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- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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27 out of 27 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Near perfect, HP has really raised the bar"
Pros: Once you try, you'll never again buy a non-penable notebook
Cons: would have liked more customizable options at time of my buying
Summary: This is a machine for the future. Forget the slate vs. notebook debate, get them both with the TC4200.
I love this machine. It has really changed the way I work and move about at both office and work. I find myself using the machine docked probably 50% of the time, another 15% as a mobile keyboard notebook, and increasingly (for things like reading and browsing) sitting on the sofa or a park bench using the unit as a tablet with pen input.
The machine looks and feels solid and is nicely styled. Nice feel to the keyboard (still not quite at thinkpad level, but very close and it has a WIN key), and fully packed with nice features like: 3 USB ports, built in secure digital card reader, and easy access buttons to turn wireless on an off, to mention a few. The screen swivels around easily to turn the notebook into a tablet, and it's easy to quickly tap to get the screen orientation you want. When docked I'm using extended deskptop using a second external monitor at a different and higher resolution (1280x1024). The built in graphics controller is customizable so I can control screen rotation on both screens (this allows you to either dock as a tablet or as a notebook screen).
I researched extensively before buying this machine. Go to the tablet forums and you will see that even experienced tablet users who started out being very wary of a convertible model (because they thought it might be too heavy or not have as nice a screen) are almost all becoming fast converts. They all end up falling in love with this machine.
I've owned 3 Dell's and 2 thinkpads, and I really feel that this is a step improvement over what I've owned before. Battery life is just amazing. They say you'll get 4 to 5 hours, and you do. I also seem to get much better wireless reception than my ibm thinkpad x31.
Given available technologies, the only areas for potential improvement that I see are for HP to allow more customization at the time of purchase. For example I did not want the built in bluetooth option which seems to add a couple hundred bucks (and I already had a USB bluetooth transmitter) but you had to get that option to buy one of the sonoma chips at or above 1.8ghz. Still, dollar for dollar, this is as good or better of a machine then some of the best similarly sized notebooks by IBM or Dell once you start comparing processors, disks and video and wireless. YET it's also a fully functional tablet/convertible with a great looking screen.
HP has really raised the bar. It won't be long before everybody insists on tablet functionality as a matter of course.
- 1 reply to this review
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im looking for a convertible for school, just wondering if its really loud, and if it gets really hot, because i dont want to be disrupting everyone, and my current presario 2100 gives me a headache the fan is so loud. LOL. looks like a good laptop, but it needs more ram and larger hard drives available at purchase, dont you agree?
