Great Value, Cool Looking Lights
Written: Dec 27 '03
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Fast Processor, Great Battery Life, Cool Lights, 512mb RAM, Integrated Wi-Fi
Cons: USB 1.1, Noisy Fan, Hard to Keep Clean
The Bottom Line: For the price, you really can't beat the ze4430us. You can find refurbished models for around $850 now and the bargain is HUGE.
|
|
|
| jough's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion Ze4430us PC Notebook |
I have previously owned two Compaq laptop computers and have liked them very much. So when the time came to look for a new laptop/notebook PC, I looked at Compaqs and HPs, since their models are often very similar in features (and probably components, since both lines are manufactured by HP when the two companies merged).
The ze4000 series is in the "budget" line of HP computers, but that doesn't mean that you can't get a great PC for an even better price.
The ze4430us features a 1.8Ghz Athlon XP Mobile processor (benchmarks place it as slightly faster than a 2.4Ghz Pentium 4). Due to its lower power consumption, the Athlon chip runs cooler, clocks slower, but performs better than many notebooks running regular desktop chips, and the lower powered chip means that the processor isn't so hard on the battery.
Speaking of battery life, I usually get about 3 hours of use on battery power, with the screen brightness turned up pretty high, and while using the integrated Wi-Fi (802.11g) wireless network card, which is pretty power-hungry since it's basically a radio transceiver.
There is a button on the front of the case to turn the wireless card off, which would save even more battery power. As a test, I turned off the Wi-Fi card, dimmed the screen by about 25% (which is still fairly bright) and didn't use the integrated DVD-player/CD-RW recorder, and the battery lasted closer to four (4) hours while using Word and listening to a few mp3 music tracks.
I do a LOT of typing and the keyboard is very sturdy, and full-sized, which is possible since the large 15" LCD screen makes the case necessarily pretty wide. The key depression is much shallower than I'm used to, but after a week of typing on it I got used to it and my typing speed is right back up to where it was on my old Compaq keyboard (which had a deeper key depression and was a much louder "clickier" keyboard). The HP keyboard gives just enough of a clicky feel and sound to know you've pressed a key, but it's a bit on the quiet side. It's well-suited to touch typists, though.
The touch pad tracks pretty well, but is a little too smooth. Thankfully, it has a button to turn off the touchpad when you're not using it (although I've never really had a problem with my palm hitting the touch pad when typing) and a separate little scroll area to the right side for scrolling with your finger.
Altec Lansing speakers are included under a retro-looking grille at the top of the computer base. The speakers have excellent fidelity at lower volumes, but they're a little under-powered (as is the headphone jack). I installed a software "pre-amp" to boost the signal a bit, but the sound just distorts at a higher volume. If you use this as a desk-top replacement, as I usually do, a nice set of powered speakers makes a big difference.
Also at the top of the computer's base are five "One Touch" buttons to launch various applications like E-mail or a Web Browser. Each has a little blue LED light behind it (more on the lights below).
I find these kinds of easy access buttons to be pretty useless, and I've only used each of them once to make sure the buttons worked. The One Touch buttons on my unit are VERY stiff and a little hard to push, but then again, I never use them. They may loosen up a bit upon more frequent use.
Speaking of the blue LED lights, there are no fewer than EIGHTEEN lights on this PC, most of them blue and very very cool looking. However, in a dark room they light up the notebook like a Christmas tree.
They are, as far as I can count, indicators for:
1 - Power Button
5 - One-Touch Buttons
1 - Touch Pad On/Off
3 - Lock Indicators (Caps, Number, Scroll)
1 - Power
1 - Hard Disk Access (nice, since I've never seen a HD light on a notebook before)
1 - Charging/Charged (turns from yellow while charging to green when fully charged - this light is not lit while on battery power)
1 - Wi-Fi On/Off
1 - DVD/CD-RW Access
1 - Volume Mute
2 - Wired 10/100 Network Connection/Access
There may even be more I just haven't noticed. The lights are mostly very tiny and don't really distract at all (and I think the blue lights are very very cool looking).
The 40Gb hard drive is more than ample for most needs. The ze4430us comes with 512Mb of system memory, but by default 64Mb is shared with the video card. This usually results in diminished performance for games and such, but with the latest firmware BIOS upgrade (available from HP.com) you can set the video memory to 128Mb if you want better performance from games. I've found that the remaining 384Mb is MORE than enough for XP.
I upgraded to XP Pro and don't regret it. Most people, unless they do a lot of networking, won't need Pro, and the included XP Home will likely be fine for them.
I had a problem with the Wi-Fi card dropping its connection, but I tried another card (Linksys PCMCIA/PC Card Wireless NIC) and had the same problem. This was XP's fault, and by disabling the Windows handling of the Wi-Fi NIC and using the bundled Broadcom software my problem was solved. Now my connection NEVER drops. Just a tip for those having problems, as I've seen mention of this as a defect/con on some other review sites when discussing this model.
Now for some cons. The USB ports (there are two of them) are only USB 1.1 instead of USB2.0. There are a number of crevices that collect dust and dirt (I'm considering purchasing a tiny handheld vaccuum, like in "Gattica").
Really, though, I've been tremendously pleased with this computer. It's pretty light for all of its features, although it's not considered lightweight by today's smaller/thinner/lighter standards. But if you don't need to travel with it constantly it's more than light enough (around 7 lbs. - hardly a brick).
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 850
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jough
|
|
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 1 member
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.