HP Pavilion ZV6000 Review

A good desktop replacement laptop the HP Pavilion ZV6000 delivers a mighty punch with its AMD 64 CPU available and impressive if somewhat expensive docking station. Size and weight make the ZV6000 one to think twice about however if you’re going to be carrying it a lot. The fit and finish of the HP Pavilion ZV6000 is excellent. The ZV6000 feels sturdy and I'm hoping the hinge design is an improvement over my older Dell notebook, on which a hinge broke this year. Another thing that I've notice is how much less bulky the HP ZV6000 notebook is compared to the older ones on my home network. I love the ZV 6000's BrightView wide screen as well.

The HP zv6000 is at the lower end of the price range for HP notebooks, but I feel it is an excellent value for all that is included. It is primarily intended to be a desktop replacement style notebook, but with 3-4 hours of battery life, it will definitely do the job of a portable computer. The processor is an AMD desktop variant, and if you upgrade to the 64-bit AMD Athlon you will get the 939-pin chip! It is built on the 0.13 micron Newcastle core with 512kb of L2 cache which will provide excellent performance. The Pavilion ZV6000 is a hefty beast coming in at 8 pounds (sans power adapter) making this a laptop more suited to your desk than your rucksack, however as desktop replacement is its intended market we can forgive the back strain and instead focus on what is a powerful work horse suitable for most any tasks.

The HP ZV6000 has Altec Lansing speakers located on the front of the computer - in the wrist support area. The sound quality is mediocre, which I find typical for notebooks. There's not much bass and the richness of the sound just doesn't compare to amplified, external speakers. While at home, I use external Yamaha speakers with a subwoofer; traveling, I use headphones. There are a host of options available for the ZV6000 with one of them being the BrightView option ($25) that's HP's version of the contrast-boosting finish seen on other screens like Sony XBrite, Fujitsu Crystal View, and so on. Being only 25 dollars a decent upgrade we feel to make things easier on your eyes if you’re cursed with many hours of screen watching. The screen is a nicely sized 15.4inch and offers a sharp 1,280 by 800 resolution, no dead pixels were seen also which is a nice bonus as while not life threatening, they really do distract some people.

The power behind the screen is ATI's Radeon Xpress 200M integrated-graphics chipset with HyperMemory (ATI's term for using the PCI Express bus to assimilate some system memory for graphics). The Xpress 200M shares the 3D architecture and general performance like the entry-level Radeon X300 chip. It doesn't make the HP Pavilion ZV6000 a threat to hardcore gaming laptops, but does a decent job of handling multimedia apps and playing the odd older generation games.
 

HP Pavilion ZV6000

I am a big fan of touchpads. (I had significant problems trying to use a pointing stick on IBM Thinkpads; I'm just not one of those people who can get the cursor to go where I want it to go using a pointing stick.) The location of the ZV6000's touchpad is perfect for me the center of the wrist rest. That's where my hands are usually positioned while typing. If you're someone who would prefer to plug in a mouse, HP has made it very easy to turn off the touchpad; there's a key above it that can be depressed to turn it off.

I do think that HP ZV6000 could have used a standard keyboard layout, rather than repositioning many often used keys, such as delete, page up, page down, etc. Also, the keys themselves are a little shallow and I sometimes find myself typing fast enough that it feels like my fingers are catching on adjacent keys and that they might come off. The wrist rest is a strong selling feature for me. (I believe it helps reduce the risk of carpel tunnel syndrome for those like me who type a lot throughout the day.)

The expansion port accommodates a docking station connector for HP's XB2000 Expansion Base, a fairly beefy holder that has a rubber base that holds the open notebook at a adjustable angle while raising the screen to desktop-monitor height. Rather than typing on the laptops elevated keyboard you can use a Logitech cordless keyboard and optical mouse supplied with the base.

The receiver for the wireless equipment plugs into one of the bases USB 2.0 ports. There is also a modem, Ethernet, S/PDIF, TV-out, and S-Video out ports, along with a port for the AC adapter (which enables you to charge the HP Pavilion ZV6000 battery while docked). There are also Harmon Kardon stereo speakers on the front which given the basic speakers on the laptop itself a boost as they are sub par at best. The major drawback however for the docking station is the hefty 250 USD sticker price (400 for one that has a 160GB hard disk included).

HP Pavilion ZV6000  Screen

Another bonus is the screen. Though I kick myself now for not getting the BrightView option (it saved money not to), the 15.4" wide screen is a pleasure. Lines are crisp and the contrast is good. I had to adjust it a bit in the Windows Display Properties "Advanced Settings," but after I got the contrast set up just right, the Fn key on the keyboard has two buttons (F7 & F8) for adjusting brightness on the fly. I was a little surprised by the resolutions given by the preinstalled driver. 1280 x 800 is the native resolution so I figured that it would have other widescreen adapted resolutions. Nope. Standard 800 x 600 and on up are the only other options. After installing the latest Catalyst drivers I got some higher resolutions, but nothing above 1280 x 800 is really useful because it doesn't scale to fit the screen.

HP Pavilion ZV6000  Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is nice enough. I haven't used that many laptop keyboards, but all the keys are easily reachable on this one and not too bunched together. The only complaint I have is that the mouse scroll bar is directly under my right hand. This causes the page I'm typing on to move around intermittently. But! The folks at HP created a magic little button that turns off the touchpad, for this exact reason I assume. The virtual scroll zones are nice for vertical and horizontal scrolling.

HP Pavilion ZV6000  Performance 

The Athlon 64 3200+ is an amazing processor. I have edited video, recorded professional quality audio, and just surfed the Internet and it does it all without missing a beat. Boot time is about 90 seconds or more with all of the included software, but I have reduced this to about 30 after a fresh reinstall of the operating system. This is with a 4,200 RPM hard drive. A faster drive with a bigger cache and more RAM especially would certainly produce better results. I am not a gamer, so I cannot tell you how well it plays the newest games.

HP Pavilion ZV6000  Sound

The speakers are nothing special. I think they replaced the Harmon-Kardons that are typical with HPs with some generic, low-cost 2" x 1" speakers. They don't necessarily sound bad, but I have to put the Master and Wave levels close to max to get volume where it needs to be. I recommend an external set of speakers, though, if you're going to keep it at a desk. The headphone and mic jacks work fine.

HP Pavilion ZV6000  Battery

I got the 12-cell battery, and I have been very pleased with it so far. I ran it down the day after receiving my notebook and it took a solid four hours to get the battery drained. I ran MobileMeter (http://dssc3031.ece.cmu.edu/~tamaru/mobilemeter/mobilemeterreadme-e.htm) and the new battery already registers as having 5% wear. I assume this 5% is simply lost through the chemical breakdown in the battery. The 12-cell LI-ON batteries that I ordered with the ZV6000. I have been able to get between 2.5 - 3 hours with one of the batteries. I don't work that often on battery and I know batteries are the most short-lived part on a notebook computer. (I have a wonderful Micron laptop that is now a desktop because I can no longer get batteries for it.) I know that at some point down the road that I'll need to replace the OEM batteries for this unit and I hope that they're available for a significantly long period of time.

HP Pavilion ZV6000  Wireless

Adding the 128MB 200m ATI card is one of the best options on this computer because it means an automatic upgrade to a 6-in-1 memory card reader and an IEEE 1394 port. There are also four USB 2.0 ports, 1 x PCMCIA, 1x Express 54 slot (w/ 128mb video card upgrade), 10/100 LAN, 56k modem, 7pin S-video, 15-pin analog video out, and headphone/microphone jacks. There is no parallel port, which is almost useless these days, anyway. One thing I wish it had is VIVO. I would like to be able to capture video without the use of an external device, but it can't have everything for the price it is I guess. Built-in Wireless G with 108 MB/s access is an additional option that I did not include. Bluetooth comes with this package. I just didn't feel I would have enough of a use for this because I don't have any Bluetooth devices, and I already have a USB based Wireless antenna card.

HP Pavilion ZV6000 Input and Output Ports

There are 4 USB 2.0 ports on the ZV6000. Here's how they're laid out: 1 on the back, 2 on the left side and 1 on the right side. The ZV6000 has a 1394 device connection port, which is located on the right side and an S-Video jack to connect to a TV, which is also on the right side. Personally, I do miss the inclusion of older, legacy ports since I have some older devices that I use and would like to connect to this computer a Rocket e-book and a clam style handheld. For now I'll use them on the other computers on my network. Ultimately, I'll probably buy one of the USB devices that provide a parallel port and several serial ports.

Conclusion HP Pavilion ZV6000  :

In conclusion the HP Pavilion ZV6000 is a decent laptop, and with its range of configuration options lets you get something tailored to your desktop replacement needs. In my view a true workhorse machine that is not intended to be used on business trips or being carried around school classes. It’s a solid build and the keyboard felt responsive and not too cramped. With the starting sticker price now at $724.00 a good power/price ratio even when added extras are included.

I feel that those of us who may be more budget conscious can get excellent system performance using AMD processors and I'm happy to see some manufacturers out there building notebook computers with them. I don't think my ZV6000 will be obsolete anytime in the near future (meaning 24-36 months down the road)

I definitely recommend this HP ZV6000 notebook to anyone who is looking for a powerful desktop replacement or just good notebook that they don't mind lugging around.

Pros HP Pavilion ZV6000  : 

• Very good notebook for the money

• AMD Athlon processor, Excellent performance using graphics programs that are processor-intense

• Solid construction, Bright, crisp screen even for the regular LCD,  Good fit and finish

• New technology: i.e. first PCI Express video for AMD notebook

• Replaces a whole desktop computer!

Cons HP Pavilion ZV6000  :

• Speakers could be better

• Keyboard layout and shallow keys

• Lack of support for CF cards from cameras (the digital media slot, which comes with the upgrade of the graphics card, only supports SM, SD, MM/Pro, MMD, and XD)

****

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Video:    8.3 Out of 10
Gaming: 8.3 Out of 10
specs:   8.7 Out of 10
Photo:   8.3 Out of 10
Value:   8.9 Out of 10
Design: 8.5 Out of 10
Mobility: 8.4 Out of 10
Security: 8.0 Out of 10

Total Score:   8.42 Out of 10