HP Pavilion TX1020ea review

The remote is something of a gimmick as you're more likely to control the laptop while it's in your hands. But you and a friend can enjoy a movie together and listen to audio, each with your own headphones, thanks to the inclusion of two sets of headphone ports -- a feature we really like.

The remote control is a nice touch -- but you probably won't ever use it unless you're really, really long-sighted

The aforementioned shortcut buttons come in handy when flying solo -- there's one for launching HP's QuickPlay software (a bit like Media Center, but also rather rubbish, so ultimately pointless). Another lets you launch the Windows Mobility Center, where you can adjust the display brightness, volume and performance modes (for high performance or long battery life). There are also shortcut buttons for adjusting playback (pause, rewind, and so on) and for switching between portrait and landscape screen orientation.

HP includes a 5-in-1 memory card reader supporting SD, Memory Stick, MMC and XD storage cards. There's also a thin ExpressCard/34 slot (where the remote control lives) and three USB ports.

You get HP's standard one-year carriage and return warranty along with Vista Home Premium Edition, and a half-decent selection of software. There's a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security Suite, Roxio DVD burning software and Microsoft Works 8.0, so you can get productive with the laptop straight out of the box.

Performance
The TX1020ea is not very quick. The AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 may be dual-core, but it only managed a rather pedestrian 2,606 in our PCMark 2005 test. It's fine for day-to-day tasks such as watching movies or doing your homework -- provided your homework isn't anything to do with video editing.

Gaming isn't the TX1020ea's forte. It'll run games such as Doom 3 or Far Cry at low resolution, but the 1 frame per second in F.E.A.R and 216 in 3DMark 2006 speaks for itself. A gaming machine this is not.

Battery life wasn't particularly impressive either. It ran for just 100 minutes in our BatteryEater test, so you should consider splashing out on an extra battery if you're away from electricity for any length of time.

Conclusion
The Pavilion TX1020ea is a nice-looking and versatile machine. We like that it can be used in tablet mode, and having Media Center courtesy of the Vista Home Premium Edition operating system is a definite bonus. It's not as sexy as the Sony Vaio TZ, but it's decent value at £799.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Nick Hide