HP Compaq tc4200

12 Jul 2005 12:52

HP Compaq's tc4200 convertible Tablet PC has a lot to like, from its impressive performance to its near five-hour battery life.

Measuring 28.5cm wide by 23.5cm deep by 3.4cm high and weighing 2.08kg, the dark-grey tc4200 tablet has pretty standard dimensions for its class. Add in the 255g AC adapter, and the Tablet PC tc4200 hits the road with a reasonable travel weight of 2.33kg. The key to its success is that its LCD lid swivels clockwise and easily folds flat for write-and-run operations; an adequate stylus pops out of the tablet's side. Unlike any other tablet, the tc4200 offers the same processor, hard drive, memory and software as the ultraportable HP Compaq nc4200 Notebook PC, which should make deploying it in a corporate environment easier.

A dead ringer for the slightly lighter nc4200 Notebook PC, the tc4200 tablet is built around a magnesium base, an internal frame and a laminated plastic wrist-rest area, all of which should help it stand up to the daily punishment of busy executives. The keyboard is firm, responsive and logically laid out, with textured, reasonably sized keys -- although the slightly undersized spacebar might cause problems. For those who hate having to choose, the system has both a pointing stick and a large touchpad with a dedicated scroll zone on the side. However, the touchpad is too close to the keyboard, and -- unlike other HP notebooks -- the tc4200 has no switch to turn it off; you can quite easily brush the touch pad as you're typing and accidentally displace your cursor.

Because it is meant to be used as a tablet with the keyboard out of reach, the tc4200 has a convenient jog dial on the side that helps you scroll through long Web pages or PowerPoint files. The glass writing surface, however, is a little too smooth for our taste; there's not quite enough resistance on the stylus to make you feel like you're writing naturally. The system does offer excellent screen controls for rotating between landscape and portrait modes, bringing up the character-input screen and opening HP's exclusive Qmenu software, which consolidates all the configuration data you could ever want. The tc4200 has an ambient light sensor and continually adjusts the display's brightness, and although we like the push-button volume controls, the system's single speaker does better with the spoken word than it does with music.

Inside the tc4200's case is a mostly up-to-date system, and HP offers a few choices of components for various needs and budgets. Our £999 (ex. VAT) test machine came with a 1.8GHz Pentium M 750 processor with 2MB of Level 2 cache and 512MB of 400MHz RAM, expandable to 2GB (although we have to wonder about those who think they need that much memory in a Tablet PC). Although the system lacks an internal optical drive, it does have a high-speed 5,400rpm 60GB hard drive.

Forget about dedicated video memory; the system uses Intel's integrated 915GM graphics engine, which borrows up to 128MB of main system memory, to drive the bright and clear 12.1in. XGA screen. In addition to its infrared window, the tc4200 has Bluetooth and an Intel 802.11b/g radio with a pair of lid-mounted antennas; in our anecdotal tests, it was able to stay in contact 35m from our base station -- a little farther than average.

Balancing performance and battery life is the tc4200's strong suit. The system scored 193 on our mobile benchmarks (MobileMark 2002), putting it well ahead of most of its Tablet PC competition. The tc4200's 6-cell Li-ion battery pack ran for an impressive 4 hours and 56 minutes. If that's not enough, HP's unique U-shaped add-on battery can extend battery life by a few more hours, giving you a full day's worth of mains-free computing.

The tc4200 lacks a few digital creature comforts, such as FireWire and parallel ports. It makes up for that with three USB 2.0 outlets conveniently positioned with one on each side and one at the back, as well as audio-in, audio-out, S-Video and external monitor ports. In addition to the expected Gigabit Ethernet and 56Kbps modem connections, there's a Type II PC Card slot and a Secure Digital card reader. There are two options for the security-minded: a smart-card reader for online authentication and a built-in security chip for protecting sensitive data.

Our tc4200 came with Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet Edition; like most business tablets, the software bundle does not include a productivity suite. It does, however, come with Wireless Assistant, which is a big step forward from Microsoft's Wi-Fi software. You also get trial versions of Symantec's Norton AntiVirus 2005, FranklinCovey PlanPlus 3.0 and Alias SketchBook.

Like all HP business systems, the tc4200 comes with a three-year warranty on parts and labour. HP's phone support is available between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, with calls charged at national shared rate. There's also a well-stocked Web site with downloads, troubleshooting, online chats with a technician and an email link for personalised help.

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