Any opinions?

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[H]ard|Gawd
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I was at a local (well somewhat, local / Sams Club to exact) and came across an HP laptop:

An HP tx1000z

I've been looking at laptops and wanted to know, this any good?

My main concerns are portability and battery life. The swivel screen and Nvidia 6150 are kind of a bonus for me.
 
Battery life will be around 2-2.5 hours with the standard 6-cell for general usage (word processing, surfing, etc.). The laptop itself is very portable, I have a 14" HP laptop and it's very easy to take to school and back, and from playing around with the tx series, I know they're a decent amount lighter.
 
I'm goin to be using it mainly in my IT class at the Vocational School I'm goin to.

We don't have mandatory laptops or anything and since I'm one of the smarter ones in the class I tend to get called on by other students and since my short term memory sucks I would like to be able to carry my work around with me (we're doing C++ right now and something like this would be great).

So saying as long as I keep the charger on hand I should be fine and this should fit my needs greatly?

(If I need to rephrase this just say)
 
I had the chance to pick up one of these laptops for about two weeks before returning it, so I'll share the experience with you...
I picked mine up from Futureshop here in Canada... got the TX1314CA. I was in the market for a decent portable laptop with basic gaming ability but was very interested in having tablet functionality for graphic design and comfortable browsing etc... 2 gigs of ram, dual core processor, great portability...
However after a weeks usage the weaker points of this laptop show a little more.
First of all the build quality is all plastic, so while this contributes to its light weight, you can feel the flex in the frame. The battery doesnt feel secure enough and has some wobble, and while resting your hand and typing you can hear the creaking of the plastic. The display on the touch screen has a very limited viewing angle and throws a LOT of glare, making anything but the highest brightness setting hard to look at without looking straight on. This isnt really a problem when you're using it in the traditional keyboard/screen mode, but in slate sitting on your lap you tend to lean over to see the screen, making it uncomfortable and sort of pointless. This brings me to the touch-screen itself. Using the stylus is slightly too difficult to make it productive. Other than clicking links on the screen directly, the amount of pressure needed to write can be tiring and difficult.
Battery life wasnt very good either. With the computer set to power saving mode, I was lucky to get a good 2.5/3 hours out of it while having wireless enabled. But the performance loss in this power mode coupled with the difficulty to see the screen with the brightness turned down so low almost defeats the whole purpose. I kept finding myself just plugging the laptop in and using it in the keyboard mode, thereby defeating the whole purpose of having tablet functionality to start wtih.
I think overall I really wanted this laptop to work. I was really sad when I went to return it, and sortof miss it. But I couldnt see past the flaws. The trouble was just that it wasnt really good at any one thing, but did a mediocre job on all of them. At the end of the day I decided to go with something (and I still havnt made MY decision) that was either portable with power or a fully functional Tablet. I'd strongly recommend you have a look at the Gateway C-140XL. Since I'm living in Canada I'm unable to purchase it but I would love to give it a try. It has full tablet functionality coupled with decent specs to make it a very multi-functional laptop, though slightly heavier and larger.
hope my 2cents can help you out!
 
I don't like the looks of the Gateway, so far my mind is stuck on on the tx1000z.

If anyone has any recommendations under a grand speak up.
 
If you plan to run vista make sure you dont pick one up without at least 2gb of ram.
If you have a shop in your area with a solid return policy I really suggest picking one up. I think that the best way to find out is for yourself, really. While I too loved the look of the tx1000, I was just convinced that for the same price I could either get a GOOD tablet or a GOOD dedicated laptop instead of an "OK" convertible. While I also agree that the looks on the Gateway aren't as nice as the tx1000's, it has an almost identical price but has 128mb dedicated video ram, and a real wacom digitizer for its stylus input.
But if you're purchasing strictly on the aesthetic value of the machine as a priority, the gateway will obviously not be something to interest you.
 
Prose said:
If you plan to run vista make sure you dont pick one up without at least 2gb of ram.
If you have a shop in your area with a solid return policy I really suggest picking one up. I think that the best way to find out is for yourself, really. While I too loved the look of the tx1000, I was just convinced that for the same price I could either get a GOOD tablet or a GOOD dedicated laptop instead of an "OK" convertible. While I also agree that the looks on the Gateway aren't as nice as the tx1000's, it has an almost identical price but has 128mb dedicated video ram, and a real wacom digitizer for its stylus input.
But if you're purchasing strictly on the aesthetic value of the machine as a priority, the gateway will obviously not be something to interest you.
Click to expand...

I actually DO NOT plan to run Vista, I found a site (don't have the link on hand) where someone tested Ubuntu (didn't state the version) and practically everything worked with little to now effort.

I'm planning on running Ubuntu since I dual boot on my Desktop with that and XP. Also my Lab teacher won't let us connect to the network UNLESS we are running linux, he doesn't let any computer brought from the outside connect to the network if it is running windows unless it is connected behind and slow ass firewall (*shivers*).

xenph_xenos said:
http://www.officemax.com/omax/catalog/sku.jsp?skuId=21362062&searchString=&productId=prod220062

this one is only 799.00
Click to expand...

Thats practically the same one I am looking at, good price though.
 
Yep, should be fine like that then.
If you arent looking for finite tablet functionality and arent planing to use too much horsepower and the battery life isnt too much a problem for you, then I think you'll enjoy the laptop overall. While my only final gripe for you would be the overall build sturdiness, I think you'll enjoy it. I suppose my only final recommendation would be to try and pick one up somewhere you can reliably return it if anything isnt to your liking.
Cheers and good luck!
 
I probably won't have it till christmas, this is counting that I get it, told my dad thats what I want (probably should have mentioned earlier).

But, anyway, thanks for the information. If all goes well and I get it I'll keep a note to post pics and results up (IF I remember).

Cheers :D

EDIT!

For any of you that care here's the link to the site with the guy using linux on the tx1000:

http://kellyandsopho.com/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=LinuxOnHpPaviliontx1000z
 
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