Product Description

HP Pavilion TX2120US 12.1 Inch Laptop PC. HP innovation is most visible in its breakthrough notebook PC designs that truly integrate fashion and technology for today¿s mobile, digital lifestyle. High gloss HP Imprint Finish encases the elegant, curvilinear form and is more durable than traditional painted surfaces. Personal entertainment is now even easier to enjoy with an updated menu and built in demos. Providing more choices than ever, HP QuickPlay enables access to DVDs, videos, photos, music, karaoke, games, Internet TV, and streamed or recorded TV, with an optional TV Tuner, at the touch of a button. Watch DVD movies on the full screen using simple media controls. Add music to your slide shows or videos with drag and drop functionality. Watch Internet TV. Listen without disturbing others with included stereo earbud headphones. And control content from up to 10 feet away with the HP Mobile Remote Control that can be stored in the ExpressCard slot for convenience. Its 12.1 inch screen twists 180 degrees for presentations and DVD playback and folds flat to enable the convenience of capturing hand written notes and drawings. Staying in touch has never been easier with the integrated HP Webcam. With AMD Turion 64 dual core mobile technology and the same viewable screen content as a 15.4 inch system, the TX2120US provides all the power and performance of a mainstream notebook PC without the additional weight. A fingerprint reader offers advanced security by using fingerprints instead of standard passwords to access online accounts, such as banks and e-mail. To set up access, each fingerprint is associated with a password through the DIgial Persona software. Interact directly with your system using your finger or stylus. With a Wacom digitizer the included pen is optimized for hand writing capture and conveniently recharges while you write, it does not require a battery. Erasing notes on your screen is just like using a pencil, flip the pen over and erase.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1706 in Personal Computers
• Color: Black/ Silver
• Brand: Hewlett-Packard
• Model: TX2120US
• Dimensions: 1.52" h x 4.53" w x 12.05" l,
• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.2 GHz
• Memory: 4000MB DDR2 SDRAM
• Hard Disk: 250GB
• Processors: 2
• Display size: 12.1

Features

• Lightweight tablet PC with 180-degree swiveling, touchscreen-enabled 12.1-inch LCD and integrated 1.3-megapixel WebCam
• 64-bit 2.2 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-64 dual-core processor, 250 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM (max), LightScribe dual-layer DVD drive
• Quad-band Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n); Bluetooth; Gigabit Ethernet; Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 graphics (up to 527 MB of available memory)
• Connectivity: 3 USB, 1 VGA, 1 ExpressCard 34, 1 headphone, 2 microphone, 1 S/PDIF out, 5-in-1 memory card reader
• Pre-installed with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium (Service Pack 1); includes remote control

Customer Reviews

Best product for the money... read more to see why...
DISCLAIMER:

Normally, I steer clear of HP's (and Compaq's) sub-par products with risible quality-control, as well as its outrageously-detestable practice of filling the hard drive with cloggware that forces the customer to spend the first hour clearing out unwanted garbage with a plunger in hand, and to add to the outrage, the cloggware RESIST uninstall attempts.

FEATURES:

With the said caveat in mind, this particular product is magnificent! Albeit, it is a bit heavy (the DVD player can be removed to make lighter) and a tad warm, but perfectly smooth running Vista Home Premium, Office 2007 Premium, Matlab 2007, Photoshop CS3 and Visual Studio 2008. Looks beautiful (though a fingerprint magnet), has all the bells and whistles needed on a portable / tablet, and is dirt cheap compared to all other convertibles in its class. The only con is that it is not using the faster/cooler Intel Core 2 Duo chip, preferably the T8300 (2.4GHz), but that would have increased the price by a few hundred bucks. The graphics controller is built-in, but works very well for attaching high-resolution 22"-30" monitors. Those who are looking for a great GPU for gaming should not be looking at a tablet/convertible anyway.

If you're wondering, a "convertible" is the same as a tablet PC, but has a built-in keyboard / glider pad.

The stylus functionality is good, though it does require some calibration and some getting used to, the media remote stows in in the unit, the built-in camera, mic and speakers are also very good. The mic with software boost is adequate for Skype or recording lectures, but not for voice-command. The glider pad is the best I've seen on a laptop (it is slightly offset/indented to avoid accidental touching, and has perforations to allow for better finger adhesion/control). The screen resolution is nice, crisp and bright, but the digitizer overlay makes it a tad grainy and certainly shiny--but you'll stop minding by the first week of use. The included 6-cell battery lasts me ~1.5 under medium-heavy use, but an 8-cell version is available now and possibly a 12-cell may be available in the future.

COMPARISON:

The tx2110us is preferred over other tx2000z models, particularly the HP tx2120usbecause: (1) Vista 64 has compatibility issues, and may overall be an overkill for the current Turion chips (hence, slowing things down); (2) there is no noticeable benefit in having the extra 1GB of Ram under normal use, especially in a laptop (Vista x32 will only recognize up to 3GB); (3) No noticeable benefit in an extra 0.1 GHz in speed, but the trade off is probably more heat output / shorter battery life; and (4) Cost!! This one is ~$120 cheaper, which can go towards a second battery, or a nice case and accessories.

The unit is available at AMAZON, which means free shipping, no additional sales tax, and you can actually have it in your hands in less than a week (and return it if you don't absolutely love it)!

Preferred over Gateway C-141/142XL: (1) Gateway is flimsy, and at this rate, may not be around in the near future due to terrible customer service and business practices, and non-existent support (I ordered the C-141XL mid April: first they delayed my order without informing me, then they canceled my order without informing me or ever explaining why after I called twice, being transferred 6 times, and spending approx. 2 hours with customer service/sales/parts(!) and dealing with RUDE and UNHELPFUL employees, and they would refuse to ship my order unless I went to my bank and wire-transferred funds into Gateway's account first!! I figure the reason Gateway canceled my order (and probably many others) was because it was selling the unit too cheaply ($200 off base price, plus $50 coupon), so it introduced the "new" 142XL as of May 1st, which is identical to 141XL in all respect, but costs $150-$200 more (no coupons/incentives when I last checked); (2) C-142XL does have a larger screen (though with a worse resolution than the HP), as well as the much faster Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz and a dedicated GPU, but it does not have the latest wireless adapter (802.11N), nor the very useful remote control that comes with the HP, and is much heavier, almost too large to be ultra portable, only has the active digitizer but no touch-screen capability, and costs $300-$400 more (add another $50 for shipping and $100-120 for tax), that's IF you ever get one... (see blogs for Gateway's massive delivery delays on this product).

OTHER REMARKS:

Preferred over all the other ones I researched: Lenovo (cheap-looking IBM legacy laptops with the red "zit" in the middle of the keyboard + made by a Chinese manufacture who insists on installing Vista, but only includes 1 GB of RAM = NOT a winner), Toshiba (generally nice products, but unnecessarily expensive), Dell (great products and wonderful customer service, but the current convertibles are not fast enough for my use and too expensive), Apple (does not make a convertible, yet), Panasonic (excellent products, surreal prices), Gateway (forget about it!), Sony ($$$), ASUS ($$$), etc.

A Vista Computer that Just Works!
This is a quick review of the TX2110US. I've had this for over a month now and I couldn't be more satisfied with this purchase. I'm glad to report that this computer "just works" -- everything was as advertised and it certainly doesn't have the "cheap" feel and subpar assembly quality of other computer manufacturers. The keyboard is ergonomically designed (full size keys with nice response), it doesn't get hot (the TL-62 runs cooler than other AMD processors), the finger print reader, bluetooth, wi-fi just works flawlessly. I can't even stress how cool the active tablet mode works -- my handwriting on the tablet looks exactly like what I have on paper... and windows journal recognizes it! Really cool!

I've also had a few pleasant surprises: A full version (with license and all) of Microsoft OneNote 2007 and Corel Painter Essentials 4 comes free with this computer. Another surprise was the screen quality; I was expecting it to be subpar because of the tablet feature, but it isn't. The text, graphics, and video quality is as crisp as any LCD at the same price range.

There are also a couple of negatives: the GeForce 6150 card is a couple of generations older (why was this not updated?), because of this most modern games will almost be unplayable. The viewing angle of the screen (while comparable or slightly better than an entry-level Macbook, Toshiba, or Dell), could use further improvement. The weight is also rather heavy for its 12" frame.

For the price, a great value oveall. The pros outweighs the cons by magnitudes. Highly recommended especially for casual, academic, and business use.

I like it
I have had this computer for a couple of weeks now and I am happy with it. It looks like there are some detailed reviews already so I will try to keep this one brief. The good: computer works well, the pen and touch screen are neat (it remains to be seen if I use the features all that much). The keyboard feels nice. The one tiny hinge for the screen actually feels pretty solid. We just set up skype and the camera and microphone appear to be just fine. I have not yet noticed any compatibility issues with Vista64, but I don't have a lot of extras installed.
The bad: The computer does stay pretty warm. I got a Belkin laptop cooler (Amazon, 20 bucks) and I think it helps. With the cooler the computer fan usually stays in the off or low mode. When the fan in the laptop goes to high speed it is pretty noticeable. It does seem like the fan doesn't run as much when I am holding the computer vertically in tablet mode with the exhaust at the top of the computer. Now here are a couple of nitpicky ones: Where my right hand rests on the computer for typing (right above the wireless switch), there is a creak in the case, this might just be my computer. The power switch on the front of the computer is an odd and cheap feeling slider, but not a big deal.

I got a screen protector from a company called strong engineering, it wasn't all that expensive and I don't have to worry about the screen. One of the reviewers mentioned that a full version of OneNote came with the computer, on my computer it appears to just be a trial version. Also, one of the reviewers said they think this computer with 3G RAM, Vista32, and the slightly slower processor might be better, if that is your preference check out Costco, they were selling that computer for a little less than this and it came with a bit longer warranty. Once the various taxes, fees, and rebates were figured in I elected to pay 50 bucks more for one more gig of ram and the slightly faster processor.
Overall I like this product and would recommend it. Good luck with your computer shopping!