HP Pavilion tx1000 Review

HP makes a credible case for Vista as highly usable even in an ultralight format. The HP Pavilion tx1000 battery (available for purchase February 28) crams a full suite of multimedia features and even limited Tablet capabilities into an attractive 4.2-pound notebook, complete with an optical drive. It's not the fastest ultraportable on the block, but you get a lot for your money.
 
Borrowing from the look and feel of HP's Pavilion dv series, the black-and-silver tx1000 is certainly a striking ultraportable. The same Imprint finish is present, which consists of subtle wave patterns on the casing, and the glowing blue multimedia buttons above the keyboard further contribute to the futuristic-chic aesthetic. We wish the buttons themselves were a bit larger, though.

The HP tx1000 is a lean mean screaming machine. In fact with the In fact with the AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-60(2.0GHz/1MB) Processor, the HP tx 1000 is the fastest Tablet PC I have ever had the pleasure of using.

Designed from the ground up with ease of use and customer satisfaction in mind HP has done an amazing job of building a full blown Entertainment PC that will appeal to a wide variety of users and provides people with a user friendly, versatile Tablet PC that is portable, innovative and packed with features that enhance the user experience.    

The first thing that comes to mind in terms of the HP Pavilion tx2000 battery is that its fun to use.  I can't put my finger on exactly why its such a pleasure to have around or to use but it is.    What I can tell you is that it has a beautiful screen and the best sounding speakers I've heard on a tablet pc.  Combine that with with all of the easy to use features and it makes it hard to put it down once you start using it.  Another interesting thing I couldn't help but notice was that people using the tx 1000 always seem to have a smile on there face.

 

All of the ports are conveniently laid out along the sides; and helpful, readily visible gray icons identify the connections so you don't have to hunt. Buttons for running HP's QuickPlay software (which lets you play DVDs or music without having to boot Windows) and for rotating the screen occupy the area just below the screen.

Converting from notebook to slate mode is easy, and the 12.1-inch screen rotates into place firmly. One quibble: The screen jiggles a bit when the tablet is in notebook mode and that can be distracting if you are moving--say, if you're on a train. The tablet comes with a responsive touch screen; but unfortunately the screen lacks an antireflective coating. In fact, strangely, it seems to have another kind of coating with a smoky hue that makes seeing anything on the screen at an indirect angle unduly difficult.

Features and Specifications :

• AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 (2.0GHz with 512KB cache)
• 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM (2×1GB)
• 12.1 WXGA Brightview Widescreen Display with Integrated Touch-screen
• 160GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
• LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer
• Windows® Vista Home Premium Edition
• 6-cell Lithium-ion Battery with Additional 4-cell Battery
• nVidia GeForce Go 6150 with Shared Graphics Memory
• 5-in-1 Media Card Reader
• 1.3 Megapixel Webcam
• Fingerprint Reader
• HP Mini Remote Control
• Integrated Audio and Altec Lansing Stereo Speakers, Dual Headphone Jacks, Microphone Jack
• Integrated 802.11a/b/g WLAN & Bluetooth
• Integrated 10/100 Ethernet Adapter

The HP Pavilion tx1000z ships with an ADM Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile TL-60 processor with integrated NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 graphics that has up to 128MB shared memory. The Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core chipset is AMD's answer for thin and light notebook PCs that requires high multi-tasking performance. It supports simultaneous 32-bit and 64-bit computing environments and is compatible with 64-bit Windows Vista. The base model comes with the 1.8GHz AMD TL-56 and you can upgrade it up to the 1.9GHz TL-58 (+$25), 2.0 GHz TL-60 (+$50) or the 2.2 GHz TL-64 for $125 extra when building your own. The processor has 1 meg of level 2 cache (512KB+512KB). The Turion 64 X2 is a good performer in the tx1000 and the benchmarks show it. Popular applications like web browsers, email and Office applications load fast and perform well. It streams media such as music, online radio, Netflix movies with ease. Hardcore gamers who want to play current demanding games like F.E.A.R or the latest QUAKE with MegaTexture and graphics features set to high should look elsewhere (as is generally the case for budget and thin-and-light notebooks). However older and less demanding games such as Rise of Nations 2 and board/puzzle/online casual games run fine on the Pavilion. The HP Pavilion tx2500 battery ships with 1GB of DDR2 system memory (2 DIMM slots) with the option to upgrade to 2GB which is recommended by HP especially if you want to run Aero (the new desktop in Windows Vista). The Pavilion comes with a 80GB (5400 RPM) SATA hard drive with the option to upgrade to 120, 160 or a 200GB drive. One more thing about AMD processors: they run hot. The tx1000z can blow some serious hot air via the fan in the upper and right corner. So be careful not to let that spot contact your skin.

The 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery extended life battery performance was shockingly good, it lasted for about 4.5 hours in balanced (normal) power mode. In addition to this battery, the model we tested included a 4-cell battery that lasted for about 3 hours. Now if you go for this option of carrying two batteries around you are good to go pretty much all-day. This is great for mobile users and it only took an hour to fully recharge the 6-cell battery, so not much downtime. The Pavilion tx1000 battery also offers a power saver mode for light work or a high performance mode for that busy day. The optical bay is swappable with different optical drives, but it is not setup to house a secondary battery.

 

 

The integrated Realtek audio and integrated Altec Lansing stereo speakers provide acceptable sound quality for most games, movies, and applications. The sound suffers from lack of bass and less than stellar mid-range vocals, but provides enough clarity and volume for general use. The two speakers are attached to the display and rotate with the screen, which is a nice touch to help direct the sound toward you whenever the screen is rotated. Another nice touch is the dual headphone jacks, which allows two people to both watch and listen to a movie without having to share ear buds.

The integrated webcam is a handy feature that allows you to do video-conferencing or capture still images without having to attach an external device. The resulting video clips and images from the webcam were clear and accurately colored. As with any webcam, low lighting conditions cause problems and result in low-quality images.

The fingerprint reader works well and is useful for logging onto the computer and websites without having to remember multiple passwords. The fingerprint scanning software took a bit more time to complete than I would have liked, as HP tx1000 battery requires fingerprints from multiple fingers on each hand and running your finger across the scanner too quickly results in an invalid scan. Also, in most instances the fingerprint scan takes more than one attempt before it successfully recognizes you, so it isn't always faster than just typing in a user name and password when you are logging into a website.