HP TouchSmart tx2z Review

[echobinary]

I ordered on from HP and got it in early December. - I'm not a proffesinal reviewer, but i will give my thoughts. The N-Trig screen is pretty decent, and there is an option in teh control panel software provided to set how you want the screen to react (pen+hand, hand only, pen only, etc). I got an 8-cell battery and the weight was not more than my Asus R1F - in fact I found that the 8-cell battery gave me a handle which made it a lot easier to carry. All that said - sadly - it suffered from either a driver issue or a hardware issue, and I am currently in the process of a return/replacement with HP for a new unit. The speakers sounded much better than any other tablet I've personally heard - that is one thing that struck me as being very nice. The issue causing the return was it would lock up after a period of time, the lights around the keyboard would start blinking, and trhe screen would gtet a "checkerboard" across the bottom, and the top would get thin purple/blue lines - after several emails to HP it was decided that it was a video driver or a video card issue. Either way - this happened to me just out of the box, and I was not happy about that. If anyone else has had this issue and or found a resolution, please sound off.

[jonlumpkin]

I also posted this comment on the identical review page on the sister site.

This seems like a decent tablet and I am interested to see how this multi-touch pans out (N-Trig on the Dell XT had quirks). I think you will need Windows 7 to truly see the benefit of it however (much better multi-touch/gesture support than Vista).

There are two errors I noticed in the review though.

Your wPrime scores for the Lenovo x200 Tablet are very bad (possibly a typo). I have this tablet (with a 1.86GHz processor) and the average of 5 wPrime runs is 42.465 seconds. This is not quite as good as the 34.940 seconds of the tx2, but is far better than the 74.210 you have listed for the x200 Tablet (did you mean 44.210???).

Also, the Intel x4500MHD (standard in the x200 Tablet) IS capable of accelerating the decoding of 1080P video (Mpeg2, AVC, or VC1). This is a marked improvement over the x3100 and should be noted. I readily concede though that the AMD HD3200 IGP is far better for gaming than the current Intel solutions.

[SHiFT]

Hi all. I decided to join after reading this review... came from NBR.

I do agree with some that this review is not necessarily "complete" but then again that's what these comments/forums are for right? I thought it was a good review overall.

@echo - thanks for your thoughts. Sorry that you had your problems. I do not have that problem with mine so maybe your replacement won't either.

Mine was flawless but for one thing... the left palm rest squeaked every time i rested my hand on it or moved the machine. I also own the tx2000 loved the build quality of that machine. I will be sending my tx2z back for a replacement soon. Well one other random thing aside from the squeaking was that i used to hear a light rattle each time i tipped the tablet to one side. I opened the covers from the bottom of the tablet, tipped it over, shook it gently, and out came a tiny loose screw. No more rattling... just the squeaky palmrest still.

As others have mentioned, speakers and screen are clearer on this tx2z when compared to previous models. I did not know that the pen didn't have an eraser before i bought the system. That was a pretty big disappointment for me but overall i feel like the NTrig screen is more responsive than the Wacom on previous models... especially with touch. Still, it's not nearly perfect.

I agree with Jerry that the tx2z is for occasional use in tablet mode or better suited for the desk for things like note-taking. My wife is a teacher and she loves it for creating lesson plans and activity sheets. She primarily uses it at her desk and in the recliner. Like the tx2000z I will rarely carry this around in tablet mode unless i'm just moving from one room to another. I do use it in tablet mode on my lap sometimes or like when reading in bed.

On the issue of heat, it does get hot but it also seems like the tx2z runs a little cooler than previous models.

One thing for people who plan on buying this thing with the quickdock+monitor; the picture output through the quickdock to your monitor is not perfect but that might be a problem with the quickdock. I tried both the tx2z and tx2000z with both the silver quickdock and the newer black one on 2 separate monitors. I get the same "faint horizontal lines moving up and down the screen" problem. Sorry for not being very technical.

[havard]

I bought the machine after reading this review, and then discovered a huge issue - pressure levels don't work with Photoshop, though they work elsewhere. Apparently, this is because of the APIs the N-Trig digitizer uses - it doesn't support the WinTab API, which is what Photoshop and many other programs rely on. That's what I got from Adobe after being batted forth between HP, N-Trig and Adobe. N-Trig doesn't seem to have any intention of supporting WinTab, and Adobe says other APIs don't give it the information it needs - so, in effect, if you need to use pressure levels Photoshop, the tx2z doesn't seem to be an option. I'm sending mine back.

(unless someone's going to tell me there's a solution...?)

[Kyle Porter]

NO solution havard. Basically when it comes to ntrig + photoshop, you are SOL for pressure sensitivity.

[preckie]

I hope it doesn't suffer with ghostly cursors as with tx2000. HP won't replace my unit even if it was under warranty. I don't think I'll ever buy an HP product again though this tablet really looks great on paper.

[majesticstumbles]

I like the way you review the product..

[kanehi]

It looks good except that some comes with speckling screens. I hope the next model will me more thinner including the battery. The flatform is the same as the tx1000 series so it still runs hot sometimes. If the dv2t came as a tablet then I would buy one.

[rony1434]

Hi mate.
Thanks for sharing this review with us.
Its really great.