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In tablet mode, the screen folds flat against the keyboard and automatically switches to portrait mode. Unlike HP's previous tablets, this has an infrared sensor on each side of the display to make the touch screen more accurate. It works beautifully - the onscreen pointer accurately follows the movement of your pen, and it's easy to click on even tiny icons.

The handwriting recognition application is impressive. It coped well with our messy scrawl, and it's simple to correct any erroneous letters one at a time. You write letters into a pop-up box, and they're transferred automatically to any open programs. Using the stylus is particularly fun with painting programs such as ArtRage.

Retailing at £650 inc VAT, the TX2130ea works well as a normal laptop, but there are some compromises. Like many touch screens, the TX2130ea's 12.1in display has a

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grainy texture. It's also fairly dim - even at maximum brightness - and its narrow horizontal and vertical viewing angles make it hard to share what's on the screen with others. Colours are accurate, though. The keyboard is comfortable to use, as the keys have long travel and well-judged feedback. We didn't like the touchpad's rough texture and inaccurate pointer movement, though.

Processing power comes from a dual-core AMD Turion and 2GB of RAM. It performed fairly well in our video encoding test with 175, but its overall score of 125 is below average, and far slower than the Intel Core 2 Duo-equipped Samsung R410 oposite. It runs Windows Vista smoothly, though, and while its integrated graphics chipset couldn't run our Call od Duty 2 test, it copes well with Vista's Aero interface.

There are two batteries in the box: a four-cell and an eight-cell. Battery life with the four-cell battery is poor at just two hours and four minutes, but this rose to a respectable four hours and nine minutes with the larger battery fitted. The big battery doesn't add much to the laptop's dimensions, and, if you're right-handed, provides a useful handle when using it in tablet mode.

HP's Pavilion TX2130ea is a niche product, as not many people would need the advantages a tablet PC offers. However, it's the best we've seen so far. The touch screen and handwriting recognition work brilliantly and the Pavilion is good value, too. If you'd like a tablet PC but don't want to do away with a keyboard, it's a good buy.