HP Compaq Tablet PC TC1100 > Reviews (2)

Over the past few months, I have been evaluating and rolling out tablet PC's across my organisation within the Health industry. My evaluation has covered the HP Compaq TC1100, the Motion M1200, the Fujitsu Stylistic ST4120, and the Toshiba Portégé 3500. What follows is a brief discussion of the HP TC1100 which I hope will give users some guidance and prove informative.

The HP TC1100 is the most versatile tablet PC design overall. You can use it like a regular notebook with attached keyboard or fold the keyboard under to use it in tablet mode, what sets it apart from the rest however is that it can be totally detached from the keyboard. This was a very attractive proposition and makes for a very slick and streamlined tablet for the truly mobile user. This option makes the device a staggeringly lightweight (3.1 lb) slate. As a pure slate it is very comfortable to hold. The pen has a large, comfortable barrel with rubberised grip although not being attached to the device means they can 'walk' if used by multiple users, because they simply look and feel like normal pens, hence tend to get put in pockets and disappear.

Its tempered glass makes the display seem the most robust, though at the expense of pressure sensitivity. The small 10.1 in. screen, awkward keyboard latch and interaction between the stick pointer and the back of the slate in tablet mode all detract from the value of the device.

In addition, the HP does not perform nearly as well as other models. Many of my users have commented on its slow performance, particularly during high disk activity such as scanning with anti-virus software.

Having said all this, it is a superb little tablet, fit for the uses of day to day mobile activity. Purely mobile users will benefit greatly, but it is under powered and as such specific organisational settings would need to analyse process and need prior to commiting to such a specification.