HP Pavilion HDX18-1020US 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Blu-ray Drive, Vista Premium)

by HP

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 17.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001GQ35NG
• Item model number: X18-1020US
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 19, 2008

Product Description

HP Pavilion X18-1020US 18.4-Inch Laptop. Expanding on the elegance of the current line, the new HDX series is defined by fluid, modern lines and metalized finishes with surprising innovations inside and out. High-gloss HP Imprint finish in titanium and chrome now encases all surfaces visible during normal use for greater durability, and a sleeve is included for extra protection. The HDX series Fluid Imprint features an flowing linear pattern that enhances the reflective qualities of the metallic finish. The streamlined look is enhanced with a color-matched keyboard and touchpad. And touch media controls light up and become visible only when the system is powered on further enhancing the clean appearance. Extreme entertainment is at your fingertips with everything you need to enjoy content in the highest-quality formats, and create your own show. Introducing HP MediaSmart for access to DVDs, videos, photos, music, karaoke, games, Internet TV, and streamed or recorded TV at the touch of a button. For those who want the latest performance technologies enabling a premium home cinema and computing experience, the HP HDX 18 delivers in an elegant desktop-replacement design. Its reflective Fluid Imprint finish encases leading-edge mobile architectures from Intel and NVIDIA. HP HDX notebook PCs provide the options you need to connect, enjoy and experience peace of mind. Enjoy a viewing angle of 140 degrees (vs. standard 90) and significantly enhanced brightness, color and clarity with the HP Full HD Ultra BrightView Infinity display. The X18-1020US ships with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit with Service Pack 1, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with up to 2302MB Total Available Graphics Memory with 512MB dedicated, 4096MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm), 500GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA), Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer. Dimensions: 17.17 (L) x 11.26-Inch (D) x 1.33 (min H) approx., weight: 8.82 lbs. approx.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Size does mean everything, December 26, 2008

By 

Anthony J. Frabotta - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HP Pavilion HDX18-1020US 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Blu-ray Drive, Vista Premium) (Personal Computers)

After using this laptop for over two months I am very impressed. There are a few drawbacks to be warned about though. Below is a breakdown of the positive/negatives I have found:

POSITIVES:
(1) Beautiful large 18 inch HD screen.
Graphic display is far better than I orginally thought. The display resolution is remarkable. It can be seen best by playing a BluRay movie (Recommend Iron Man and/or Dark Knight).
(2) BluRay player
See above
(3) Remote Control is very savvy.
Included can be used for multiple types of media (playing dvd's, scrolling through music & photos, etc.)
(4) Media card read that can recognize SD, XD, MMC & MS.
Comes in handy when you want to download pictures from a camera card, etc
(5) Look & feel of the case.
HP has used a great design and color scheme on this laptop
(6) Fingerprint Security reader signon.
Has an integrated fingerprint scan on the keyboard to validate the user before they are able to signon and use the laptop.

NEGATIVES (Have found only a couple so far but....)
(1) Hard to find a bag that it will fit in.
Everyone that sells this laptop, stipulates that it will fit in "any" 17" inch bag. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Be cautious when buying a bag. The actual length of this laptop is 17.25" inches. The majority of bags are made to fit no larger than 17.0" inches in length.
After searching I did find one bag I highly recommend. If looking check out the Case Logic 17" Classic Laptop Case. It securely fits a 18' inch laptop safely & securely.
(2)BluRay Player only played pre-2008 BluRay discs when first purchased.
You may need to download the latest HP Mediasmart software, as I did to play all BluRay discs (Read Below for additional info).

In short, this is a very well made laptop, and I highly recommend.
I would like to also point out, my last four laptops have been HP's. I have found there customer service & support to be above and beyond all others.
A perfect example of this occurred when I purchased this HDX18 laptop. The third night I had the laptop, I attempted to play a BluRay movie (Iron Man). When I inserted the movie into the drive, it attempted to read it for over a minute without success. I tried a few more times, with the same results.

So I went HP's website to chat with HP tech support (FYI.. very useful feature if you hate phone support as I do). After 15 minutes there support was able to let me know that my laptop had only been on the market for a little over a month, and that since the release BluRay had updated it's copyright security.

With this said, it took HP about two weeks, but they now have a newer version of software to resolve this problem. Although it was frustrating when I first found this problem, I was very relieved once I told by HP this was a known problem and it would be fixed shortly.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive Machine, December 18, 2008

By 

William Mutschler "Copper Moose" (Northeastern Vermont, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: HP Pavilion HDX18-1020US 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Blu-ray Drive, Vista Premium) (Personal Computers)

Purchased and shipped from Amazon. Apparently is has also been sourced elsewhere. As per someone else's review, when part of the initial personalization had a pulsing logo in the center, I was mesmerized. The screen is very, very impressive, and Internet photos on HP's AOL portal were magnificent.

It's big. Even the power supply/brick and power plug into the computer are over-sized.

I bought it because I wanted to be "wowed" -- I have aging HP laptops over 3 or 4 years old. (I bought them reconditioned direct from HP, because of presentation work a primary driver was name brand and a dedicated video card.) I returned a 17" lesser HP to Staples unopened as I justified the price increase on this model with more drive space, the subwoofers, and of course, a true HD screen which provides great real estate. It may prove to be useful in occasional presentation work as the world goes HD. I also have written music as a hobby using Reason software, and this has plenty of screen space, power, and hard drive space for 50-100GB of samples and music files and won't even sneeze. I don't have Adobe CS4 for Windows, but do own a Photoshop CS3, and again, the screen size on contemporary menu and tabbed software will be great.

Strange but true, my desktop is an aging G5 Mac (!) and this ALMOST makes me want to switch over to Wintel as my primary platform. I described this beauty as a "foldable desktop machine" to an associate. Time will tell as eventually I'll face the decision of a potentially serious change to an Intel Mac or see how well I adapt to this. (I gotta say though, those huge IMacs at Best Buy look incredible, but I'm spent out for a while.)

A few comments/constructive remarks: A backlight keyboard would be great. The way my office is lit, and I sometimes do presentation work in dark areas.. the keys are hard to distinguish and must be viewed dead on. I'd even pay a small premium for such.

Vista crashed the very first time during its boot up after going through the set up screens. A bit disconcerting, and I don't know whether it was Vista, or the machine. I've had one other freeze while at the log in/swipe fingerprint screen. I thought the latter a gimmick, but it is seductive in its own biometric way.
If you provide two headphone jacks, why not two earplugs? Literature somewhere may have described it as a Lightscribe machine, but it doesn't appear to be. Not that I really care about that or the media control, but we'll see in time about the latter.

Also, very alarming, was that my C drive showed up as 50 GB or so. This caused some worry. Fortunately, a good/lucky search term search of HP's site had a bug fix. Maybe it was due to downloading Vista SP1. The odd thing is, the bug fix worked automatically and not like the HP page described. All you had to do was launch it, and it did its job. You didn't have to type in parameters, etc.

I haven't tried the wireless yet, and don't have need that I know of for the Bluetooth, but it automatically linked up to my wired and wireless home office network. As someone else may have said, there wasn't too much junk to uninstall. I went with Kaspersky instead of the trial Norton, and loaded a new version of Home Office. I haven't had a chance yet to really push the graphics card or see how it responds with some of the 4 GB Ram assigned on top of the 512 dedicated. Time will be the shakedown.

Lastly, Amazon.com listed a rebate, but it had to be scrounged up on the HP website and wasn't a simple elegant link or form. That could easily have been improved.

That being said....Worth every penny. A steal. If you are on the edge deciding, it is really worth it and is a bargain in some ways. The value versus Mac laptops is outrageous.. this from a guy who really does need to use a true blue PC from time to time, not a Mac running Windows. I'm far from the typical user, but I love this machine.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The HDX is great.... but maybe pick the 16, January 7, 2009

By 

B. Beauvais - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HP Pavilion HDX18-1020US 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, Blu-ray Drive, Vista Premium) (Personal Computers)

I will begin with the screen, because if you are buying a 18.4 inch laptop, you are not buying it for portability. It is amazing, massive and hard to find a bad angle on. I had 4 friends watching a DVD on it, and they all could view it clearly and one asked if it was a blue-ray disk. It is that good. On the flip side, it is glossy as all sin. Like new MacBook glossy. Using this in the sun might just blind you. My concern with the gloss is color reproduction and stuff of that nature. I am not to the point where it is that important, and if given the choice of slightly "off" colors on this screen or the "truer" colors of an anti-glare screen that was smaller, I will pick this, hands down, everyday.

But you don't pick this computer to do work on, now do you? This computer is a entertainment POWERHOUSE. I will start with the gripes, and move on from there:

~It is too big. I said it. It is not a notebook you want to pack up and move all the time. I had a hard time finding a bag to fit it. If you are having a hard time wrapping your head around how huge this computer is, lay two pieces of computer paper long-edge to long-edge. This is just a touch bigger than that.
~Also, why on earth do the keys not light up? This is about the only thing I miss from my old computer, and it is even more upsetting when there is a row of back lit touch buttons above the keyboard. There is no excuse at this point. It obviously wasn't to keep the computer thin...
~Why do F9-F12 have the same functions as the touch buttons above? I would love to see some button to minimize all windows, switch to the flippy window mode, and maybe launch media center.
~The trackpad is about half as big as it should be. I need to lift my finger 4 times to go from the left edge to the right. Also, scrolling is not as good as my old laptop.
~The fingerprint reader doesn't like Chrome, so I have to enter passwords.
~It gets covered in finger prints. I know everyone say this, but it is true, and almost an issue.
~And not to gripe, but it doesn't feel quite as "premium" as the little label under my wrist states. Close, but not there yet...

Hmmm... I have to think about more things I don't like...



On to the good. And it is real good:
~This computer is filled with lots of little things that make it awesome. Two head phone jacks allow you to split the audio without splitting earbuds. 4 speakers and a subwoofer let you share the music with friends. And neighbors.
~A built in TV tuner is just silly, but great. I have set mine up to record shows at night, and then can watch them throughout the day when it is not connected to cable. DON'T lose the little dongle!
~The ports are more than I will ever use, but it is nice to have more than you want then less than you need. Also, thanks for a left and right USB port. Makes using a mice for lefties so much easier.
~The keyboard is, in my eyes, perfect. I would rank it above almost any other I have used on a notebook(best by far if it was backlit), and better than a fair number of real keyboards. The number pad seemed a bit like a joke, but it has come in handy in both games and work. Nice key travel, and zero flex. If you are a typer, this is a great keyboard for that.
~Games on this are as good as any desktop I have used, too. I have been a notebook (this is not a laptop... unless your idea of a lapdog is a golden retriever) user for several years now, so I only dabble in the desktops, but with notebooks like this, why would you want one. Someone said it is a folding desktop, and it really is.
~Bonus: while the power brick will get hot, the computer is never much more than warm.
~Battery life is as good as a computer this big should be.
~The case feels solid.
~The finish is amazing. One reviewer said they just stared at the screen for 10 minutes? I did the same thing with the case. It almost shifts colors a tiny bit? Maybe not as classy as a Lenovo or clean looking as a Apple, but you will still turn heads. (Please don't buy a computer to turn heads.)

As a final note, I have been a Mac user for several years now, and had never used Vista before this. Vista (on this machine, anyway) has really wowed me. I forgot how nice it is to be able to use any software I find. It isn't OS X, but then again OS X is not Vista....

Bottom line? I have told tons of friends to look at the HDX series, but not this laptop, and the main issue is the size. I really is too big. If you need a big screen laptop, this is the one. But if you want most of the features this offers, take a good hard look at the HDX 16. It is just a touch less expensive (both are a bargain, in my eyes), every bit as powerful, and and really a portable computer. However, if you HAVE to have the biggest screen on the block, by all means, go for it! I don't regret it, and neither will you!