View and vote on the article here: Hardware Review: Pavilion zd8230us Laptop
Hardware Review: Pavilion zd8230us Laptop| Category | | | Summary | | The Pavilion zd8230us laptop from HP has so many useable features that it's value matches prices ranging from $1,649.00 - $2,300.00. I got my laptop at CompUSA for around $2,300.00, because I have a CompUSA card, and I got 48 months same as cash financing |
| | Body | The Pavilion zd8230us laptop from HP has so many useable features that it's value matches prices ranging from $1,649.00 - $2,300.00. I got my laptop at CompUSA for around $2,300.00, because I have a CompUSA card, and I got 48 months same as cash financing, and I actually use the TAP, because they don't make excuses of why not to fix your machine. They go, "Hey, this is broken. Let's fix it!" A customer rating chart from CompUSA.com gave it an overall rating of 5 stars out of 5 with a 5 in features, 5 in performance, 1.7 in battery life, and 4.3 in price-value. These pretty accurately describe my feelings on the laptop. It has happened on occasion that I forgot to plug it in, and the battery did die in an hour, but I was playing World of Warcraft, which could explain the battery drain. Overall this laptop is the biggest and best I have ever owned.
Let's get on with the important stuff. I was looking for a laptop that would be durable and take my constant abuse, one that was not too small, could play computer games like a desktop, came with Windows XP Pro (would have gone MAC, but what can I say), and had a screen I could actually see. One of the features I wanted I just didn't end up with, and another I have not tried to test.
As for durable and large, what I ended up with is a two-inch-high, 15.7-inch-wide, 11.4-inch-deep, 9.4-pound monster of a laptop. This thing is huge, with a 17 inch wide screen Active Matrix LCD monitor with 1440 x 900 resolution. The monitor looks as crisp and clear as a big hunk of a CRT monitor in laptop form. It is the nicest monitor I have ever seen on a laptop or flat panel, although it reminds me a lot of these NEC LCD's I liked to sell when I worked for a computer store. It has a glass-like look, not the matte finish of a photograph that can only be seen if you hit the angle correctly. When you turn on all the settings in WoW, you get beautiful colors and details that you could never see on any other laptop. It came with Norton Internet Security installed, with a 60-day grace period to get live updates, and a limited HP total care and package warranty. To show how much I value this laptop, I used to take my laptops and toss them around like they would never break. Well, they always broke. I haven't even dropped this thing by accident, so I really cannot tell you how durable it is. I love it that much. I also got CompUSA's TAP, which is their extra warranty, because I have used it before, and it really does work. I have seen people have their hardware run over, and CompUSA just took it and fixed it. They also offer once-a-year screen replacement in case you somehow crack it.
I was specifically looking for a laptop with Windows XP Pro, but I didn't end up with that. This laptop has Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, but it works exactly like Pro, plus a few nifty features. Media Center features revolve around watching TV and editing your home videos and pictures. When you first get the laptop you notice that the box is a little big, but you kind of put that aside, as you just think it's a big machine. You come to find out that it has a few accessories that take up a lot of that room. It comes with an HP Dual TV Tuner/PVR, a remote, and a bunch of cables so that you can plug the machine into your local cable company's port and any media display, like a projector or a projector TV. With the Dual TV Tuner you can record up to two TV programs simultaneously. You also get this program that lets you browse movies by genre, actor, and title. It also gives you all the movie posters so you can easily pick out the right movie. Apple iTunes and Apple iTunes Music Store are already set up, so you can easily store your music and buy new music. To help you with editing your photos, the laptop comes with HP Image Zone Plus photo and imaging software, and it supports SmartMedia, SD/MMC, xD, Memory Stick, and Memory Stick Pro memory cards, which are often used in digital cameras. Another little neat feature is that it has LightScribe so that you can burn images onto you DVD or CD when you use special LightScribe discs when burning.
On to the important stuff: how this laptop plays WoW and any other game I would desire to play. I use WoW because, well, I play it every day unless there is no Internet connection in sight. The processor is a 3.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 with HyperThreading and has an 800 MHz bus speed. It comes with a 100 GB hard drive and 1 GB of DDR2-SDRAM, with a maximum capacity of 2 GB of RAM. The video card is a Mobility Radeon X600 with 128 MB of DDR memory. In Unreal 2004 and Guild Wars, I turned video settings up as far as they could go, and there were no problems whatsoever. Everything still moved smoothly and beautifully. As for World of Warcraft, I turned everything way up. Everything was incredible and more beautiful than I could have ever thought possible for a game. I did, however, run into a problem when I went onto the Swamp of Sorrows, and even more so when I went to Ironforge. This means I need to add that extra GB of RAM, and then it will be smooth sailing.
This laptop is the best I have ever owned, and in my opinion the best on the market. It is a bit pricey but it is well worth it. It is basically a PC in laptop form.
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This article was imported from zZine. (original author: Pixieluv)
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