Compaq TC1000 - Tablet PC - Crusoe TM5800 1 GHz User Manual
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Rated. / 5. Based on customer reviews
Tablet PCs have been hyped as the form fac-
tor of the future, but not until late last year
did any reach the market. Do the little
portable computers measure up to their
promise?
The GCN Lab tried out six new systems
running the Microsoft Windows XP Tablet
PC Edition operating system. We rated
them for price-performance, ease of use,
portability and any extras included. We
tested them with GCN’s benchmark suite
from Alterion Corp. of Conshohocken, Pa.,
which measures raw processor and graphi-
cal performance as well as application per-
formance with Microsoft Excel and Adobe
Photoshop 5.
Ease of setup was the final factor
in our grading. Setup grades came
from GCN Lab technician Arthur
Moser, who assisted in this review.
We’ve previously discussed the
handwriting-recognition foibles of the XP
tablet OS [
GCN, Nov. 18, 2002, Page 14], so
this review will not consider handwriting
capability except to say that scribbles can be
saved as graphics files, e-mailed and con-
verted to text.
The
Toshiba Portege 3500 convertible
design was by far the best-engineered and
most usable of the bunch. In its notebook
configuration, we could hardly tell at a
glance that it was also a tablet PC. We used
the Toshiba exactly like a standard note-
book, moving the cursor around with a
touchpad or typing on the notebook-sized
keyboard.
Our test unit was quite powerful. Its 1.33-
GHz Pentium III processor scored 3,921 on
the lab benchmark, higher than any other
tablet in the review. By comparison, our
baseline system, a 1.5-GHz Pentium 4 desk-
top PC with 256M of RAM from eMachines
Inc. of Irvine, Calif., scored a lower 3,611.
Although the Portege 3500 was among
the more expensive tablets in the review, it
cost less than two other systems with lower
specifications.
Converting the Portege from notebook to
tablet was simple: Pivot the screen 180
degrees, then fold it down over the key-
board. A latch had to be flipped to lock
down the tablet and automatically change
the screen orientation.
The Portege had an innovative pen-hold-
ing mechanism, which is of paramount
importance. None of these tablets will work
effectively without the controller pen. Lose
the pen, and your tablet is pretty much lost,
too, until you get a new pen.
Every other tablet used some variation of
a tube to hold the pen. But the Portege pen
spring-locked into a recess of the LCD, safe-
ly tucked away for travel. Pressing a certain
spot popped out the top of the pen. It was
impossible to pry out otherwise.
The Portege’s only real negative was a bit
of extra weight from the nondetachable
keyboard. The unit weighed in at 4.1
pounds, not including an external CD-
ROM drive.
We gave the Portege our Reviewer’s
Choice designation for lots of power and
few headaches.
On the big screen
As initial product releases go, Motion
Computing’s M1200
with the Power
Mobile accessory pack was a blazing suc-
cess.
The M1200 was a pure tablet, also called
a slate, though with all the extras attached it
looked almost like a desktop computer. At
$2,529 as configured for our test, it also had
a desktop-level price.
The Motion M1200 cost more than the
Portege and did not perform as well. It
reached 3,094 on the GCN benchmark,
lower than the baseline PC’s score but still
in the respectable range with an 866-MHz
Pentium III UltraMobile processor and
512M of RAM.
Separated from its docking station, the
M1200 weighed 3 pounds. Its best feature
was a huge, 12.1-inch LCD—as large as the
Portege’s and bigger than any of the other
tablets’ by a couple of inches. This large
screen was the most functional of the lot.
The docking station was sparse-looking
but perfectly functional. When tilted by 90
degrees, it changed the screen orientation
automatically—a feature not found on the
more expensive Fujitsu model.
The M1200’s only real Achilles heel was
the pen, which fit loosely in a tube from
which it could fall fairly easily. I have lost
pointers that were much better secured.
We gave the Motion M1200 a Reviewer’s
Choice designation, mostly because of its
functionality. Had it cost a little less, it
might have gotten the top score.
The
Fujitsu Stylistic ST4110 was a good
middle-of-the-road system, but expensive.
It scored 3,725 on the benchmark suite,
close to but not quite as high as the Toshiba.
Because of its pure slate design, the per-
formance difference wasn’t surprising. The
800-MHz ultra-low-voltage Pentium III
processor and 256M of RAM theoretically
should have scored lower than the Motion
Computing system but instead surpassed it.
As a pure slate, the ST4110 had many
helpful features for undocked navigation.
There were buttons on the side for relative-
ly easy use of the XP operating system with-
out a pointer or mouse.
Our test unit came configured with a
handy wireless keyboard that worked up to
several feet away from the unit. Oddly
enough, the mouse wasn’t wireless.
The Fujitsu docking station was large and
unwieldy. The unit had to be locked down by
sliding a lever, which was sometimes diffi-
cult to unlock. In a rough-riding vehicle,
that extra locking power might be necessary,
but it seemed excessive to us considering
that the other tablets stayed locked just fine.
As the most expensive unit in the review,
the ST4110 didn’t have enough extra fea-
tures or usability to justify its high price.
Ready for a road trip
The Acer TravelMate C100, another con-
vertible tablet, was about half the size of the
Toshiba and designed for carrying. It
weighed 3.2 pounds, extremely light for a
convertible design.
The LCD was a little small at only 10.4
diagonal inches, and in tablet mode it tend-
ed to be difficult to use. Although it was
supposed to be handicap-friendly, a user
would have to push in two buttons on oppo-
site sides of the LCD to unlock it for con-
version. Because the buttons stayed either
locked or unlocked, someone with only one
hand could probably manage it, but why
make turning the screen so difficult?
A plastic slider bar at the top of the screen
pushed a plastic knob from one side of the
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GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NEWS
PPrroodduuccttRReevviieewwss
01.27.03
PPrroodduuccttRReevviieewwss
GCN
These tablet PCs worthy of note
BY JOHN BREEDEN II | GCN STAFF
Manufacturers are paying attention to ease of use and portability, with generally good results
GCN PHOTOS BY HENRIK G. DE GYOR
None of the tablets will work effectively without the controller pen.
Lose the pen, and your computer is pretty much lost, too.
For first-generation products, Tablet PCs are pretty good, but
they need to be more powerful and less clunky. GCN Lab direc-
tor John Breeden II expounds on their good and bad points at
www.gcn.com/22_2/prod_reviews/20919-1.html.
1
2
Summary of Contents
Page 1 - PPrroodduuccttRReevviieewwss
Tablet PCs have been hyped as the form fac-tor of the future, but not until late last yeardid any reach the market. Do the littleportable computers me
Page 2 - Product Reviews
GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NEWS|4901.27.03Product ReviewsGCNscreen to the other for conversion. The knobhad to be locked into place in tablet mode toautomati
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