HP Pavilion dv8000z

Reviewed by: omahabusinessowner

Duration of ownership: 2 Months

Strengths: Two hard drives, big screen, not as bulky as the Toshiba Qosmio it replaced, number keys are in traditional qwerty format and in 7 key format next to keyboard

Weaknesses: Hard drives are only 5400 RPM, doesn't include restore DVDs (c'mon HP - spend the extra buck and have it on the hard drive AND on a DVD), runs conisderably slower than Qosmio with same amount of RAM, HP website is very weak for accessories and support, XP Media Center 2002 (why not 2005?), support seems confused when ordering add-ons such as docking station, additional power supplies, hard drive for docking station, etcetera

Overall Evaluation: After having two Toshiba Qosmios I moved to the HP DV8380US when my Toshiba experienced a melt down. I am not sure why no vendor wants to make a laptop offering dual 7200RPM hard drives, but HP is one more that invited upgrades if you truly want desktop performance from a laptop. I also was initially excited to see that HP installed 2GB of RAM when built, but that is it -- no more memory can be installed. That seems weak when other laptops will allow as much as 4GB of RAM. I like the dual drive feature that is emerging on laptops, as it provides one more option for backups. I learned with my Qosmio that dual hard drives doesn't preclude problems, because both were out of commission when my Qosmio did its little meltdown. The HP as a number of great options. I bought TWO docking stations -- one for home and one for the office. They are overpriced, but they work well and I hope I can use them on future laptops. I do not understand why HP only offers a 300GB hard drive on the docking statiion. With so many big drives on the market, why not offer a 500GB or even 1,000GB drive? I don't mind paying a premium price if I get a premium product. HP also should get better phone and web support. Dealing with people from India only adds to the problem. I contacted one via webchat who insisted that my model number and serial number were either on the cover or back of my laptop. Uh ... they are on the BOTTOM and that is hard to reach when the laptop is docked and I am in webchat. The technical advisor ended our chat when I insisted he was mistaken. All in all, I think the Qosmio is probably a better product, but maybe with time that opinion will change. I usually give a vendor two or three tries at earning my business.