Hardware Geeks

A year ago HP delivered the Pavilion tx1000 Entertainment PC, a hybrid between a notebook and a Tablet PC. It was a great machine, and we here at HardwareGeeks.com awarded it our Editors Choice Award for the month of April 2007 and also our Top choice Award for the year of 2007.

The tx1000 was and still is a fantastic piece of machinery. 9 out of 10 reviews on the web praised it. However, at the same time each review noted some dislikes about the machine such as a lack of an active stylus and a keyboard that had a left shift key that was rather small.

So, HP read those reviews, took that feedback, and created the tx2000.

They took the good with the bad; they kept the good and improved on the bad, and I am here to tell all who read this review that HP has created the perfect notebook PC. Wait, scratch that, HP has created the perfect Tablet PC. Actually, it is my opinion that HP has created the best all around portable computer, perfect for consumers and business users alike. Perfect for students and doctors, great for the soccer mom and the Pro Football coach. The tx2000 is the perfect fit for everyone.

I have been blown away by the tx2000 so much so that I do not know where to start.

I am blown away because I kind of feel like I had something to do with the creation of the tx2000. After all, HP took my feedback along with the feedback from users on our forum and on other sites to improve on the tx1000 and create the tx2000.

On January 3rd when they first announced the tx2000, I felt a sense of pride. I know that’s a bit corny, but it’s how I felt. When I first saw the machine back in November, I was taken aback when I realized they actually used all the feedback they had gotten. I mean some billion dollar company listened to me and you and everyone else that gave them feedback. When does that ever happen?

OK, OK let me get off my little emotional trip and get on with the review.

The Pavilion tx2000 Entertainment PCis powered by an AMD Turion64 dual core processor (2.1 or 2.2 Ghz), 2 GB of memory upgradable to 4 GB, and NVIDIA GeForce 6150. Also included on the tx2000 is Bluetooth support, Wireless a/b/g/n support as an option (default wireless b/g/), 160 GB HDD with support up to 250 GB, SuperMulti DVD writer with lightscribe support, Fingerprint reader, 5 in 1 memory card reader, webcam, and a 12.1 inch widescreen high definition touch-screen monitor.

The first thing you’ll notice about the tx2000 is the look. It has a shiny finish with a cool pattern design and a shiny outer shell that makes the machine very attractive, and when you open it up, the design continues around the keyboard and touch pad.

The first boot up of the machine was painless. Vista Home Premium loaded quickly, and I was a bit surprised to see that HP had cut back on the amount of pre-installed software I think not 100% sure on this one but it didn’t seem to have as much pre-installed software as some HP Desktops I have booted up recently. Sure there still were the WildTangent games and Norton was pre-installed and a trial of Microsoft Office, but that’s all I noticed, didn’t feel the need to reformat and reinstall the OS like I typically do with a new machine. So I am happy to report that there was nothing hogging the systems resources on the first boot.

Needless to say the system is speedy and very responsive. Even QuickPlay loaded quickly. Not saying that it doesn’t load fast on other HP machines, it just surprised me that it seemed almost instant on the tx2000. QuickPlay is software that ships with every HP consumer notebook and allows you to play DVDs, watch TV (provided you have a TV tuner), view photos, and listen to music quickly. I guess that is why they call it QuickPlay.

It didn’t just load QuickPlay quickly, but every program I tried out, from Microsoft Word and Excel to your typical Messenger programs such as AIM and Live Messenger.

I even installed the Sims and Crysis on the tx2000 and handled both games well.

But the tx2000 isn’t just any notebook, it has a touch screen, and now, unlike the tx1000, it comes with an active stylus.

The lack of an active stylus was probably the biggest complaint about the tx1000, so everyone who followed HP and the progress of the tx1000 was excited when it was announced that the tx2000 had an active stylus.

Having both an active stylus and a touch screen can cause problems, because if you are writing with the stylus and your arm or the palm of your hand touches something it may override what the stylus is doing. To prevent this, HP has made it so that when the stylus point is within an inch of the screen, the touch screen portion is disabled.

Writing with the stylus is also easy, a lot easier than it was on the tx1000. Because there was no active stylus on the tx1000, you had to press down a bit hard when writing. This caused a little cramp in your hand after a while, but with the tx2000 since the stylus is active, writing is way easier and more comfortable.

Because of the active stylus doing things in tablet mode is a lot easier.

HP has also strategically placed hotkeys around the screen so you can easily control your music when in tablet mode. So if you are jotting a note and listening to music at the same time, you can skip to the next track or stop playback all together by just tapping one of the media keys located on the side of the monitor.

Even the finger print reader is located around the monitor so that you can have access to it in regular notebook mode or tablet mode.

QUICK TIP: When using a tx1000 or tx2000, register both your thumbs with the finger print reader. This way no matter if you are in notebook or tablet mode, you can easily swipe your finger to login to your machine or website and or access a protected folder (Thanks to Kevin Wentzel technical marketing manager for notebooks at HP for the tip).

Now you know that you can easily use the tx2000 as a traditional notebook and tablet PC, but the HP Pavilion tx2000 is also an entertainment PC. It is built to satisfy our cravings for Movies and Music. But what separates the tx2000 from other entertainment notebooks on the market is a screen that swivelz 180 degrees.

Let’s say you fly a lot and you didn’t take JetBlue or Delta, and you are on one of those airlines with a tiny TV screen 3 to 6 seats ahead of you showing some movie you have probably seen a dozen times. If you had a notebook, you’d lower the tray table down and pop in one of your DVDs or some video stored on your hard drive. While that’s fine you may be a bit uncomfy because your notebook overlaps the tray and if you’re a big guy or gal, you have to suck in your gut a bit, making the experience not as good as it could be. Also if the person in front of you has their seat reclined you may not be able to have your monitor at an angel to allow you to view a movie correctly.

With the tx2000 that problem is solved because you can turn the monitor around and use it in, what I believe is call “Airplane mode” I believe I got this term from Kevin Wentzel at HP. The keyboard is now behind the monitor, and you have a nice view of nothing but the high def screen. Speaking of “Airport mode”, let’s not forget to mention the switch on the front of the tx2000 that allows you to easily shut off both the Bluetooth and wi-fi instantly.

Because of the hi-def screen on the tx2000, watching movies is a delight; I only wish that it came with a blu-ray or hd-dvd drive, so you could take full advantage of the screen.

I am sure you are now wondering about the battery life. I was only able to test the 8 cell battery, which gave me about 5 and a half hours of battery life during normal use. I got 4 hours and 3 minutes exactly when I watched the movie Face Off on DVD movie.

What is cool about the 8 cell battery is that HP even improved on that for the tx2000. It now fits perfectly into the palm of your hand so you can hold onto it or if you put it into your shoulder it isn’t as uncomfortable as the previous battery.

There are a few more cool features on the tx2000 that I would like to mention. The touchpad toggle switch is one. If you have a mouse connected to it, you can turn off the touch pad and not worry about rubbing a finger against it and moving the mouse pointer. Another feature I’d like to mention is the 2 headphone jacks and mic jack on the front of the machine and the mini remote control. All of these were also present on the tx1000 and were loved by everyone so HP kept them, and I am glad they did.

Do I have any complaints about the tx2000 or request for the tx3000? I do.

Overall the tx2000 is everything you’d want and more, and with a $1300 USD price tag, you get it all without burning a deep hole in your pocket. We here at HardwareGeeks.com award our very first Editors Choice Gold Award.

For more information about the tx2000 visit http://shopping.hp.com.

Before I end this review, I want to thank HP for listening to us and creating the tx2000. I would like to thank Kevin Wentzel, Tom Augenthaler, Dana Harrold, Scott Ballantyne, and everyone else who made the tx2000 possible. I would also like to thank everyone who gave feedback to HP! After all, it was all of our feedback that created this machine.

Pictures of the tx2000 credit to HP, I was so excited testing the machine out that I forgot to take pictures before I shipped it back. But my friend Terri Stranton took some pictures of it when she had it so check those out here.

The tx2000 is available in Europe as the tx2050. In the US the tx2000 will be labled tx2000, tx2100 and tx2120us.

This is a Reprint of an original review.

Post Tags: review  hp  notebooks  tablet pc  tx2000  tx1000 

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