Staples: HP 12" Tablet notebook $999

[snow2ice]

http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=73,74,75,4559&webid=776543&affixedcode=WW

pretty good price for a tablet

Features:
2.10GHz AMD Turion™ X2 RM-72 Dual-Core Mobile Processor
4096MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
320GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer
ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics with 64 Display Cache Memory AMD M780G
12.1" Diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Integrated Touch-screen, Convertible Display (1280 x 800)
Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
High speed 56k modem
HP Imprint finish, HP Webcam with integrated microphone and integrated Fingerprint Reader
5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
Ports: 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, 1 Headphone out w/SPDIF Digital Audio port, 1 microphone-in port, 1 VGA (15-pin) port, 1 RJ-11 (modem) port, 1 RJ -45 (LAN) port, 1 notebook expansion port 3, 1 Consumer IR
Software included: Symantec® Norton Internet Security 2009 (including 60 days complimentary live update), HP Help and Support Center, HP Recovery Manager, HP Home Network Center, HP Total Care Advisor, Microsoft ® Works, Microsoft® Office 2007 Home and Student Edition: 60 Day Trial Version, HP MediaSmart, Muvee Reveal, Cyberlink DVD Suite, Adobe® Acrobat Reader, HP Games Powered by Wild Tangent, Microsoft® Office OneNote
12.05"(W) x 8.82"(D) x 1.23" (min H) / 1.52" (max H)
4.65lbs
1-Year Limited Warranty.

[vinnie1990]

how does this compare to this model?

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10118224&catid=

this is usually reg price?

[Kalvster]

Was $799 like half a year ago...

[RT Wolf]

High speed 56k modem

Do you think they'll stop calling 56K "high speed" anytime soon?

[sf1]

Was $799 like half a year ago...

i think this one is the new version tx2 of the $799 you have seen,
this one has "capacitive" touchscreen (not sure what that means)
and has touchsmart software (all the finger touchscreen hype imitation)
also the processor is now RM instead of QL you have seen, which means less heat, also RAM has increased from 3gb to 4gb.
hard drive increased from 250gb to 320gb

other than that, it's the same graphic card, build quality and everything, the battery life probably didn't improve much

[professionaldude]

staples link shows $1,002.10 Am I missing something :confused:

[Soulsaber]

If it's anything like the HP tablets that some of my friends own, then you will be sitting by a plug all the time =D (aka terrible battery life)



also the processor is now RM instead of QL you have seen, which means less heat

Are you sure about this? It still has a TDP of 35W.

[sf1]

yea RM is suppose to run cooler than QL
unless I did my research wrong last year.

Are you sure about this? It still has a TDP of 35W.

[Kalvster]

i think this one is the new version tx2 of the $799 you have seen,
this one has "capacitive" touchscreen (not sure what that means)
and has touchsmart software (all the finger touchscreen hype imitation)
also the processor is now RM instead of QL you have seen, which means less heat, also RAM has increased from 3gb to 4gb.
hard drive increased from 250gb to 320gb

other than that, it's the same graphic card, build quality and everything, the battery life probably didn't improve much

One I got was tx2604ca...
Think it's "capacitive"
Positive its touchsmart
Processor is RM but no biggy
My ram is 4gb
The hard drive is 320gb
Battery life is okay (like 1 hour :lol:)

So in conclusion: Only difference I see is the processor which in turn leads to a great price difference! :-0

[sf1]

One I got was tx2604ca...
Think it's "capacitive"
Positive its touchsmart
Processor is RM but no biggy
My ram is 4gb
The hard drive us 320gb
Battery life is okay (like 1 hour :lol:)

So in conclusion: Only difference I see is the processor which in turn leads to a great price difference! :-0

i was comparing with the $799 model from staples last year,
i think the name was tx2517ca

[Kalvster]

i was comparing with the $799 model from staples last year,
i think the name was tx2517ca

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=671202

[Hallandale]

The one that's 1k right now (wow, 1k. the prices dropped) is the TX2X series tablet. The series before it is the TX25xx series tablet. This generation features a remote that pops out of the side of the computer (effing cool if you ask me), as well as a multi-touch screen. Like the one on the iphone/itouch. Pinch for zoom and stuff like that. Rotate. Good for graphics I guess. More of a gimmick if you ask me.

There's a comparison here (click the four links that a poster provided regarding comparison as well):

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=22833

As well, just google TX2Z vs TX2500 tablet and you'll get tons of results. I wish I'd jumped on the TX2500 that they had at staples a few months ago. Around 700 with coupons. I don't really want the TX2z. It's disappointing.

[Matrixvibe]

One I got was tx2604ca...
Think it's "capacitive"
Positive its touchsmart
Processor is RM but no biggy
My ram is 4gb
The hard drive us 320gb
Battery life is okay (like 1 hour :lol:)

So in conclusion: Only difference I see is the processor which in turn leads to a great price difference! :-0

lol, thats pretty bad battery life, considering of these, anyone else have pros and cons about it?

[soarlow]

1 hour battery life on a new laptop?? can't be... and it's a 12", even less battery usage...

My used fujitsu tablet gets 3.5 hours....

[pham12h]

I think this is a hot price, the TX2 is one of the first multitouch capacitive touch tablets out(dell had one too, but super expensive business line).. I remember the TX2 came out in the states late last year and for $899 i believe.. and then took months to come to canada, for some ridiculous price like 1300 or 1400..

imo, this is pretty much *the* notebook to get for use with windows 7, you dont have to use a stylus or press down hard on the touchscreen since it doesnt work on the principle of pressure, but of the electric current your finger has.

[Kalvster]

1 hour battery life on a new laptop?? can't be... and it's a 12", even less battery usage...

My used fujitsu tablet gets 3.5 hours....

Well maybe because of the usage of my laptop... photoshop, wireless internet where it's like always going, firefox, msn, and also my drivers in XP (a downgrade)... CPU usage shows a lot. :lol:

[blun7]

This looks pretty tempting. Anyone have experience with heat or noise with this model?

[leof]

I got the TX2500 when bb had it for 799- $50 coupon = $750.
It uses a QL-60, NOT an RM series and I get 2.5-3 hours of battery life consistently when on wifi and word. I believe the RM series has more downclock steps (is that what it's called) whereas the QL only has 2, the top end and 800mhz, which is why the RM series has better battery life and lower heat output. However, I generally keep the brightness to about 80% and power setting on power saver to achieve that number.
The battery life is horrendous out of box, you need to do a clean swipe of the hard drive.
cons: build is mediocre, the vent gets quite hot after prolonged or heavy usage and the screen suffers from the wacom touch screen layer. However, the capacitive touch screen version should not have this issue. battery life is still considered mediocre compared to its intel counterparts. finally, the bilingual keyboard sucks. i had to remap a few keys, but there were a few keys i had to adapt to.
pros: comes with everything you need out of box. stereo headset, ir remote, dvd-drive space saver ( you can swap the dvd-drive with the space saver to lower the weight). performance is decent. i'm not a power user by any means so i feel it's more than enough to handle vista, but it's relative to your usage type. speakers are above average and the keyboard and trackpad are great (except for the bilingual aspect).

additional comments: i rarely ever use the touch screen even though i originally convinced myself i'd jot down notes in class. i'm not particularly into graphic applications, but i've used the touch screen to draw things maybe 10 times in the last 8 months. i've also used it to write japanese and chinese characters, but never for english text. i do however use the swivel function of the screen during group meetings and presentations and it's awesome.

hands down, it's the best value tablet you can get...but i'd wait until windows 7. from what i hear, multi-touch isn't refined enough in vista.

[leof]

One I got was tx2604ca...
Think it's "capacitive"
Positive its touchsmart
Processor is RM but no biggy
My ram is 4gb
The hard drive is 320gb
Battery life is okay (like 1 hour :lol:)

So in conclusion: Only difference I see is the processor which in turn leads to a great price difference! :-0

better processor = better battery life, better performance, less heat
newer design = i think it looks sleeker
better screen = the lack of the wacom layer makes the screen on par to regular lcd's and doesn't suffer from the touch screen matrix.
capacitive touch screen = multi touch without the need for a pen.

[blun7]

I got the TX2500 when bb had it for 799- $50 coupon = $750.
It uses a QL-60, NOT an RM series and I get 2.5-3 hours of battery life consistently when on wifi and word. I believe the RM series has more downclock steps (is that what it's called) whereas the QL only has 2, the top end and 800mhz, which is why the RM series has better battery life and lower heat output. However, I generally keep the brightness to about 80% and power setting on power saver to achieve that number.
The battery life is horrendous out of box, you need to do a clean swipe of the hard drive.
cons: build is mediocre, the vent gets quite hot after prolonged or heavy usage and the screen suffers from the wacom touch screen layer. However, the capacitive touch screen version should not have this issue. battery life is still considered mediocre compared to its intel counterparts. finally, the bilingual keyboard sucks. i had to remap a few keys, but there were a few keys i had to adapt to.
pros: comes with everything you need out of box. stereo headset, ir remote, dvd-drive space saver ( you can swap the dvd-drive with the space saver to lower the weight). performance is decent. i'm not a power user by any means so i feel it's more than enough to handle vista, but it's relative to your usage type. speakers are above average and the keyboard and trackpad are great (except for the bilingual aspect).

additional comments: i rarely ever use the touch screen even though i originally convinced myself i'd jot down notes in class. i'm not particularly into graphic applications, but i've used the touch screen to draw things maybe 10 times in the last 8 months. i've also used it to write japanese and chinese characters, but never for english text. i do however use the swivel function of the screen during group meetings and presentations and it's awesome.

hands down, it's the best value tablet you can get...but i'd wait until windows 7. from what i hear, multi-touch isn't refined enough in vista.

How is the touch screen in browsers?

[leof]

correction*
the wacom digitizer isn't the one at fault for the matrix overlay, it's the pressure sensitive touch screen. since the tx2 doesn't have that, it has a superior screen.

[leof]

How is the touch screen in browsers?

well, it works, but it's much less convenient than the trackpad. to be honest, it's physically exhausting.
unlike an ipod touch where your hand is already gripping the device and you're flexing 1 digit of your hand within a very small area, with a touch screen tablet, you'd end up moving your whole arm to get around the screen.
if you are referring to screen input when in tablet mode, it's a different story...because you have no other choice. haha.
it's probably going to be better with the tx2 because of the capacitive screen. you could probably pull up the on screen keyboard (it's a one click option), and type away on the screen...IF you can get used to it (touch typing is impossible). the hand writing recognition option works, but it takes forever. i touch type much faster than i can write, and i'm sure it's the same for you. as for using the touch interface for controls, it's definitely usable, but it's not nearly as refined as the ipod touch if you're used to that. it has a lot more capabilities, and if you're not intending on using the tablet heavily, you'll never have them all memorized. most are intuitive, but not all. also, no matter how many times i calibrate my screen, my pen always seems to be off. it's annoying, but for the most part my mind intuitively compensates.

hope that helps.

[soarlow]

Can someone list the types of touchscreens there are? And what's the touchscreen matrix?

I saw this:
capacitive touch screen = multi touch without the need for a pen.

capacitive touch screen is what the ipod touch has right? is there such thing as multi touch that requires a pen?? because multitouch is for fingers no?

If this capacitive touch screen doesn't have the wacom layer, does that mean you CAN'T draw on the screen with a stylus?? Since it doesn't work on pressure sensitivity, then you can't use this for painting in photoshop like a Cintiq?

[pham12h]

Can someone list the types of touchscreens there are? And what's the touchscreen matrix?

I saw this:
capacitive touch screen = multi touch without the need for a pen.

capacitive touch screen is what the ipod touch has right? is there such thing as multi touch that requires a pen?? because multitouch is for fingers no?

If this capacitive touch screen doesn't have the wacom layer, does that mean you CAN'T draw on the screen with a stylus?? Since it doesn't work on pressure sensitivity, then you can't use this for painting in photoshop like a Cintiq?



yes a digital stylus (special one that comes with it) can be used with pressure varying sensitivity to draw..

http://www.techdigest.tv/2008/11/hps_new_touchsm.html

[Fysloc]

Just to let you guys know about the battery life, the HP models with the HD3200 graphics card have poor battery life. All the other tablets from other companies you see use integrated video so they dont consume as much battery and therefore last longer, however, the HP one is handy if you need to use photoshop and the likes on the go, or just watch some HD videos

[pham12h]

Just to let you guys know about the battery life, the HP models with the HD3200 graphics card have poor battery life. All the other tablets from other companies you see use integrated video so they dont consume as much battery and therefore last longer, however, the HP one is handy if you need to use photoshop and the likes on the go, or just watch some HD videos


4-cell battery lasts about 2 hours max..

6 cell battery will net you 3.5 hours max..

8-cell one will get about 6 hours.

(source from forums (http://www.gottabemobile.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7393), and amazon review (http://www.amazon.com/TX2-1020US-TouchSmart-12-1-Inch-Dual-Core-Processor/product-reviews/B001LF35VY/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1) and notebook review (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4741))

the question is, how many cells does this one have?


EDIT: nevermind, found out it has the 6 cell.. so basically if you have this thing on max brightness with wifi on high performance, you will get just over 2 hours. With screen dimmed and on balanced you might get about 3.

source: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01634456&lc=en&dlc=fr&cc=fr&lang=fr&product=3860706

[darren22]

Does anyone know of any 12"-ish laptops that are a better deal than this? I really don't see myself using the tablet functionality much, but the specs on this seem to blow away anything else at this size.

The Lenovos aren't an option for me unless they decide to start putting a trackpad on their 12.1s. I can't stand using the trackpoint.

[hao3388]

my HP dv8200 business notebook almost dies after 4 years I bought from BB. 2 hard disks crashed, DVD burner refused to play, battery only lasts for 5 minutes, LCD dims....

What should I say?

[Fysloc]

I'm only getting 1.5 hours with half brightness and on 6 cell battery when using tablet constantly, and about 1.75 hours for video playing constantly. Honestly, I need a way to cut down the power usage.

[TRK9]

I bought a tx2000z (customized via hp.com) last year (April).

It is one of the older series with an old nVidia 6150 card and no multi-touch. The battery seems to last about 1.5-2 hours in power save mode.

If I didn't have this, I would have jumped on this tx2 deal. I paid more for mine last year in the US because HP didn't have them in Canada. And it was such a pain with a Canadian credit card and IP address.

Too bad hp.ca doesn't let customer order customized PCs.

[ibinlurking]

I am looking for a 2nd AC power adapter so that I can keep one at my office. I did check ebay and deal extreme, but have concern regarding the quality. If anyone got some ideas, please share.