New HP TouchSmart TX2 arrived!

This is my first computer with a touchscreen and my first HP Notebook.
I unboxed my TX2 yesterday and so far, I like what I see.

Here are the specs as shipped.

- HP TouchSmart tx2z
- Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
- AMD Turion(TM) X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor ZM-82 (2.2GHz)
- 12.1" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)w/Integrated Touch-screen
- 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- ATI Radeon(TM) HD 3200 Graphics with 64MB Display Cache Memory
- 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
- Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Reaction)
- HP Color Matching Keyboard
- Wireless-G Card with Bluetooth
- SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
- 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Microsoft(R) Office OneNote 2007 + Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
- HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

I have not yet fully tested it or installed any new major applications. I created the 3 Recovery discs (Takes 3 DVDs or 17 CDs) I have installed all available Windows updates including an update to the Broadcom Wireless adapter to version 5.10.38.26 from 5.10.38.14. I installed Skype 4.0 Beta 2 and the video and sound work fine with it.

I removed the MS Office 2007 Home stuff

A couple small complains so far.

1. - What Am I supposed to do with the string that attaches to the stylus... It just hangs there. There is no place to stored it. I wish it could retract (recoil) or be wound around something.

2. - An important notice about a fix for sleep/hybernation issue while connected to the modem was in the box (NIS 2008 Modem Compatability update) but it fails to install with a message saying that the update is not required for this model. I hope this is right.

3. - It seem a little slugish, but I think is because it's still downloading some content for MediaSmart using a process called TVagent.exe.

Some questions:

1.- A youtube video mentions that a couple MTV channels, Nickelodeon and Comedy central channels where supposed to be available this month. I could not find them using MediaSmart. Does anyone know if these are already available?

2.- The stylus has a button that acts as a right mouse click. Are there any after market styli with the same function that would work with this computer?

3. - Does anyone know what is the "HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope" mentioned in the specs? I did not get a slip cover or carrying case in the box.

4. - Does anyone have any comments (tips/tricks) to add about this new TouchSmart Notebook?

I found touchsmartcommunity.com, but there appears to be no threads about TouchSmart notebooks

Thanks...

Thanks!... Likewise.

I find it just a little slower than my Acer 5630 with Vista Premium SP1 and an Intel Core 2 T5500 1.6GHZ that I bought in June 07. Maybe it's related to all the extra multimedia, touch and fingerprint stuff in this machine. The fingerprint reader works great. My wife will also be using this laptop. It is nice to be able to just swipe your finger on the reader and switch users without having to click anything. The remote and the two headphone jacks will make it really easy to watch movies while we travel. Too bad it does not have an extra IR port in the back. I'm also not too crazy about the two stacked USB ports in the back. Some USB devices have wide connectors that might block the other port.

I still need to fully understand how to use the touchscreen with the stylus and with touch-supported apps efficiently. I noticed that with MS Journal one can convert hand writing to text. Do you know of any video tutorials on how to use HP Touchsmart?

I have another laptop with Vista Ultimate, but I never use Media Center. What do you find in Media Center that MediaSmart lacks?... Another thing that annoys me a little bit is that when you select the MediaSmart button to watch TV it default to the TV Channels panel. This panel requires a TV Tuner Device and since I have none it displays an error message saying that it can not detect a TV Tuner. My wife thought there was something wrong with the laptop. The default panel should be configurable so that it starts in the Internet TV panel.

Below is one of the few reviews I found. Have you found any in-depth reviews?

http://www.takesontech.com/?p=3774

So far, still very happy with this new toy.

I'm afraid we "might" be talking about two different HP notebooks. The review in the link you posted above is for tx2000 which is more expensive than the new tx2z. The tx2000 has a different graphics (NVIDIA), different hard drive options, has a TV-Out S-video port, 2 x Consumer IR and multimedia buttons on the lid. (EDIT: The tx2z also has 2 x IR ports one by the headphone jacks and one below the Rotate button on the side of the display)

Regarding MS Media Center (MSMC) and HP Media Smart (HPMS)... I started playing with MSMC and found that the interface is not "optimized" for touchscreen while the HPMS interface works really well with the touchscreen. But, I found that the remote of the tx2z appears to works a bit better to navigate the panels in MSMC. One can not access the tabs of the panels of HPMS using the remote. So, when you start the HPMS TV in the "Default" TV Channel panel... you "have to" either use the touchscreen or the mouse to select the other panels. The clips in Internet TV in MSMC seems to take a bit long to load (maybe they're bigger files or the MS content servers are busier). The clips on HPMS seems to download and play a lot faster. Who knows, given that I'm one of the first to get this notebook.... maybe I'm one of the "few" accessing the HP content server :-). I just hope HP gets the content from Comedy Central soon.

Below is the link to a youtube video from SlashGear of a nice demo of the tx2z from early November. It shows some of the features that persuaded me to wait until December to buy the tx2z instead of the other HP notebooks with touchscreens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6XVRkLRtT0

Is this HP 22" touch PC on-screen tutorial available online? Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but I have not found a on-screen tutorial on the tx2z. There is an icon on the desktop of a video called "HP Multi-Touch Experience"... more like an ad with a guy directing an orchestra with the touchscreen. Btw, this demo does not exit gracefully. It leaves a big black frame on the desktop where the video played. You have to close it from the taskbar. I found a couple video tutorials on youtube for the HP touch PC. I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like the tx2z notebook only has "MediaSmart" which is a subset of the full touch UI of the HP Touch PC called "TouchSmart".