit into N-Trig pens, it might reduce the noise issue.
The tips are replaceable, but I do not think the wacom tips will work in them
“…is the tip of the pen replaceable?..”
Matthias: Yes, the N-trig nibs are replaceable. However, replacement nibs might be difficult to come by. Recent N-trig Digital Pencils (N-trig’s name for their battery-operated pen) have not included any spare nibs!
“…If they’d fit into N-Trig pens…”
…Wacom annd N-trig use fundamentally different ways to fit the nib to the pen. N-trig uses a small metal pin. Although you might be able to figure out a way to fit a Wacom nib to an N-trig pen, I think it would be an awful lot of trouble…
for the sake of humanity please void ntrig. I have tried time and time again to adopt tablets with this technology but it has been futile. After going through HP slate, Lenovo ThinkPad tablet, and htc flyer, I have aged considerably and have give up. The problem is that I started the migration from an lenovo X61 tablet pc which employs a wacom digitizer. The inking experience is light years ahead and the taking up the frustration with ntrig is just not worth it.