HP Pavilion zd7015us Media Center Notebook PC (3.06-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD+R/RW/CD-RW Drive)

Rating:
Summary: update
Review: Just an update (I also wrote the previous review). Subsequent to writing the last review, I spent another marathon session on the phone with tech support, and things went from bad to worse. Again, some of the most genuinely friendly tech support for any product I've experienced, but after just over one hour on the phone, all that was figured out was that the PVR unit that came with the 7015us appears to be broken (out of the box!), and I was told that they will send me a replacement.
Two problems:
1) One trick they had me try this time was rolling back my hard drive to one month earlier. I was assured that if this didn't improve things, I could always restore to the present configurations. Not only did the rollback not work, but after I hung up, it didn't restore either. I called tech support AGAIN, and was told that this "sometimes happens" (!?!?!) and thus I had to do a month's worth of reinstalling/ uninstalling, updating, etc.
2) This phone call took place about two weeks ago. Since then, the recharging unit broke, and thus once the battery ran out, I couldn't even turn on the computer. I called tech support AGAIN, and told them I was sending it in, and I didn't want it back until everything was fixed. Conveniently, they sent FedEx to my door and payed for the shipping. However, I received it back, now with the recharger working, but it STILL says that my video sigal files are "corrupt or missing" (which they told me it shouldn't say regardless of whether or not the PVR is working.) Also, I still haven't received the PVR! I called tech support AGAIN (!!!) and was politely told that they are on backorder until MIDJUNE! By then, with all that has gone wrong, I expect the thing to spontaneously combust.
The only thing preventing me from giving this disasterous experience one star is that every other review I've read on this product is a rave, so to give HP benefit of doubt, I think I just got a bad one. I wish they would step up to the plate and just replace the $(#%)_@!ing thing already. They told me their policy is to replace defective units, but only after it is sent in to them THREE TIMES! I really miss my Toshiba laptop. One thing is for certain: I will never buy another HP product in any way, shape, or form again.

Rating:
Summary: With Great Power Comes Great Flaws
Review: This is a powerful laptop, putting my desktop to shame (which is only two years old). Despite the stats, I have still had trouble running games such as Far Cry and Hitman Contracts at full speed (that is, with all or even most settings at "high". Smooth gameplay only occurs if I tone down the graphics substantially, for some reason.) These problems I've encountered is certainly not for lack of harddrive space, which is one of the many great power-features of this product. I've fed four PC games into this laptop, along with over an hour and a half of mpeg2 vacation video from my camcorder, and still have used only half of the 60 gigs on the harddrive.
The two biggest issues with this product that I have encountered are 1) the mouse and 2) TV reception.
First, the mouse. My understanding is that this is universal with all similar HP Pavilions out there. I could not possibly exaggerate if I describe the built in touchpad (okay, not a "mouse", per se) as nothing short of absolute disaster. If this were a car, the product would have been recalled by now, it is that horrible. There must have been some sort of pressure to release the product by a certain deadline that this touchpad was installed. It doesn't always follow where your finger moves, and is very erratic when it does. Sometimes, you will work for several seconds to get the mouse over something (say, a link), and just as you finally get the shaky cursor to highlight the link, you go to hit the button, and despite not having further touched the pad, the cursor has moved on its own. I can only hope jobs were terminated over this embarrassment of a touchpad. Picture someone's 90-year-old grandfather with terrible Parkinson's Disease trying to operate a touchpad...that is what it is like. Using this touchpad is an exercise in extreme frustration. I went out and bought two peripheral mice (pleural of mouse?); one trackball and one optic, which solved the problem but not without some resentment that I had no choice.
2) I have yet to receive a TV signal despite having everything hooked up and installed. Tech support has been excellent in at least trying to help, and the tech on the other end of the phone seemed to truly be interested in helping me get a signal, but despite over an hour of combined online and phone help, and despite following their instructions, I have yet to receive a signal even once on the laptop. They told me that this is a problem they are aware of, but it is apparently an atypical one, so I don't know that I'd let my case dissuade you from buying the product if you are interested in that feature (and understand that point clearly: you are paying a few extra hundred bucks for a laptop that has a preinstalled TV card, and the peripheral PVR-personal video recorder, ie TIVO- unit with the peripheral infrared/remote control units. If you just want a computer without the TV/PVR functions, save yourself a couple hundred dollars and buy the model in the ZD7000 series that doesn't have this. The only drawback to that is I think there are less gigs on that model.)
Overall, I'm happy with this product, but I give it only three stars because I am not used to paying so much for something just to not have it work, even with tech support. (And I should get a written apology and rebate for the Hindenburg-scale disaster that is the touchpad...Oh, the humanity!). I will be calling tech support again, and I imagine the problem will ultimately be solved one way or another, but, again, at $2200+, I don't deserve the headache.