HP Pavilion zt1175
Written: Aug 10 '02
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Pros: 15" screen and combo DVD/CD-RW
Cons: Sound system
The Bottom Line: I would recommend this laptop to anyone looking for a decent mid level laptop.
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| opinionated3's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion zt1175 (F3394HR) PC Noteb... |
I have been using my own personal Dell laptop for my job for the last several months. Until recently this was fine with me, then the owner of the company that I work for decided that she was going to buy us new laptops for the company to use.
I was presented with a shiny new HP Pavilion zt1175 laptop and I have been really impressed with her choice. Knowing that HP has a great reputation for building quality products I didn't have to worry that it wouldn't last. The only thing I had to worry about was would I be able to do all the things I could do with my Dell.
I set out to run my new laptop through all the paces and see for myself if it stacked up to the Dell. So here is the result and my review on the HP Pavilion zt1175 laptop.
Right off the bat I was amazed at speed of this laptop, even though it is slow compared with the high end Pentium 4 machines. It still cruised along with it's Pentium 4 1.4 GHz processor. I can't complain since I didn't have to buy this one. I was able to launch all my programs without a single slow down. This includes word processing and photo editing programs to create my presentations for my sales meetings.
Since it came loaded with Windows XP operating system I am glad she chose a model that included 256 MB of memory, I have heard Windows XP is a resource hog and if you don't have enough memory you might run into lags and lock up problems. I am happy that I haven't run into any lock ups yet. I have been running Windows XP on my home PC so I have gotten fairly familiar with how it operates. But, just like all it's predecessors before it I am just scratching at the surface of all the features and functions of this OS. That will be an entirely separate review. The nice thing about this laptop is that I can easily upgrade the memory if it becomes necessary. It has the capability to handle up to 1 GB of memory, this is done by replacing the memory module that came installed from HP. Since it has a 256 MB module I would have to replace it with a 512 MB module and add a second 512 MB module for a total of 1 GB.
It came with a rather large hard drive inside along with a DVD/CD-RW combination drive. The 30GB hard drive that inside this laptop is even larger than the hard drive I have in my home PC. This will allow me to save my business letters and important files that I need for my meetings with clients. The DVD/CD-RW drive means that I can watch movies it I want along with save large files without having to take up space on my hard drive. I haven't experienced any problems with the drive at all. I haven't had the opportunity to watch movies as of yet, since I don't get that much free time at work.
The next thing I want to talk about is the large 15" screen and how it is very impressive. I didn't want to get stuck with a 14" screen since I was used to my Dell and it had a 15" screen. Now a laptop screen doesn't come close to the brightness of a CRT monitor like your desk top, but I think this screen on the HP Pavilion zt1175 is acceptable. I realized that this is a compromise you will have to make until they find away to improve the LCD screens. The video card that is included in this unit is the S3 Savage4 AGP 32 MB video card and it has a maximum resolution of 1024 X 768. This gives me plenty of graphic's power that I can use photo editing software and create very nice work. I also can play my favorite game ( Sim City 3000 unlimited) without any trouble. This I have had time to play on my lunch hour and I love how it runs. I can't speak about any of the graphic intense RPG or first person shooter games which are popular.
I was actually surprised that the smaller keyboard would have caused me problems, but since I am not a proficient typist I was able to adapt fairly well. The only thing I haven't gotten used to though is the touch pad instead of the mouse. I love my optical mouse and this touch pad is way to touchy.
As you probably guess one of the down sides of a laptop is going to be the sound. Since it doesn't have external speakers and you are stuck with the internal speakers that sound kind of hollow. I am not saying that I would rather not have any sound at all, but it is a bummer not being able to have decent sounding speakers.
How portable is this laptop?
I was rather impressed with the over size and weight of this HP laptop. Even though it is not as small and light as a sub notebook, it still fits well in my carry bag along with all my other stuff I carry. At nearly 11" deep and 13" wide and a little over 6 lb. it will not break your back or arm carrying it. The battery life is another concern when considering portability and this laptop has a decent battery life. I wouldn't recommend to many graphic intensive games without an AC power adapter. I have been able to get close to 3 hours of use out a charge and I feel that is pretty good. The another thing this nice that is included with this laptop is an internal LAN (local area network) connection and an integrated modem connection. The modem is a 56K and the LAN is an integrated 10/100 ethernet adapter. This allows me to quickly connect to our company network while I am sitting at my desk and I can use my shared printer. Since I don't have a portable printer yet, I have to use our network to print my daily reports.
When I finally get a portable printer, I have a couple of different ways I can connect them to this laptop, I can use the parallel port connection or the USB connection that is included on the back.
Likes and Dislikes
As you can probably guess from my review so far that I am very happy with everything about this HP laptop. I am happy with the size and weight and the large 15" screen is amazing. I like the fact that I can connect to our office LAN and do all my printing on my office inkjet printer or our laser printers. If I had to say anything bad about this laptop is the sound system, it just sounds hollow.
I would recommend this laptop for anyone looking for a decent mid level laptop.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1500.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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