HP Pavilion tx2000 Tablet PC First Look

<!-- Generated by XStandard version 1.7.1.0 on 2008-01-04T14:36:21 -->HPrecently updated their popular notebook toTablet PC convertible, thetx1000. Welcome the tx2000 Tablet PC. It has the same design as its predecessor, but now has an active digitizer and touchscreen. We were lucky enough to get our hands on one and bring you this first look review. I have to say I am quite impressed with this 12.1-inch tablet. We received a pre-production unit too and it's still near perfect.

The HP tx2000. (view large image)

HP tx2000 Tablet PC specs:

• AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual Core processor TL-66 2.3GHz
• Up to 4GB DDR2 RAM (review unit had 2GB)
• Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 graphics
• Hard drive options of 120GB, 160GB or 250GB
• 12.1&quot; WXGA touchscreen display with built in digitizer (1280x800 resolution)
• LightScribe Super Multi or Super Multi 8X DVD+/-R/RW
• Windows Vista Home, Business or Ultimate OS
• Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
• 802.11a/b/g/n with Bluetooth
• ExpressCard Slot
• 3 x USB ports
• 2 x headphone out and one microphone-in
• VGA-15 pin
• TV-Out S-video
• RJ-11 and RJ-45
• Notebook Expansion port 3
• 2 x Consumer IR
• Battery: 4-cell or 6-cell Lithium-Ion
• Weight: 4.3 pounds with weightsaver and 4-cell battery
• Dimensions: 8.82&quot;(L) x 12.05&quot;(W) x 1.23&quot;(H)

Design and Build

The tx2000 has a high-gloss HP exclusive Echo finish. Unlike its predecessor the lid is glossy black and has the Echo pattern, which also extends inside to the silver keyboard. Very sleek design, but it does get full of fingerprints. The overall design and chassis are still the same. The tx2000 feels solid and weighs in around 4.3 pounds.

Lid of the tx2000 with Echo imprint. (view large image)

Students and professionals everywhere are rejoicing to this news. The updated tx2000 Entertainment Tablet PC has a touchscreen and active digitizer, which means now you don't have to use just your finger to navigate because there is a pen for taking notes or drawing. The pen is accurate and responsive as well. It still comes packed with a remote (my unit was lacking one though) and Altec Lansing speakers, so watching movies or listening to music is great.

Display and Keyboard

The 12.1&quot; WXGA display is kind of grainy, but this is common with tablets. It is glossy and reflective, but nothing major if you like high-gloss screens. It is actually helpful in the sunlight, not that I have seen much though here in the cold MidWest. The viewing angles are fine and now that it has both a touchscreen and active digitizer, it's a real tablet.

The tx2000 in tablet mode with pen. (view large image)

The screen automatically changes orientation when rotated into tablet mode and the small hinge is surprisingly sturdy. The pen feels nice as well and I prefer it when navigating over my finger because it is more accurate. The tx2000 feels a little heavy when carrying in tablet mode, but it does come packed full of features.

The tx2000 keyboard and touchpad. (view large image)

The Keyboard feels solid. The keys don't flex too much and response time is good. HP is making the keyboards even better on the production models with improved accuracy and response. The touchpad is still the famous perforated design. There are plenty of multimedia buttons for watching DVDs, listening to music or viewing your photos. There is even an optional Webcam.

Performance and Benchmark

The tx2000 now has that needed bump of power with its AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual Core processor. Browsing the Web and uploading pictures was an easy task. The Nvidia Go 6150 graphics will be a disappointment to some, but still work fine, just no hard-core gaming. This tablet was in need of a refresh and I can't complain, especially for the price.

Battery life was good. I got around four hours with the 4-cell battery, which sticks out the back of the tablet a bit. The 6-cell actually raises the tablets height from 1.23&quot; to 1.52&quot;, so that is something to think about. If you carry your tablet in slate mode the 4-cell battery might be more comfortable.

HP tx2000 in notebook mode. (view large image)

Wireless options are endless from 802.11b/g WLAN to 802.11a/b/g/n with Bluetooth and everything in between. At the office I had no problems connecting to the Internet, but at my house the tx2000 wouldn't pick up a signal for anything. It was either hit or miss, but the Verizon coverage isn't so great in my neighborhood.

PCMark05 measures the systems performance as a whole.

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
HP tx2000 (AMD Turion 64 X2 2.3GHz, Nvidia Go 6150 graphics)	3,738 PCMarks
Asus R1E (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, GMA 965 chipset)	4,679 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook T2010 (Intel Core 2 Duo ULV 1.2GHz, GMA X3100 graphics)	2,334 PCMarks
Gateway C-140x (Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, ATI X2300 HD graphics)	4,342 PCMarks
HP Compaq 2710p (Intel Core 2 Duo ULV 1.2GHz, GMA X3100 graphics)	2,453 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz, GMA X3100 graphics)	3,473 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook T4220 (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz, GMA X3100 graphics)	4,171 PCMarks
Gateway E-155C (Intel Core 2 Duo ULV 1.06GHz, Intel GMA 950 graphics)	2,205 PCMarks
LG C1 (Intel Core Duo 1.2GHz, Nvidia Go 7300)	2,568 PCMarks
Toshiba R400 (Intel Core Duo ULV 1.2GHz, Intel GMA 950 graphics)	2,187 PCMarks
HP tx1000 (AMD Turion X2 2.0GHz, Nvidia Go 6150)	3,052 PCMarks
Asus R1F (1.66GHz Core Duo, Intel GMA 950 graphics)	2,724 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X60t (1.66GHz LV Core Duo)	2,860 PCMarks
Toshiba Tecra M6 (1.66GHz Intel T2300E, Intel GMA 950)	2,732 PCMarks

Stay tuned for more benchmarks and testing in my complete review, which will be published in a few days. The tx2000 is definitely a true competitor. College students will love this convertible notebook, I mean the first one (the tx1000) was a huge success.

Ports

I don't think you can ask for much more then what the tx2000 already offers. It isn't the lightest tablet I have held, but it is the funnest. I wasn't disappointed in the feature set and the entertainment features are an added bonus for this tablet.

Left side view of the ports. (view large image)

Right side view of the ports. (view large image)

Front view of the tx2000. (view large image)

Back view of the tx2000. (view large image)

Underneath view of the tx2000. (view large image)

Pricing and Availability

Prices for the tx2000 start at $1,299 and it is supposed to be available by January 8th on hpshopping.com. If you want some hands-on time with one you will have to wait until March when they hit retail stores.

 

Depressing that the graphics card is still the same from the tx1000.

 

wow.....4 hours on a 4-cell w/ an amd cpu? what were your battery testing settings? i have the hp tc4400 and i struggle to get 4 hours on a 6-cell.

 

Nice ! The battery is pretty impressive.

 

I hoped for Intel proc.But actualy I am impressed by AMD performance and battery life.

 

Isn't AMD terrible for battery life? An intel proc would raise the price significantly, and would also require the x3100. Which would be pretty nice if you ask me. Price might've started at 1.6k though

Nice refresh of a popular device.

 

I still hope that they make an Intel version.

 

Depressing that an otherwise pretty solid tablet PC is ruined by the AMD processor.

 

Yeah, I'm questioning that battery test result too. It's a little hard to believe with an AMD CPU, a 4-cell battery, and Windows Vista. I would have difficulty believing you can get 2 hours.

 

Hi Tiffany and thanks for the review. I do have a question that I can't get answered by HP. I've seen several online reviews of the unit and watched some interviews (a couple even included an HP rep) and a lot of them refer to the unit having the option of a 320GB hard drive. Yet, the HP shopping web site makes no mention of it and even their sales support do not know about that as being an option. Have you come across any information about it?

 

The battery life is great. on the tablet PC's does the screen get scratched up alot or do you put screen protectors on it

 

I just bought yesterday the tx2000ep (portuguese edition). It comes packed with a TL-64 AMD processor, 3 GB RAM, 2 batteries (4 and 8 cell) and 250 GB hard drive. No bluetooth included. The rest is pretty much the same as the other tx2000 models.

Here are my first impressions:

I like the screen, although it's a bit less reflective than my ASUS F3Ja, so colors aren't as vibrant (depending on your personal taste, it can be a good or a bad thing). Some portuguese buyers complained that there was a small lag when you started a video, either DVD or divx. I must say that, as long as I don't do anything else, there is no lag. But by "anything else" I mean even a simple thing as pluging a USB device, so don't expect much multi-tasking when you are watching videos.

The screen axis seems a bit fragil to me, but this is my first tablet, so it might just be that I'm not used to them.

Shortcut keys and the small remote control are very usefull in tablet mode. With the remote you can even enter the media desktop, where you can fully take advantage of the touch screen. In this mode, it reminds me a lot of my PDA, only larger.

The touchscreen works fine with either the pen or your finger, with the advantage that the pen doesn't actually have to touch the screen to work. I REALLY didn't like the fact that character recognition doesn't work in portuguese. I have to switch to english if I want to write freehand, otherwise I have to work on the virtual keyboard.

The (physical) keyboard is, so far, what disapointed me the most. I had heared that the keyboard flexed a bit, so I was expecting it. But that's not exactly the case. It does not flex as a whole, but when you strike some of the keys, they sound hollow, almost like they don't have any support underneath. I'm thinking that, after a couple of hours, I'm going to be really tired of that "tec, tec, tec..." sound.

Weight...
What can I say? Without battery (but with the modular DVD inside) it weighs the announced 1.92 kg (around 4.2 lbs). The 8 cell battery weighs an extra 450 grams (almost 1 lbs) and the 4 cell, 250 grs (a little over half a pound). So, with 8 cell and DVD module, it will weigh as much as a 13" laptop, and will be heavy on your arms in tablet mode. But I guess thats the price you pay for extra battery life.
Removing the DVD module will save you about 200 grams (around 7 ounces).

The fan is annoying because its on amost all the time. Fortunatly, its not at full throttle all the time. I installed Notebook Hardware Control and temperatures aren't that high (especially considering its a AMD), running at around 50-55º C (120-130 F). But I can't seem to change ACPI settings in NHC, because the option is locked.

The right hand rest area (next to the touch pad) heats up a bit, but nothing special. I'd say its a bit tepid, never getting uncomfortably warm. But I wouldn't leave my hand next to the laptops exhaust for very long. This might be a problem in tablet mode for left-handed people, becase that's where your arm will be.

Finally, the only performance test I ran was super PI. A 2M calculation took 1m39s.

That's it for today. More to come when I finish a few more tests.

 

I just ran a very intensive test with the 8 cell battery.

In high performance, brightness at 100%, watching a DVD, with a SD card on the reader, a USB external disk connected and surfing the internet with wireless on. It lasted 2h15m.

A very good performance considering it's almost the maximum consumption possible.

 

I have this machine and have several complaints:
-Mouse randomly jumps to the bottom right of screen and clicks another window
-The 4 cell battery doesn't charge
-The screen is super reflective, like looking into a mirror in many lighting conditions
-Comes with tons of HP sofware that slow it down
-Has a VERY loud fan that runs when the machine is plugged in.
-The pen is noticably less acurate than the gateway I had before this

There are a lot of nice features about the machine, but these things are so annoyning that you don't really appreciate them. I am looking forward to a better tablet either from HP or someone else.