The 160GB hard drive on our review sample provides ample room for storing a wide assortment of files. It'll easily accommodate a couple of hundred standard-definition movies, or -- if you're obsessed with music -- around 40,000 average-sized MP3 files.The HP TouchSmart tx2-1275dx represents a minor update to the company's consumer tablet. Compared with the TouchSmart tx2z we reviewed earlier this year, which carried a baseline price $999 that quickly rose as you upped the specs, the retail-only TouchSmart tx2-1275 is a fixed configuration model priced at a reasonable $849.At the heart of the TouchSmart tx2-1275dx is its rotating touch-screen display with multitouch support. Using multitouch gestures is unquestionably fun and potentially useful, but this functionality requires a few sacrifices. For starters, the TouchSmart tx2-1275dx can't match the performance of similarly priced laptops with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Secondly, the battery life is poor. And finally, while the TouchSmart tx2-1275dx boasts an eye-catching design with one of HP's Imprint finishes, it's a bit portly for a 12-inch ultraportable.The TouchSmart tx2-1275dx bears resemblance to HP's Pavilion laptops, with its tapered edges, rounded corners, and Imprint finish. The tablet features a charcoal gray chassis with a silver design that looks like bubbles, clouds, or perhaps amoebas. Call it funky yet subtle.
At 4.8 pounds, the TouchSmart tx2-1275dx is one of the heavier ultraportables you'll come across. We typically see 13- and 14-inch laptops clock in around the 5-pound mark. The Dell Studio S1440-022B is a 14-inch model that weighs an ounce less than the TouchSmart tx2 (though it skips out on an optical drive). You can save weight by replacing the TouchSmart's DVD burner with an included plastic space-holder.The keyboard is quiet and relatively roomy, for a 12-inch laptop. The page up and down, home, and end keys that normally reside along the right edge of a keyboard have been relocated to right-hand side of the tiny top row of F keys. If you're accustomed to navigating Web pages and Word docs via the page up and page down keys, you might want to instead get acquainted with the pen flicks functionality of the touch screen. Simply flick the included stylus or your fingertip up or down a long document or Web page to scroll. A grid of tiny dimples comprises the touch pad, which is very responsive. A smooth strip runs down along the right side, which acts as a vertical scroll area that's easy to find blindly.
The 12.1-inch wide-screen LCD screen offers a 1,280x800-pixel native resolution, which is standard for a screen this size. Of course this being a tablet, the screen is a little more important than a standard laptop LCD. The TouchSmart tx2-1275dx has a dual-mode display, meaning you can use a digital pen for drawing and taking notes as well as your finger for navigating, opening apps, and flipping through photos. Thanks to N-trig's DuoSense technology, the screen features some multitouch functionality. Multitouch wasn't working initially on our review unit, but a quick trip to HP's support site to download a new N-trig DuoSense driver corrected the problem. Multitouch lets you can zoom in and out of photos by moving two fingers closer together or farther apart. You can also rotate a photo by anchoring your thumb and moving your index finger in a circular motion. And you can bring up HP MediaSmart interface by drawing a wavy "m" on the desktop. While these multitouch gestures are fun to play around with, simply clicking or tapping the rotate button in your photo viewer is faster. Likewise, the MediaSmart button that sits right next to the display is faster for starting the app. Windows 7 will offer native multitouch support, which we hope will lead to increased functionality.
The display sits on a single, rotating hinge, and the tiny-but-decent-sounding Altec Lansing speakers are built into the bottom of the display. This gives you three options for screen placement: use it like a traditional laptop, face it away from the keyboard for using just the display (for movie or photo viewing), or flatten it down on top of the keyboard for use as a tablet. The screen will autorotate, but there's a rotate key on the bezel should you need it, along with a fingerprint reader and a Webcam.Despite the tight dimensions on this 12-inch tablet, it serves up a useful collection of ports. We wish there was an HDMI port, but we were pleased to see Bluetooth included. We were not so pleased to see the virgin hard drive (and desktop) cluttered with bloatware, trial offers for Quicken, Juno, NetZero, and so on. Like it does with its Pavilion laptops, HP includes a tiny Media Center remote control, which can be housed in the ExpressCard/34 slot. Likewise, the tablet's stylus can be tucked away in a slot on the right side.
The HP TouchSmart tx2-1275dx uses a dual-core AMD Turion X2 processor and trailed similarly priced laptops that feature Intel Core 2 Duo chips on CNET Labs' benchmarks. The TouchSmart lagged behind the slowest Core 2 Duo-based laptop on our multitasking test by a healthy 28 percent. It was a whopping 49 percent slower than the closet Core 2 Duo laptop on our Photoshop benchmark. We will say that during anecdotal testing, the TouchSmart tx2-1275dx felt peppy and responsive, under a variety of conditions that included many multitasking scenarios. And we didn't notice any lag when using the multitouch gestures as we did earlier this year.The TouchSmart tx2-1275dx uses a six-cell battery and lasted only 2 hours 21 minutes on CNET Labs' video playback battery drain test. It didn't last much longer under typical Windows use where we weren't constantly playing a video; the battery ran out around the 2.5-hour mark. For a tablet that's obviously intended to spend a lot of time on the go, we expected better.
Included are HP's priority service and support for tx2 customers featuring an industry-standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty, toll-free 24-7 phone support, and the promise of 1-hour responses to e-mail. The comprehensive support Web site includes real-time chat with a technical support representative, FAQs, and driver downloads.Priced at $899, Dell's retail-only Studio XPS X1340-024B sits at the high end of the mainstream laptop group. Move up in price, and you find laptops built to fit specific user profiles, namely gaming systems with high-end graphics and models with large displays and Blu-ray drives built chiefly for media consumption. Beneath its upscale exterior, the Studio XPS X1340 features a fairly typical mainstream configuration that should help it appeal to a wide audience. It offers a faster Core 2 Duo processor than other mainstream laptops that cost $100 to $170 less, which helped it finish at or near the front of the group in testing. And though it uses integrated graphics, it is capable of running some 3D games. Lastly, extras such a backlit keyboard, edge-to-edge glass on the display, and facial recognition software also help to justify the higher price compared with other mainstream laptops at retail this summer.
Still, the Studio X1340 is not without its warts. For starters, it runs hot. And for a 13-inch laptop, it's a tad on the hefty side. Ultimately, the deal breaker for many might be its poor battery life.By way of comparison, the 13-inch HP Pavilion dv3-2155mx weighs a hair less (while carrying a big, extended-cell battery) and runs much longer. The same can be said for Dell's Studio S1440-022B, which is even more impressive when you consider it has a larger 14-inch display. The Studio S1440 includes a superior software bundle, too, with a full copy of Microsoft Office and 15 months of virus protection. Lastly, don't overlook the Toshiba Satellite E105-S1602, which features a backlit keyboard, good battery life, and a two-year warranty.The Dell Studio XPS X1340 boasts a unique look, with its rounded hinges supporting the display and angled shape. The tapered chassis measures (with the lid closed) a rather thick 1.6 inches along the back edge and narrows to 1.2 inches in front. A silver stripe cuts across the lid, separating the piano-black cover from a strip of faux leather. The leather-like strip provides a comfortable grip when toting the laptop around, and, depending on your taste, it either enhances or detracts from the overall design.
Like the Toshiba Satellite E105, the X1340 features a backlit keyboard, which is incredibly useful in low-light situations. It's one of those features, like the two-finger scroll on MacBooks, that once you have it, you find it hard to live without. The keys themselves are quiet, flat, and roomy. The touch pad is smaller than average, running only 2.5 inches wide by 1.5 inches tall. The mouse buttons are quiet and feature an illuminated stripe when the keyboard backlighting is enabled. A row of touch-sensitive media controls sits above the keyboard, along with buttons for turning the Wi-Fi antenna off and on, and ejecting a disc from the slot-loading DVD burner.The 1,280x800-pixel resolution on the 13.3-inch LCD screen is standard for a thin-and-light laptop, and is the same as you'd find on the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The glass covering the display runs edge-to-edge, which adds to its slick looks. A Webcam sits above the display, and with the included facial recognition software, which Dell calls FastAccess, you can set it up to log in to Windows by scanning your face instead of typing a password. While it's better software than what we saw with the Asus UX50V, it still takes too long in nearly every instance to recognize your face. While it's a cool trick, it's faster to simply type your password.
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