Solid standard notebook convertible
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

Perhaps as a result of the success Toshiba has had with its more conventional Tablet PC convertibles, Hewlett Packard now also offers one, the tc4200. It's a very competent, well designed, trust-inspiring machine with all the goodies you'd expect from a new design, and especially one from one of the world's leading computer vendors: fast Intel processor, plenty of disk and memory, and, of course, the incomparable BEO Hydis wideangle display. The touchpad is complemented with an IBM-style pointstick. Connectivity is excellent, though at this point it'd be nice to have a slimline optical drive in a brand-new design. What the tc4200 does is offer a strong premium brand name alternative to the Toshiba M200 in the 12.1" Tablet PC convertible class. The 4200 also comes as a standard notebook without the pen interface and rotating display, but the price difference is so small, who'd want the plain vanilla version?

In December of 2005, HP added several options: a 2GHz Intel M 760, an 80GB drive, and most importantly, an outdoor-viewable wide viewing angle display.