Lightweight and full featured, highly recommended for the person on the go
Written: Dec 16 '04 (Updated Dec 18 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Small form, great connectivity options, runs most windows applications
Cons: SD instead of SDIO, only accepts up to 512mb SD cards
The Bottom Line: Recommended for the person on the go who likes a compact full featured computer. Full range of connection options.
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| sidraw1's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Compaq tc1100 (DQ871A#ABA) Tablet ... |
I'm the type of person who is on the go quite a bit. I travel and need access to the internet and to my servers. I've experimented with several mobile solutions and none has been quite been to my liking, but the TC1100 gets very close. I'm looking for something I can take with me and yet still use in the office so that I don't have things on too many platforms. When I'm on the road now, I take the TC1100 and my iPAQ. In the office it's much the same, but for more powerful applications, I still need my desktop computer or full scale laptop.
Specifications:
1.1 gGHz processor (1 or 2 mb cache)
512mb memory (I upgraded to 1gb)
10.4 inch TFT XGA screen capable of 1024x768 resolution (16.7 million colors)
32mb NVIDIA video
40gb harddrive (upgradeable)
2 USB 2.0 ports
1 modem port
1 network port
Audio in/out
PCMCIA slot
Secure Digital Slot
Wireless
Bluetooth
3.1/4.0 lbs (tablet only/tablet with keyboard)
Windows XP Tablet Edition
With SVGA out you can hook the TC1100 to a larger monitor for use in the office or use it with a display projector for presentations.
Cons:
The Secure Digital slot is not SDIO and it only supports cards up to 512mb. This is my biggest disappointment since SD cards with much higher capacity exist (even HPs iPAQ will accept a 1gb SD card), and SDIO is becoming more common.
The wireless is supposedly b/g, but I've only managed to get 10mbs connection. It may do the g protocol, but I've not found a way to achieve it. This is okay at home, but at work where I have access to 100mbs, I'd like to be able to transfer at the 54 rate rather than 10.
Doesn't quite have the horsepower for some of the more intense applications (ArcGIS, video editing etc) but, then, I wouldn't expect it in something this compact and designed for mobile use.
To use DVDs or CDs or floppy disks, a plug in drive is necessary. Again, this is done so as not to sacrifice the compact form. And unless I'm viewing DVDs or installing software, I would rarely use the drive. As for the floppy disk, I use a USB jumpdisk for transferring files so that type of drive is completely unnecessary to me. Even with the external disc drive, everything is still conveniently transported.
Pros:
Compact form. Smaller than a tablet of letter paper (a bit thicker, though) Very lightweight for carrying on planes and through the airport. You can either swing out the keyboard and used it as a regular laptop, or you can keep the keyboard folded under it and use it flat with the stylus for input. You can also remove the keyboard entirely which cuts the thickness down even more.
Connectivity options. Modem, Ethernet, Wireless, Bluetooth. If you're in an area where you can't connect with this unit, you won't be able to with ANY piece of equipment.
All the typical Windows software works with it. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access etc. For those of you who do GIS, ArcPad (designed for Pocket PCs) works very well on it. If you use either a Bluetooth GPS or a CF GPS with an adapter for the PCMCIA slot, you get a very portable unit where you can overlay your position on some very detailed maps or air photography.
Good sized hard drive allows you to have most things right at hand away from the office.
The stylus lets you write in Journal (included software) just like you would on a piece of paper. Journal actually displays a configurable tablet where you can choose line spacing, color etc. You can then select all or portions of what you have written and convert that to text to place in any text editing program (Notepad, Word, WordPad and the like) The character recognition is very good.
A soft keyboard is displayed on the screen that lets you input with the stylus if you don't wish to write longhand. This method of entry is slower than using either the keyboard or writing longhand, but is nice to have as another alternative for entry.
PCMCIA slot. I'm glad to see that even with this small of a form factor, HP managed to get a PCMCIA card slot in this unit. With a CF to PCMCIA converter, you can use CF memory cards in the TC1100 as well as GPS cards. With the slot itself you can use something like the Sierra Aircard to have remote wireless network access from anywhere there is coverage.
Wireless Setup:
I have a wireless router and connection could not have been simpler. I activated the wireless and chose the connection point and was online. That's all there was to it. I was configured for DHCP which made things easier, but even if you have to setup IPs, that's only a simple extra step.
Bluetooth setup is also a snap and before I had the wireless router, I would use a modem on the TC1100 that was shared via a Bluetooth connection to my iPAQ. One thing about bluetooth was that on the particular unit that I got, I had to install or unpack it from the included accessories. But after I did that, things went smooth.
Battery:
Using wireless fulltime (as I do) is a battery hog, but I've been able to go for a good 3 hours plus of full usage. I was quite pleased with that, all things considered, but wish it could be a bit more. Carry a spare battery with you if you think you'll be using it for longer periods without the capability to recharge.
Summary:
If you're on the go a lot this might be the unit for you. I've had mine for half a year and carry it with me most of the time. I've had no troubles with it, and Service Pack 2 has given it some extra features (for pen input) and has not caused any troubles with it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
sidraw1
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Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 1 member
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