At the behest of a friend, I will update the blog with a post. Since i have no real motivation on what to blog about,
mine doesnt have the ultra branding
I’ll simply review my laptop.
The HP TX2524CA is a tablet pc featuring AMD’s Puma Platform (I believe).
Specs:
- 2.0Ghz Turion X2 Rm-70 Processor 65nm
- Integrated HD3200 Graphics Processor
- 4GB Ram
- 320Gb HDD
- 12.1″ Wacom Penabled Touch screen
- Windows Vista Home Premium
- Lightscribe DVD Drive
- Built in 2mp webcam.
- 8 in 1 card reader.
- Altec Lansing Speakers
For a laptop which costed me $1100CAD, I think these specs are pretty decent. I realize I could have purchased it elsewhere, but the inconveniences did not warrant the money savings. To keep this post short, i will only point out what this laptop is good at, and bad at.
Cons:
- Warm!! On my custom power savings mode (5-10% MAX CPU power consumption) The laptop is still about 40c. On HP recommended i find its around 55-65c. On High performance its around 60-90c depending on what your doing. Gaming on high performance takes the laptop to 89c !! I bought a few laptop cooling pads which i am trying out.
- Processor is not the fastest thing in the world. It is not by any means a SLOW processor, it is just that things could go faster with intel parts or simply Turion X2 Ultra. (Which costs about another 200$ extra)
- The Wifi adapter is too new. Altough not really a con, i simply cannot use Linux Distro Backtrack 3 because it does not yet support draft-n chipsets. This is preventing me from attempting to crack a WEP AP.
- Windows Vista Home premium. This OS is such a resource hog. On my personal ULTRA power saver mode (10% CPU power conumption MAX) it takes up 25% cpu just idling. On High performance, it takes 10%CPU at idle.
- Battery life is not the greatest either. Max battery life on my custom super slow web browsing and chatting only mode is about 2hrs.
Pros
- Penabled Wacom Touchscreen is awesome. The touchscreen kicks the crap out of the synaptics touchpad. It is super convenient to use when a mouse isnt available.
- The Turion X2 processor is plenty capable. 1080p decoding is a breeze and Photoshop CS3 are all easily done on HP recommended power mode. When I dock it with my cooling pad, I run it on high performance and its just fantastic. I also simply love the Turion Sticker (which just smashes the shitass centrino sticker). You may argue that the C2Ds are faster but simply put, I.Dont.Care. The Turion X2 is fast enough for photo editing and gaming and thats good enough for me.
- HD Decoding with the integrated ATi HD3200 is great. It also handles Vista Aero perfectly with 0 lag, unlike its predecessor.
- Fantastic Wifi adapter. I have only compared this laptop with my Aunt’s Macbook Pro, and my wifi adapter is simply better. At the same place, I can get a wifi signal and logon while my Aunt’s macbook pro cant. The Draft-N support is also a nice touch. (i know im contradicting myself with the above stated con)
- Very portable. At 12.1″, this tablet is incredibly portable. I have held it and used it in slate mode for 1.5hrs and have had no problems with it at all.
- The 4gb ram is awesome. Photoshop CS3 runs like a charm. 320gb Hdd is a great amount of room for a laptop of this size.
- The build of this laptop feels sturdy to me. The design is also very nice and sleek, although it gathers quite a bit of fingerprints.
Conclusion:
- Performance 7/10 – To be honest, the processor is not lightning fast. I can live with it though.
- Visual Computing 9/10 – I absolutely love the Smooth HD decoding capability and 3d gaming capabilities.
- Portability 8/10 – It is a bit heavy compared to other tablets, but thats also what i like about it.
- Other Hardware 9/10 – The standard 4gb ram and 320gb HDD is just fantastic.
- Overall 8.3/10
Any who that concludes the review of this laptop. Anyone else wanna review their laptops? Be honest.
