Tablet PCs - Stealing Comdex 2002

Compaq

Compaq's tablet-PC is the TC1000 and the system takes a different approach to the tablet-PC design. Whereas the Toshiba unit maintains a notebook style design, the TC1000 is a handheld tablet-PC with a keyboard docking bay. Basically, the unit has a removable keyboard that snaps on top of the tablet's screen to protect it. Unsnap the screen, put it on a table, dock the tablet into the keyboard, and you have tablet-PC that resembles a notebook.

If you want to use the system as a dedicated tablet-PC, simply snap the keyboard on the back of the unit and the unit becomes a tablet-PC that remains fairly small widthwise.

The TC1000 uses a Crusoe TM5800 1GHz CPU, comes with 256MB, a 20-60GB hard drive, integrated 802.11b, and a 10.4" XGA TFT screen. The unit weighs 3.0 pounds without the keyboard and 4.0 pounds with the keyboard; either way it is easy to carry around.

About half the tablet-PCs we have seen are based on the Transmeta Crusoe processor while the other half are Ultra Low Volt Pentium III based. Of the two, we prefer the Ultra Low Volt Pentium III models as they offer more performance per clock and do not consume too much more power. Look for future AnandTech reviews to compare these Ultra Low Volt Pentium III tablet-PCs to their Transmeta counterparts.