HP Pavilion ze5270 Laptop (2.40-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive)

by HP

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 12 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00007M9SW
• Item model number: DB396A#ABA
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,458 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 13, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Based upon Intel's Pentium 4 architecture but without some of the perks of an extreme high-end, high-cost unit, the HP Pavilion ze5270 notebook PC is a sensibly designed mobile solution that's ready for virtually any business, personal, or leisure application.

Measuring 12.96 by 10.72 by 1.79 inches, the unit is a bit bulkier than some of the alternatives but surprisingly lightweight at just 7.5 pounds. Inside, HP has installed a powerful processing system comprised of a speedy 2.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor and 512 MB of DDR SDRAM memory (expandable to 1,024 MB). A 64 MB ATI Mobility Radeon graphics controller handles the 3-D video workload, capably displaying all but the most cutting-edge 3-D games.

The unit features an adequate 40 GB hard disk, a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive for older or smaller applications, and a convenient DVD/CD-RW combo drive through which you can burn and play audio CDs, archive data, and watch the latest movies. DVD burning is not supported. The system's crisp 15-inch XGA TFT display supports images at 1,024 x 768 resolution, and its integrated 16-bit Sound Blaster Pro-compatible audio chipset and Altec Lansing speakers ensure you hear accurate, dynamic sound.

Controlling the Pavilion ze5270 is a snap. The unit features a full-size 88-key keyboard with embedded numeric keypad, a touchpad with on/off button, and a dedicated vertical scroll-up/-down pad. Other amenities include two USB 1.1 ports for plug-and-play peripherals, one IEEE 1394 port for high-speed interaction with demanding external peripherals such as digital camcorders, an S-Video TV-out, an RJ-45 Ethernet jack for fast network and Internet interaction, and a built-in 56K modem for low-speed e-communication.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A laptop with good performance but has a few problems, March 8, 2003

By 

Justin T. Scott (Garner, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HP Pavilion ze5270 Laptop (2.40-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

I bought this laptop a couple of weeks ago and have been using it thoroughly everyday since. This laptop has all-around good performance but is plagued with a few problems. The laptop, more specifically the video card, has a Direct3D performance problem causing the system to lockup and reboot when playing graphics heavy games (i.e. Age of Mythology, Quake II, Empire Earth, Splinter Cell, Warcraft 3, etc). When searching around the Internet I found that this problem was extremely common among other ze5270 laptops. I also found out that the problem is unfixable, unfortunately. Also, there is already one bad pixel on my display which was there when I first purchased the laptop. The laptop has noisy cooling fans which sometimes overpower the system's sound which, by the way, isn't that loud. Other than that the laptop runs fine. I wasn't particularly pleased with the fact that HP doesn't include it's bundled software on a separate disc, it only exists on the computer and the system recovery discs. I'm returning this system tomorrow to exchange it for a Toshiba Satellite 2340-S255 which has received EXCELLENT reviews. I just can't handle the fact knowing that my laptop isn't in 100% top-notch condition.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Steer Clear!!, March 2, 2003

By 

Terri (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HP Pavilion ze5270 Laptop (2.40-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

My HP ze5270 is my second HP...brand new one....in less than two months. Did I mention this is my second new HP in less than two months? I got this ze5270 to replace my ze4125 which I bought after Christmas. Three days after getting the ze5270 computer, I received a fatal system error and all the pixels on my screen grew huge and the computer rebooted itself. I then got two more system errors the next day for the Norton Antivirus. I am unable to open certain webpages, the computer freezes up. Being that this is my second HP in less than two months to fail, I would not recommend this product. HP tech support folks try really hard to fix the problem but in my opinion, you shouldn't have fatal system errors in less than one week...and I did not agree with the tech support person that was helping me when she said a fatal system error was no big deal. So today I am going to return this new computer and replace it with the Toshiba S255 which is getting rave reviews and hope I don't have this problem with that system.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Terrible Laptop Screen, June 9, 2003

By 

Andy "Computer Enthusiast" (Jersey City, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HP Pavilion ze5270 Laptop (2.40-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

I've owned the HP ZE1110 and have been overall very happy with the machine, but I was looking to upgrade to a faster machine with more capacity. So, based solely on the specifications I decided to order a HP ZE5270. My first impression of the laptop was how big, heavy and clumsy it felt compared to my older laptop. All this increase in size and weight for only a 1" gain in screen size.

It did have a nicer bios then my previous laptop, which allowed a lot of customization (you could allocate up to 128k to video memory), bios passwords for good security, and other features. The boot speed seemed good and mechanically the machine seemed like a good performer, however; I did get a fatal error when I loaded a second wireless-networking card.

Overall, I would have kept this machine but the video quality was terrible. The screen was like a white glowing light bulb that bleached out all the black fonts on the screen. I couldn't imagine spending hours in front of the screen without going partially blind. You have to be perfectly perpendicular to the screen in order to maximize your visual experience, otherwise you will only see highlighted bright shadows. I was so disappointed in the screen quality and resolution that I will NOT purchase another HP or Compaq laptop until they fix this serious problem. I went to a local computer shop and verified my impressions with other related HP & Compaq notebooks with the same display screen. The results on the other Compaq's and HP's were the same.

There were other disadvantages to having a Pentium 4 laptop with a 15" screen: faster processor means quicker drain on the battery, lager screen is not a better experience when your close to the screen (plus drains battery too). Overall, I would highly recommend to stay clear from the new HP's and Compaqs (consider a Toshiba or Sony) until they resolve the screen issues.