Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion zd8080us 17" Laptop (Intel Pentium 4 Processor 550 (Hyper-Threading), 1 GB RAM, 100 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW/CD-RW Drive)

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

 

 

I do a lot of traveling. I thought it would be nice to have this for movies on planes. Let me tell you about my experience with this laptop:

Brand new, the battery didn't last an hour. I received one pop-up message advising me to switch to battery power or risk losing my work. I had just enough time to read this message before I got another message saying the machine was going into emergency shutdown. Good thing I wasn't actually working on anything important. Three months later, the battery could hold out for half an hour. Currently I've had my laptop for 8 months...the second I unplug it, it completely dies. Even after I plugged it back in, it took about five minutes before I could turn it on. I've never seen that sort of behavior from anything.

Should you choose to take your lifeless laptop somewhere, just finding a carrying case is a chore. I went to my local Fry's (a geek/computer store a little smaller than WalMart) and looked at laptop cases. Not one of them would fit a 17" laptop. Not one of them could even be adapted to fit my laptop, as the dimensions are just too strange. I ended up cramming mine into a gym bag and even then it barely fit flat.

This laptop is being billed as a Digital Media Center. I'll admit that the screen is very nice. However, let's talk about sound. Sound is a pretty important part of movies/tv shows/media in general. The built in speakers on this laptop are average for laptops - rotten. But this 'incredible entertainment center' has only one sound output jack - for headphones. I had a pair of nice quality headphones already - the big bulky earmuff-style suckers. Fortunately I had plenty of room for them in my gym bag/laptop case.

Once I made it onto the plane and got my gigantic laptop case crammed under the seat, I realized that actually putting the thing on my lap was going to be a big problem. It is far too big to balance on the snack tray. It is wider than my lap, and of course the airline seats are only just big enough for my admittedly large butt. And once I had rearranged the armrests to accomodate the thing, I found I couldn't open the screen all the way because it bashed into the chair in front of me (even when the chair was in the fully upright position). So I left it at about a 75 degree angle and loaded up my movie. Which is when I discovered that the battery only lasts an hour. Also, as other reviews have mentioned, this thing runs uncomfortably hot.

So I thought to myself "Well, it doesn't travel at all, but maybe it would do okay on my desk plugged in all the time." In this configuration it does work better. However, I rapidly ran into the sound problem again. You can plug a speaker into the headphone port with mediocre results, or you can use headphones. Besides, if I wanted something permanently installed on a desk, I would have bought a desktop computer (far less money, easier and cheaper to upgrade, easier to use keyboard etc)

To sum up, I would describe this product as having none of the benefits of a typical laptop and none of the benefits of a desktop.

I originally bought an HP Pavilion zd7500. After sending it in five times for the power cord not working and all the wasted time sitting on hold, they finally replaced it. They replaced it with this piece of garbage. I do extensive work on my laptop and I am telling you if you want a personal space heater by this machine. Not only will it keep you warm it will overheat and crash on you while running your screen saver or a word document. Note to user, don't place this unit on a table. This is unfortunately inherited by a lot of laptops that run the Intel Pentium 4 with Hyper Threading. I suggest looking for something better without Intel HT.

The good:

Excellent screen, Media Center features, good performance, excellent selection of ports and storage devices.

The bad:

This thing is HOT and HEAVY. Forget about using it on your lap. Prolonged use on a desktop is best done with a keyboard plugged in -- the palm rest actually gets far too hot to type comfortably.

The absolutely terrible:

The battery life was minimal when the machine was new. I never got more than 30 minutes of careful use with minimal drive access. After about a year, it is nonexistent. I cannot even unplug to move from one desk to another without powering down. This is coupled with a power "brick" that truly deserves the slang name -- it is actually heavier than most real bricks. The cord started pulling from the brick after about a year and will have to be replaced, and the unusual connector on the computer side means that no third-party adapter will fit.

Watch TV, record TV, surf the net, read your mail, watch a slideshow, all at the same time !! This newer version of Media Center works much better than the past and why even consider a desktop? For all the specs, convenience of size, and quality of the display, this is a great deal for the price.

I bought this machine after doing a lot of research. In my opinion it is exactly what it is suppose to be. I love the media center. I love the dvd burner I am looking to upgrade the memory. I have some digital media so the slots are good for me. I love this machine.

I come across all laptops in my profession, and lately HP's are just terrible. It really does take FOREVER to boot up, literally between 3 and 4 minutes which seems to plague all HP's nowadays. All HP's that I've seen in the past 6 months do this routinely.

The touch-pad completely sucks, Battery-life is about 45 minutes to an hour FOR A NEW BATTERY (you can bet you'll be buying that extra one if you ride airplanes). And granted you only have to do it once, but initial set-up is unusually grueling.

I'll never stray from Toshiba again.