Hewlett Packard Pavilion HDX9010TX (GA684UA) PC Notebook

Is this the computer of my dreams?
I wondered this when I first saw the ads on the availability of this computer. The processor is blindingly fast and this computer has 4 Gigs of RAM! For me I plan on using it for composing music and digital photography and illustration. For any of these tasks, this notebook computer rocks.

What about the weight of this computer:
I have read allot of reviews that dwell on this issue. The truth is you can get an inexpensive backpack with wheels and that makes this issue mute. What is cool is how large the monitor is and there just is no way to do that and not have it weight a bit.

What is the coolest factor of this computer:
To me the answer to this question is the overall design. The designers at HP really went all out to make a unit that had lots of extras. Things like the baked in design of a dragon that almost matches the piano black finish but gives the notebook an embossed cool look to it when looked at up close. On top of that there is a Star Trek like touch sensitive series of blue lighted controls that control things like treble and base and many other features to.

What about the HD DVD interface
Well Blue Tooth and HP have been fighting out for territory in this new improved area of digital video quality. Blue tooth has more market share but is in noway the clear winner. From what i have read Toshiba and HP are on the battlegrounds for HD DVD and for BlueTooth Sony. The thing is you cant use Blue tooth DVDs on an HD DVD player and vice versa. What you can do is play your older format DVDs on either and it will be interpolated up which means it will be made to appear as if it were an HD DVD when it isn't but not quite but close.

What about the controls and plug ins:
Well this has most of what you would want. But only 4 USB ports. I find myself wanting 6. Especially in a unit costing this much. I have been looking into the Quick Dock for this computer but find the cord going from the dock is way to short. It should be 6 feet so you could hide it on the floor somewhere and the wires to. What sense is it to make it 12 " so it is right by the notebook. You see all the cables. I think someone was a bit off on that decision at HP. On top of that there are no extension cables to make the short Dock longer if you want to by extending it.

What about Price:
Well I got mine which was nicely configured for $3088. don't believe the articles that say you will pay $5,000. You just have to watch the sales. This deal was direct at HP.

Recommendations:
Well if you don't need the 64 bit your safer getting the Vista with 32 bit, its more compatible. But 32 bit does not take advantage of the dual processor in this notebook. I myself need the 64 bit because my music software I use by Cakewalk can utilize the processor to a great advantage.

Built in HD Reception:
Well its said to be on this notebook but as to how well it works, the Jury is out I don't have my notebook yet to know.

You know the old adage is you get what you pay for. That is true. If you don't need the capabilities of this notebook then get a cheaper one. Getting a smaller monitor alone will knock a thousand dollars off. Try a 17 inch monitor. If you will be using this for gaming, graphics, music then you just may get your moneys worth out of this notebook. I expect this notebook nicely configured to be competitive for about 3 years. It will take Microsoft that long to come out with the next operating system that is even more demanding and requires a faster processor.

I hope you found this review helpful. I don't quote specs etc you can find that in other reviews that are all over.

Pros:
- Large Monitor
- Fast Processor
- Way above external sound well above competitive products that includes innovative inclusion of a Base Woofer
- Sound Blaster Sound Car
- Monitor uses a new color accurate technology called Bright View that is better then average in my testing based on color accuracy and shadow detail
- Includes Fingerprint recognition security system
- The design on this unit is well above expectations includes a fingerprint resistant interwoven Chinese Dragon design
- Has a built in best of class remote control. Well the truth is none of the competition even has anything to compare to this
-touch pad is larger then most and has a surface that has a texture that makes finding your way around in the dark to use the notebook much easier

Cons:
- This is heavy but not much heavier then 17 inch monitors that weigh ten pounds like the Toshiba Satellite 17 inch
- HP support is outside US and trouble understanding accents can lead to misunderstandings in support issues
- HP should have offered a optional wheel carry case that was made to fit this unit at launch times. Some of the reviews I have read are users are finding it hard to find computer bags that will easily hold this large computer
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Okay its been a few weeks. I can tell you now what I think of my HP HQX so far. Here is my post review that reveals the good, bad and ugly I have discovered so far.

Pros: Nice Sound, Screen clari†y is great, HDTV from antenna is better then expected
Cons: Video ports use unconventional connectors, sound controls have a slight lag especially on treble and base

First Impressions
When my notebook arrived I have to say that the cool factor was excellent. HP packaged the Notebook in a very stylish black box that was neatly encased inside the standard cardboard shipping box. The black box had well placed slits all over the place that made unpacking the notebook very simple. The box slid out of its enclosure very easily. But it was heavy and its best that you have a friend on hand when you get it initially out of its packing container. A nice plus was they have a poster that tells what each item on the notebook is. What I would like to have seen though is a PDF of the poster to refer to later. I will have to create my own using my digital camera. Little extras like that can make a big difference on overall usability of a product.

Initial startup:
The monitor swings up utilizing a very durable well designed hinge that is focused on the central back of the monitor and pretty much puts itself into position. You have to be careful when closing it down to not hit the monitor bottom on the bottom top area of the notebook. Once its set up it works well and you get so used to the size that you dont realize its a larger then average notebook.

Spies among us
The fingerprint reader is one of my favorite features of this laptop. When you first get the laptop you register every one of your fingers on both hands. Each finger is scanned three times. After this every time you log into a bank, internet service provider, even Yahoo the software automatically logs in your password and next time all you have to do is scan in any of your fingers. For this reason one would be wise to make very complex passwords for each account. After all you wont have to remember them and there is no way to get to them without your fingerprints. The software automatically creates a log on for the lap top that also uses the fingerprints to log on. This even works in a dark room. All I can say is amazing. I feel like I am in a Mission Impossible movie every time I use it. Its definitely the wave of the future and its here right now!

Living on the Edge of new technology:
As suspected I have had several compatibility issues because of going 64 bit. I have had to put up with things such as when you start up intermittently the video on the monitor keeps blinking and takes up to five minutes to finish. I soon realized that its not possible when this is occurring to get anything done till it finally resolves itself. I had to restart a few times to get this resolved. I believe this is because of monitor secondary monitor driver issues in Vista. I have a separate monitor attached so the sound card is driving two monitors and does not seem to like that. My Maxtor 300 Gig hard drive will not connect to Vista so I have to get to it by broadcasting it over my wireless network.

The upper blue lighted control Interface is sluggish:
This is a cool feature but there is a lag when you volume control. You can roll your finger and it will slowly go up or down depending on which direction you roll. That is a cool part about it. But many times you touch it and it does not do anything at all so you have to touch it again. Perhaps there is a difference in electrical energy that will react better to some then others. This lack of reaction is especially treble and base controls. The Treble and base are set up to work with a toggle connection. You click once to control the base and once to control the treble. Getting the toggle switch to work takes some patience. None of the control interface switches are as instant as I would like. HP needs a calibration software adjustment that adjusts the sensitivity to improve the active response. This is missing from the current release.

Connections:
I was surprised to see that many of the connections on this laptop are proprietary to HP. There is included a small video adapter to an unconventional port for connecting in Coaxal Video. Since this coaxial connection is so keen to an "Entertainment Laptop", this is a negative. Using this connector its possible to connect any coaxal cable to the notebook. I would recommend purchasing a plastic bag or small container where all the cables, gender benders etc that come with this notebook can be kept. Otherwise they could easily be lost and you will be in wait mode to get another gender bender from HP. As mentioned previously in this review, I connected an external monitor to this notebook but found there to be no connector screw holes... So the monitor cable just kind of hangs there connected by tension compression but with no way of securely screwing it in place. If you have young children that like to pull on cords you may have a problem. There is no way to secure a monitor connected to this computer. The connections to connect AV connectors for video are not conventional either. They are not standard female AV but are 1/8" Female connectors instead. There are no gender benders for this solution. There should be connectors that work at the local electronic store.

HGTV: HP has its own video controller called Quickplay that makes it possible to record channels. The interface is lower resolution giving it a amaturish feel. But otherwise it seems to work well. I plugged in the included antenna and was able to connect to 5 local hdtv channels and the quality on these connections considering it was from an antenna was amazing! I recorded a television program and watched it later using Quickplay. I have not hooked up the notebook to my cable connection yet so the jury is still out on that one.
The other Media controller is Media Center.
Microsoft just answered a new feature called Internet TV. I have used this and its impressive. The biggest problem I am having with Media Center is the mouse dissapears. You have to move the mouse to the upper corner to get out of it but you cant see it. Its like being in a dark room feeling your way around. There are definitely compatibility issues there. I am thinking the problem is Microsofts' not HP but I still remain lost when moving around Media Center.

Sound:
The sound is ok. Good enough but not extraordinary. The base woofer results in an overall smooth sound without focus on the midtones, treble or base. You can't expect more with only 20 amps going to the the sound system. The treble is good not hissy in tone and the mid tones are acceptable. The base is ok but not earth shaking as a subwoofer being utilized would suggest. The sound card on this notebook is not the Soundblaster 16 bit card that I mentioned in my previous review. I discovered that the HP representative that had told me that this came with the Soundblaster Audigy card was wrong. The soundcard on this notebook is the High Definition Audio CODEC for 64 bit Windows. I noticed this is used on Dell laptops to but is definitely not a sound card you would find if you were building a computer yourself.

Monitors:
I had issues with the monitor drivers not working with Aero, which is the translucent window feature of Vista when two HP monitors were running at the same time. A notification would come up saying that the computer was being switched to Vista Basic from Aero. This seems to have been resolved though. Its just another cutting edge issue. As I mentioned I don't use this for video games but I do use it for photography.
Out of box the color on this laptop is good. There is not a blue cast that you often see on uncalibrated monitors.

Support:
I had to call on support with HP and it was a bit worse then I thought. The customer support people I spoke to seemed to get irritated when you asked them to repeat themselves because of the difficulty in understanding the Indian Accents. I was on the phone with a specialist only to be told 45 minutes later that they realized I was calling about a notebook and that was not their departments. So what happened was I was transfered to the wrong department. To be fair my issues were resolved but not without a painful journey.

Overall conclusion:
This notebook offers features that make it a leader in its class. As with any device there are always pros and cons to how it works. I hope you found my issues I found helpful in your decision whether or not this notebook is for you.