HP Pavillion ZT3000

[asdflkjsdrhthfhrhr]

I originally planned to start this review once I got the computer, but once I got it, I found myself having so much fun with it that I didn?t get to writing this last night! Here goes:

I ordered on 8.8.2004, 4 days after my birthday. I had originally intended it to be my birthday present, but that sort of fell through.

Because of a lucky connection with someone who works at HP, I was able to get the laptop at a ~12% discount. Further, I ordered through FatWallet (a referral site) and got another 5% off the MSRP. Along with that, I printed out a copy of a $100 rebate. Recently I have found out that there was a $100 price drop and I was able to get credited for that.

Here is the price breakdown:

Original MSRP: $1418

With Employee Discount: $1231

FatWallet FatCash: $61

$100 Rebate

$100 Instant rebate (credited)

Free shipping, no taxes.

Final Price: $970

(All prices USD)

Comes out to ~32% off

I got a really, really good deal on this laptop.

Here are the specifications that I ordered it with:

1.5 Ghz Pentium M 705

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

256MB RAM (Upgrading to 768 shortly)

40GB 4200RPM HDD

Intel ProWireless 2200 B/G

32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9200

CD-RW/DVD Drive

Bluetooth

15.4? WUXGA WVA TFT Display (1920x1200 resolution)

Ethernet, Modem, blablabla standard things

After I ordered it, I left on a trip for Upstate New York, which helped in the wait.

When I got back from the trip, I was able to get it within a day from my friend?s house. Everything was already open when I got there, so no box pictures (not like you?d like to see them anyway ? just standard cardboard, no pretty boxes like Apple does).

The most noticeable and amazing feature is the WUXGA screen. It has 1920 by 1200 pixels of resolution, which is what the 23? Apple Cinema Display can show. It provides an incredible viewing angle and is extremely bright. Some complain about the small size of screen text, but I find it perfect. I use it without any DPI changes, so it looks perfect. Many of my friends complain about the small size, so if you like your text big and run 1280x1024 on a 19? CRT you will want a lower resolution option.

I lucked out, because my WUXGA did not have a single dead pixel. I haven?t looked, but I?ve had this for a few weeks and I haven?t seen one. I am surprised, as there are almost 2.3 million pixels in the screen, so the dead pixel rate is obviously a lot higher than a XGA or other. I have heard from others that they received theirs with a dead pixel, but I haven?t heard that many complaints so the rate seems pretty good.

There are two other options for resolution with the screen when you purchase: WXGA (1280x800) and WSXGA+ (1680x1050). WSXGA+ is a great option for a ?middle of the road? solution, because it offers a midway setting between the two. Be aware, though, that when ordering the WSXGA+, you have the chance of getting a inferior Hitachi screen. You could also get a Samsung or LG, both of which are far superior to the Hitachi. The Hitachi has notoriously bad viewing angles, response times, and brightness issues.

When I got home, I reformatted it almost immediately after getting my router working. I got rid of all the HP stuff right away and put XP Pro on it, like I had planned. I?d recommend reformatting once you get it.

For the next two days or so, I installed all the software I needed and I?ve still been customizing superficial things, like getting a dock and adding window shadows and a small window manager that scrolls windows.

The laptop is pretty fast, but it?s in need of a RAM upgrade. I am going to add another stick of 512MB PC2700 once the prices come down enough. If I ever feel like making a space upgrade, I may get a 7200 RPM Hitachi drive. It?s 60GB and is very good quality. The 4200 RPM is supposedly a huge bottleneck which I believe, but I do not know yet if the 220 dollar price tag is justified.

Wireless reception is good in my house. I am writing this from my bed right now. I can usually get about 48mbps from anywhere in the house, except nearby the microwave where it basically craps out to 1.0 mbps. I think it has something to do with all the shielding. Also, I have heard that 2.4ghz wireless phones can kick out your connection, but I haven?t noticed anything. I sometimes talk on the phone while on the laptop and it?s okay. There is a wireless button for turning the wireless on and off, which is a good power saving feature. The problem is that it?s not prominent enough, so sometimes you can forget about it and the wireless will stay on, reducing battery life.

The speakers on the laptop are okay. If you are planning to do any sort of professional sound editing or anything, you will really need some better speakers as they probably don?t meet your needs. I mainly use them to play music (go figure) and my MP3s (mostly 192kbps) sound great. I got some headphones to go with them, which I may write a review on soon.

There are some media keys on the last 4 ?F? keys on the top of the keyboard. They are for play/pause, stop, and to skip forward and backwards through tracks. I have to press the function key to use them. This can be a little irritating since I am in the habit of only using one hand to use the keys. They do come in handy, though, because if you set Winamp to catch global function keys, they will work even outside of the program, like when you are in Firefox and want to change the track, all you have to do is press the key.

On the right speaker, there are some volume and mute keys. They are apparently not hardware controlled. If the computer starts going real slow or crashes, the volume keys go with them. If you have music on and hibernate, make sure you stop the music or mute it first, because the music will come back on your next boot. The volume keys do not work in the login screen, either.

The keyboard is one of the best I have ever used. I think it rivals that of even IBM. I started touch typing on it right out of the box with no problems and my rate of errors with it is really low. I have noticed no problems with it like the ones found on the Dell Inspiron 8600, which apparently has some ?squishy? spots on the corners. The ?esc? key on this keyboard is a little louder than the others, though.

The touchpad is pretty nice, too. It has a scroll pad at the side of the cursor surface. The old problem of it being activated by moving your finger over it has been fixed. Now to activate it, you have to take your finger up, put it down on the scroll pad, and then use it. Also, above the pad is a button to turn off the touch pad. Why this feature has not been used on every touch pad ever is beyond me, since it?s a really great feature. It prevents the cursor from jumping around the screen when you are typing when your palms hit the surface.

The graphics card is not really a concern to me, since it?s not what I was planning on using this computer for. If I ever start to feel the need, I?m going to build a desktop for real cheap to play games on. And I?m pretty sure that this can run most games pretty well, as long as I don?t push it to 1920x1200.

I have not written any CDs on it yet, so I can?t really attest to its speed or times. I know it runs at 24x, though. DVD movies look very good with it, but I?m having a problem with WMP10 playing them so I have been using Intervideo WinDVD (it sucks).

I haven?t gotten anything to use with Bluetooth yet, but I think I?m going to get a snazzy Bluetooth notebook mouse. They are only 50 dollars, so I don?t want to pass it up. Right now I?ve been using the one from my Dell desktop. The long cord is kind of a pain in the ass.

Battery life: I haven?t really been testing it. The only time I?ve run it down real low was on my last car trip. I ran it down to 5% and it automatically went into hibernation. I guess it gets about 4.5 hours of battery life, but it makes a significant difference with what I am doing ? I could be working on graphics which requires a very bright screen setting and lots of processing power, so I could get around 3.5 hours, or I could be wardriving with MP3s playing and the screen off and get around 8 hours. But average has been around 4 hours, I think.

The laptop?s weight is 6.5 pounds, which isn?t bad compared to some other widescreen notebooks around. The Dell 8600 is 6.9 and the Acer Aspire is around 6.7, I think. The laptop is pretty big, though. It?s about the size of a PowerBook 15?, but only slightly thicker. It?s 1.3? inches thick, about the same as the 12? PowerBook.

In the front of the notebook, there is a slot for an SD Media card. This is really helpful if you have a camera or PDA that uses this format, but unfortunately my camera uses CF so I can?t take advantage of it. (My friend sent me a PCMCIA card that uses CF ? so practically I have two media card slots.)

The laptop never really gets all that hot. Sometimes I will use it on my lap for a few hours and it won?t get too bad, but since the placement of one of the fans is right over my right leg, it may reduce battery life.

Finally ? the looks of the laptop. I must say, this computer is damned good looking. The cover is metal which doesn?t get scratched easily. Inside, it is black plastic and silver trim. You could probably feel safe putting this computer in a bag with your other stuff, but I am getting a bag for it to be safe. Another cool stylish thing about it is the way that lights on the front are done. They are LEDs behind an opaque plastic panel, so the lights shine through and make this really cool effect.

I think that covers about everything. To sum it up:

Pros:

Beautiful, incredibly bright screen

Adequate HDD Space

Good wireless reception

Awesome keyboard

Touchpad power button

Useful media keys

Good sounding speakers

Cons:

Placement of media keys, wireless button

Crap DVD software

Overall, I am extremely happy with my purchase. I got about 32% of the price off, so it didn?t come close to breaking the bank, and I still have hundreds of dollars left over for my books and notebook mice and accessories. In my book, I?d give it a 9 of 10, but once I get that RAM upgrade it will be a 10, no doubt.

Pictures (http://www.wirsind1337.com/krazykarl/photos/laptop)

I have a folder of pictures in both a fullsize and resized format of the laptop. Sorry about the quality, my camera is a piece of crap. Some of them I have not resized to a smaller form, those are in the ?old? folder and were all taken on the first day.

- Karl Tacheron

Edited September 6, 2004 by cheatachu102

[Veiva]

Nice.

[mr.dan]

I had an HP Pavilion and it was the worst computer I have ever owned, albeit it was quite a few years ago and a 300mhz machine. Perhaps I'm ready to get back into the HP market again, as I have heard nothing but praise from users.

[asdflkjsdrhthfhrhr]

yes, HP has most certainly come a very long way. This is the best laptop I have ever used, save for a few others that were very much more expensive.

[Monkey Man]

Cool sounds really good!

(Maybe add small thumbnails of pics and make them a hyperlink to the bigger version, i feel that this would work better than just giving a link to a folder which contains them ;) )

[asdflkjsdrhthfhrhr]

I guess I could get a few pages of comments with the addition of a picture or two. That seems to be all people care about with these things.

[asdflkjsdrhthfhrhr]

Okay, I'm adding some pictures. Could a Mod add the 56k warning in the subject header?

Here are some links to more demonstrative pictures of:

Screen Resolution

Laptop Size

[Monkey Man]

ahh that helps so much to get a feel for what you are reviewing, good work!

[Ridgeburner]

Great review :yes:

[asdflkjsdrhthfhrhr]

I'd like to know... how come this review has been virtually un-read or commented on?

Do I need to create a thread with 100 pictures and no specs to get a response?

[AQUaDeX]

I'd like to know... how come this review has been virtually un-read or commented on?

Do I need to create a thread with 100 pictures and no specs to get a response?

You don't write a review to get responses, you write a review to express your view and comments on something.

Anyway, thanks for the review I'm planning to buy a laptop too, and my final choice would be either zt3000 or 15 inch powerbook (I use both Mac and PC)

Tough choice :p

[asdflkjsdrhthfhrhr]

I think the reason that nobody comments on my review is that I don't have a whole lot of pictures. I've seen what dazzla posts, it's just a ****load of pictures and 100 words of review, and he gets 100s of responses about how great it is. I think someday I'm going to, as an experiment, post a "review" of my computer with nothing but 40 pictures of it in various pretty environments.

[mattrobs]

It has 1920 by 1200 pixels of resolution .... Some complain about the small size of screen text, but I find it perfect.

I recently got the same one from Singapore (at an astonishing low price) to Australia and I must admit, it is very good.

But the text is too damn small. And every time I try to resize the resolution, it either looks distorted or cut off. Ideas?

[Yvo]

You can't change the LCD size. If it runs at 1920 x 1200, that is what it will run at as the pixels are stuck in one spot and made for one size unlike CRT monitors where you can dynamically change the resolution to your liking.

With that said, that is why I opted to go with the 1680 screen a year ago. I have had my zt3000 for a year and I am still a happy camper.

[mattrobs]

You can't change the LCD size. If it runs at 1920 x 1200, that is what it will run at as the pixels are stuck in one spot and made for one size unlike CRT monitors where you can dynamically change the resolution to your liking.

With that said, that is why I opted to go with the 1680 screen a year ago. I have had my zt3000 for a year and I am still a happy camper.

Can't you change it to a lower res. but on the same ratio of 1920x1200?

The choices I have at the Display|Settings don't match my widescreen monitor respectively. There's like two normal ones - 800x600 and 1024x768 and one that's too wide.

[asdflkjsdrhthfhrhr]

The only resolution at which you will get it looking okay is going to be exactly one quarter of 1920x1200, or 960x600.

[gringo]

nice laptop!!!! (and review) I also have a HP and they are kick ass!!! (pavilion ZE4400)

[Brandon]

www.x1000forums.com

yeah i have the x1000 (CPQ version) and it does kick ass....

[IK47]

Can't you change it to a lower res. but on the same ratio of 1920x1200?

The choices I have at the Display|Settings don't match my widescreen monitor respectively. There's like two normal ones - 800x600 and 1024x768 and one that's too wide.

if you kept the same ratio, you would have 4 pixels representing one right?

1920 / 2 = 960

1200 / 2 = 600

isnt 960x600 too low of a res?

[asdflkjsdrhthfhrhr]

960x600 doesn't work correctly for me, for some reason.

[Eduardo Martins]

How can I get a discount coupon or anything that gives me a discount on this notebook??? Any Ideas??? Please let me know. By the way, your review was terrific, it has definitely made me decide for this notebok.

Thanx a lot.

[Premgenius]

looks good