Windows Vista Installed

Microsoft’s Windows Vista introduces more graphical and functional changes–big and small–than the OS has undergone in quite some time. Among the graphical changes, the splashiest is the glasslike transparency of overlapping windows. Flip 3D, which lets you view open windows in a cascading 3D stack on the desktop, is eye-catching too. And the Windows Sidebar displays small applets on the desktop designed for specialized purposes, such as weather reports or sports scores. On the practical side, the new systemwide integrated Instant Search lets you look for a needed file from practically anywhere and at any time. Keep in mind, however, that because Vista offers so much, it requires a speedy CPU, ample RAM, and a good graphics card. Check out the other components of this laptop to be sure that Vista can run smoothly on it.

An artfully designed convertible Windows Tablet PC priced at $1894 (as of April 11, 2007), the 4.2-pound HP Pavilion tx1000 is geared for multimedia. This machine has some interesting and distinctive design touches, including a unique touchpad, but its abysmal battery life and excessively reflective screen make it a less-than-desirable traveling companion.

Among the tx1000′s many features are a built-in Webcam located at the top of the screen and a fingerprint reader set into the left side of the lid. It also comes with a three-in-one memory card reader, three USB 2.0 ports, and a dual-layer DVD writer. Indentations in the unique touchpad enable sensors to gauge your finger’s movements. A scrollbar with similar perforations sits to the right of the touchpad.

All of the ports are conveniently laid out along the sides; and helpful, readily visible gray icons identify the connections so you don’t have to hunt. Buttons for running HP’s QuickPlay software (which lets you play DVDs or music without having to boot Windows) and for rotating the screen occupy the area just below the screen.

Converting from notebook to slate mode is easy, and the 12.1-inch screen rotates into place firmly. One quibble: The screen jiggles a bit when the tablet is in notebook mode and that can be distracting if you are moving–say, if you’re on a train. The tablet comes with a responsive touch screen; but unfortunately the screen lacks an antireflective coating. In fact, strangely, it seems to have another kind of coating with a smoky hue that makes seeing anything on the screen at an indirect angle unduly difficult.

On WorldBench 6 Beta 2, the tx1000, equipped with a 2-GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 processor and Windows Vista Premium Home Edition, managed a middling score of 64. In our battery tests, it ran down after just 1 hour, 45 minutes. Still, it’s nicely designed and comfortable to use, despite the screen glare. Just be sure to pack the AC adapter.

If you can live with short battery life, the HP Pavilion ze2200 is a good deal for $889. This inexpensive AMD processor-based notebook lasted just over 2 hours on one charge, about 90 minutes shorter than the average laptop. I wouldn’t feel too cheated buying this notebook, though: The ze2200 offers a big 15-inch XGA screen, an integrated DVD burner on the right side, and pretty good stereo sound, with volume buttons provided in a panel above the keyboard alongside a Wi-Fi switch. The keyboard is sensibly laid out for easy typing and features a smoothly working touchpad as the pointing device.

The ze2200′s low price comes at a cost: The notebook lacks a FireWire port, a memory card reader, and a docking connection for a port replicator. The compromise is worth making, however.

With the back and front sloped in the same direction, the unusually shaped ze2200 is a bit of a desk hog: It measures 13.2 inches wide by 11.2 inches deep by 1.7 inches thick. Fortunately, it’s lighter than it looks, weighing just 6.4 pounds sans power adapter. Equipped with AMD’s 1.8-GHz Mobile Sempron 3000+ processor and 512MB of RAM, the ze2200 earned a WorldBench 5 score of 63. You’re not getting a speedster here; notebooks based on this chip lag behind more expensive laptops with the latest Intel chips by about 30 percent. Still, you should still be able to work comfortably in any mainstream application and juggle a fair number of open windows.

Upgrading this laptop should be a snap; armed with a screwdriver, I reached the memory chips and the hard drive inside their respective bottom compartments in seconds. Most of the ze2200′s documentation is electronic, but the Acrobat user manual provided in the Windows Help and Support Center is thorough and nicely linked for easy searching. Microsoft Works 8 is included.

Upshot: Packing a lot for under $900, the HP Pavilion ze2200 would make an excellent desktop PC companion for home or a small business.

With its wavy-pinstripe imprint and glossy-black accents, the dv2500t carries forward the designer HP Pavilion look. Polished to an almost pearlescent sheen, the touchpad looks more like a minor work of art than a pointing device. Improvements include a move up to the Intel Santa Rosa processor family and some tweaks to the ports to introduce more high-definition capabilities. But the screen is still more reflective than most, and there’s almost no point in choosing the standard six-cell battery, since its life is so short.

Underneath the glam, the dv2500t is well equipped, albeit with one fewer USB port (a total of two) than its predecessor, the dv2000t, supplied. HP has replaced the third USB port with an HDMI connection for watching high-definition output on a similarly equipped TV.

Our $1439 (as of 9/12/07) review unit was a pretty good deal, offering a few more features than comparably priced all-purpose competitors had. It came with a fingerprint reader and Webcam (each $25 extra), the top-of-the-line 160GB hard drive, and an 8X dual-layer DVD burner with laser label-etching capability. A preinstalled copy of Microsoft Works 8 is standard.

The dv2500t is great for kicking back with your favorite CDs and DVDs. HP’s instant-on QuickPlay button launches music, movies, slide shows, and videos without requiring you to turn on the notebook. The backlit, pressure-sensitive panel at the top of the keyboard lets you adjust volume and tracks with an easy tap of the finger. The stereo sound doesn’t match that of a Toshiba Qosmio or a similar high-end multimedia notebook, but it’s still pretty good.

The notebook’s 5.5-pound weight makes it an appealing travel companion. To stay in touch on the road, HP offers integrated Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth ($45 for both and included in our test unit’s price). Integrated mobile broadband was not an option at the time we tested, but a $189 Verizon ExpressCard (not included in our price) was. HP currently offers a Pavilion dv2500t Broadband Wireless series, which starts at $1200 and has integrated WWAN connectivity.

Pavilion screens are bright and sharp–and annoyingly reflective under some office lights. The dv2500t’s 14.1-inch screen is the perfect size for getting most types of mainstream work done; just remember to tilt it away from the overhead fluorescents.

Performance was a mixed bag, with good speed but less-satisfying battery life. Equipped with a top-of-the-line 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU and 2GB of memory, the dv2500t earned a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 79, four points ahead of two other similarly configured notebooks and five points ahead of the average mark of 74 for all of the all-purpose notebooks we’ve tested. It played 3D games at a competitive average of 42 frames per second.

Battery life was disappointing, with the standard six-cell lasting just 2.5 hours, almost an hour shorter than average. A Pavilion dv2000t we reviewed last year ran more than 7 hours with an optional 12-cell battery. Though our testing methods have changed since then, it’s a fairly safe bet that the battery upgrade is still well worth the extra $49, providing the added benefit of raising the wedge-shaped keyboard to an even more comfortable typing angle.

All in all, Pavilion fans and converts alike should be happy with the dv2500t, as long as they opt for the better battery.

With its beautiful design, the Pavilion dv2000t notebook will most certainly attract attention.

Goodbye, boring black and silver. Hello, high fashion. A glam exterior encases the HP Pavilion dv2000t, a sophisticated entertainment notebook that replaces the dv1000.

With the Pavilion dv2000t, HP breaks new notebook-design ground with Nissha film imprinting, an advanced molding technique that incorporates attractive patterns into an object’s surface. The unit’s high-gloss metallic and piano-black finish contains a subtle wave design, just as some cell-phone casings and luxury-car interiors do. (HP has also installed this new design on the Pavilion dv2000z, as well as on a handful of other new consumer and business notebook models.)

The reasonable $1739 (as of 9/8/06) price of our test configuration included one of the first 14.1-inch high-definition notebook wide screens. The Altec-Lansing stereo speakers are first-rate, as well, and plenty loud enough for you to enjoy MP3s and action movies without headphones. The two stereo headphone jacks are nice extras; one is S/PDIF-capable, enabling connection to your surround-sound audio system for pure digital audio.

Multimedia is one touch away via HP’s QuickPlay 2.1, a wide-screen menu that launches movies, music, personal videos, and photo slide shows without booting Windows. A new pressure-sensitive membrane bar that runs along the top of the keyboard lets you start QuickPlay and control volume at the touch or swipe of a finger–very snazzy.

Would you rather sit back and relax? With HP’s palm-size remote ($15 extra), you can scroll through documents and control media from up to 10 feet away via an infrared receiver on the front of the notebook. You store the remote in the ExpressCard slot when you’re not using it. For making face-to-face contact during instant messaging, you can add an integrated 1.3-megapixel Webcam to your configuration ($40, and included in the price of our review system).

Our Windows XP Home review unit (XP Professional is also offered) came with both Wi-Fi and optional Bluetooth wireless communications; a top-of-the-line 120GB, 5400-rpm hard drive; and Microsoft Works 8. The included SuperMulti DVD±RW/R drive comes with LightScribe, which enables the drive to laser-etch grayscale labels on discs. Pavilions come with extra entertainment software, too, including the Muvee AutoProducer consumer movie-creation software and the Sonic MyDVD CD and DVD creator. About the only thing our test machine lacked was a dedicated video card, which you’ll want for gaming or other highly graphical applications; a 128MB nVidia GeForce Go 7200 board costs $25 more than the standard integrated video.

The port selection is modest but should satisfy most home users; included are three USB ports, a FireWire port, and a three-in-one media slot that takes SD, xD-Picture Card, and Memory Stick. The extrafirm keyboard is great, and features a touchpad lock. The typing slope is comfy, as well, thanks to the 12-cell battery, which adds three-quarters of an inch to the height of the back of the notebook.

The dv2000t, equipped with a 2.16-GHz Core Duo T2600 processor and 2GB of DDR2-533 SDRAM, turned in a solid WorldBench 5 score of 110, not quite as impressive as the mark of 120 earned by the similarly equipped Micro Express HEL8021. Our unit’s 12-cell battery ($39 extra) lasted 7.1 hours in our tests and doesn’t add too much extra weight to the fairly light 6.1-pound unit. (We didn’t test the standard six-cell battery, which is rated at 4.2 hours.)

To turn the dv2000t into a truly terrific desktop replacement, you’ll want the $250 xb3000 Notebook Expansion Base, which includes a port replicator, a screen stand, a premium speaker setup, a hard-drive bay, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. To increase the system’s 120GB internal storage (as in our test machine) to desktop PC class, you can get the $450 Base with a 300GB hard-drive kit.

A couple of ease-of-use quibbles: I had to turn the pointer speed all the way up to revive the cursor, which seemed to drag due to the touchpad’s thick glossy finish. And as cool as I found the volume-control membrane, even carefully executed swipes turned sound all the way up or down, requiring additional adjustment taps. In this case, at least, the old-fashioned volume wheel still has the edge.

But those are minor issues. The dv2000t is an excellent home and small-business notebook for the money, and its stunning wave-design casing will turn heads wherever you

For people who like designer notebooks, HP has produced another sure winner in the Pavilion dv9500t. This desktop replacement offers the same stylish swirl case pattern, dropped hinges, and piano-black lid as its predecessor, the dv9000t, but with several important improvements, including Intel’s latest Santa Rosa mobile processor.

With a 2.2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 and 2GB of 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM, the Pavilion dv9500t earned a very good WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 73–the same score earned by Fujitsu’s LifeBook E8410 with only 1GB of RAM. The Pavilion’s average frame rate of 62 frames per second in our graphics tests was average for a desktop replacement but below the marks posted by some gaming notebooks. It should handle productivity tasks, disc burning, and DVD playing with aplomb. And battery life is not bad for the notebook’s size, at 3.3 hours.

The dv9500t also improves on its predecessor with an integrated fingerprint reader and optional dual 200GB hard drives, delivering the greatest amount of internal storage available on a notebook. With all the trimmings in place, this is a pricey notebook. Our review cost $2664 as of July 24, 2007.

Pavilions are for gadget lovers. Touch-sensitive, backlit media controls do your bidding in response to a light swipe of a finger, so you can launch a movie, change tracks, or raise the volume in one motion. Both the screen and the DVD drive handle high-definition content. The dv9500t inherits the Pavilion line’s high-gloss screen, too, which can be annoyingly reflective under some office lights. But this is a minor complaint. The Altec Lansing speakers provide some of the best notebook audio output available, but you also get dual headphones ports on the front so two people can listen in private. For $100 more, you can add an ExpressCard TV tuner and Windows remote control.

Though built-in cellular broadband is not yet an option, HP does offer a Verizon Wireless V740 ExpressCard ($179 more) in its online configurator for extending your wireless network beyond Wi-fi hotspots. Our test unit came with 802.11n Wi-Fi and a gigabit ethernet port as well.

If the dv9500t is to be your primary PC, consider shelling out for HP’s xb3000 Notebook Expansion Base. This terrific desktop docking kit gives you a screen stand with premium integrated speakers, a built-in bay for a third hard drive, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. Including a 400GB hard-drive kit it costs $400.

While the dv6500t adds a few more circles to the subtle motif on its designer lid, cosmetically the system is largely the same gorgeous laptop as its predecessor, with the same durable, high-gloss casing and piano-black hinges. New are support for draft-n Wi-Fi (in addition to 802.11a/b/g), a fingerprint reader for security, an HDMI output for connecting to a television, and the option for an HD DVD-ROM drive (though our test unit came with a multiformat, dual-layer DVD writer). The dv6500t has three USB ports and a seven-in-one shared card slot, and the configuration we tested included a 120GB hard drive.

Our $1309 (as of 5/9/07) review model also came equipped with 2GB of RAM and the new 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 chip, which together helped it earn a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 75–just 10 percent behind the fastest laptops we’ve tested. As a result, the dv6500t can handle any type of application, from mainstream to multimedia, except 3D shooter games. The dv6500t’s integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 can use up to 358MB of main system memory; but for real gaming muscle, you’d want to upgrade to the optional 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics chip.

Battery life was excellent: The notebook lasted just 3 minutes shy of 4 hours in our tests.

Multimedia junkies still have the HP QuickPlay feature that was found on the dv6000t. This entertainment menu launches with one tap or a swipe of the touch-sensitive strip at the top of the keyboard, letting you enjoy DVD movies, music, personal videos, and photo slide shows without booting Windows. Meanwhile, fantastic stereo speakers pump out the sound. An ExpressCard TV tuner is remains a $130 option. The Pavilion dv6500t’s dazzling look may not be for everyone, but lurking beneath the glossy surface is a serious laptop. If high fashion fits your portable lifestyle, work never looked so good.

The HP Pavilion HDX, high-end desktop replacement is huge and heavy, but its fast performance makes it a great gaming machine.

Gamers have a new best friend in the HP Pavilion HDX Entertainment Series Notebook PC. Superfast, with great sound and a huge 20.1-inch screen, it’s a good, fairly portable entertainment system. Digital editors, artists, and multimedia enthusiasts will like this all-in-one, too. Just be ready to dig deep for it: Our test unit cost $3000.

The machine we looked at came maxed out with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate; Intel’s best mobile chip, the 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo T7700; and 4GB of RAM. All of that horsepower helped the HDX earn a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 86 and generate a frame rate of 109 in our Far Cry gaming tests. The HDX’s 2-hour, 22-minute battery life is quite poor for an ordinary notebook but remarkably good for a massive (15.5-pound) desktop-replacement model.

The HDX is impressively crafted. For one thing, the machine looks stylish; the exterior is a subtle variation on HP’s designer imprint finish called “The Dragon.” The 1680-by-1050 glossy screen is easy to move back and forth on its adjustable arm for a comfortable viewing angle, and it’s bright without being too reflective. The keyboard, which includes a dedicated number pad, offers desktop-like typing comfort along with one-touch QuickPlay media controls.

The system’s four integrated Altec Lansing speakers, aided by an HP triple-bass-reflex subwoofer, produce very loud, rich sound, but a rear audio-out port makes it a snap to add a nicer, external set of speakers for gaming surround sound. Its many multimedia connections include a coaxial port for a TV signal. Our test system included two 100GB hard drives, and if even that isn’t enough space for you, the HDX has an eSATA port for adding a fast new external hard drive.

If you’ve been searching for a powerful, luggable gaming machine or an ultrahigh-end desktop replacement, give the HDX a look. It’s one of the nicest 20.1-inch models we’ve seen yet.

The HP Pavilion dv8000z notebook rivals a desktop PC for storage and entertainment while saving room. The unit has a gorgeous 17-inch WXGA+ screen, superb sound (thanks to built-in Altec Lansing speakers), and a full-size keyboard with dedicated numerical keypad.

QuickPlay buttons located above the keyboard provide one-touch access to DVD movies, music, videos, and photos without starting Windows. HP’s credit-card-size remote control lets you sit back and control the action on the big screen. When you’re not using it, you can store the remote in the notebook’s PC Card slot. You could amass a vast number of digital photos, MP3s, and home videos on the maximum dual 120GB 4200-rpm hard drives (which our unit featured), or you could use the second drive for backup.

Add the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system ($30 extra) and an ExpressCard Analog TV tuner ($130)–both of which the unit I looked at had–and your dv8000z can function as a portable TV, too, letting you watch, pause live action, and record your favorite shows wherever there’s a cable connection.

The only one thing the dv8000z doesn’t do well is games. The notebook’s ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics card comes with 128MB of dedicated RAM and can pull up to 128MB more from main RAM. The new memory management scheme is supposed to be faster than traditional integrated graphics because it can take advantage of the bidirectional speed of PCI Express to access system RAM, but this doesn’t seem to help much. The best the dv8000z could manage in Far Cry at 1024 by 768 resolution and 32-bit color (with antialiasing turned off) was 23 frames per second. More typical was its performance in Doom at the same settings, where it staggered along at an unplayable 10 fps.

Equipped with a top-of-the-line single-core AMD 2.2-GHz Turion 64 ML-40 processor and 2GB of RAM, the dv8000z turned in an overall WorldBench 5 speed score of 95–strong but nevertheless a little below the marks that most mobile Intel dual-core notebooks we’ve seen so far have achieved. And in the multitasking portion of the test, the dv8000z was 30 percent slower than the average new desktop replacement at browsing the Internet while converting a sound file, taking almost 12 minutes to finish versus a little over 8 minutes. If you can get by on less than 240GB of storage, you can give performance a boost and save $175 by choosing dual 80GB 5400-rpm hard drives. Though the 8000z is heavy at 9.2 pounds, its tested 3.1-hour battery life indicates that it is truly portable.

The dv8000z is a chunky but attractive black-and-silver unit with many thoughtful design touches that make using it as a desktop replacement a pleasure. Among them are hidden hinges and an easy-to-find eject button on the right-side optical drive (a DVD burner in our review unit). Four USB ports, a FireWire port, and a six-in-one card reader help handle connection and data-swapping needs. An expansion port mounted on the right side gives the notebook further desktop replacement credentials by allowing docking in the optional HP xb2000 Expansion Base, which features a screen stand, port replication, and housing for a third hard drive.

Even without the expansion base, the dv8000z is a solid all-round option.

Pricing for the dv9000 line is very flexible, starting at $879 for the dv9000z with an AMD processor and a single hard drive, and topping out at around $2700 for an Intel-based dv9000t with all the trimmings. Our $2530 (as of 11/6/06) dv9000t review unit featured a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7200 processor, 2GB of RAM, XP Media Center Edition, dual 100GB hard drives, a 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics card, and the HD DVD drive.

The dv9000t is HP’s new entertainment laptop with a 17-inch high-definition screen and a combo HD DVD player/double-layer DVD burner. With the dv9000t, you can stash hundreds of photos and MP3s on up to 240GB of storage provided by dual hard drives. You can also enjoy music and crisp movie dialogue from good stereo speakers, or listen privately with a friend using the dual headphones port. Online, you can personalize chatting with the optional integrated Webcam.

The dv9000t shares several especially nice design features with its dv6000 and dv2000 siblings. These including hidden hinges and a gorgeous glossy piano-black finish with a subtle wave pattern. With the notebook turned off, a swipe of the finger across a backlit touch-sensitive media and volume-control panel located above the keyboard launches the HP QuickPlay menu for direct access to your movie, music, video, and slide-show collections. Using the Windows Media Center operating system, the dv9000t can pause and record live TV programs.

The dv9000t is not heavy for a 17-inch-screen laptop, coming in at just 8 pounds (not including the power adapter), so you can take it with you. The standard 8-cell battery lasted only 2.6 hours in our tests, though, so consider opting for the high-capacity version.

Our review unit also included the TV tuner kit needed to connect the dv9000t to an analog cable box or a set-top box. HP believes in the strict separation of notebook and TV tuner, to make upgrades to future technology easier, so catching Grey’s Anatomy on this notebook (or any other Pavilion) requires three extra pieces of hardware: the HP ExpressCard Analog TV Tuner, its coaxial adapter cable, and a USB receiver for the Windows remote control.

The dv9000t is a powerful notebook capable of comfortably handling any type of work, from photo editing to heavy number crunching. Its WorldBench 5 score of 117 edged out the 109 score earned by its chief competitor, the Toshiba Qosmio.

The dv9000t would make an excellent desktop replacement: It includes a touchpad-equipped keyboard that’s so well laid out, I hardly noticed that the right Shift key is no bigger than a regular alphanumeric key. The Shift key was no doubt shrunk to accommodate the separate numerical keypad, a nice extra rarely found on laptops. And unlike with most notebooks, the mouse buttons are very responsive, depressing deeply into the case.

If you do decide to chuck your old desktop for the dv9000t, consider treating yourself to the HP xb3000 Notebook Expansion Base for docking. A screen stand on steroids, the Base includes port replication for cable management, internal housing for a third hard drive, and built-in premium speakers. A wireless keyboard and mouse come with it.