You really have to look to the 17-inch giants like the HP Pavilion zd8001AP to find machines that were designed as multimedia beasts from the ground up. The HP’s sharp, bright display came in second and is well suited to both DVD playback and gaming. Under the bonnet, HP has strived to focus on multimedia rather than business needs – using Windows XP Home and forgoing gigabit Ethernet and 802.11a for the only 16MB cache hard disk of the roundup and a set of Harman Kardon speakers – a name synonymous with audio quality.
The inclusion of iTunes, WinDVD and Nero also shows an entertainment focus and offers good value.
Considering all this we were surprised at the lack of multimedia buttons, but all was forgiven once we stumbled across the tiny remote control which tucks away neatly in the unit like a PC card. The Pavilion also has a handy combination Wi-Fi/Bluetooth button for killing all the wireless connections when the need calls for it.
Giving this beast a measly 512MB of RAM seems an unforgivable sin – it is available in higher Pavilion models – but the zd8001AP keeps pace with the far more expensive Toshiba, which has double.
Were there 1GB under the bonnet this unit would have snuck in front of the Toshiba on points before you even allow for the likelihood of higher benchmarks. It also tips the scales at over 4kg, but its performance makes it worth lugging about the extra weight. This is the 17-inch notebook of choice for those who don’t insist on blistering 3D gaming speeds or a TV tuner.
This article appeared in the August, 2005 issue of PC Authority.
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