Reviewing the HP TX1000z in Tablet Mode

HP Touchscreens

The tx1000z is HP’s very first foray into the field of tablet PCs. It holds up quite well considering that at the time it was released, juggernaut touchscreen phones like the iPhone and new Blackberry Storm didn’t even exist.

I was an early adopter of the tx1000z, but was sadly let down by what I had assumed would be the computer’s touchscreen features. In my foolishness, I had assumed that the computer would work the way I saw other touchscreen computers working - a click of the pen to the screen wouldn’t turn into a huge stroke that comes out of nowhere. I was disheartened to find that the computer was literally a “touchscreen” computer as opposed to a WACOM activated touchscreen computer that works by having a battery-powered pen that relays information back to the computer.

Regardless, I used my tx1000z as a tablet for an entire year, and as such, I learned a few things about using the computer in this mode.

First of all, Windows has a very nifty feature built-in to allow you to write out documents called “Windows Journal”. Now, this journal is your key to writing out notes in class, or notes on a presentation, but not drawing (we’ll get to that in a second). In essence, the journal functions in either a normal or tablet mode. In order to get it to function in tablet mode, you have to actually open the program while in tablet mode and select to start a new note. By starting a new note in tablet mode, you’ll save yourself the hassle of closing the note you opened in normal mode to have to create a new note.

The tx1000z is a very finnicky tablet - as such, it helps if you use the pen that comes with the laptop. The bad part about the tablet not being WACOM activated is that you have to touch the screen pretty harshly in order to even make the cursor move. Your best bet for making sure that stray lines don’t appear and that you can have precision is to clean the screen as much as possible before you use the computer in tablet mode. Doing this should minimize the effects of the misplaced strokes in writing.

In terms of drawing, the standard MS paint program actually works best. Just go into the program, click on a color and start doodling away. As a matter of fact, the very first thing I did when I got my tx1000z was to just go into MS Paint and start drawing away any little thing. And as fun as it is for a while, you’ll eventually grow bored of the program and the drawing features. Furthermore, you can integrate your drawings in the notes with Windows Journal.

And, that’s all there is to it. In order to get your laptop into tablet mode, you just need to take the screen and turn it face-side up to then draw and write on it. Then you’re ready to start utilizing your new notebook’s tablet features and start gaining a new lease on notebooks in general.