Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion ZT1195 Notebook (1.5GHz Intel Pentium IIII, 512MB RAM, 40GB Hard Drive)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For the amount of cons I have, you'd think I hate this notebook. Quite the opposite. This is my third notebook, (fourth if you count a 286 laptop), all different brands, and by far this is my favorite notebook computer.

Pros: Just look at the feature list as this notebook has just about everything you want. Great keyboard. Impressive screen resolution. Good battery life. Standby really works. DVD CD-RW Playback is great. Fast. Ok for multi-media editing.

Cons: Cosmetic Lights look cool for about 5 minutes. Surprised by no InfraRed - that's my biggest complaint as I really need to backup my Nokia phone thru an IR port. No floppy - didn't notice for a week. Screen view angles - must view screen head-on. Probably typical of notebooks, but I had to buy a new IEEE 1394 cable as the port size is 4 pin, not 6 pin like a desktop. Fair speaker quality. WiFi cuts battery life in half. WiFi range is about 1/2 that of an external USB Linksys adapter. I turn on & off WiFi button with USB plugging in - too close together. Big and heavey computer, this is no toy. Wish it was XP Professional. Built in mic is poor, certainly can't use speech recognition. Included non premium version of MusicMatch software asks you for a handout everytime you try and close the program.

I'd buy it again, aside from missing IR, no regrets.

When looking for a nice laptop this seemed to have everything I needed: great screen resolution, fast processor, huge hard drive, alot of RAM, CDR/DVD combo, wireless and relatively light and cheap and it looks pretty nice to boot.

All that is great but...this thing has crashed constantly!Device Driver errors with the graphics card especially. My hard drive appears corrupt as well(Im constantly getting errors when i run chkdsk), and my dvd/cdrom is acting flaky, it picks up the disc about 70% of the time(i have to keep reinserting the disc and yes i tried many discs and cleaning the unit). I bought this unit only 2 months ago! I highly recommend installing VIA's 4 in 1 update, helped with the graphics issue somewhat, but over all the system is not stable. Dell and Sony laptops i have owned may have not given me everythiing i needed, but they were solid.

For the amount of cons I have, you'd think I hate this notebook. Quite the opposite. This is my third notebook, (fourth if you count a 286 laptop), all different brands, and by far this is my favorite notebook computer.

Pros: Just look at the feature list as this notebook has just about everything you want. Great keyboard. Impressive screen resolution. Good battery life. Standby really works. DVD CD-RW Playback is great. Fast. Ok for multi-media editing.

Cons: Cosmetic Lights look cool for about 5 minutes. Surprised by no InfraRed - that's my biggest complaint as I really need to backup my Nokia phone thru an IR port. No floppy - didn't notice for a week. Screen view angles - must view screen head-on. Probably typical of notebooks, but I had to buy a new IEEE 1394 cable as the port size is 4 pin, not 6 pin like a desktop. Fair speaker quality. WiFi cuts battery life in half. WiFi range is about 1/2 that of an external USB Linksys adapter. I turn on & off WiFi button with USB plugging in - too close together. Big and heavey computer, this is no toy. Wish it was XP Professional. Built in mic is poor, certainly can't use speech recognition. Included non premium version of MusicMatch software asks you for a handout everytime you try and close the program.

I'd buy it again, aside from missing IR, no regrets.

Initially, I was stoked about the list of features, but those great features are only valuable while the machine runs.

Quite frankly, this is the worst laptop I've ever owned. It runs too hot to put on your lap, shuts down 1-2 times a day (hard freeze), CD/DVD player too noisy to comfortably watch DVDs, AC connector broken twice, have had to pay $600 in repairs, HP wouldn't honor warranty. WiFi range is poor, and really eats up the battery. Despite repeated cleanings and tender care, burning CDRs is only successful 1/2 the time. Excessive heat, heft and size chain this to the desktop, because it's too punishing as a mobile device. It's a heavy desktop replacement, but can't replace a desktop. Video drivers have never worked right, continuous crashing on video drivers or modem (even when not using). Memory parity erors. I would rather revert to pen and paper than to ever again own an HP laptop. I bought two at once (1155/1195) and was very sorry. Please do yourself a favor, and avoid HP desktops like the plague. I'd be happier if I'd have spent $1400 on beer.

The is a great machine for the price. ...after rebates from HP and Best Buy its the best. The speed of this machine is great also the WI FI is pretty cool to. I was traveling on a business trip and it automatically found a hub in another office building so I started surfing the net on their connection. You gotta get this notebook.