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Rating: 
Summary: Looks Like a Notebook, Acts Like a PC
Review: As a (poor) IT Manager trying to make my first impressions, I was somewhat limited in the amount of money I could spend for a new work-related laptop. Fortunately, HP had the answer.The ze4430us is listed as a value notebook, with not quite the speed of a Pentium 4, but with greater potential than the Celeron. After working with multiple 2.4ghz Pentium 4 processors, and after comparing the abilities of both, I will always consider an AMD for my chip needs. This laptop runs faster and multitasks office applications at a much faster rate than the 2.4ghz P4 this chip is aimed at (hence the 2400+ nomenclature). I was already impressed. The RAM is on one chip for 512mb, instead of the industry standard of 2 256mb chips. While this might not seem too important, it means that to upgrade the RAM, you spend a lot less money, and you don't have to throw your valuable RAM away. Even with the 64mb that the ATI Radeon 4x AGP controller permanently allots to itself (this figure is adjustable), you have plenty to work with out of the box. With a 15" display (only xvga), a touchpad that you can deactivate, integrated (if somewhat tinny) Altec Lansing speakers, and a dvd/cd-rw combo drive, this computer seems to have it all. Then we come to the integrated 54g wireless LAN card. Even the (overpriced) Centrino system only has b support (as of Feb 12, 2004). The increased speeds are extremely noticeable, expecially with a fast broadband connection. For the money spend (an open box deal for under $1000), I could not ask for a better computer. Keep your Prescotts and Banions, Intel, I won't buy another laptop until AMD puts a 64 into a notebook.
Rating:
Summary: Looks Like a Notebook, Acts Like a PC
Review: As a (poor) IT Manager trying to make my first impressions, I was somewhat limited in the amount of money I could spend for a new work-related laptop. Fortunately, HP had the answer. The ze4430us is listed as a value notebook, with not quite the speed of a Pentium 4, but with greater potential than the Celeron. After working with multiple 2.4ghz Pentium 4 processors, and after comparing the abilities of both, I will always consider an AMD for my chip needs. This laptop runs faster and multitasks office applications at a much faster rate than the 2.4ghz P4 this chip is aimed at (hence the 2400+ nomenclature). I was already impressed. The RAM is on one chip for 512mb, instead of the industry standard of 2 256mb chips. While this might not seem too important, it means that to upgrade the RAM, you spend a lot less money, and you don't have to throw your valuable RAM away. Even with the 64mb that the ATI Radeon 4x AGP controller permanently allots to itself (this figure is adjustable), you have plenty to work with out of the box. With a 15" display (only xvga), a touchpad that you can deactivate, integrated (if somewhat tinny) Altec Lansing speakers, and a dvd/cd-rw combo drive, this computer seems to have it all. Then we come to the integrated 54g wireless LAN card. Even the (overpriced) Centrino system only has b support (as of Feb 12, 2004). The increased speeds are extremely noticeable, expecially with a fast broadband connection. For the money spend (an open box deal for under $1000), I could not ask for a better computer. Keep your Prescotts and Banions, Intel, I won't buy another laptop until AMD puts a 64 into a notebook.
Rating:
Summary: Great all around notebook!
Review: I bought this notbook at Best Buy for $1049 if you account for the mail in rebates($200 worth). The first one I bought had a dead pixel, but I returned it to Best Buy a day later and they gave me a replacement no problem. The notebook seems to be great so far. I haven't got the TV Now button working, but the TV out through the Radeon driver options works flawlessly. I don't understand what the difference would be. The notebook is even capable of running some games. I've tried Quake 3, which ran with no problem at all, although my PC image quality is better. Wireless networking works without a hitch. The button on the front of the laptop to toggle the wireless on/off is very nice for security risks. Battery seems to last a while. I recommend running the battery configuration program when you first get the laptop (do it at night cause it takes a while (about 8hrs)). Screen quality is great, very bright when plugged into AC power. At $1049, this thing seems to be a steal. I purchased the $250 extended warranty from Best Buy which covers you for 3 years. I think seeing that the first notebook had a bad pixel, the warranty is worth it. Will also cover you when your battery doesn't hold a charge anymore, which will inevitably(SP?) happen.
Rating:
Summary: Great all around notebook!
Review: I bought this notbook at Best Buy for $1049 if you account for the mail in rebates($200 worth). The first one I bought had a dead pixel, but I returned it to Best Buy a day later and they gave me a replacement no problem. The notebook seems to be great so far. I haven't got the TV Now button working, but the TV out through the Radeon driver options works flawlessly. I don't understand what the difference would be. The notebook is even capable of running some games. I've tried Quake 3, which ran with no problem at all, although my PC image quality is better. Wireless networking works without a hitch. The button on the front of the laptop to toggle the wireless on/off is very nice for security risks. Battery seems to last a while. I recommend running the battery configuration program when you first get the laptop (do it at night cause it takes a while (about 8hrs)). Screen quality is great, very bright when plugged into AC power. At $1049, this thing seems to be a steal. I purchased the $250 extended warranty from Best Buy which covers you for 3 years. I think seeing that the first notebook had a bad pixel, the warranty is worth it. Will also cover you when your battery doesn't hold a charge anymore, which will inevitably(SP?) happen.
Rating: 
Summary: Overall satisfactory
Review: I've owned it for 3 weeks and I'll keep it. It runs quite smoothly and I've found no BIG issues although I've looked for them and I am not a novice. Some not-so-big issues though: 1. It has a dead pixel (a pixel on the screen which is always turqoise). Most people who saw it would return the laptop for an exchange but I am not disturbed enough to do that. I called HP's Customer Service and they told me they would only replace defective screens that have at least 7 dead pixels. A friend of mine had told me that Dell had the same policy so I was not surprised. The guy on the phone was helpful although he "registered" me as a owner without asking me first. 2. I've installed Linux on it and it works well now. However, I had the typical laptop Linux problems: the "nousb" install option must be used to avoid keyboard freeze during installation; I had to deactivate pcmcia support which was freezing the boot (not fixed this yet b/c I don't need it); and, most frustrating, the ATI Radeon Mobility IGP 320M (U1) video card is virtually unknown to the kernel so I can't get any accelerated graphics in Linux... Actually the 'agpgart.o' kernel module won't load b/c the agp bridge is unknown. It looks like ATI/HP have not released the specs for this videocard yet thus there's no proper Linux support for it. It works with the generic "vesa" driver as well as with the "ati" and the "radeon" drivers, as a generic VESA. So it only ranks some 437fps when tested by glxgears - it should go to at least 550 for a "standard" Linux game like Chromium to run fine. Hopefully the ATI/HP drivers will come out soon! Absolutely no issue in Windows except for the disk defragmentation program that always leaves some data in the upper part of the drive so that noone will be able to partition it to install Linux (for example). I thanked Microsoft for a wasted half an hour to figure it out and then I run 'chkdsk /F' to fix the drive and I partitioned it immediately after that. The DVD/CDRW combo works fine, same for the Network and the PS/2 port with the classic Y-cable to accomodate both an external mouse and a keyboard. The scroll pad doesn't feel particularly subtle but it works. Things I haven't checked yet: the S-Video connection, the external monitor, the parallel and serial ports, the wireless network interface and the modem. This laptop has eight visible blue lights and a green one, so it may look like a Christmas Tree to some more conservative people. Speaking of design, I don't like the metalic net covering the speakers, and the overall combination of silver and black with blue shades gets mixed reviews from my colleagues.
Rating:
Summary: Great price for a comfortable laptop
Review: Nice 15'' screen, decent RAM and Hard Drive amount, fast CPU... a great laptop at a very reasonable price. I'm coming from an Apple notebook and I'm definitely not going back.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful!
Review: Very easy to use, although i wasn't the one to hook it up...works very well in wireless areas. i'm also amazed at how long it lasts without having to be charged (almost four hours!!)
Rating:
Summary: wonderful!
Review: Very easy to use, although i wasn't the one to hook it up...works very well in wireless areas. i'm also amazed at how long it lasts without having to be charged (almost four hours!!)
Rating:
Summary: good price/performance
Review: Well, it was cheaper at BestBuy ($1100). This is a nice machine. Large screen. NO FLOPPY, but has a nice CD burner/DVD. The scrollpad on the touchpad is a nice "touch". The button to switch off the touch pad is thoughtful. Hardware supports XP hibernation mode, which is very nice. The RAM and CPU speed are appropriate for heavy multitasking, XP handles multiple windows/tasks just fine.
The builtin wireless is great. Only gripes : the speaker grille looks "cheap", the CPU fan exhaust looks like it'd let lots of dust into the inside.
Rating:
Summary: good price/performance
Review: Well, it was cheaper at BestBuy ($1100). This is a nice machine. Large screen. NO FLOPPY, but has a nice CD burner/DVD. The scrollpad on the touchpad is a nice "touch". The button to switch off the touch pad is thoughtful. Hardware supports XP hibernation mode, which is very nice. The RAM and CPU speed are appropriate for heavy multitasking, XP handles multiple windows/tasks just fine.
The builtin wireless is great. Only gripes : the speaker grille looks "cheap", the CPU fan exhaust looks like it'd let lots of dust into the inside.
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