HP TouchSmart TX2

One of the more affordable touch-screen notebooks on the market right now, the HP TouchSmart TX2 is definitely one to look at. For the gamer, we here at MMO Explorer think that there might be something better than this in the same price range, however. If your needs are balanced between your MMO play and your business or home work needs, though, this might be a good fit.

The TouchSmart TX2 is an ultra-portable 12 inch tablet laptop/notebook. The HP TX2 sells for about $800 and has a lot of functionality for that price in the tablet market.

Powered by an AMD Turion X2 2.2GHz mobile, 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM, and a 320GB hard drive, this HP TouchSmart definitely has got more under the hood than many notebooks in this price point. For all that, however, it's relatively slow to perform because of the heavy-handed tablet/touch software that comes built-in.

Two major faults with this machine, which you should be aware of as caveats: this HP TouchSmart is not upgradable in its factory configuration and it has comparatively poor battery life.

Graphics are powered by the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 and the screen is 12.1 inches, but the HP TX2 weighs in at 4.8 pounds despite its small size. The screen folds over to become a tablet, sitting on top of the keyboard, and finger or stylus can act as a pointer for tablet use. For game players, this is actually not that good and takes getting used to if you plan to play some MMOs in this fashion. Most of your functions will have to be done through menus or the "long way." Unless you do a lot of screen-switching in battle or use keyboard shortcuts, though, you may be OK with many games such as LotRO.

The battery only gives about two and a half hours of run time, but can be upgraded to a larger-cell for more juice.

For the college dorm and classroom user, the HP TouchSmart TX2 is a good one to consider overall, given the price.