The HP TC1100 was the carrot that got us into Tablet PCs. In fact, the first Tablet PC that we had was the woeful HP TC1000. It was terribly underpowered with a Transmeta Crusoe Processor. It left a bad taste for many.

Fortunately, HP quickly got their act together and fixed the TC1000 by putting a decent Intel Centrino processor in it. The result was the TC1100, which is still today a very capable and sought after Tablet PC.

What was so good about the HP TC 1100 you might wonder? Well, it was the only Tablet PC to come in a Hybrid form factor. It could be both a convertible tablet (With a keyboard attached) and a slate.

In slate mode, you had a powerful and lightweight portable device weighing just over 1 kg. With the keyboard attached, you had a Tablet PC that also functioned like a laptop. 

Unfortunately HP decided that the TC1100 wasn’t important enough in the scheme of things. They continue to develop Tablet PCs, but have taken the safe road of laptop style convertibles like the HP 2710P.

Enter Motion Computing. To be honest, Motion have been around in Tablet PCs since the very early days. So we may be a little slow in reporting this, but we think that Motion have had an alternative to the TC1100 form factor for quite a while. It’s the LE1700 with convertible keyboard.

We put together the following video to demonstrate the similarities.

To see the Motion LE1700 Tablet PC in more detail, visit the LE1700 page on our online shop.

I became interested in low power PCs when I recently brought two of our servers back into the office. Our power bill doubled overnight . As you can imagine, I’ve been madly looking at ways to reduce the power usage of our network.

That’s the beauty of thinking green, using fewer resources can save you money.

It got me thinking… How green are Tablet PCs?

Well we already know that Tablet PCs are way ahead on being green. How?

• Most Tablet PCs have a tiny 65W power supply and usually incorporate Intel Centrino Ultra Low Voltage Processors.
• They are also smaller and lighter which means less materials are used.

But is there room for further green innovation in Tablet PCs?

I note with interest what HP are doing in this area:

The HP Compaq 2710p Notebook PC is just 2.82 cm (1.11 inch) thick and weighs 1.63 kilograms (3.6 pounds). This is made possible by the HP Illumi-Lite Light Emitting Diode (LED) displays, which are thinner and lighter than traditional screens. The Illumi-Lite display also requires less energy and does not use mercury. The case is built using lightweight and durable magnesium, which is easily recyclable. The smaller notebook packaging allows HP to transport 60 units on a pallet instead of 48, which saves energy in transportation.

Source: HP

It’s good to see Tablet PC technology leading the field in Green PCs.