HP = Horse Power!
Written: Jul 31 '02
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Pros: FAST, Smooth Running AMD Athlon XP Processor, Logistically Logical
Cons: Jittery Keyboard
The Bottom Line: HP ze1210 features a strong processor, ample storage, and many fun & productive features at a great value.
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| khameleon73's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion ze1210 (F5398H) PC Notebo... |
After being pooped on by Dell, my eyes were wandering toward a company that was projecting professionalism, quality, and powerful products. Comparison shopping both on the Internet and the local retail electronics store revealed to me that Hewlett-Packard was interested in promoting products chuck full of power with an un-shocking pricetag. Offering models housing processors from Celeron to Pentium 4 to AMD Athlon XP, HP offered variety and options inside its own brand name.
For those of us interested in the 3 P's, "Power", "Price" and "Processor", AMD Athlon XP is our new best friend. The weasle salesman at the retail store agreed with me that AMD is the big dog competitor to the Pentium 4, and Celeron just doesn't cut it. AMD is affordable and I like to cheer for them because they are the underdog, and will never feature commercials with blue guys. Green ones maybe, but never blue.
So the AMD is great not only because its the underdog in the world of marketing and visibility (that's changing), but its speed and reliability are incredible. AMD Athlon XP 1400 is an excellent processor that allows the user to engage in multiple programs at one time without bogging down the system. Its speed is breathtaking when you are plucking around in one single program. Either way, there is no wait time, and hardly any program "freezes" that require that blessed "Ctrl/Alt/Esc" command. There is also plenty of RAM, 256MB expandable to 512.
The hard drive could be larger, but 20GB does it for me. I'll be able to house all the programs I use on the machine, including Office 2000 Professional and some low-end graphics and photo applications. I have many digital photos stored, and it is plenty of space to rip & burn uncopywritten mp3's.
The DVD-CDRW is awesome, and downloading song files from CDs is not the time consuming process it used to be. MusicMatch is preinstalled, as is Windows Media player. Both perform well and get the job done without error.
Since my Dell was a 13" display, the 14" seems heavenly and bright. The images are crisp and clear, and there is none of that old-fashioned effect where if you can't see the screen if you view the screen from the sides.
The HP ze1210 has Microsoft XP operating system. This is a fantastic and stable OS that brags of its own user friendliness and attractive interface. Since I am a 95,98, & ME user, I found I was on a bit of a learning curve at first, since the changes have been few in the last 7 or 8 years. Things look a little different, including the start menu and some of the file paths for programs. With practice, I'm beginning to find the many perks of the OS, including some great features that allow you to automatically process digital photos. This program is also on the cutting edge of accessibility, with many features included for individuals who are differently abled. Sight impaired and hearing impaired people will find several options to allow them to actively utilize and manipulate the system and programs therein.
I did get ze1210 for a bargain with two rebates. $150 from Best Buy and $100 from HP. That savings brought the price down around $1200. I also opted for the extended service warranty. I learned that lesson the hard way, as laptops are great little machines when they work, but expensive burdens when they break.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1200
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
khameleon73
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Location: Davenport, IA
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 1 member
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