HP Pavilion ZD7040us Notebook PC (2.8GHz Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, 60GB Hard Drive, DVD-RW, 17-inch display)

Rating:
Summary: Hot and Heavy
Review: This is a great Desktop Replacement. Very capable. Good sound, Good wireless. Plays and records DVDs well. It has any feature you can think of, card reader, lots of USBs, firewire, integrated wireless. It has great graphics, nice sound. But its an expensive desktop, and as a LAPTOP: It is is huge, hot and heavy.

Another major drawback is short battery life. Usually less than 90 minutes.

I have decided that the 17" screen is not worth the weight. I have seen the 15" screen, and it is more than adequate. (17' is nice for movies though)

It puts out a lot of heat with two fans placed right where it sits on your lap. Stupid location. When you sit there with it blowing hot air on your leg, trying to balance it in a way that lets the air keep moving, you think it is "what were they smoking" stupid.

They crammed everything into the machine, but could have done a lot better in designing the ergonomics, weight, heat and battery life. Maybe HP can hire a few designers from Apple and make this right the next time.

Buy an extended service plan. I have sent mine back for repairs. It was fixed in 5 days and returned to me via FEDEX.

I would not buy this laptop again, my back wants me to get something lighter and my lap wants something cooler. But, if you don't have to walk too far, and want a good desktop replacement, it is a good machine. It is also great fun pulling it out at a meeting and having everyone notice that mine is bigger than theirs.