  | HP Pavilion ze5270 Notebook PC (2.40-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive)
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Average user rating:  | |
 Terrible Laptop Screen | |
| I've owned the HP ZE1110 and have been overall very happy with the machine, but I was looking to upgrade to a faster machine with more capacity. So, based solely on the specifications I decided to order a HP ZE5270. My first impression of the laptop was how big, heavy and clumsy it felt compared to my older laptop. All this increase in size and weight for only a 1" gain in screen size. It did have a nicer bios then my previous laptop, which allowed a lot of customization (you could allocate up to 128k to video memory), bios passwords for good security, and other features. The boot speed seemed good and mechanically the machine seemed like a good performer, however; I did get a fatal error when I loaded a second wireless-networking card. Overall, I would have kept this machine but the video quality was terrible. The screen was like a white glowing light bulb that bleached out all the black fonts on the screen. I couldn't imagine spending hours in front of the screen without going partially blind. You have to be perfectly perpendicular to the screen in order to maximize your visual experience, otherwise you will only see highlighted bright shadows. I was so disappointed in the screen quality and resolution that I will NOT purchase another HP or Compaq laptop until they fix this serious problem. I went to a local computer shop and verified my impressions with other related HP & Compaq notebooks with the same display screen. The results on the other Compaq's and HP's were the same. There were other disadvantages to having a Pentium 4 laptop with a 15" screen: faster processor means quicker drain on the battery, lager screen is not a better experience when your close to the screen (plus drains battery too). Overall, I would highly recommend to stay clear from the new HP's and Compaqs (consider a Toshiba or Sony) until they resolve the screen issues. | |
 Good system | |
| Have had this laptop for about 4 months now, and find it to be a good computer. Have not had any problems with the DVD/CD-RW drive, I use it all the time. This computer is a bit bulky but I use it as a desktop replacement more than anything. Only gets warm not hot. Little dissapointed with sound system, can't hear it very well. Graphics card seems to have some trouble on more complex things. DVD's play very well. Was dilivered with one bad pixel but haven't contacted HP yet. Preinstalled software takes up about 3 gigs, so you start off closer to 37 gigs of HD. Good for the price, great functionality, Great as a desktop replacement. | |
| A laptop with good performance but has a few problems | |
| I bought this laptop a couple of weeks ago and have been using it thoroughly everyday since. This laptop has all-around good performance but is plagued with a few problems. The laptop, more specifically the video card, has a Direct3D performance problem causing the system to lockup and reboot when playing graphics heavy games (i.e. Age of Mythology, Quake II, Empire Earth, Splinter Cell, Warcraft 3, etc). When searching around the Internet I found that this problem was extremely common among other ze5270 laptops. I also found out that the problem is unfixable, unfortunately. Also, there is already one bad pixel on my display which was there when I first purchased the laptop. The laptop has noisy cooling fans which sometimes overpower the system's sound which, by the way, isn't that loud. Other than that the laptop runs fine. I wasn't particularly pleased with the fact that HP doesn't include it's bundled software on a separate disc, it only exists on the computer and the system recovery discs. I'm returning this system tomorrow to exchange it for a Toshiba Satellite 2340-S255 which has received EXCELLENT reviews. I just can't handle the fact knowing that my laptop isn't in 100% top-notch condition. |
