HP Pavilion HDX 16t Premium Notebook

I'm always wary when I read a product review that begins something like "I received my new (fill in name) yesterday and it's great!" A five star rating without a reasonable time to test things isn't something I put much trust in. So I have waited to review my HP HDX 16 laptop for two months of daily use. I'm very impressed with this HP, my first HP after three Dell laptops all of which were good performers.

Right out of the box I did have a problem with the Lightscribe DVD/CD. It was much noisier than I believed it should be and within a few days it first got intermittant, would play some times and not othertimes and in a couple of weeks it quit all together. A call to HP resulted in some things to try (refresh driver, reseat player etc) and when those failed an e-mail brought a prompt replacement and prepaid return shipping label. The replacement is quiet and works perfectly. Product support seems exceptional with HP, online support as well as telephone support with people who are not only patient but actually speak english! And they sound like it's their native language.

As to the HP HDX 16 it is certainly top of the line. Not cheap... but I think you get what you pay for. The screen is beautiful although highly reflective and you need to have a "quiet" background without any bright light behind you shining off the screen. DVDs look grand. When browsing the web if you have a page of print that is difficult to read because of size just hit crl + and enlarge to comfortable size. The built in Next-Gen Wireless is painless to setup and works fine. The 4GB memory runs Vista Ultimate (an optional upgrade with my machine but now I believe you will get Windows 7 for an OS) fast and trouble-free.

I bought the optional 9-cell battery and it runs about two hours of web surfing or e-mailing. I haven't tested the battery running a DVD movie. When I watch a movie I take the battery out (laptop is a lot lighter without the battery, weighs in about five pounds) and run off the power cord. The built in speakers are impressive for their size but when I watch a movie I use a

pair of Sony open ear headphones... very comfortable and they sound great. I watch opera so you know I'm fussy about the audio.

The Norton Internet Security I got with my HP HDX works nicely in the background. I like it better than the Trend Micro I have on my desktop. I got one year of Norton with the laptop and have extended it to three years. The machine comes with a darn clever fingerprint reader that surprises me with its reliability. And you can't seem to fool it by scanning a wrong finger. You can also enter a password and get to the desktop if you don't like the reader.

Sitting on my lap the unit runs reasonably cool and it is very quiet. I can hear the fan blowing if I listen for it but it will not bother you at all. One option I would recommend that I skipped: the back-lighted keyboard. If you are trying to type in dim light the handsome black on silver keys can be difficult to see.

To sum up my impression: if this HP HDX is in your budget range you will not be disappointed.

This computer has all the memory, graphics, audio, and processing speed for bulkier programs and general usage and media creation and presentations. It has not presented any major problems for the many months that we have had it.

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A great computer for the price but has a few minor annoying flaws.

Pros: powerful, elegant design,great price, unique design

cons: keyboard scratches the screen unless you put a cloth underneath the screen everytime you close it, the frame feels kind of cheap, if you lift the laptop from the bottom right corner with the two top corners still on the table, you can already see the frame slightly begin to bend

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