HP tx2130ea (UK edition of tx2000z) information!

Hello all!

I dunno about the US and international interest in the tx2000z, but in the UK, I have the feeling that there is a little uncertainty surrounding the new edition of the HP tx2000, the tx2130ea.

I just bought this laptop and I know from experience that there are a few things that aren't made too clear before you buy. This applies especially if you're ordering online.

Firstly; Some of you potential buyers probably know that the laptop does come with two batteries, a 4-cell and an 8-cell lithium ion battery. Here's the uncertain part. If you are looking to buy from a highstreet store (Dixons, Currys and PC World specifically), they'll tell you it comes with only a 6-cell battery. I know. I asked a guy in Currys and that's what he told me. A week later I bought one from PC World (the same company, therefore the same product) and it did indeed have the two batteries I'm talking about.

Secondly; It comes with a free HP slip case. This is included by the manufacturers, so no matter where you buy it, you'll get the case. Incidentally, those of you interested in the differences between the tx2050ea and the tx2130ea, I've looked as far into it as I can, and the addition of the free slip case is the only thing I've uncovered. Kinda lame, but it's free, so who cares. It has the tx2000 imprint design on it too, which is nice!

Thirdly and finally; I've observed much uncertainty about the active digitizer, especially on the subject of pressure sensitivity. Let me clear this up once and for all. The included digitizer pen with the tx2130ea is pressure sensitive. 256 levels I believe. Not that great, but better than no sensitivity at all!

That's about all I think people were really unclear about. For all I know, I might have been the only one confused by some of these things, but I was so confused that I thought I'd try and help out my fellow potential tx2130ea buyers and make their decision that much more informed.


If anyone has any questions, post them and I'll try my very best to answer them. Keep in mind, I'm no dunce when it comes to computing, but I'm no expert! I can't answer questions about electronic code and what-not!

For UK potential buyers; Right now the best new price I could find on the tx2130ea is £649.99. Surprisingly you can order it online from PC World at this price and then pick it up from your local store to make sure it's everything you wanted. I would strongly recommend taking this route if you are looking to buy the tx2130ea. I'm not employed by PC World! I promise! All I know is this is as cheap as ordering from a web-based company with the certainty of a highstreet purchase.

For the US users; The details I've supplied here are 100% accurate for the tx2130ea, which as far as I know, is only available in the UK. They might not apply to all or any models available in the US... Apart from the stuff about the digitizer, which I know still applies!


Thanks for reading. Questions and comments graciously accepted!

- Jacob

 

Can we have some pictures?

 

You want it, you got it! Sorry about the poor quality. I don't currently have a working digital camera, so I had to use my phone.

I tried to take a picture of the cool design on the lid of the laptop, but it's simply too shiny! It's so shiny, HP include a chammy cloth purely so you can get rid of fingerprints and make it shiny again! A nice touch but alas, not a very photogenic one!





I took a picture of the touch pad because it's an incredibly good design and it's difficult to see on the official product images. Inverted bubbles, perforated, inverted domes... whatever you call them, the pad is cool and very easy to use! One of the major plus points of this laptop.




I do have to mention the keyboard a little, for those of you that haven't had the pleasure of using it. The word on the street is that it's quite loud but I take exception to this. It's not exactly silent, but it's quieter than my microsoft desktop keyboard! The keys themselves are deceptively large. That goes for all but the function keys which, as you can see, are tiny! Not a huge problem for me because it's not like they're involved in any touch-typing!



Couldn't be bothered to get up!



The aformentioned case aswell. Not amazingly important, but a useful addition nonetheless!




The BSOD episode occured when I tried to put the laptop to sleep whilst the network was connected. I don't know whether this happens on all laptops with a wireless connection, something tells me it doesn't! It doesn't happen when you put the laptop to sleep with the network connection off though, so it's not a serious problem. It could be to do with AOL for all I know. Most things that go wrong with my computers are!

If anyone wants a picture of something more specific, let me know and I'll try my best with my phone camera! Oh and sorry I couldn't be bothered to get up when I took these pictures! I'd be lying if I said it was fitting that I take a picture of a laptop on my lap-top.


- Jacob

 

Very nice looking. Does it have touchpad buttons that kind of "click" or are they the weird soft ones that I've seen on newer HPs?

Also, what's with this active digitizer? I heard it's a big deal for tablets but why?

 

Beacuse if its not an active one it reads pressure from anywhere - including you rpalm/hand etc.


Passive ones are great in the sense that you can use anthing you want to write on them including fingers but for proper response, drawing etc the active ones are best...

 

Gurio is absolutely right. Here's my little summary of the differences between active and passive digitizers:

With a active digitizer, you can hover the pen over the screen and it'll still be detected by the screen. You can then perform a left click by touching the pen on the screen. A passive one will only perform any action when your pen touches the screen. With the tx2000, it'll respond to movement from the pen when it's hovering within about 1-2 inches from the screen.

Also, active digitizers are pressure sensitive more often than not. Passive ones are never pressure sensitive... not as far as I know.

One more thing. Though the tx2000 has the active digitizer, like most good tablet PCs these days, it has something called "multi-touch". Essentially this means that it's also a passive touch screen aswell. So when you can't be bothered to get the pen out, you can use your finger or a stick (not a sharp one of course!) or anything else to operate the touch screen. If you do this, like Gurio said, you get convinience, but you sacrifice accuracy and pressure sensitivity. Fortunately the tx2000 does both passive and active, so you're sorted; whatever the situation!

It's worth mentioning that when the pen is near the screen, the passive digitizer is disabled so that you can rest your palm on the screen. This is really good as you get a more authentic writing/drawing experience. Without this, if you were using the pen and you accidentally rested your palm on the screen, it would mess up what you're doing. In the same way that putting two fingers of a laptop touch-pad messes that up!

In answer to your question about the touch-pad buttons on the tx2000, they are good ol' robust clicky ones. None of this soft touch nonsense!


Hope this helps! I know most of what I've written is tricky to understand if you're new to the whole tablet PC thing. I was confused as hell when I first tried to get my head round some of this stuff!


- Jacob