Convertible Pavilion: HP TX1000 Tablet

Tablets are those nifty handheld devices, sort of like enlarged PDAs, complete with a stylus to doodle on the screen with, which never really caught on. Laptops-well, laptops are the hippest and most dynamic craze in computing. But what happens when you put the two together? A Frankenstein that will short-circuit, go berserk, and pillage the countryside? No, the HP Pavilion TX1000 tablet notebook.

This “notelet” could be the next iPod-type craze on the electronic gadget market, given the right publicity. Students and everyday users will turn into giddy, must-have-it consumers over these notelets. In large part, the hysteria could explode thanks to the HP TX1000’s tablet-like features, such as its touchscreen capabilities that can really be touch-and not just stylus-activated. Or there’s the Pavilion display’s ability to swivel around. The price won’t hurt either-it is set to hit retail shelves at $1,299.

Your pre-Frosh getting ready for the university campus or your 20-something looking for a laptop for the coffee shop could also be won over by the brand-spanking new Windows Vista operating system (which, by the way, is what makes the tablet capabilities possible).

This HP’s notebook’s 12.1-inch screen, besides its ability to rotate clockwise and folding into tablet mode, also has a high glossy finish fit for a DVD. And if you happen to want to run a DVD while you’re halfway across the room, no worries: the HP Pavilion TX1000 comes with a remote control, which hides out in the ExpressCard slot when you’re not using it.

Now, on to the next obvious question: Why we’re hinting that this notelet might be better off for everyday consumers (and implying that it might not cut it for serious laptop users and business professionals). For starters, the 1GB of RAM standard and AMD Turion X2 TL-60 dual core processor aren’t anything to use with heavy-duty graphics files or massive database apps. And the TX1000’s Nvidia Go 5150 graphics chip won’t send cutting edge gamers to another world. It’ll probably send them to another computer.

This tablet notebook only weighs about 4.2 pounds, sure, but frequent travelers might be put off by the plastic, some would say cheapish, build. And for all of the ports, media reader and webcam that the notelet has, there’s no FireWire. Is that being picky? Perhaps. At least this new Pavilion TX1000 is not just another enlarged PDA.

Read – Indepth Review of the HP tx1000

By Henrik Stigell – Laptopical

Friday, February 09, 2007