2. HP Pavilion Tx1000z Entertainment Notebook PC

by Ed Tittel

This compact HP notebook PC features a 12.1" LCD screen in a svelte, attractive package. It's packed with cool features, including a twist screen, with optional touch sensitivity that lets it function as a tablet PC, as well as a conventional notebook. It's also quite small and light, with dimensions of 8.82" x 12.05" x 1.23-1.52" (22.4 x 30.6 x 3.1-3.9 cm) and a weight of 3.95 lbs (1.8 kg) with a twist-only screen or 4.26 lbs (1.9 kg) with touchscreen. At prices that start at around $1,100 and peak at around $2,000, the tx1000z offers a great combination of portability, good looks and interesting capabilities.

Opened up as usual, the HP tx1000 looks like an ordinary but compact subnotebook PC.

But if you twist the screen 180 degrees and fold it down, it turns into a tablet PC!

Obviously, if you want to use the tx1000 as a tablet PC, you'll have to spring for the touchscreen version (which adds $125 to the overall cost). But that's not all the tricks this sweet little notebook has inside its slots. The fact that HP chose to label this as an "entertainment PC" is the telltale that explains the super-tiny media remote that's included with the unit. It's small enough to fit in the ExpressCard slot in the tx1000 when not in use, but provides a reasonably full-featured set of Media Center controls (also included as part of the software in this Microsoft Windows Vista Home-based notebook PC). The tx1000 even includes two headphone jacks, so that one or two people can use it to watch DVDs while listening as discreetly as possible to their soundtracks. Earbud headphones cost $7 extra, but even two pairs won't set buyers back too much.

The brains inside the box come courtesy of an AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core processor. The 1.6 GHz TL-52 model is the default, but a 1.8 GHz TL-56 adds only $25 to the price, while a 2.0 GHz TL-60 ups the ante by $100. The unit also ships with a built-in microphone and Webcam integrated into the display deck, but you can add an optional fingerprint reader for another $25. You also get a pretty sizable 120 GB 5,400 RPM SATA drive by default for this notebook, and can bump your storage by 40 GB for $25, or 80 GB for $150. The unit also includes an 8X DVD+/-R/RW DVD burner with double layer support (and a LightScribe version is available for another $25 bump). 802.11 b/g WLAN comes standard, with 802.11 a/b/g plus Bluetooth for $25 more, and 802.11 pre-n with Bluetooth for $55 more.

Courtesy of its low power parts, the normal 4 cell lithium-ion battery runs for about 3 hours under normal use: a 6-cell battery is available for only $39 more, and ups typical battery life to 4.5 hours. The unit includes 1 GB of RAM as the base option. Vista requires at least 1 GB, and you can add another 1 GB for a modest $75. You'll also find plenty of ports on board, including 3 USB 2.0 ports, VGA, S-video TV out, two headphone jacks, two infrared receivers, an RJ-11 (modem), RJ-45 (GbE LAN), an ExpressCard slot, and a notebook expansion port.

All in all, this is a very nice, very capable little notebook that any grad or Dad lucky enough to be gifted with one can't help but appreciate. For more information on this unit, check out the