Why You Can Trust CNET MPC TransPort T2100 review: MPC TransPort T2100
MPC TransPort T2100
Styled in silver-blue and light gray, the TransPort T2100 sports a handsome, no-nonsense design. It also travels light at just a shade less than seven pounds, including the AC adapter. Measuring 12.5 by 10.7 by 1.2 inches, the TransPort isn't as wide as some other thin-and-lights, but it still sits quite nicely in your hand or lap.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The TransPort T2100's firm keyboard is conveniently placed midway up the main deck where it's easy to type on, whether the notebook is in your lap or on a table. The touchpad is highly responsive, featuring two mouse buttons sandwiching an omnidirectional rocker button for window scrolling. Alas, the touchpad's tap function, which simulates mouse button presses, was a tad too sensitive. It registered taps that we didn't intend, so we turned it off using the Synaptics applet in the system tray.
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| The keyboard is firm and nicely placed midway up the main deck. |
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| The touchpad's tap function (to simulate mouse-button presses) was a tad overeager. |
The TransPort T2100 runs nearly cool to the touch, even when playing games or movies, as it routes air through two thermal ports on the left-rear corner of the machine. What's not cool is the notebook's audio; it sounds pitiful. Not only do the speakers mounted just below the display bezel lack any bass whatsoever, they don't put out much in the lower midrange, either. A pair of headphones is definitely in order for watching movies or listening to CDs.
The TransPort T2100 has plenty of ports, plus one of the busier front edges we've seen, with five buttons that both launch programs within Windows and control CD or DVD playback when Windows isn't booted. There's also a wireless On/Off button, a four-in-one flash-memory card reader, and audio jacks. On the right side of the unit live the optical drive, the USB 2.0 port, and ports for mini-FireWire and infrared; look on the left side to find two more USB 2.0 ports, the S-Video and VGA ports, a PC Card slot, a 10/100 Ethernet port, and an AC jack. Only a v.92 modem port adorns the back.
The TransPort T2100, with configurations starting at a bare-bones $1,588, has the usual number of options found on Pentium M machines. You can order your notebook with a Pentium M processor from 1.4GHz to 1.7GHz, along with 128MB to 1GB of 266MHz DDR SDRAM. The graphics chip is Intel's 82855, which borrows from 4MB to 64MB of system memory to perform its duties. The only display-size option is a 14.1-inch screen with 1,024x768 resolution that offers a crisp picture.
Alas, you can't order the TransPort T2100 with a DVD-RAM multidrive without also purchasing at least a 40GB hard drive. That's because the Pinnacle Studio 8.5 video-editing software that's included requires 12GB of space per hour of video recording. We had to bug the PR folks to learn this; it would be nice to see the company explain this constraint on its Web site.
Other optical options include a 24X CD-ROM drive, an 8X DVD-ROM drive, and a CD-RW/DVD combo drive. And 802.11b wireless networking comes courtesy of Intel's Pro/Wireless LAN 2100, though MPC will soon offer the Pro/Wireless LAN 2200 for combined 802.11b and 802.11g functionality.
You can order your TransPort T2100 with Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP Home, or XP Pro as its operating system, and MPC includes or makes available a number of useful software titles, including the 90-day trial version of Norton AntiVirus 2003, Microsoft Works, Office 2003, Office XP, and Microsoft Publisher. Depending on the optical drive that you choose, MPC includes Nero 6.0 Express for CD/DVD mastering chores, Pinnacle Studio 8.5 for video capture and editing, and InterVideo WinDVD 4.0 for DVD movie playback.
The TransPort T2100 took home the prize for mobile application performance among our trio of competitors. However, the margin of victory was narrow, with only four points separating the TransPort T2100 and the third-place Gateway 200. When you're doing hands-on work, you'll notice little difference between the three notebooks when running office and content-creation apps. The TransPort is not the fastest 1.7GHz Pentium M system we've tested, but it's close, and it will have no trouble performing on the road.
Mobile application performance (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Find out more about how we test notebooks.
Mobile application performance analysis written by CNET Labs assistant lab manager Eric Franklin.
System configurations:Gateway 200
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; Intel 855GM (up to 64MB shared); Toshiba MK6022GAX 5,400rpm
HP Pavilion zt3000
Windows XP Home; 1.7GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 64MB; Fujitsu MHT2080AT 80GB 4,200rpm
MPC TransPort T2100
Windows XP Professional; 1.7GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; Intel 855GM (up to 64MB shared); IBM Travelstar 80GN 80GB 4,200rpm
The MPC TransPort T2100 finished ahead of its two competitors when it came to battery life, too, though the margin of victory was equally small. It lasted about four minutes longer than the HP Pavilion zt3000 running off a battery with identical specs: 14.8V, 4,400mAh (65WHr). Photo finish or not, nearly four hours on a single charge is great battery life in anyone's book. The Gateway 200, on the other hand, had only a tiny 11.1V, 2,200mAh (24WHr) battery to work with--and its less than two-hour runtime shows it.
Battery life (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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To measure mobile application performance and battery life, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's MobileMark 2002. MobileMark measures both application performance and battery life concurrently using a number of popular applications (Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator 6.0, WinZip Computing WinZip 8.0, McAfee VirusScan 5.13, Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, and Macromedia Flash 5.0).
Battery life analysis written by CNET Labs assistant lab manager Eric Franklin.
System configurations:Gateway 200
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; Intel 855GM (up to 64MB shared); Toshiba MK6022GAX 5,400rpm
HP Pavilion zt3000
Windows XP Home; 1.7GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 64MB; Fujitsu MHT2080AT 80GB 4,200rpm
MPC TransPort T2100
Windows XP Professional; 1.7GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; Intel 855GM (up to 64MB shared); IBM Travelstar 80GN 80GB 4,200rpm
The TransPort T2100's standard warranty is one of the best in the business: a generous three-year term, with options for fourth and fifth years of coverage at reasonable prices. Toll-free telephone support is available during the warranty period (30 days only on software, $2.29 a minute after that), and it's available 24/7, 365 days a year. Also, the support is done in-house in Idaho, where MPC can keep tight control on the quality.
The TransPort's paper documentation is sparse, sufficient only for getting you up and running. But once you're booted into Windows, you can take advantage of a far more detailed technical-reference manual that's a PDF file on the hard drive. MPC's easy-to-navigate Web site offers manuals, firmware updates, FAQs, and e-mail to tech support.
To find out more about how this product's warranty really stacks up and what you should look for in terms of service and support, take a look at CNET's hardware warranty explainer.