The HP Pavilion zv5000 includes Harmon Kardon speakers, a 3.5 hour battery, a 5 in 1 card reader, and a slew of software applications. Unfortunately the machine only comes with a NVIDIA GeForce4 440Go GPU so it won’t be up to snuff for hard core gamers.
The HP Pavilion zv5000 series battery notebook is intuitive and easy to use, offering versatile mobility that lets you integrate audio, photography, video, and the Internet for the ultimate in personal entertainment. With the fastest Intel processors, wired or wireless connectivity, and entertainment software, you can easily and quickly create, access, and share photos, movies, and music with your friends and family. With a premium on value, the HP Pavilion zv5000 is loaded with features for rich multimedia. You can select a 5-in-1 digital media card reader for transferring files from other devices quickly and easily to your notebook. Plus you get HP Image Zone software for organizing, editing, sharing, printing, and storing photos and video clips. The zv5000t notebook PC features great contrast, sharp images, and true color via the ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9000 4X IGP graphics with 64MB of shared video memory. Pavilion zv5000 notebook systems offer high-quality, integrated, 16-bit Sound Blaster Pro-compatible audio, Harman/Kardon integrated speakers, and an optional widescreen display option. Equip your zv5000 notebook PC comes with a DVD/CD-RW combo drive and you'll have everything you need to watch movies, record music, download photos, or surf the internet. For a little more, upgrade to record movies or connect wirelessly. The pavilion zv500 battery includes several ports: three for USB 2.0, one for FireWire (IEEE 1394), and one for S-Video TV out, and an expansion port for the new HP notebook expansion base (sold separately), which lets you connect your peripherals with one cable, elevates your display to eye level, and includes a wireless keyboard and mouse.
Specifications:
- Processor: Pentium 4 3.0GHz with hyper-threading technology
- RAM: 512MB shared
- Video Memory: 128 shared
- Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
- Display: 15.4 WXGA widescreen (1280 x 800)
- Hard Drive: 60GB EIDE 4200RPM
- Optical Drive: CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo
- Networking: Built-in LAN and Modem
- Wireless: Built-in 802.11g
- Battery: Lithium Ion
- Audio: Built-in harman/kardon speakers with 16-bit Sound Blaster Pro-compatible card
- Peripheral Connections: 3 USB 2.0, 1 IEEE 1394 (FireWire), 1 PCMCIA, 5-in-1 Digital Media (support for Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and SmartMedia)
- Weight: 7.9lbs
- Dimensions: 14.3” long, 11.6” wide, 1.8” height
First, it's not a lightweight - pretty close to 8 pounds all by itself. I'm guessing that the bag with all the accessories I carry around with it comes in at close to 12 to 15 pounds.
The monitor is very responsive and gives good DVD playback display. I've noticed that it is not quite as bright as my ViewSonic VP-series monitors I have hooked up to my hp pavilion zv5000 series laptops, and the white desktop background isn't quite white. You don't notice this unless you have it set up next to another display, so I wouldn't call this a bad thing, just an observation.
The volume of the speakers leaves something to be desired, though. I consider it pretty low even at maximum settings. It does have a plug for headset speakers and that might be a better deal, especially when using it in public places. I haven't connected it up to external speakers, so I can't comment on that setup.
Connections abound. There are 3 separate USB connectors and HP sells a powered USB extender to turn any one of those into four with their own power to connect power-needy USB devices to.
If you can't get connected with this machine, you are in pretty bad shape. It comes with 56K dial-up connector, 10/100 NIC and it's WiFi ready.
With the AMD 3700+ 64-bit processor and 1 GB RAM (2 GB is max), performance is outstanding. It is one of the fastest machines I have, being noticeably faster than either of my AMD 3200+ desktops, and just about even with my Opteron 150 based system. It's just damned quick.
Being a bit of a speed freak when it comes to CPUs, the reason I went with the AMD 3700+ was two-fold: #1 it is 64-bit ready, and #2 the fastest Intel offered on this line at the present time is a 3.2GH P4. I believe the 3700+ definitely outperforms the ranking available Intel CPU for this line.
Quality of workmanship appears to be good. I haven't noticed any flaws or misalignment or anything. It also has a full-length piano type hinge which should add to the life of that part of it.
The extras: I need to say something about the expansion base I got. There are two types, I went with the less expensive. It connects to the computer through a single connector and provides its own USB ports, and its own NIC/56Kb connections. This frees up the 3 USB connectors on the laptop itself for your use. It also comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse hookup which is a nice convenience.
I've never owned any other laptop, and it's been some years since I used one regularly (a company furnished Dell). But after about a month of ownership and use, I'm very pleased with it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a full featured laptop with a larger screen for "multi-media" use and possibly even gaming.
Since it has the power to run serious applications like MS Office Pro and Adobe's Creative Suite, there's no reason to shy away from it as a true workhorse either.
