Nice machine overall, poor battery life
Written: Sep 25 '04
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Pros: Wide screen, large keyboard, fairly fast, solid construction.
Cons: Poor instructions, poor (bad) web site registration
The Bottom Line: Good machine, I like it. Ask what you get installed on the machine.
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| carr0001's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion zv5000 (559158) PC Notebo... |
I will start with the good things. The wide screen is beautiful, clear and crisp. With the wide body design, typing is a pleasure on this one, no cramped fingers. The Radeon 9000 graphics card helps a lot. The wireless 802.11g network support is excellent. It could almost replace my desktop computer, with the base it can.
The model I got came with Intel 2.8 Ghz, 384 Mb Ram and a 60 gig hard drive. Pretty good overall.
It has three USB ports, combined DVD player CD burner which is adequate. It also comes with standard serial port (printer) and video port (monitor) connections. NO 3 and 1/2 inch floppy drive. Finally it also has a modem and phone jack for wired standard modem connections .
It comes pre-installed with some standard low end software, MS Money, Works, Internet Explorer, MSN Encarta Plus, Quicken Lite (starter version) and some DVD CD player programs (e.g., musicmatch Jukebox).
I bought the base to go with this laptop, it provides a cordless mouse and keyboard along with a one connection plug in for power and all other peripherals (six USB ports, etc). It also has larger speakers in the front of the base making for a better sound quality experience. Very nice, although I wonder about the stand up design.
It is a bit large for traveling, but I wouldn't hesitate to bring it along for business. For personal use, if you install your camera software, you can download all your photos into it (if you camera uses USB connections), giving you room for an almost unlimited picture taking capacity. The wireless capability allows you to go to an Internet cafe and send your treasured photos home if you can't wait, or send progress reports. You don't have to worry about the wires.
It has more than enough power and memory to handle most applications except maybe the most demanding games. Personally, I wouldn't use it for games anyway.
It weighs in at 7.5 pounds +/-.
The negatives:
The instructions are pretty lame or non existent. You don't find out about the limitations of the software below until you try to install them. In the case of the MS Office software, it asked for an installation key from a CD which was not in the box. It is only when I went back to the Best Buy store that I found out it was good for 60 days only. Further, I was told that if the key code is not in the box, that I would have to contact HP directly to get it.
It also comes with antivirus software, but only good for 60 days.
It comes with MS OFFICE Standard pre-installed, again, only a 60 day version.
Registering was a real problem. I tried to register through the Internet. If you are a new customer to HP then you will probably not encounter any problems. I was replacing an old Compaq laptop, so when I tried to register, I got a message saying that my email ID was already registered, the message said use a different email address. Well, of course it is used, it is my account. When I tried to recover my password and ID, I got a real run around. In the end, I did not register the machine, I will have to call by phone, this is a real hassle.
Bottom line:
I like my new laptop overall, except it could use a better battery and better instructions out of the box. Some of us (I know, I'm a geek) like to have the details. Six pictures on a 11" by 17" sheet for instructions just doesn't cut it. In fairness, there are instructions on a CD, but they still do not detail everything you get pre-installed, or the limitations imposed.
If you don't have a lot of space on your desk, get the base and use this to replace your tower desktop, unless you want really high end games. With the base, you can use it wired with use the wireless full sized keyboard and mouse, when you don't need the convenience of mobility, and when you need to, you just unplug ONE connection and you are mobile. Very convenient. Of course, when you travel you need to bring your power pack along.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1200
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
carr0001
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Member: Suzy Carriere
Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Canadian, female, 50ish +, like movies, music, travel.
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