Hey Zeb!
Kindda in the same boat here. I've already bought a tx1220us though.
Performance-wise, it does ok but not as fast as a Intel Core (or Core 2). But since it's my first Vista system (Home Premium), I'm not quite sure as to how much performance is lost due to the OS, if none. But I can tell you this: Vista eats up a good 600 MB of RAM on its own. HP doesn't help either, shipping a 64bit system with a 32bit OS :angry: . BUt I never was a AMD person, and this system doesn't exactly make me wanna change my mind.
As for the specs, I dunno if the NVidia GeForce Go 6150 shipped with this system does better than the new intel Santa Rosa chipset (the latest iteration of the infamous Intel Extreme Graphics), but I can tell you this: It is an embedded graphics card, just like intel Extreme Graphics. And what this means in the end is that you get a system with the NVidia NForce chipset, which, IMHO, isn't comparable to Intel chipsets.
The battery life is short, even though the system ships with a 6-cell battery instead of a 4-cell which you get to see more often in 12-inch notebooks. The battery sticks out of the note a little bit, but I actually like this, since it gives me a good grabbing handle when in slate mode. As for battery time, in full throttle the system doesn't last more than an hour or so :warning: :grimacing:
As for the passive touch screen, it's nowhere near a wacom tablet pc (like LeNovo's, Fujitsu's or most of the convertible tablets out there). You have to put pressure on the screen, like you were actually writting on it. It's not as precise or as responsive as a active tablet. It doesn't have pressure levels, and even though ZB3 has a 'tablet' section in the 'Preferences' menu, these options stay disabled on this tablet (meaning you don't get to use many of the ZB3 optimizations for tablets. Well, at least I think you don't get to benefit from them, but although 'use tablet' is disabled, it's turned 'on'. But you don't get to adjust the settings anyway.) Other downsides include the fact that you don't get helper buttons on the stylus, it's a simple piece of plastic. Other annoying thing is the fact that when you touch the screen with it it's like clicking, so you don't have (like with other tablets) a navigation functionality separated from a clicking functionality on this system (try hovering the cursor over a tool or menu with this and you will get what I mean. You always have to click first in a neutral part of the screen and then drag the cursor to get a 'hovering efect'). But as a matter of fact, I do like something about the passive screen: the fact that you use it like you're actually writing on the screen (resting your hand on it, putting pressure on it) feels good to me. I never got pass the 'barrier' of seeing the cursor move without actually touching the screen with my previous tablet experiences. Doesn't feel natural to me. Also on the plus side is the fact that you don't need to change batteries on the stylus, and the fact that anything that doesn't scratch the screen (and the screen is quite resistant to scratches) can actually be a stylus - like your fingernails, or the back of a painting brush, for example.
The screen looks great if you want to watch movies or other media files, but beeing glossy as it is, this system beeing an 'Entertainment PC', it can be hard to read sometimes, especially on well-lit enviroments.
All that being said, I'd have to tell you that (altough it may sound controversial) that I'm actually quite satisfied with this system. It's really light and versatile, and I really enjoy all the 'Entertainment PC' thing going on with it. Like all the access/media buttons and stuff like that. It's also quite beautiful design wise (I know, call me shallow but I think it's hypocritical to say that people don't look for that on a note. Status, baby! :laughing: ), and I make that a plus since most tablet PC's look like the notes from the 90's. But my goal always was a general purpose note that could be used as a tablet, the tablet thing never was the pimary factor.
But if you're looking for a note for work, and an active tablet with pressure levels is a must for you, there are better options out there. One I've had my eyes on for quite some time was the (elusive) [Asus R1F](http://www.tabletpcreview.com/price/default.asp?productFamilyID=913&ref=list&display=priceDetail).
A nice place with lots of reviews and info on tablets is TabletPcReview.com. You should check it out there too, they also have nice forums with nice people that always give you nice info :)
Hope it helps! :D
too bad because the specs and the price were amazing.