HP Pavilion tx1000 user reviews

Pros Features and performance best for the money (details below)

Cons Black plastic shell; runs hot

Summary I've owned many of the "ultraportables" over the years, beginning in 1986(?) with the Toshiba 1000, through my TX1120's predecessor, the ThinkPad X40. For the money, this is the best one yet. If you are a PDA veteran (particularly earlier Palm III's) the touch sensitive screen is easy to get used to - not as responsive as a Wacom, but no fears of losing the stylus - PLUS - when you just want to open, read, watch, listen, etc while in tablet mode (e.g. - when that 800 lb gorilla in the seat in front of you cranks it all the way back before the plane's wheels leave the ground and even the X40 screen gets crunched down over the keyboard) this unit in tablet mode is perfect. No need to fiddle with a stylus while you read email and control WM11 with your finger tip. I wouldn't want to write the great American novel on the screen, but short items are OK. Reading in portrait mode is a joy (full page view is very good)

PROS: for $1675 out the door (HP site) you get the touchscreen, 2ghz AMD 64 X2, 2gb ram, 160 GB hdd, lightscribe DVDRW, webcam, fingerprint ID, 802.11n, bluetooth and DVD restore media. Try to match that in a Dell, Sony, or Lenovo of any kind.

CONS: I hate the black plastic cover fingerprint magnet. Tends to look dirty all the time. A little heavier and thicker than the micro champs from Dell, Sony and Lenovo, and no Core 2 Duo available yet. Not a true tablet for delivery and inventory gurus. Tends to run hot at full speed (be sure to set processor frequency minimum to 5%).

Pros Creature comforts: compact, builtin webcam, DVD-R, fingerprint, graphics card, lots of RAM

Cons Absolutely useless as a tablet. Screen size/resolution awkward. Bad keyboard layout.

Summary I needed a Tablet PC for taking notes during meetings/seminars. Bought this computer because of the impressive options avaiable at a low price. Certain sacrifices were made (low screen resolution, non-Wacom tablet) at the expense of 2 GB RAM, nice CPU, integrated webcam, speakers, fingerprint reader, microphone, lighscribe DVD-R, etc etc etc.

The machine ran nicely at first. A fair amount of preinstalled bloatware was removed, got about 3+ hours on the 6-cell battery. Aero ran as smoothly as could be expected. MS Office 07 was a bit awkward because the large graphical menus took up a huge chunk of real estate vertical, leaving little room for documents. Outlook ran nicely in the widescreen though, lots of room to see all important e-mail/calendar/task information at once. This machine could certainly benefit from better resolution to be more appropriate for serious users.

On the whole these are minor quibbles. The real trouble in paradise is the absolutely inept design for use as a tablet. The screen is extremely insensitive to pen-based input, so you have to really press down hard to get your pen strokes recognized. Pieces of letters often get missed, and you have to write really slowly and press down really hard - not very useful during a meeting. Trying to write a scientific document was a nightmare, a realization that came after 3 hours and only 1/4 page completed. I attempted to re-calibrate, train the system on my handwriting, and search hp.com and the web in general for updates/drivers that might help. Finally, I called HP and was given the run-around - transferred between case workers and salespeople with no technical experience. I was put on hold for 30min at a time. Finally, a case worker promised that a tech would call me back - surprise surprise I'm still waiting for that call.

Today I got my RMA number and tomorrow I'm getting this trainwreck out of my life. I've had enough of the HP experience. In fact, HP should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this disaster to be put on the market in the first place. If you actually want to use this machine as a tablet, avoid the tx1000 at all costs!

Pros Affordable, fast, feature-filled, and stylish

Cons They say the tablet experience -- but it only needs practice (and legible handwriting)

Summary Many complain about the TX1000's touchscreen feature because it is less responsive than a Wacom-equipped tablet. You see, that's the point. It's NOT a Wacom tablet! The upside to a touchscreen is you wouldn't have to worry about losing your stylus -- you can use your finger or any slightly pointy object and you're not stuck to not being able to use the tablet feature in class if you find yourself without a stylus. Some complain that the responsiveness of the touch screen is miserable. I did not find difficulty using it. My handwriting is easy to read, so I guess the computer does not have trouble interpreting it easily. Plus, it takes practice -- people start complaining about the feature when they've only gotten the tablet for a week or so. Practice, people!

The built-in camera, microphone, fingerprint reader, 5-in-1 memory card reader, the fabulous altec lansing speakers, the powerful processor and RAM, quickplay buttons, and the remote control are just beautiful additions to this powerhouse media laptop. HP did not promote this to be a business person's typical tablet, this is targeted towards the more common PC users who want something new out of their computer. College students who might need to scribble formulas once in a while. It's not designed for business people, because in the first place, there are much pricey tablets out there for you. This one is for the college individual who's making ends meet and is looking for an affordable, innovative new laptop packed with features (especially in the multimedia aspect). This tablet deserves a higher rating!

Pros Very portable, fast, small screen

Cons problems with the screen, speakers aren't great

Summary Considering this is supposed to be an "Entertainment PC", it's got crappy speakers and the screen is impossible to see in natural light. Also, the fact that you have no choice but to be stuck with Vista is terrible. I've had countless problems with this OS (things that affect the performance of the PC, the touch screen randomly stops working).
I hate to complain too much because I do like the thing, it's just that I bought it when it was only available at HP online and it cost be $1300 for something that is now in stores for $900.
I bought this as a replacement for a Compaq Presario V2030us because it wasn't working right and I kind of wish I would've either gotten that fixed or bought a Mac. The computer (and for that matter, life in general) would be much better without Microsoft.