Digital Trends

HP tx1000 April 24th, 2007 | by Justin Whitaker

Battery Life

Testing the battery drain time of the tx1000 showed that the six-cell battery provides average battery life. Paying the extra money for a spare 4-cell battery is certainly a good idea if you want to watch a movie and then do some web surfing before having to stop for a recharge.

• DVD playback with the display brightness turned up all the way, wireless and Bluetooth enabled: 2 hours 30 minutes
• DVD playback with the display turned to 25%, wireless and Bluetooth disabled: 3 hours 20 minutes
• General use with display turned to 50% and wireless and Bluetooth enabled: 3 hours 30 minutes

Heat and Noise

The tx1000 has two small exhaust vents in the rear corner that do a good job of keeping heat away from you while using the laptop. The internal fans spin up quickly during heavy use, and the added noise is distracting if you are in a quiet room watching a movie. During normal use in a kitchen, bedroom, or living room with typical household noises, the additional fan noise is not a distraction.

Fingerprint Reader, Webcam, and Sound Quality

The integrated Realtek audio and integrated Altec Lansing stereo speakers provide acceptable sound quality for most games, movies, and applications. The sound suffers from lack of bass and less than stellar mid-range vocals, but provides enough clarity and volume for general use. The two speakers are attached to the display and rotate with the screen, which is a nice touch to help direct the sound toward you whenever the screen is rotated. Another nice touch is the dual headphone jacks, which allows two people to both watch and listen to a movie without having to share ear buds.

The integrated webcam is a handy feature that allows you to do video-conferencing or capture still images without having to attach an external device. The resulting video clips and images from the webcam were clear and accurately colored. As with any webcam, low lighting conditions cause problems and result in low-quality images.

The fingerprint reader works well and is useful for logging onto the computer and websites without having to remember multiple passwords. The fingerprint scanning software took a bit more time to complete than I would have liked, as it requires fingerprints from multiple fingers on each hand and running your finger across the scanner too quickly results in an invalid scan. Also, in most instances the fingerprint scan takes more than one attempt before it successfully recognizes you, so it isn't always faster than just typing in a user name and password when you are logging into a website.

Image Courtesy of HP