HP Touchsmart TX2 tablet PC

Unlike standard notebooks, tablet PCs such as this HP Touchsmart TX2 feature a screen that can swivel and fold back on itself.

The screen is touch-sensitive, which means you can then write directly on the display with a stylus or use a finger to tap on icons and buttons, rather than having to use a keyboard and mouse.

HP has decided to take the tablet PC concept a step further by adding the ability to recognise multi-fingered gestures (of certain kinds). So, just as with the Apple iPhone, you can zoom in and out of photos by placing two fingers on the screen and then pinching them together or pulling them apart.

We were impressed with how little pressure was required to get the 12in screen to react to a prod of a finger. The multi-touch gestures also worked pretty well. Rotating photos, for example, is achieved by holding two fingers on the display and then twisting one while keeping the other still. We started off trying to do this one-handed, but using two hands was much easier.

There are, however, some limitations to the multi-touch screen. Perhaps the biggest is that only HP's built-in Mediasmart applications (used for viewing photos, watching DVDs and so on) make full use of the gestures. Some work in other Windows applications, such as Windows Photo Gallery, but it's a bit hit-and-miss. Furthermore, there aren't that many gestures to use.

A stylus can be found in a slot on the right side of the body, allowing the user to write directly on the screen. You needn't worry about accidentally touching the screen with your hand as you write – in this mode, the Touchsmart tx2 will only respond to the stylus, ignoring wrists or any other body parts in contact with the display.

HP has gone with an AMD processor rather than the more common Intel brand for the Touchsmart TX2. Our review model was the TX2-1020ea, which is the most expensive and ships with an AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-84 processor, a dual-core model in the middle of the range. It comes with 4GB of memory, and graphics are taken care of by an ATI Radeon 3200 graphics card.

This combination certainly provided enough oomph for the installed Vista Home Premium operating system to run smoothly. It's also capable of performing more intensive tasks such as image and video editing. However, the relatively slow graphics card means it's not best suited to gaming: if you do want to play a few games, you will have to turn the resolution and quality settings right down.

A 400GB hard disk provides plenty of storage, while there is a DVD writer on one side for backup and watching movies. Other features on the notebook include a multi-format memory card reader, webcam, fingerprint reader and three USB ports. It can connect to wireless networks (including the latest and fastest 802.11n networks) and Bluetooth devices.

The supplied battery was able to supply around one and a half hours' use, which is not too bad but not overly impressive either. HP also supplies a larger battery for an extra fee, which is good for three and a half hours under normal conditions. With the standard battery, the total weight over the TX2 is just over 2kg – very reasonable.

If you think you might make use of its tablet capabilities the TX2 is a well-designed computer at a reasonable price, but we wouldn't recommend buying it solely on its rather limited multi-touch abilities.