The HP Pavilion line has been well received since the birth of its unique imprinted designs and piano-black finishes. HP has introduced 14-inch, 15.4-inch, and 17-inch Pavilion models, covering a gamut of screen options. But two models are still noticeably absent from the Pavilion family: a 12-inch ultraportable and a convertible tablet. With its 12-inch screen and tablet capabilities, the HP Pavilion tx1000 ($1,720 direct) works to fill in both blanks with one product. The tx1000 is also one of the first systems to roll out with Windows Vista Home Premium, Microsoft's next-generation operating system. But despite all the exciting new features and potential success, HP may have jumped the gun by not delivering a good tablet PC experience.

The HP tx1000 battery is a remarkably usable and flexible Vista notebook that demonstrates how portable the new OS can be when paired with the right components and features. There is enough horsepower here for media creation and consumption, as well as for running Vista in the 3D mode it craves. Remarkably enough, HP has succeeded in fitting it all into a travel-friendly package.

What's in the Box:

• HP tx1000 Entertainment PC with  
• 6 cell and additional 4 cell Battery
• Power Cord
• Quick Set UP Sheet
• 2 sets of ear phones
• Quick Reference Guide
• Tablet PC Pen & Tether  
• Corel Painter Essentials 3 CD
• Windows Vista Anytime Upgrade DVD
• Dummy for optical drive slot
•  HP Think of the Possibilities note pad
• cleaning cloth
• Service and Trouble shooting guide
• Worldwide Warranty and Technical Support Guide

Inscribed with a recurring "fingerprint"-style design in silver and black, and with HP's distinctive dimpled trackpad, the TX is a notch above what enterprise users generally get to display in front of their peers. Vexingly, as tends to be the case these days, the whole thing is high sheen, meaning you'll be forever cleaning fingerprints off.

Unlike some competing models the screen twists only clockwise when converting to tablet mode, but the hinge feels strong and well-built, with the Altec Lansing speakers flanking either side. The HP Pavilion tx1000 battery is locked shut when in closed and tablet positions, a button on the lip needing to be pressed to release it. The tablet pen is stowed away at the front right and is pushed in to release, although in practice the laptop wanted to hang onto the pen a little too much, making it difficult to remove easily.

The 12.1-inch, 1,280 x 800 screen never quite reaches a high level of brightness even when powered from the wall, and has a greasy vaseline look about it. This, combined with tablet sensitivity, is the only real gripe we have about this notebook.

Little design touches pleased me both visually and ergonomically. For example, when you plug in the AC to charge the PC, the connection glows "blue" giving me a visual clue my laptop is really being juiced. You can remove the optical drive and use a weight saver if you want to lighten your load, and you can choose between heavier and lighter HP Pavilion tx2000 battery depending on your travel needs. The touchpad is the most unique I've seen: It's a grid of vents that reads your finger as it passes over the pad. The scroll bar is also a row of vents separated from the touchpad, making it easy (even in a dark room) to know where you're mousing.

There's a button to turn wireless on and off—much easier than fumbling through software menus or function keys. Buttons control your DVD experience, so you never have to boot your machine to watch a movie. The built-in Altec Lansing sound is great. There are also dual headphone jacks, a microphone, an integrated webcam, three USB 2.0 connectors, a mini-FireWire jack, an ExpressCard slot, a media card reader, and solid wireless 802.11 b/g support. It's hard to find something HP Pavilion tx2500 battery left out of this one. By the summer you'll be able to enable the integrated Verizon EV-DO. The only thing that felt uncomfortable was the placement and overall feel of the optical DVD drive. I found myself turning the machine on its side to get the DVD unit opened and having to use the tip of a fingernail to hit the button.

The HP Pavilion tx1000 appears extremely striking with its glossy black and silver finish and glowing blue multimedia buttons. Its obvious that care has been taken to make the tablet pc appealing visually which wasn’t always the case with HP (Laptop Magazine Notebook Review, Tablet PC Review, PC Mag, Digital Trends, PC World, Mobile Tech Review, Cnet. Apart from the design, the tx1000 also got appreciated for its comprehensive feature set which includes a number of connectivity options, an innovative touchpad and a cool mind remote control for controlling multimedia files (Laptop Magazine Notebook Review, Tablet PC Review, Digital Trends, PC World, Mobile Tech Review, Cnet). Tablet PC Review found the built-in 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless to be a good and Laptop Magazinee observed that the GeForce Go 6150 graphics handled Vista's glassy Aero interface and its 3D desktop objects quite well. The Pavilion tx1000 has been equipped with a 1.8-GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile processor, 2GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive. This configuration handled multimedia tasks quite easily (Laptop Magazine Notebook Review, Tablet PC Review, Digital Trends, PC World, Mobile Tech Review) and Cnet also found it faster than the Toshiba Protégé R400. The notebook scored very high on processor, RAM and hard disk speed in Mobile Tech Review's tests and Notebook Review found the overall performance quite acceptable.

All the ports are conveniently laid out along the sides. Helpful, readily visible gray icons identify the connections so you don't have to hunt. Buttons for running HP's QuickPlay software (which lets you play DVDs or music without having to boot Windows) and for rotating the screen occupy the area just below the screen.

Converting from notebook to slate mode is easy, and the 12.1in screen rotates into place firmly. One quibble: the screen jiggles a bit when the tablet is in notebook mode and that can be distracting if you're moving - say, if you're on a train. The tablet comes with a responsive touchscreen; but unfortunately the screen lacks an antireflective coating. In fact, strangely, it seems to have another kind of coating with a smoky hue that makes seeing anything on the screen at an indirect angle unduly difficult.

Overall, the Pavilion TX1000 battery is good, but not great, as a tablet. Microsoft has somewhat improved the handwriting recognition in Vista, though it still takes training. And navigating and writing with the included stylus takes getting used to. We found pointing with the stylus less precise than with other tablets we've used; for example, hitting the small, square “close” icon in the upper-right corner of an app window often took a couple of taps before we hit the mark. And the pen tip must be in contact with the screen for a stroke to register. Because the natural inclination is to lift at the end of a stroke, you'll wind up with partly formed characters until you adjust your writing style.

As for performance, we'll have to wait for the benchmark developers to catch up to Vista, because our typical suite of tests doesn't yet run under the new OS. But the TX1000's 1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52 processor, married to 2GB of RAM, should prove powerful enough for most productivity and multimedia chores. The integrated nVidia GeForce Go 6150 graphics can handle Vista's slick Aero interface and some 3D gaming at low resolutions. Battery life was less impressive; we clocked the TX1000 at around three hours in our DVD battery-drain test, a bit below average for such a light system. HP backs the Pavilion TX2000 battery with a one-year warranty, which includes 24/7 tech support via e-mail, online chat, or phone.