My new -toy- tool

[Circo]

In my ongoing efforts to be more productive I have finally broke down and decided that I needed to invest in a new laptop. With a three year old running around the house, sitting in my office and doing video caps or site updates is getting more difficult as I am sure some of you guys understand. I have a 3 year old hp laptop with a turion proc but it's hot and battery life sucks and with a 5400 rpm hard drive isn't good for much of anything I could use it for. I have to plug it in wherever I go so it pretty much just sits in the closet unless I am traveling. But I have honestly always hated it

So I decided about a week ago that I needed to remedy the situation. How to hang around with the family yet get more work done. I went straight to the core i7 laptops, fast, powerful you name it, these suckers can do it. I went down to best buy and started playing with them. I just couldnt see it, a bulky, hot laptop..... Not only that but a standard laptop just wasn't going to do what I wanted, I need to be mobile, quick and convenient. You start to notice pretty fast is a suck slow ATOM processor. What to do....

I started looking into tablet pc's. I carried the tx2 line of hp's when I worked at compusa -RIP- and they were ok, I even looked into the slate (hoping) but even before it was cancelled a few days ago it still is running a dirt slow Atom and no storage to speak of (32gb-64gb). I finally came across the HP TouchSmart TM2T, and after about two days of deliberation I placed my order. It is by no means a core i7, not even close, but it is a perfect balance for me and should work well. Here are some details:

Components

• • Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• • Intel®Core™2 Duo SU7300 (1.30GHz, 800MHz FSB) w/512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4550 Graphics
• • 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• • 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• • 12.1" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP LED Widescreen (1280x800) with Integrated Touch-screen
• • External Tray LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer
• • Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
• • Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
  At first glance it seems fairly underpowered. But in actuality my research shows that it should be just fine. Two years ago my main computer that I did captures and encoding with was an Intel core 2 duo T2600 @ 2.14 Ghz. It was fast enough for just about anything, of course so of the more CPU intensive mame games and console systems had some issues. Of course my main system is much faster than that now and encoding is half the time at least. Anyway, the T2600 clocked @ 2.14Ghz has a PassMark CPU score of 945, while the SU7300 has a score of 989 even though it is clocked at 1.3Ghz. The other nice thing about the processor is that it only uses 10 watts. HP claims that this tablet has a 9 hour battery life (not likely) however reviews around the net put it closer to 6 hours. But 6 hours is still pretty amazing on a 6 cell battery.
  Here is a quick video overview of the TM2T
  
  
  As far as video capture on the go the 500GB 7200rpm hard drive is the game changer here, standard 5400rpm drives just can't do it. I was very surprised to find a drive that fast in such a small machine but it's perfect. I figure I may be just limited to working on mame or cartridge based systems and encoding will definitely be offloaded to my i7 rig but it's super portable with a great interface and I bet I get a ton of use out of it. There is something to be said for chillin on the couch and being able to work without the family getting upset
  I have to be honest though, if video capture was my only use for this thing it wouldn't have been my best choice. The reviews across the net have been glowing, and the multi touch screen and wacom digitizer are fantastic. It's perfect for light gaming, and let's be honest almost all emulation and arcade pc games fit into that category. Also I really have a soft spot for touchscreen gaming and this tablet is perfect for that. Plus the aluminum shell is a good step up from the slick plastic of my old laptop. Also this machine runs ice cold, which once again means it's great to take with me. Strangly enough it makes a great reader as well, my friend jum had the old version of this and used it to read comic books with CBR, which in tablet form it is perfectly suited for. I had to special order it because the shelf specs in retail stores don't include the ATI video, 500GB hard drive or 6GB of ram. I should receive it on Saturday, I look forward to seeing how on the mark I am about the functionality of it and some benchmarks when it comes to video capture.
  Here is a demo of this thing playing some pc games, it's ok, but once again not it's primary function.
  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtV9ChCDo7c

[celly]

Wow that's a nice rig! I just bought my new netbook today for school. Nothing quite as fancy as yours but, its an HP 11.6" monitor netbook, 2GB RAM with a 320GB HD and Windows 7. Perfect for online classes. If you ever get bored with that HP SmartTouch, I'll be glad to take it off your hands!

[Nologic]

Nice toy...kind of surprised you didn't get a 15" (if offered). Also pleasantly surprised the HDD was able to keep up...I would have figured an SSD would have been required. I don't hold much faith in laptop hdd's.

Again sweet toy, certainly a lot newer than what I have laying around here.

[Circo]

I was going for ultra portable but with enough oomph to actually get some work done. I really debated on going the i5, i7 route with a traditional laptop, but the expanded functionality of the tablet won me over.