March 05, 2010
HP TouchSmart TM2-1070US 12.1-Inch Black Laptop – Up to 9.75 Hours of Battery Life
Posted by: kk : Category: Laptops & Netbooks
- Intel Core2 Duo Processor SU7300 (1.3 GHz, 3 MB L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
- 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 DIMM) (expandable to 8 GB)
- 320GB (7200RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, * Up to 9.75 Hours of Battery Life
- 12.1” Diagonal WXGA HD HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800). Panel rotates 180° and folds flat. Zero Force TouchSmart Display, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (shared) with up to 1695MB total available Graphics Memory
Product Description
With unparalleled versatility, the HP TouchSmart tm2 lets you touch, draw, type or move everywhere in between. This compact yet powerful notebook converts to a tablet with a simple twist. Next-generation multi-touch technology puts endless creative possibilities at your fingertips. Slim and stylish, the HP TouchSmart tm2 can make everything you do faster, easier, and way more fun.
HP TouchSmart TM2-1070US 12.1-Inch Black Laptop – Up to 9.75 Hours of Battery Life
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March 5th, 2010 at 3:03 am
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).
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 $200-300 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 $500 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).
Rating: 4 / 5
March 5th, 2010 at 4:22 am
I am typing this on the exact configuratin here — the 1070us — with the 4 gigs, the 7300 processor, and the low end intel graphics (with the 320 gig, 7200 rpm hard drive).
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.
Rating: 4 / 5
March 5th, 2010 at 5:09 am
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.
Rating: 5 / 5