HP TouchSmart tx2 (1015AU)

Design and features
The newest in the TouchSmart family, this 12.1-inch tablet comes with consumer-esque trappings, like an etched "bubble" design around the lip, and a glossy finish. While HP's intentions start off good, it unfortunately ends up using them to pave that oh-so-famous road — the first being that this is clearly based on the already not-so-good TX1219. This means it inherits the right-facing hot air vent, VGA-only output and HP proprietary dock interface. It's also loud, and hot.

Fortunately, it seems tablet responsiveness has increased, and while the same slightly smokey, oily screen is in place, it can now be set to respond to only the stylus, touch, or both together. HP includes a screen cleaning cloth, and you'll need it, thanks to the smudgy grime that builds up over time.

Touchscreen responsiveness can best be described as temperamental. To load HP's MediaSmart application, you're meant to use two fingers to swipe an "M" shape — yet we could never get this to work reliably. We'll come back to MediaSmart later.

There are only two other multi-touch gestures — you can pinch with your fingers to zoom in or out, or place one finger down and make a semi-circle action with the other to rotate. Both seemed to work fine enough in the Vista image viewer, however, zooming in a web browser was unreliable at best due to the speed at which both Internet Explorer and Firefox did its magnification. Without speedy feedback, you end up over- or under-zooming, so you'll have to make a tiny stroke, wait to check the size, then make another tiny stroke.

The screen is inlaid, so you may have trouble touching any element that is near the edges of the screen like the Start, close, minimise and maximise buttons, and the system tray.

The design is more consumer-orientated
than the average business laptop.
(Credit: HP)

It doesn't help that the pressure you need to apply to get a response makes the screen wobble significantly if it's not transformed into tablet mode. Fortunately, using the stylus is much easier, with greater responsiveness — but of course you lose the multi-touch functionality. Given its limited nature, this is not too great a loss — though there are areas of the screen that are smooth, and others that are rough, which impedes use.

The MediaSmart software has been inherited from the desktop range of TouchSmarts, although it's undergone a devolution. Rather than being a single application, it now lives its life as multiple applications for DVD, music, photo, video, webcam and TV use (despite no TV tuner being included in the laptop). An overlay can be summoned to switch between applications (this is what appears when you can get the "M" gesture to work); however, the process is slow, and when you're done you have multiple applications to load, not just one.

The components of MediaSmart still exist as potential waste, and after the initial novelty wears off, you'll most likely go back to Windows. While Microsoft's Surface seems to be making the right steps, for now touch on the PC is still an application tacked to an old operating system, failing to leverage it as a major form of input. Until an operating system is designed from the ground up with pervasive alternative input in mind, it will continue to play second fiddle to the mouse and keyboard.

Case in point: the handwriting helper for the stylus appears when you select an input field in Internet Explorer, but not Firefox. This more than anything highlights touch or stylus input as an afterthought, something that is only now just changing thanks to the iPhone. It remains to be seen what elements Windows 7 brings to the table, or if, despite all the marketing, it ends up being an afterthought, and Apple beats Microsoft to the new paradigm once more.

The 1280x800 screen itself features three buttons — one for rotation of the screen when in tablet mode, one to load MediaSmart, and one for the Windows Mobility Center. Underneath the monitor on the chassis itself are volume and mute controls.

The screen can be swivelled clockwise and
then folded down to convert to tablet mode.
(Credit: HP)

While the keyboard is by and large good, tiny function keys make finding the right one a hunt and peck mission every time. Thankfully, the trackpad is still excellent to use.

On the left-hand side is an SD/MS/MMC/XD card reader, underneath it is an ExpressCard 34, and to the right a DVD+-RW drive. The right side features a USB port, gigabit Ethernet, and the aforementioned proprietary docking port and VGA out, while the rear contains a modem jack and two extra USB ports. Under the trackpad on the lip are dual headphone jacks, a microphone jack and an infrared receiver for the bundled remote, which can be handily stored in the ExpressCard 34 slot if you're not using it.

Speakers, while capable of surprising volume, are horrible and tinny, and should be used for system sounds only.

On the software side, HP's total care advisor exists as a dock that sits at the top of the screen and provides the function of informing the user about their HP PC. While we're not fans of the big and cheesy design, we can see how it would benefit inexperienced PC users, not only offering help, but quick access to the PC's functions. Also included is SoftStylus, software that enables you to use your trackpad as a text input device, letting you draw letters with your fingers.

A 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security 2009 is included, and the Internet Explorer toolbar infestation of choice is AOL this time. HP's usual mess of trial games are included, as is a trial of Microsoft Office 2007 and Cyberlink's DVD Suite. Bundled partners are eBay, manifesting as a shortcut link on the desktop, and BigPond, turning up in HP's internet connection tool, trying to convince you to sign up. Take a deep breath, and uninstall.

On the hardware side it features an AMD Turion X2 clocked at 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, a Radeon HD3200, a 320GB hard drive and 802.11n wireless. Bluetooth is nowhere to be seen.

Performance
The TouchSmart tx2 is not a high-level performer, with a 3DMark06 score of 1551, and a PCMark05 score of 3844. While this makes it fine for business use, it's definitely not the fastest player in the game.

Battery life was as miserable as its predecessor — with all power-saving features turned off, screen brightness and volume set to maximum and a DVD played back, it lasted 57 minutes and 33 seconds.

Apart from a little touchscreen tweaking, it seems HP has learnt no lessons since the TX1200 series, simply plonking in new hardware, doodling a new design on the chassis and sending it out again. While at AU$1,999 it's half the price of Dell's Latitude XT2 — the benefit of touch hasn't been fully exploited here, and we'd suggest there are better tablets out there.

Specifications

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