Hp Pavillion tx2100
Introduction
Why did I buy this laptop? I’m heavily in to photography and wanted a laptop that looked good, could store a huge number of pictures and was of a small, convenient size. With this in mind, I bought the Tx2100, dubbed an ‘entertainment pc’ by Hewlett Packard. In the box came the laptop, charger, an extra high capacity battery, a complimentary sleeve and remote control, along with a variety of instruction manuals, warranty information and the usual amount of unnecessary packaging.
Specs
This laptop was of quite a high spec when I purchased it around 9 months ago, those specs (copied from HP’s website) being:
Processor type tx2150ee: AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60
• , Level 2 cache 512 KB + 512 KB, Up to 1600 MHz system bus running at AC/DC mode 35 Watt
tx2170ee: AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-68
• , Level 2 cache 512 KB + 512 KB, Up to 1600 MHz system bus running at AC/DC mode 35 Watt
Operating system installed Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 32-bit
Memory layout
tx2150ee: (2 x 1024 MB)
Standard memory tx2150ee: 2048 MB
Maximum memory Supports up to 4 GB DDR2 memory
Internal drives
Internal storage
tx2170ee: 250 GB
Hard disk controller SATA Hard Disk Drive
Hard disk drive speed 5400 rpm
Optical drive type Lightscribe Super Multi DVD Writer (+/-R +/-RW) with Double Layer support
Lightscribe Create silkscreen-quality disc labels direct from your PC with LightScribe: Just burn, flip, burn.
System features
Memory card device 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
Modem High speed 56K modem
Network interface Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Wireless technologies 802.11a/b/g WLAN
Wireless capability Bluetooth® wireless networking
External I/O ports 3 USB 2.0, 1 VGA port, 1 RJ11 modem connector, 1 RJ45 ethernet connector, S-video TV out, 2 headphones-out one w/ SPDIF out, 1 mic-in, 2 remote control infrared ports (remote optional), integrated stereo mic, cable docking connector
Expansion slots One ExpressCard/34 slot
Display size 12.1” WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display
Display resolution 1280 x 800
Video RAM Up to 527 MB Total Available Graphics Memory
Control panel HP QuickPlay media player software and its dedicated menu controls, music and DVD buttons
Ergonomic features Integrated finger print reader ; Integrated Touch-screen (Pen input optimized) ; Integrated pen for touch screen ; Media control buttons located on panel
Remote control HP Mini Remote Control
Internal audio 3D Sound Blaster Pro compatible sound 16 bit integrated
Speakers and microphone Altec Lansing® speakers
Keyboard 101 key compatible keyboard
Pointing device Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical Scroll Up/Down pad, volume control, mute buttons, 3 Quick Launch Buttons
Battery type 4-cell and 8-cell Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery
Power supply type 65 W AC Power Adapter
Software
Software - Productivity & finance Microsoft® Works
Pre-installed software Microsoft® Internet Explorer 7.
0; Windows Mail; Adobe® Reader 8.0
Software included Recovery partition (including possibility to recover system, applications and drivers separately); Optional re-allocation of recovery partition; Recovery CD/DVD creation tool; Symantec™ Norton Internet Security™ 2008 (60 days live update); Notebook Help & Support
Optical drive driver software Windows Media Player ; Windows Photo Gallery ; DVD Play ; Windows Movie Maker, Windows DVD Maker ; Cyberlink DVD Suite ; Windows Media center, QuickPlay for Windows ; Digital Persona Fingerprint reader software
Dimensions / weight / warranty
Weight 1.92 kg
Package weight 3.93 kg
Dimensions (W x D x H) 22.40 cm (L) x 30.60 cm (W) x 3.13 cm (min) H / 3.87 cm (max) H
Package dimensions (W x D x H) 433 x 186 x 354 mm
I don’t utilise any 64bit based software on this laptop so I cannot comment on the advantages given by the Turion here. The laptop however does run very fast and all of the specs seem well balanced. The lack of a graphics card may prove to be an issue for gamers, but for the average user the specs of this laptop enable it to handle anything with speed. The battery life on this laptop gives me about an hour and a half’s wireless internet browsing on balanced. With the high capacity battery, which is considerably larger and thus angles the laptop towards you when using on a flat surface, will give me about three to four hours of wireless internet usage on the high performance setting.
=== The exterior ===
On the outside, this laptop looks great, there’s no denying it. On the back of the LCD screen, there’s a glossy black cover with an unidentifiable pattern. The pattern is continued right through on to the main body of the laptop, which, in my opinion, differentiates this model from most of the alternatives available.
Half way up the LCD panel on the left hand side comes a fingerprint reader which can be used to control login access to your laptop. On the top of this panel comes a built in microphone and webcam. On the right hand side you’ve got hotkeys for stop, play, pause, fast forward and rewind, along with illuminated (in blue) buttons to launch a DVD, and 3 other programmable keys. The speakers for the laptop are located on the bottom of the LCD panel and are made by Altec Lansing. On the bottom left of the LCD panel comes the illuminated (again in blue) displays for power, mains power and hard drive activity.
Directly above the keyboard towards the left hand side comes three dedicated volume adjustment buttons, which lower, mute and raise the volume respectively. The mute button turns from blue to orange when activated. The keyboard itself is a full size QWERTY, which sounds obvious but some of the 12” laptops available today come with smaller sized QWERTYs. The touchpad, positioned centrally underneath the keyboard is moulded into the plastic fascia of the laptop itself, with and embossed pattern to mark it out as the touchpad. Underneath the touchpad, apart from the two left and right click buttons, are the magnetic latches which pop up when the screen is closed to secure the laptop screen when it’s not in use.
On the front of the laptop on the left hand side comes the power switch, which is not a press button but a slide key with a raised section to help you get a grip on it. In the middle there’s two headphone ports and a microphone port, and on the right comes a dedicated switch for turning the integrated wifi receiver on or off.
This laptop also comes with a built in card reader, and supports SD, MS, MMC and XD cards, no compact flash unfortunately. Directly underneath the card reader comes a remote control . There’s two USB ports on the rear left hand side, with the fan on the back right hand side. On the front right hand side there’s an s-video port, VGA port for hooking the laptop up to your HDTV or LCD, the HP expansion port, tablet pen slot and an extra USB port.
In my opinion, the layout HP have chosen for the exterior of this laptop is brilliant. Everything is easily accessible and there is an incredibly wide variety of ports available for a laptop of this size. All of the built in hardware is faultless, with the webcam being perfectly in focus and the microphone picking up sound very effectively. The remote control and tablet pen slots feel very secure, and the laptop as a whole feels well built. The charger has a good length of cable, but the transformer becomes extremely hot when the laptop itself is under heavy load, especially with re-encoding video.
Bundled Software
This laptop comes with a huge variety of bundled software, only some of which are worth keeping. Hp provides a set of bundled games which are entertaining for those long train journeys or a lazy Sunday afternoon. The fingerprint reader software provided is also very good, enabling you to link your prints to your individual profile and later log on with the swipe of a finger.
The best features
The remote control is a great thing to have when watching something you’ve saved to your hard drive. The remote unfortunately does not work with streaming content. The tablet screen on this laptop is very clear, and the rotation mechanism is very secure. The laptop’s size has to be one of its greatest features, at just over 12” making it large enough to still use comfortably but small enough to easily fit in to a small messenger bag, along with the charger and a textbook! The speakers on this model are the best I have ever seen on a laptop, but laptop speakers will never compare to a full sized sound system.
After a few months’ use
Everything is still running well. However, parts of the laptop have begun to loosen up. The plastic above the fan can be lifted up, and the power key now rattles slightly. The rest of the laptop, keyboard and touchpad included, feel as they did when I bought the laptop. I have also found that the screen gathers dust irritatingly quickly, which makes it difficult to keep clean. All in all however, this laptop runs well, and despite running fairly hot I am very happy with it. I hope this review has helped anyone looking in to buying this model or a similar one.
Hp Pavillion tx2100 - a good all rounder. 
