Anyone have the HP Touchsmart TM2?

[Griffinhart]

About a year and a half ago, I picked up the HP Touchsmart TX2 tablet. Since then I bumped up the HD to a 320GB 7200 RPM drive and Windows 7.

Right now I use this machine daily (I'm in a 35 week training course) and I use it in tablet mode with MS-OneNote.

I originally picked it up because it was cheap for a Tablet PC. I paid $799.

Quite honestly, I love this machine. The handwriting recognition has been excellent for me when taking notes, and the machine is extremely responsive and capable.

I do, however, have two complaints about it. First, the screen is a little dull for my liking with a fairly poor viewing angle. It only gets me about 3 hours on battery as well.

After looking around a bit, I see that the TM2 has a different screen (an LED backlit) and processor. What I'd like to know is:

How is the screen? I'm curious about the brightness and viewing angle specifically.

How is the battery life? I would love to be able to get through a day of training without having to break out the power supply. HP claims it can bet over 9 hours under the right config and power settings. What has been people experience with real world usage?

I also have a couple of other questions that apply to notebooks in general.

With power and performance, how do the Core 2 Duo SU7300 processors compair to the AMD turion X2's and the new i3 processors?

My current tablet uses the ATI Radeon HD 3200, which I find to be a fairly capable GPU for a low cost notebook. Most tablets are now using the Intel GM 4500, which I know is a slower GPU. I'm curious though, if I were to spec a tablet with a newer ATI GPU, which is an option with HP, will it significantly alter the battery life of the unit? I don't mind a minor hit in battery life, but ultimately I'd still like to have 6+ hours on a charge without any usage problems.

Thanks for any info in advance!

 

[Emulex]

move to the 2730p or 2740p if you want 12+ hour runtime and such. its wacom only which is good for photoshop but not for fingers

amd's really suck - the new 12 core server AMD processor gets smacked down by a 6-core Intel westmere - that is truly sad.

 

[Griffinhart]

I managed to find a really good and in depth review of the TN2T tablet. I also found a nice web site that lets me directly compare mobile CPU's and GPUs. So, I was able to answer my questions.

The Turion RM-72 I currently have is actually faster than the SU7300 Core 2 Duo chip the current version has. But the intel chip is much, much lower power. Max 10 Watts, vs 35 watts.

I can upgrade the video to an ATI HD 4550 GPU from the stock intel GPU. The new one is faster than the TX2 GPU. Apparently, It's switchable as well, so you can use the Intel GPU for better battery life.

The reviews I have read also indicate that the screen is much better now too.

I ended up ordering one from HP. I found a decent coupon code so upgraded the RAM to 8GB and got the ATI video for $895. That elitebook you mentioned looks pretty sweet, but honesly, I do love my TX2, I just want longer battery life and a better screen and the TN2t appears to be everything I am looking for.

 

[Emulex]

just make sure you get the carepack for however long you plan to own it

 

[vcsx]

HP is about to release a new TM2 with i3 and i5 CPUs plus better graphics and possibly a better screen. It's coming out towards the end of this month. Check out Amazon for pre-order info. It's still called TM2.

You can get a lot of info about this new TM2 here:
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1039