HP's Touchsmart TX2 comes kitted out with a capacitive panel that can track several fingertips doing different things at once.

Although the screen is sophisticated enough to handle lots of gestures, the software can interpret just a few - tapping, double tapping, zooming text or rotating pictures and opening the MediaSmart 2.0 application.

The multi-touch gesturing feels more artificial than using the trackpad and keyboard.

Things that you feel you should be able to do, like manipulate two edges of a window, iPhone-style, aren't an option.

Worse, there's little documentation that describes the multitouch abilities. Fortunately, the TX2 doesn't rely on multitouch to be great.

The battery pack lasts for well over five hours and doubles as a comfortable grip when the lid is in tablet mode, which leaves one hand free to stab away at weblinks and double tap on icons.

It makes the 12in notebook slightly heavy, but the trade-off is worth it. The screen is sharp and clear, without the fine grain you often get on touch panels.

The TX2 is fast and responsive thanks to a 2.2GHz AMD Turion processor. There's a lot of noise from the system fan, but the speakers are a cut above the usual small laptop fare.

As a first generation multi-touch machine, it's no real surprise that the TX2's gesture inputs need polish.

Fortunately, it's a good enough laptop in its own right that it doesn't have to rely on multi-touch to get it recommended