First: My review is for a slightly different configuration of the tm2t. I have the upgraded processor, Core 2 Duo SU9600 (1.60GHz, 800MHz FSB) w/512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 4550 Graphics, and the 500 GB HDD. I've had it for a week now and the short of it is: I love it. I'd give it 4.5/5 stars if Amazon would let me. I rounded down to 4 stars as there are a few nitpicky things keeping it from perfect.Second: I love tablets. My previous laptop was a Toshiba R15, but it was getting a little old and the battery was dying, so it was time to look around for another. So why not wait for the glut of slate tablets this year, such as the ipad or HP Slate? Well, I love being able to hand-write notes, draw and sketch, and yet still type for a variety of projects I use the laptop for. I love Microsoft OneNote (one of the few programs they really got right), and I'm not sure how well it would run (if at all, like on the ipad) on the slates, and I don't mind navigating with a stylus (sometime I even prefer it). Mostly, though, I really need to be able to type (a lot) for both work and home. Yes, you can get docks for the slates that let you type, but they seem clunky so far and I always liked having the convertible so the keyboard is always with you, and truth be told, I do spend more time in notebook mode than in tablet mode, but I still do have the option of running it as you would a slate. So choosing a tablet has much to do with how you plan on using it.
Pros:
First (and only, as far as I can tell) tablet with an option for discrete graphics. I've been waiting for this for years.
Very light and easily portable
Switchable graphics helps saves battery power, overall battery life is good
Large touchpad area
Sound is great for such a small machine
HP Touchsmart software
Cons:
Occasional poor touchpad/touchscreen operation
No physical lock to keep screen down when in tablet mode, screen can be hard to grab to convert back to notebook
Screen rotation is manual
Graphics: One of the main selling points for me was the option for the discrete graphics. As a previous tablet user, I had to watch while all the other notebook users got to play their games while I couldn't. Now, finally, my laptop can do everything I want. I'm able to play Everquest 2 on it, which is a very graphics-demanding application (I couldn't run it at all on my Toshiba, and I'm sure the default GMA 4500 Graphics accelerator would probably do the same). Yes, the settings are turned down to medium and it can run a bit choppy at times (I average around 15 fps, and if that seems low, bear in mind EQ2 demands a lot more than World of Warcraft, I'm sure WoW would run at ~30 fps), but it runs, and I can play it easily. Other games ran perfectly, with crisp-looking graphics. If you want to be able to play some higher-end games on a tablet, this is the one you want. If you just want a purely gaming notebook, though, there are certainly better ones out there. One other plus: the graphics actually switch between low and high power states, depending if the laptop is plugged in. Basically this means for things like Everquest you're going to want to be plugged in, but it allows you to save battery life when on battery (you could keep it in high mode if you wanted, though). I didn't even see this advertised, but I thought it was a neat little additional feature, and I didn't notice any noticeable drop in graphics quality when in low-power mode (although EQ2 dropped to about 5-8 fps).
[Update 3: Everquest is averaging better than 25 fps now, sometimes even in the 40's. I think the initial low numbers were due to a new expansion pack and lots of players. Even better news for the graphics capabilities on this tablet.]
Construction: The body is nice, the whole tablet is light without feeling cheap, and it's easily portable. My old Toshiba is a beast compared to it. I like that the touchpad is larger than other pads I've seen, even if it occasionally acts up (see below). It's amazing how much they cram into such a small space. There are plenty of ports (something I wonder if all the upcoming slates will have) including USB, VGA and HDMI.
Screen: This one I was really worried about. My old Toshiba had a 14.1" screen, and I looked at some similar-sized screens before ordering it, but I was afraid it was going to be too small to be able to use daily. The good news: it's not. Yes, it's definitely a small screen compared to many other notebooks, but it feels bigger than it is, definitely better than any of the 10" netbooks, and colors are sharp and clear, and I can operate any of the programs (like OneNote) or games just fine and without squinting. It's smooth with a glass feel to it, which is nice for using the touchscreen and I love writing on it far more than my Toshiba, but it does tend to reflect a lot.
Sound: the included Altec Lansing speakers are impressive for how small they are. Yes, you won't get much bass out of it, but music and sounds are crisp and clear, not tinny at all.
Battery Life: This seems good, if not great, but no different than any other laptop out there. I'm sure if you just let it sit there and not do anything you can get the advertised 9-plus hours. Regular use seems to be around 4-5 hours, though I haven't really put it to any tests yet, like running a DVD movie from an external drive. I'll see if I can get back on this. Certainly for running in tablet mode and surfing or watching video streams, I have no complaints.
Tablet: Speaking of which, I really like the HP Touchsmart software that came with it. It basically lets you use it as you would any of the upcoming slate tablets, with icons for watching local or streaming videos (such as Hulu and Netflix), viewing photos, surfing the web, etc. I don't know if HP will offer any Apps (which is supposed to be part of the big deal with the ipad and such), but it's great for stuff you already do. A couple complaints here, though. When you flip the screen around and put it in tablet mode, there is no latch like my Toshiba had to keep the screen in place. It's not been a problem yet, but a locking mechanism would have been nice. Similarly, when you want to flip the screen back up to notebook mode, you have to pry the two halves apart. There could have been a slight indentation to get your fingers under the screen to make it easier. Also, there's a button that lets you switch the screen orientation. On my old Toshiba you could set it to automatically switch when in tablet mode, then back when in notebook mode. If that's an option here, I haven't found it yet, although it always switches back when you go to notebook mode, so maybe I just haven't been able to find how to set it (the manual just says to rotate via the button).
Touchpad/touchscreen: My last complaint has to do with the responsiveness of both the touchpad and the touch screen. I can't tell if the problem is hardware or software based, but I though it worth mentioning, although I wouldn't call it a show-stopper by any means. I like that the touchpad is bigger than other pads I've seen, but it doesn't always seem to do what I tell it. Sometimes the cursor hops all over the screen while I'm just dragging my finger, while other times it doesn't seem to respond at all for a second or two. Other times it will zoom in or out seemingly on its own. It is a multi-touch pad, so maybe that's part of it and I just need to learn how to operate it better, but I don't think that's always it. Also, the touchscreen doesn't always seem to respond. For example, while watching a Netflix movie, you could press the pause button but there was a delay before the movie would pause, then when I pressed play, it didn't acknowledge the first press and I had to hit it again. I've tried pressing slightly harder or longer, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. I find myself pressing a button twice sometimes in order to make it work. Again, this might just be me getting used to a touchscreen, but I'm not so sure. They're both usable, just a little annoying and frustrating at times, and the touchscreen might be a problem if you wanted it purely as a tablet.
Summation: Any complaints I have, though, I consider minor. 4.5/5 stars. This is a great convertible tablet for those who are looking for one. No other tablets right now could match the specs (esp. with the discrete graphics) for the price. The Lenovo and Dell tablets were typically (...) more for their high-end models to begin with, and you can get HP coupons and instant sales that can save you as much as (...) off their listed price, making it hands down the best deal for a tablet right now.
Update 1: After fiddling with the settings of the touchpad and making it less sensitive, it works much better now. Still occasionally jumps around, but I get that with every touchpad I've ever used, so that's probably just me. Also, I think the touchscreen has a "sleep mode", i.e. if there's no touch after a few seconds, it takes 2-3 touches to respond, but as long as you keep touching, it works fine (I'm guessing this is so errant touches won't click on something you don't want).
Update 2: Had this for two weeks now. Overall performance is great (though you'll want to remove some of HP's pre-installed software) and battery usage is actually quite good. I was able to watch a 2 hour-10 minute movie and only used 50% of the battery (my old Toshiba would barely make it to 2 hours, with the screen darkened). It actually determined I was on battery and ran it in a lower-power mode to conserve. I ran it again in the regular mode and couldn't even really tell any difference (screen was maybe brighter, but wasn't like night and day), although the screen reflection did get a little distracting at times. I really love the glass-feeling screen, particularly writing and drawing on it, though, so it's a trade-off I can live with.
It would be nice if it had a physical volume control for when in tablet mode, but that's not a big deal. Also, in case you couldn't tell, it doesn't have a built-in DVD drive, so I bought an external. This wasn't a big deal to me since I rarely use discs anymore (and definitely prefer the weight savings it gives for portability), but something to keep in mind if you need it.
Finally, after continuing to play with the touchscreen, it's the one piece of this I think keeps it from a full 5-star. The "sleep" function gets irritating as you constantly have to keep hitting it to "wake up" if you haven't touched the screen in about 10-15 seconds. As long as you stay within that 10-15 sec window, it works perfectly, but that's not really what you want in a touchscreen. If there are settings for it, I haven't been able to find them, and I've even emailed HP about it (no response yet). I would consider the touchscreen as a secondary or supplemental input device (say, in concert with the pen, which works rather well), but if you want something as purely a touch tablet, I cannot recommend it (unless HP comes out with a fix for the "sleep" mode).
So, while I think the physical design could have used a few tweaks (volume button, screen rotation and button implementation, screen lock, touch/track pad operation), these are really just issues of convenience and preference. The overall performance, functionality and feel make it a great convertible tablet. I'll stick with my original 4.5/5 stars, especially when you look at other tablets out there for the price.
Update 4: Thanks to C. Brooks in the comments, there is a way to turn off the touchscreen "sleep mode". Directions are at the following site:
(...)
I have used this and can verify it works, and the touchscreen works great now. In fact, I'm rounding my review up to 5 stars now.
Where the reviewer is coming from: I've had a lot of tablets -primarily toshiba -including the 3500 and M200 and M4 -so I have a good frame on what tablets can and can't accomplish. I place a high value on being able to use my tablet for note taking and as electronic paper. I'm willing to carry an extra lb or two for the features I need to do this.
What's wrong with this machine is immediately obvious. It is 4.7 lbs, it has a low power processor which doesn't scream, and it has intel graphics. The screen, while quite lovely, is not glass (which, if you're carrying it everywhere, is not actually a bad thing). It lacks some of the nifty features of my macbook, like a backlit keyboard. But...I still love this thing. Here's why.
It is cool (and quiet). Every tablet I've ever had (including the Fujitsu I almost got and may yet add to the collection) runs HOT. A dual core 2.x ghz processor is a big fat 40 or 60 watt lightbulb, pouring heat between the keyboard and the back of the screen and making the surface feel like a stovetop (and/or turning ribbon cables to a melted spray on a hot day) The low voltage dual core processor runs everything I need (including photoshop and word and outlook and Visual Studio) reasonably well (no big lags or complaints), and it runs cool enough that I can leave this on all the time -through a four hour class or meeting, or just on my lap for an evening watching movies.
The battery lasts. Throttled down just a little, I get the better part of a workday out of this (7 hours of doing real things)...compared to my macbook, which gets about 2 to 3 hours for the same task set. To use this as paper, the thing has to come on (and stay on) without an outlet. This is netbook-level battery husbandry, and it changes how I can use the computer.
It is built like a...well, it is strongly built. I feel OK about putting this in it's sleeve and stuffing it in my pack. I'm hell on notebooks, and this one seems likely to put up with that. I am pleased it does not have a DVD-ROM. I have several externals (and those in other computers)...it is a delicate mechanism I am not throwing in my pack. This is a good thing!!
It is inexpensive, _with_ a 1 year HP (not third party) accidental damage warranty (which you can get from HP no matter where you buy the tablet). I spent less than a grand. If it gets stolen, I will be sad...but I won't be trashed the way I'd be if a brand new X201 i7 got snarfed. It is consumer hardware at a consumer cost. This means I can use it casually and consistently as replacement for a paper notebook without carrying around my entire personal fortune.
THere are choices I liked that others might not. No more automatic screen switching, there's a button on the side (and hey, I know what orientation I want when I want it). The zillion buttons which come with most tablets are replaced with software control -on a true touch screen, that makes sense. And the glossy screen -in contrast to most wacom enabled tablets, which are more grainy is something I like but a serious artist might not. For me, the shiny, very consumer "first glance" screen will be a great thing for showing software to clients (hey look, you can touch it! Go on, poke the button!).
You will have to diddle the settings a bit to make the pen pressure work for art. Enough folks are buying these that there is help on the web. GIMP was not happy (GTK+ issues with pressure pens for this machine as of this writing). Photoshop and Sketchbook Pro worked fine (and ArtRage was a gas). With the intel graphics -no suprise -Mudbox and Softimage weren't really usable. But the big one -3ds Studio Max -worked well for me though (as does Blender). Areo and so on work just fine with the 4500 graphics though, as do most of the OpenGL examples with QT (more than I expected and more than work under Fusion on my Mid 2009 MBP).
Real downsides: you have to take off _every_ peice of HP bloatware that comes with it. When you've stripped away everything they crammed on to "help" you, it is actually quite snappy (but not before lol). Replace the norton with microsoft security essentials and uninstall pretty much all the presumed goodies (including the games, the HP print helpers which do nothing unless you give them money, the assistance software which is just a way to sell you things you don't need, and the netflix and hulu "viewers" which are in fact inferior to just watching it over the web, the touchscreen stuff that sounds necessary but is really HP second guessing Windows 7 -when that is gone, you have a different -and much faster -machine). A dual core 7300 is actually quite nice for everything I do (not screaming, but I can even compile QT) -but only if the initially installed bloatware is removed, and one uses reasonably security software with an emphasis on performance and reasonable scope...
In short, it is a near-perfect note taking and carry everywhere machine, for this writer.
Buy HP TouchSmart TM2-1070US 12.1-Inch Riptide Argento Laptop - Up to 9.75 Hours of Battery Life Now
Firstly, I love this laptop on paper. In my opinion, it is the best looking in its class at the moment, has a wonderful (although very glossy and reflective) screen, and runs silently and quickly even with the standard processor as it's sold here. I also like the placement of the fingerprint reader on the righthand side of the screen instead of sitting under my right hand while I am typing. The touchpad is also extremely impressive with it's flat (buttons built in instead of standalone) and very large (comparable to my Macbook) design. I love the keyboard too. Very nice sized keys, just the right amount of resistance, easy to let my fingers fly on. Having multitouch on the screen and on the touchpad is a whole new realm of computing comfort.Now, let me go on to say that I ordered this laptop only to receive a unit with a defective system board. The first time I turned it on the unit crashed and gave me a blue screen 4 times before I could get through a complete Windows setup. Since no one I talked to at HP knew what a blue screen was, they tried to blame Windows. After reinstalling Windows and running a bunch of tests during 5 or 6 calls to HP, the unit continued to bluescreen during or soon after startup. This is my second HP touchsmart PC (I also have the desktop, which had a defective dvd drive right out of the box) and I was disappointed in HP's inability to step up and replace this for me themselves. (In all fairness, they did offer to attempt to repair it, but I would be out a laptop for 6 weeks due to my work schedule and in the end have a refurbished unit for which I paid full price. If a refurbished unit is ok with you, I'd save a few hundred bucks and just buy that upfront. At least it's been tested that way.) So, I had to return the unit to Amazon, who gave me no hassle and offered me a full refund or replacement. Since I need a laptop now and can't wait to see the fabulous new options coming out summer 2010, I took Amazon's offer of a replacement and bought a 3 year warranty from Squaretrade. I have hopefully seen the last of my problems with this model and still like it enough to look forward to a few years of good use. Should that not turn out to be the case, I will update this review.
Bottom line: If you buy this sharp little laptop, get a warranty.
UPDATE 5/19/10: Got the replacement, turned it on, got through setup once, BAM blue screen!! I couldn't believe it!! Turned out to be fixable, a problem with the fingerprint reader drivers which we reinstalled and now it's fine. Luckily we didn't have anything worse than that (or have to call HP). Now that I've used it for a few weeks, I have this to add.
PROs:
1. Screen was readable in full sunlight. Better with sunglasses and not showing the vibrant colors you see indoors, but not like my last laptop that was worthless outdoors.
2. Fabulous battery life. I can go a solid 4 or 5 hours of use without ever plugging in the battery.
3. Still love the touchpad and keyboard. Both are well designed, easy to use, and beautiful to look at.
4. When in tablet mode, I like having the button right on the side of the screen that let's me manually rotate the viewing mode from landscape to portrait and vice versa. When it's time to open it back into a 'laptop' again, the screen automatically flips back into normal landscape mode, which is nice.
5. Runs quiet for the most part. I hear the fan, but it's not something that will keep my husband awake at night.
5. Wacom style pen fits inside the unit so I (hopefully) won't lose it. Very useful for hovering over a link, picture, etc to see hidden text. I usually use my finger, but the pen has been more useful than I thought it would.
CONs:
1. The weight is not well-distributed, so the laptop can't sit on my lap without falling backwards. It does ok on hard surfaces that provide a little bit more support, but won't stay up on the couch, bed or on my lap. Not a huge deal just less comfortable to use in these situations.
2. On my replacement (not on the first one) the screen doesn't line up with the bottom part when it is in tablet mode, making the touchpad turn on and off all the time. This puts a pop up in the middle of the screen every time it turns on and off and I am always having to force it into place but it won't stay there. Disappointing.
3. When browsing having flash pages, computer would freeze often making it the animation less enjoyable. I'd get the better processor if I could go back and do it again.
Now you it's up to you to decide! :) In the end I'm still glad I have a full featured computer in a tablet with multitouch.
UPDATE 6/30/2010: Since my last update I have spent most of the time on this laptop trying to keep it turned on. It is overheating and powering off after 30 minutes of use, every time I start it I get a screen during startup asking me to do hard drive tests, and it blue screens whenever I enable the fingerprint reader. So far I have not loaded any of my personal media files or documents due to these issues. I am only running google chat and surfing the web. FYI.
UPDATE 1/17/2011: My computer continues to blue screen during startup about once/twice per week. It has problems detecting the fan causing it to bluescreen and crash over this while running about 3 times per week and still cannot run the fingerprint reader. I've never been able to test it's speed running serious programs because I've never made it through a whole installation process. This one is better than the first one I received because at least it stays on sometimes, but still... can we say buyer's remorse? I'm dumping this brick of plastic as soon as I find something to replace it.I've had my tm2t for a little over a month now. I use it at work every day, took it on a family vacation, and installed a couple of games on it, so I feel I'm ready to post a review.
I'm really impressed by this laptop. I work in IT; I troubleshoot computers every day, and I interact with a lot of laptops. I've seen many, many laptops that just don't feel like their designs were thought through--machines that I can't believe the designer seriously tested and was proud of. This is not one of those laptops. This computer has /polish/.
The keyboard is a nice, generous size, and it feels good to type on; it's slightly recessed so that the keys don't leave smudges on the screen when you fold it shut. The key arrangement makes sense--I've seen some truly ridiculous key arrangements, but I like this one. The hinge rotates the screen 180° left or right and snaps into place smartly--it feels solid and doesn't give the impression that it'll go all loosy-goosy any time soon.
My system runs Windows 7 and I'm really impressed by the improvements Microsoft has made to the Tablet PC functionality. Handwriting recognition is *great!* There's an onscreen keyboard and handwriting-recognition area that you can pop out when you're using the touchscreen but which goes away when it's not wanted. I've installed OneNote 2007 and I can tell that this laptop is going to be unparallelled when I'm taking notes in class. I can write, I can type, I can dictate, I can draw, and I've got 10 hours of battery life--LOOK OUT! :D
Physically, the laptop is very attractive. It's got a curly engraving pattern on the silver case, which looks nifty; the surfaces are a pleasing contrast of glossy and matte. The screen is bright and pretty; it's quite a bit more reflective than I would like, but I can work with it. The touchscreen works great--with the included digital pen, I can write or draw on the screen, pressure sensitivity works in Photoshop, and I can tap commands straight into the screen with my fingers, which is all kinds of fun. (This leaves fingerprints, so get a cleaning cloth of some kind and keep it with the laptop.) The 12" form factor is perfect--any smaller and the keyboard would be awkward; any bigger and it would be too big to hold comfortably in slate mode. When people talk about the iPad, I get to feel smug, because my laptop can do everything it can do and far, far more. The way it converts from laptop to slate to lap-sized TV fills my inner geek with deep satisfaction.
Perfomance-wise, this laptop is about what you'd expect from the specifications. It's not a racehorse--it's not designed to be--but it works fine, for what it is. My tm2t is customized to have dual-core 1.6 GHz and 4 GB RAM; I tried Mass Effect 1 and Team Fortress 2 (with an external mouse, of course) and they don't run as smooth as they do on my gaming desktop, but they're operable. (The delay hurts in tense, competitive gaming, but for single-player it's okay.)
I do have a few quibbles with the design. A big one is that the mouse buttons of the touchpad count as part of its "touchable" area; in other words, you can slide your finger back and forth on the mouse button and it will move the cursor back and forth on the screen. Increasing the available size of the touchpad is a laudable goal, but the software doesn't adequately compensate for the presence of my thumb resting on the left mouse button. This makes the cursor jerk around on screen and makes precision mousing frustrating--you can actually push the mouse cursor off-target as your thumb comes down on the button!
I emailed customer support about the touchpad issue and they suggested increasing the value of the PalmCheck setting. I boosted PalmCheck to the edge of the red zone and set Touch Sensitivity to 50% and that seems to have helped. It's not perfect, but at least the touchpad is basically usable now. Most of the time I end up using the touchscreen or an external mouse. I'd love a way to tell the driver to ignore input from the mouse button areas, but such does not presently exist. (You can forget about having the touchpad work out-of-the-box on Linux, by the way. Maybe some of you can get it to work; I couldn't.)
The laptop also comes with the usual six-foot pile of bloatware preinstalled. You'll spend 20 minutes or so going through and uninstalling them one at a time. Some of them are at least a little bit useful or interesting; most are not. (Stop doing that, HP!)
The pen silo works well enough, and the laptop comes with a cord you can use to secure the digital pen to the laptop so you can't lose the pen. However, this leaves you with a loop of cord hanging off your laptop all the time. I don't like this--it can get caught on things, and it's something you have to manage when you're moving the laptop. You could remove the cord, but I'm not confident enough in the silo to do that; the pen's not going to fall out all by itself, but the silo isn't as "sticky" as it could be, and it would be easy to accidentally sweep the pen out of its holster while stowing the computer to/from a backpack. Pens cost about $20 and I'd rather not lose mine. What would be great is if I could retract the cord into the laptop. Still, I can live with the way it is.
To summarize, this my new Best Thing Ever. I've looked at one of the tm2t's predecessors, and it's obvious that a lot of thought and iteration went into the current model. HP did a great job on it and I'm very satisfied by the result. Props to HP's Home & Home Office Sales Line; I originally called prepared to order a different model, and upon hearing my requirements the sales rep suggested this model. I'm really glad she did. The sales staff know their stuff. I don't know if I can go back to a non-convertible laptop after owning this one. Great job, HP!The affordable tablet PC hits its stride with HP's TM2. It's no iPad killer since it's heavier and more expensive. But if you want a real computer underneath a bright, responsive tablet touch screen and for a reasonable price this is it. Good processor, long-lasting battery, comfortable keyboard, generous storage, and all the basic ports it make for a nice combination of utility and fun.
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