Yippe ka yay!
HP Pavilion tx1000 Entertainment PC. or specifically, my tx1221au
Finally.. A tablet PC to call my own. I've always been amazed with the capability of Tablet PCs to fold into a Slate, amazed with its capability to read Emags and Ecomix with a little more ease, being foldable and all.
The main thing that was in the way was the Phenomenal high price of Tablet PCs. This HP tablet was really a steal as it was priced about only 30% higher than the cheapest entry level PC at this time.
The great points of the Tablet? Inherently its design. The Tablet. Besides that, for an entry level notebook, it boasts fingerprint recognition technology, 12 inch touch screen. (Not a touch pad with the
wacom pen. You can actually click icons using any pen.), a remote control for the Tablet PC which hides away in the express card slot, DVD burner with lightscribe, multi card reader (doesn't read CF... Damn) and Altec Lansing Speakers, and TWO batteries. 160GB Hardrive and 1GB ram ( which i quickly upgraded to 1.5GB. another 512mb will be coming soon.) lastly.. VISTA.
The Fingerprint recognition tech is rather practical. I sign into the computer without needing to type in a Password, just swipe the finger. I can also sign into Gmail using the same finger. What happens if you finger gets damaged? You have the option of swiping all 10 fingers. So if you finger gets damaged, you can't type anyway... ha ha!!
The Touch screen is pretty unsensitive. Don't know why.. Compared to my Pocket PCs i actually have to use quite a lot of force to use the touch screen. But using the touchscreen with the built i stylus sort of solves the problem. I guess thats why HP said that the touchscreen was optimized for stylus input. The screen is a bit dull too.. Not very bright, but enough.
The Remote control is quite a nice throw in. Very compact. Can you see it at the bottom of the picture above? Fits snugly into the express card slot. Controls the media Player and also slideshows. Great for presentations.
This is one of the reasons for getting the Tablet PC. Reading emagazines. Folding up the Tablet to slate mode, I get a pretty readable Emagazine. Page turning is by touch screen. With Emagazines so easily available on the internet, I've got more magazines to read now than ever. Granted, the Tablet is a bit heavy to hold, but look at it this way, you can never ever fold a regular notebook. I've got collection of ecomix too, Tintin, Asterix, Groo.. Punisher, yea.. its a better way to lie in bed or on the sofa rather than sitting in front of your PC to read something relaxing.
What you pay is what you get?
Before i type further the next tablet in this model line up costs about 50% more with a smaller 80gb hard drive. and its only a Turion tl-56 so its not much of a upgrade for the price being paid.
OK.. my tablet pc processor leaves a bit more to be desired. Its only running an Athlon 64 X2 tk-53 at 1.7 Ghz. After using it for some time, i realized that this processor doesn't have a regular speedstep kind of technology like my old 1st generation centrino notebook. Its got kind of a Manual speedstep technology. Have to manually set the performance to low, med or high.
The Heat? The heat is terrible but still bearable. Hot as Hell. With all the hot air blowing out form the Fan behind, i bet i could cook and egg if i left it behind the fan for long enough. So far, i've used it to dry my table after i spilt water on it. Its not for using on your lap for certain. Would be uncomfortable to have cooked skin. Putting it on the table is ok.
The actual Processor speeed? I'm rather pleased with it. Comparing to my aging 1st generation Centrino, 1.5 Ghz with 768mb Ram and this Athlon 1.7Ghz with 2gb Ram, the Performance on the Athlon tablet is moree than double that of the Centrino. I used a free Benchmarking software
Novabench.
On Vista's benchmarking, lowest score was 2.4 on the Gaming graphics although i had given is 128mb ram in the BIOS settings. Processor was highest at 4.6
I don't do any heavy processing stuff. Its more for light picture editing, blogging, as a media companion and presentations. I'm happy with the processor speed. Acomplishes all my tasks well. The tagline for this tablet is as an entertainement PC
Remember I said 2 batteries? When at best performance mode, the 4 cell slim light batteries lasted only 2 hours. Ha ha ha.. Peanuts! I suppose the other battery, which is a 6 cell would do 3 hours. 6 cell battery is bubble wrapped in the picture above. But still, since i don't commute by train or anything, that isn't a problem.
Windows VISTA! What to say? Ready or not, we have been forced to embrace it. After shutting down all the gay graphics crap, switching everything to Best Performance in visual effects, albeit 2 functions, the buttons and thumbnails instead of icons (for the pictures la). Performance is ok. No issues on my usage level. I suppose I'm easy to satisfy due to my paltry neeeds. The worst part about getting this Vista machine is NETWORKING!!! HAAA!!! My old network of router and Switch doesn't seem to work. Right now i can only network with my other computer VIA my rotten old Dlink wireless b router.
LAN netwroking with the old switch is not working. Read up quite a bit including installing a patch for the XP machines, but sadly its a no go. I've come to the conclusion that i will have to upgrade my Networking Hardware to get it going. A linksys or Belkin router will be next on my list.
The bottom line is: YES! I'm happy with my new aquisition. Happy with the price I paid. Isn't it wonderful to get something you want at the price you want? Yea!
