HP Pavilion HDX Entertainment Notebook Reviewed

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/Review+Of+The+HP+Pavilion+HDX+Entertainment+Notebook+Aka+The+Dragon.aspx' target='_blank'>http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/Revie...The+Dragon.aspx</a><br /><br /></div><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1216937224.usr1.jpg" border="1" /></p><p>Only my slightly crazy friend Stephen Hughes would try something like this: taking the HP HDX9200 (a.k.a. THe Dragon) to a local coffee shop and set it up to do some work. It was certainly an attention getter, that's for sure! This is the <a href="http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/Review+Of+The+HP+Pavilion+HDX+Entertainment+Notebook+Aka+The+Dragon.aspx" target="_blank">most detailed review</a> of this product that I've seen, so if you're thinking about purchasing this laptop, give it a good read. In my own time with it, I found it to be an extremely powerful and fast machine, and the screen was nothing short of glorious. You're paying more for the integration of all that hardware than you would if you bought a desktop and a screen that size, so this type of computer is really aimed at someone who needs a top-end computer and the ability to move it from place to place: wedding photographers, video editors, live recordings, etc. Or, really, if you're someone who has money to burn and likes busting out the biggest and baddest mobile computer at at LAN party - this thing has your name written all over it.</p><p>The <a href="http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&amp;category=notebooks&amp;a1=Category&amp;v1=Entertainment+powerhouse&amp;series_name=HDX_series">price has come down a bit</a> since we did the <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/89178/31-days-of-the-dragon-and-the-winner-is.html" target="_blank">31 Days of the Dragon giveaway</a>, and you can get the basic configuration for $1399 USD with a respectable 2.1 Ghz CPU, 2 GB RAM, and two 120 GB hard drives - but that configuration lacks the 1920 x 1200 screen. The fully-loaded, take no prisoners configuration will run you about $4000 USD - but what a laptop!</p>

[fyiguy]

Thanks for the plug and the downgrade to just 'slightly crazy'. :)

I have a few more detailed reviews to post up when I can find the time. ;)

[beq]

Thanks for the review.

I'm also a generally happy owner and posted on the review comments:
Awesome review, and I haven't even finished reading it yet :)

I'd ordered my HDX on June 18, so it looks like I'd just missed out on the $450 stackable coupon you posted, grr (although I did use a $500 non-stackable coupon which took the place of the $200 instant rebate). Mine has a similar configuration except with only a 2.5GHz CPU and 320GB storage (160GB 7200rpm x 2). And I'm not sure why, but HP only offers the HDX with 64-bit Vista these days. Although I like having access to all 4GB of RAM, I decided to remove it and install my own purchased copy of 32-bit Vista (SP1) because some apps I use are not yet 64-bit compatible. It was an extra expense and hassle reinstalling all the drivers (which involved a couple of minor hiccups).

Anyways I've been lugging this monster back and forth between home and office, carried in a DICOTA MultiGiant case ( http://www.dicota.com/start.php?office=62&page=page_productDetails&ds=1278 ). It's been heavy on my shoulder, and I'd been concerned about damaging such a heavy unit on day-to-day transport. Luckily both the unit and my shoulder have survived thus far.


P.S. I'm satisfied with the HDX's 20.1" WUXGA display (driven by NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS), and it looks comparable to my old Dell 24" WUXGA monitor. Unfortunately I bought the HDX at the same time as two Apple 24" iMacs (driven by ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT), and when placed side by side, the 24" iMac screens (which I read are IPS) just look a lot better than both the HDX and my Dell monitor for some reason!

The iMacs are brighter (in fact I still get overwhelmed to the point of fatigue even on the lowest brightness level), and their backlight appears to have a higher color temperature such that the HDX looks more "yellow" in comparison. I'm not good at visual acuity but when making an analogy with home fluorescent lighting, the HDX backlight could be something like 3500K - 4100K whereas the iMac backlight could be like 4100K - 5000K or even higher? Bottom line is that the iMac screens just look crisper overall, while text is easier to read at the same time (partly thanks to the larger physical screen for the same resolution).

Anyways I've set the Vista DPI Scaling on the HDX to 99dpi (or 103% of the standard 96dpi) using Windows XP style scaling. Text is still too small for my taste, but going to a larger scale like 120dpi makes text scroll off too much in some dialog boxes (via XP style scaling) or makes text too blurry (via Vista style scaling). I chose 99dpi because when I raise the Vista taskbar to a height of two rows, the clock readout on the system tray shows the full 3 rows of text (time, day, date), whereas going to 100dpi or larger reduces the clock to only 2 rows of text.