Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion xt125 Laptop (1.6-GHz Celeron-M, 256 MB RAM, 20 GB Hard Drive)

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

 

 

This notebook outclasses offerings that cost hundreds more. It has a true Intel Celeron Mobile CPU, which runs cooler and uses less power than the desktop Celerons offered in other brands. It also has an ATI Radeon 7500 graphics chipset which out-classes just about any notebook out there. Only very new, very high-end notebooks have better chipsets (with very few exceptions). The only downside I can spot is the 14" display (which does use less power for those who need long battery life). While still large and easy on the eyes, for a little more you can get a 15" display (paired with an inferior graphics chipset, go figure).

With lower power components (mobile Celeron, medium sized screen) you can expect to get longer battery life out of this notebook and you won't feel like you have a hot plate on your lap. At 6.4 pounds this machine is a lot easier to carry around than most of the 8-9 pound notebooks you will find in this price range.

By chopping a things you really don't need (256M Ram vs 512M, 20 Gig HDD vs. 30Gig, 14" LCD vs. 15") HP has created a lean, but fully featured laptop you can call truly mobile. With the bonus of a newer graphics chipset you can actually play newer 3-D games on it!

You would have to spend a lot more money before you could really outclass this notebook. Combine that with HP consistently good build quality and you have my favorite budget laptop on the market today.

Contrary to the technical descriptions, this notebook does *not* have a firewire interface.

I dislike Windoze. I buy this laptop and prepare myself to do a hard battle to configure Linux on this and to have some devices not working because, who cant think that a 1000$ laptop will have good components?. To my surprise, the laptop have resulted full compatible. The network card was supported from kernels 2.2 (National 83815). The sound card run smooth in seconds (Ali M5451). The Video card has VESA support and I'm waiting for an acellerated xfree server, but in VESA look perfect (ATI 4337). And my huge surprise was that THE MODEM WORK ON LINUX! (Ali 5457). There was a set of drivers for Conexant Modems that ajust exactly to my modem and make it work perfect, what a surprise!.
The only thing that have some problems are related to ACPI (power management). I working on this. And the front panel, only three of five buttons works (but I don't use them, anybody uses front panel?) The scroll from the mouse pad work very well. The DVD/CD-Writer (Sony) works without problem same thing the USB ports.

The laptop is very good looking (my wife love it) and are lightweight. The heat don't its a problem. The screen look very good. KDE 3 look beautiful.

If you are looking for a laptop to use Linux I recomend this without complains. Don't will find anything better for this price.

I rated it A+
Good for HP!

I bought one of these laptops and was initially pleased with the performance, great LCD screen, and nice touches like the DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. But I soon started having problems with the laptop when running programs like Photoshop or McAfee VirusScan -- the system would shutdown suddenly with no warning. At first, I thought it might be a Windows XP issue or a virus like MS Blaster. After trying many things out, I concluded that there was no virus on my laptop, and that XP probably wasn't the issue. I then tried to wipe the harddisk and restore the software to original factory state. I discovered that the laptop would also shutdown unexpected in the middle of restoring the system software to original factory state using the HP restore CDs. At that point, I called HP support to report a hardware problem and get warranty support. To make a long story short, HP phone support confirmed that I had some sort of hardware problem (most likely a bad motherboard or overheating issue) but they would not let me ship them my laptop for warranty repair because they could not confirm the date of purchase, despite the fact that I provided them copies of my receipts several times! I wound up taking the unit to a authorized HP service center - CompUSA - and they were able to get the unit fixed. BOTTOM LINE: I would not buy a HP Pavilion laptop again.

Contrary to the technical data presented here, this product does NOT ship with ATI's Mobility Radeon 7500C video board. The video board is instead ATI's Radeon IGP 340M, which is based on an old Radeon technology (for a comparison between Mobility Radeon and Mobility Radeon 7500 see the site tomshardware.com). For those interested in playing new 3D games, this is a no-no. Besides that, the system comes with a poor selection of cheap softwares and games, which in the end eat up 7GB of your hard drive. The fan is also particularly loud and annoying. The only + goes to its sleek design.

I must agree with Dave from Oregon. This laptop is great! ... The only gripe I have is the fan. It's a bit on the loud side. I don't notice my friends with DELL or IBM making this much noise. The screen is clear, the keyboard is responsive and the quick buttons at the top of the keyboard eliminate steps as well as room on the Taskbar or desktop. I just wish they put hardkey DVD controls on the front or side (volume is there). Overall, a great machine for the money!

Great Notebook for the money.However dissapointed with the fact that there was no ATI 7500 Video.I think HP Should Compensate customers for that misleading information.Most people bought it for based on that information.I must admit however that the machine runs very well.