Despite its quirky clip-on keyboard, this system is still one of our top tablet choices for the office or the home.

Design

The 1.4kg, 21.6cm by 27.4cm by 2cm TC1100 is one of the smallest and lightest slate-design tablets available. Clip on the 453g detachable keyboard, and it resembles a 1.85kg ultralight notebook with a twist: the tablet rotates 180 degrees, allowing others to view presentations without having to turn the whole system around. The keyboard can also twist and hide behind the tablet, and the entire setup snaps into a 3.3kg docking station/monitor stand that features a swappable bay for secondary storage drives. Unfortunately, the detachable keyboard will cramp your style, but you can always attach a full-size keyboard into a USB 2.0 port on the tablet or the docking station. And if you plan to write and tap on the screen with only the stylus, you can leave the small keyboard behind.

When the tablet is sitting in the dock, you can swivel it between Landscape and Portrait modes while the operating system automatically adjusts the screen image. Unfortunately, although the dock is handy, it will set you back an extra £257 (inc. VAT).

The Compaq Tablet PC TC1100 retains the handy ports, slots and buttons offered by its predecessor: two USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, one Type II PC Card slot, a Secure Digital slot, three programmable buttons, three audio jacks and a wheel on the tablet that lets you scroll through menus and documents. The docking station provides additional connectivity, including three more USB 2.0 ports. The tablet also includes a battery-free variation on the previous model's writing stylus -- much handier. We're happy to find that the Compaq Tablet PC TC1100's various hinges and latches feel sturdier than those on the earlier TC1000 model.

Features

HP has given the PC TC1100 a much-needed component boost, resulting in this significantly faster and longer-lasting tablet. When you buy, you can choose either a 1GHz Pentium M or an 800MHz Celeron processor; a 32MB Nvidia GeForce4 420 Go graphics chip; a 30GB or 40GB hard drive; and from 256MB to 2GB of fast 333MHz DDR SDRAM. With Intel's 855PM chipset and PRO/Wireless 802.11b mini-PCI card, the TC1100 qualifies as an official Centrino system.

Our test configuration, featuring a 1GHz Pentium M, 512MB of memory, and a 40GB hard drive, performed more than twice as fast as the previous model did in our tests. The Pentium M's power-saving capabilities also lent a hand with the battery life, helping it last 34 minutes longer than its predecessor.

The Compaq Tablet PC TC1100 features more software than its older sibling, including a few useful tablet PC applications, such as Corel Grafigo for tasks like sketching and annotating, plus a trial version of FranklinCovey's TabletPlanner -- personal organiser software that's designed specifically for tablets. HP also bundles its useful QMenu program for manipulating system settings, as well as Roxio's Easy CD & DVD Creator for those who have purchased an optional CD-RW or DVD/CD-RW drive. The operating system remains Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

Performance & battery life

The TC1100 delivered good performance in our tests, although Acer's TravelMate C111TCi still beats it. In short, the TC1100's performance when running office and content-creation applications will satisfy most users.

Thanks to its 11.1V, 3,600mAh (40WHr) battery, the TC1100 achieved very long life, clocking in at nearly 4 hours. The Acer TravelMate C111TCi, with a smaller battery, clocked in at 2 hours 11 minutes. In other words, the Compaq Tablet PC TC1100 offers great battery life -- a must for a tablet PC -- when running office and content-creation applications.

To measure mobile application performance and battery life, we use FutureMark's MobileMark2002. MobileMark measures both application performance and battery life concurrently using a number of popular applications (Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator 6.0, WinZip Computing WinZip 8.0, McAfee VirusScan 5.13, Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, and Macromedia Flash 5.0).

Service & support

The TC1100's warranty runs for three years and includes standard office days/hours, HP pickup and delivery, plus free parts and labour. Telephone technical support is available (at national rates) between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday. Various upgrades are available through HP's Care Pack services.

The printed documentation provides extensive, clear information on setting up and operating the tablet, and there's detailed troubleshooting help on a CD.

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