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I've been tracking the tablet PC market for some time and I think the HP Pavilion TX2510US is one of the best. Pros:* High quality Wacom 'Penabled' tablet hardware * Supports pen pressure and has an eraser.* Good Fingerprint Reader module* Great software bundle, e.g. Corel Painter 4 Essentials and Microsoft OneNote 2007.Cons:* 12.1 inch screen might be a tad small for some* Bit slower compared to other models - might be due to AMD processor. It is slower than the Intel Core 2 Duo.* Glossy screen might not suit some users.
Here are my thoughts.1). It will need some configuring for smooth performance. The stylus that comes with the laptop appears to be penabled as it has pressure-sensitivity capabilities. Do not purchase this expecting it to be equal to drawing on a Cintiq, which as over 1,000 levels. First, the default performance settings are awful. I preferred XP, but Vista isn't too bad.
An anti-glare screen protector does wonders both for reducing the glare and "grainy" effect, as well as offering extra protection against the stylus scratching the screen. This tablet pc is Wacom Penabled. Before I figured that out, the computer would lag and freeze when doing anything more intensive than web browsing. I find a simple item that raises the laptop and allows airflow underneath it works perfectly.2). After doing these things, it runs beautifully.4).
The glossy screen takes some getting used to, but most tablet PCs are going to have one because they're harder to damage and easier to clean than a matte screen. I did a fair amount of research before settling on this computer, including reading the previous reviews here. The pressure sensitivity is 256 levels of pressure sensitivity, about equal to a Wacom Graphire tablet. If I hadn't needed to replace my laptop, I would have just gotten a Cintiq, but looked into Tablet PCs as a compromise. Though it has some amusing quirks, such as asking you to approve or cancel installations from such "unidentified publishers" as Microsoft :)5). The screen is fantastic for watching movies, however.3). Pay close attention for any pieces of paper in the package that say "Important: Read This First". A few things are actually useful but mots of it is unecessary and runs automatically, hogging resources.
I bought this computer primarily for doing digital artwork. This was important to me because I intended to use this PC for artwork. There are other comparably-priced touchscreen/tablet PCs by HP with better overall specs, however, they are NOT penabled, which means no pressure sensitivity. All this really offers is the ability to draw right on the screen. Third, there was a lot of crazy unecessary stuff in the registry. I didn't, and spent several hours on the phone with HP's customer support which leaves much to be desired, before fixing the problem.Overall, I am very happy with it. It does run a bit hot, however, there are many useful products out there to increase ventilation and in some cases actively cool the laptop with fans. There are certainly more powerful tablet PCs available.
Second, there is a lot of bloatware installed by HP. Some of it was information from bloatware I removed, but much of it seemed to be outdated windows updates and references to nonexistent files and folders. However, the wacom penabled stylus I purchased independently seems to be more responsive.6). This one fit my price range and was confirmed as penabled.
I work in a school district and we purchased 60 of these and gave one to each of our freshmen. I've had a high percentage of these come back with broken screens compared to the other models that we have given out to students. They're good little fast machines, and have worked very well. But, the screen on them is very fragile. The only way to have the screen fixed is to send it back to HP and pay $419. Make sure that you have an accidental damage policy on this, and don't get this for someone who is going to be rough with it.
If you need to run games or watch video just select the HP recommended setting.Another tip: you can get some anti glare film from ebay for about $15, it will work with touch screen. Make sure Power Saver mode is selected.
Select Power Saver mode. Click "more power options".
i'm not a kid, just don't want my name to show.If you want this laptop to stop making heat and stop the fan from turning on do this:Click on the Battery Charge Icon in the lower right corner. Set both minimum processor state to 5% and Maximum processor state to 10-15%(you can even set it to 5%) Click OK.Click on the Battery Charge Icon in the lower right corner again.
Under "Power Saver" click "Change Power Settings". Then in the new window click "Advanced Power Settings" > "Processor Power Management".
This will keep the fan off and the laptop won't heat up, while still working fast for browsing the internet, reading PDFs or most other tasks. And also, at the top right of Internet Explorer there is a Panning Hand that you can use to pan iternet pages with your finger without the scroll bar, it took me 2 months to find it.You can email me at crazybike99 AT yahoo DOTCOM with questions
Also, laptop runs extremely hot. However, about two weeks in and the screen vertical switch stopped working. I bought this and absolutely loved it. I would have to shield myself from serious pain (I do not consider myself too fragile a person)were I to use it more than say 30min on my lap.also somewhat loud with the fan blowing all that heat out. Then, about a week after the screen would just get very colorful and decide to restart the computer if it was not frozen from the screen glitch.making me have to perform a hard re-start.it never bothered to save my document/s I was working on. In the end i would expect an automatic shutdown at least once a day without warning or backing up of whatever I was working on- I am sure this is an OS issue but It definitely turned me off.I called HP support numerous times and gave remote access to which I was told it was "fixed" and OS was fine but restarts still occurred. I ordered from staples and it was to come with bluetooth and I could never get it to work and had to buy an external adapter to utilize my bluetooth accessories. I've had HP laptop since I've had laptops and I was very disappointed in all the flaws and problems I had with what was to be my "upgrade".
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