If you're in the market for an ultralight, sexy, and multimedia-centric convertible laptop, it looks like the TX1000 might not be such a bad choice. According to LAPTOP Mag's review on the pre-production convertible tablet, HP's design team did a bang-up job here, and all the multimedia sweetness (like a dual-layer DVD burner, webcam, "great" speakers, and HP's Media Center) you'd expect in a Pavilion unit still appears even in the 12.1-inch frame. Also praised was the potent 1.8GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 processor, generous 2GB of RAM, and a rather spacious 160GB hard drive; opening and operating applications was noticeably quick, and the dedicated NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 graphics card did wonders when playing back DVDs and rendering Vista's Aero interface. The biggest digs came (unfortunately) from the glossy touchscreen LCD, as reviewers noted that the screen felt "quite flimsy" when switched into tablet mode, but was assured by HP that finalized units wouldn't suffer the same issue. Additionally, fan noise was (understandably) louder than similar, less-spec'd units, the touchpad was "an acquired taste," it lacked a hover zone found on many other tablets, and the entire touchscreen was simply less responsive than expected. Overall, however, the machine seemed to do more impressing than disappointing, and if you're looking to use this more like a laptop and less like a tablet, this 4-star rated machine would probably suit you just fine.

Although HP's had the business-centric convertible tablet down pat for awhile now, it's mixing in a bit of that general consumer lovin' with the forthcoming tx1000. Taking design roots from the entertainment-based Pavilion laptops, this two-faced machine boasts a twistable touchscreen, built-in webcam, fingerprint reader, and a removable LightScribe-compatible DVD burner to boot. Other niceties include a 12.1-inch widescreen LCD, 5-in-1 flash card reader, Altec Lansing stereo speakers, dual headphone jacks, an HP mini remote control, WiFi, twin omni-directional microphones, and a lightweight shell. While we'd love to spill more exact specifications, the Windows Vista Partner Stories brochure put the brakes on the particulars before things got too frontal, but as with Toshiba's elusive R400, we expect this bad boy to show up alongside Vista's big release, if not sooner.