HP Pavilion tx2500

HP Pavilion tx2500 Specs:

• AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 (2.1GHz, 2MB L2 cache)
• 3GB DDR2 RAM
• 250GB hard drive
• Mobility Radeon HD 3200 IGP
• 12.1" WXGA Display with dual active/passive digitizer
• 8X DVD multiformat burner with LightScribe
• 802.11 a/b/g/n WLAN with Bluetooth support
• Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit Edition
• Integrated gigabit Ethernet and v.92 modem
• 6-cell battery
• Integrated webcam, fingerprint reader, Mini Remote Control
• ExpressCard/34 Slot

HP Pavilion tx2500 More Info:
HP recently refreshed the tx Tablet PC line, replacing the half-year-old tx2000 with the new tx2500. The refresh brings many improvements over its predecessor, the most important being AMD's new Puma architecture. As one of the first tablets to use Puma,expectations were high for improved performance, battery life and heat output. While not perfect, the tx2500 is a big step in the right direction in the world of multipurpose tablets.

I have the retail version of the tx2500 that is available at Circuit City (HP tx2510us). Specs on this machine are:

Design and Build

The tx2500 borrows almost all of its design cues from the older tx2000. The "echo" finish remains and the same black/silver color scheme is used. The excellent "golf ball" trackpad returns as well. The dimpled pad gives better traction to your finger and allows more delicate movements than smooth versions.

Build quality is on par with most low-midrange consumer laptops. The plastic encasing around the screen feels cheap and hollow. There is a lot of flex in the bezel and lid plastic, and putting pressure on the lid causes the screen to ripple from the pressure. The lower half is far more substantial and even the two pieces of the plastic shell seem to be connected better. There is no flex around the keyboard and it does not bend even when putting pressure on both ends.

The hinge is very well built for a low-end tablet. It actually takes a little bit of force to twist the screen from one of the two locked positions. I can imagine the hinge still being strong in a few years even with moderate tablet use.

Many of the buttons feel cheaply made. The button that opens the lid does not always work correctly and frequently sticks on the first try. The power button also doesn't work as well as it could because the slider design is almost impossible to use with just a finger due to it being so stiff. I have to use my fingernail to make sure it moves enough to turn it on. The DVD player buttons along the right side of the screen are functional, but are also so stiff that there is almost no feedback when you press them. Maybe a little breaking in will work.

The extra weight of the tx2500 over the tx2000 probably comes from the larger heatsink needed for the new CPU/GPU combination. If you use the weightsaver instead of the DVD drive the weight would be more in line with the original tx2000, but 5.49lbs. isn't that excessive.

Display

The display is also a bit of a mixed bag. The screen is washed out because of the passive digitizer and definitely takes some getting used to if you have never used a tablet before. It looks much better during movies and games because the colors tend to be sharper. Under heavy fluorescent light or in direct sunlight the screen is very hard to read because of the high gloss finish.

Under lower light situations it is much easier to read. The left-right viewing angle is almost 180 degrees. Up-down viewing angle is a little more hit-or-miss and it makes finding a good angle during tablet operation more difficult. Overall the screen is acceptable and actually works well for the entertainment portion of the tablet.

Performance and Benchmarks

The increased performance is the big selling point of the tx2500 over the tx2000. The new Puma platform combines a new Turion Ultra processor with an improved ATI integrated graphics chip. The HD 3200 is built on the HD 2400 architecture and brings integrated graphics up to the level of low-end dedicated cards. The performance of these new components is very impressive for such a small machine and makes a giant leap over the tx2000.

These benchmarks are for the 2.4GHz Turion model. Because of this the PCMark and SuperPi performance will probably be a little lower on the 2.1GHz model found in the retail version, but not enough to drastically change the findings. 3DMark05 and 3DMark06 probably won't be different given that the GPU is almost certainly the bottleneck on those tests.