2.4GHz AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor ZM-86
3GB RAM
320GB hard drive
DVD±RW
12.1 inches
ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics
4.6 pounds
1.3x12.0x8.8 inches
Windows Vista Home Premium
For the all-new HP TouchSmart tx2z convertible tablet PC, HP has employed the TouchSmart family name from its all-in-one desktop PCs—along with that line’s slick touch screen capabilities. In the past, we’ve been hard-pressed to recommend a higher-priced convertible over a traditional laptop to all but the handful of consumers who appreciate (and would actually use) the tablet functionality. But with its MediaSmart multimedia-management applications, which make brilliant use of the touch screen and the tablet form factor, the TouchSmart tx2z is a good fit for anyone who wants a multimedia-savvy ultraportable with a twist.
The TouchSmart tx2z is wrapped in a good-looking titanium Reaction Imprint finish. At 4.7 pounds, the machine is on the heavy side for a laptop that only has a 12.1-inch screen, and as a tablet it quickly gets tiresome to use in the crook of your arm. Think of it as more of an on-your-lap tablet than a walking-around tablet.
As we said in our review of the Pavilion TX2000z, the company’s previous-generation consumer tablet, HP has the convertible notebook thing down pat. The beefy hinge keeps the screen stable as you type in traditional laptop mode yet lets you easily swivel and fold the screen flat against the keyboard for use in slate mode. HP has put as many controls as is practical on the screen’s bezel and machine’s edges, including the power and Wi-Fi switches, fingerprint reader, and buttons for rotating the screen orientation and launching the Windows Mobility Center (where you can adjust the screen brightness and system volume, change performance settings, and more). When the tx2z is in tablet mode, you lose access to the dedicated volume/mute hard keys, which are placed above the function key row on the keyboard's deck. And oddly, HP did not include dedicated multimedia control keys (skip, pause, play, and so on), which have been a staple on the company’s consumer laptops for years.
That’s less of an issue, however, given all the ways you have to control system functions: with the touch pad and mouse buttons, the included stylus, or simply your finger. The tx2z incorporates HP’s multitouch technology: The capacitive touch screen supports not just simple actions like tapping on a menu or dialog box but more-complex two-finger gestures for scrolling, zooming, rotating images, and even launching applications. Leave your finger on the screen for a moment and a mouse icon appears, letting you control any Windows app, not just those that are designed to be touch-screen-aware.
Getting to the “X” button in the extreme upper corner to close an application may take a couple of jabs, but generally the touch screen is very accurate, which is a must given the panel’s relatively high (for a 12.1-inch screen) 1,280x800 resolution. But even in apps like iTunes, where the song list is quite tightly packed, the screen did a good job of correctly discerning which line we were poking at. As with other Windows tablet PCs, you also can use Tablet PC Input Panel for adding handwritten notes to an open document, converting written characters to text, and tapping out URLs and other text via the onscreen keyboard.
Best of all, HP’s MediaSmart multimedia utilities make excellent use of the touch screen’s abilities. You can launch the MediaSmart suite via a hard key on the screen bezel, and it includes tools for enjoying DVDs, music, photos, and videos. The slick, iPhone-esque interface is optimized for the gesture-enabled touch screen, so you can scroll through photos by swiping your finger or rotate them by spinning two fingers touched to the screen.
Another bonus: The touch screen technology does not detract from the display’s crisp, bright appearance. We’ve tested tablets where you can make out the digitizer overlay, but that’s not the case here. Text is sharp, colors are vibrant, and video playback is top-notch. We’re also impressed with the Altec Lansing sound system, which puts out impressively good—and impressively loud—sound for a system this size.
Our TouchSmart tx2z came with a generous 320GB hard drive (a 250GB and a whopping 400GB drive are other available options), a LightScribe-enabled 8x multiformat DVD burner, 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth connectivity, a Webcam, the fingerprint reader option, an ExpressCard/34 slot, a five-format memory-card reader (SD, MMC, Memory Stick, MS Pro, and xD), and the usual connectors (three USB, VGA, Ethernet, modem, mic, and two headphone jacks).
Power comes from a 2.4GHz AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor ZM-86 (the best among the four CPUs offered), 3GB of RAM (up to 8GB is supported), and the 64GB ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics engine (the only one offered). Performance was good if you compare the TouchSmart tx2z with other 12.1-inch ultraportables, though when you consider that it’s built more like a thin-and-light machine, performance is about average compared with others in that class. We couldn’t get Futuremark's PCMark benchmarks to run to completion (HP has a ton of stuff that starts automatically at bootup, and even turning all of it off didn’t make the benchmark happy), but the machine’s Cinebench 9.5 and 10 scores of 608 and 3,571, respectively, show performance that's fine for the class.
The system needed 8 minutes and 35 seconds to complete our Windows Media Encoder 9 trial and 5 minutes and 36 seconds for our iTunes conversion test—results neither stellar nor alarming. The ATI GPU has some 3D chops, managing a score of 1,692 on Futuremark 3DMark06 and delivering a barely passable 23 frames per second (fps) on F.E.A.R. at 1,024x768 resolution. But more demanding games will be a stretch; we saw only 19.1fps on Company of Heroes at 1,024x768 and a low 10.6fps at the screen’s native 1,280x800 resolution. The eight-cell battery lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes on our DVD rundown test, which is a little below average for a thin-and-light but not enough to worry about.
The TouchSmart tx2z starts at about $1,150, and our system topped out at $1,500. That’s $250 more than HP’s similar Pavilion tx2500z series without the TouchSmart features and about $400 more than a Dell Inspiron 13, which offers no tablet abilities at all. So if you don’t think you’ll use the tablet features, this is not the machine for you. But if you like the idea of a tablet and were waiting for someone to make it more compelling, the HP TouchSmart tx2z may be just the ticket.
Price (at time of review): $1,504.99author : Jamie Bsales
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