A Review of the HP Pavilion DV9830US 17" Multimedia Laptop

Multimedia notebooks are as popular as ever thanks to their incredible versatility. While they're large enough and powerful enough to become a desktop replacement they also have the added benefit of being portable. Because of this we're seeing more and more offices move away stocking desktops and to the more portable 17"+ notebooks. I guess they're hoping the employees will take their work home with them? Well I have gotten my hands on a fine example of these large notebooks; the HP Pavilion DV9830US 17" multimedia laptop. I'm going to give it a quick review but first lets layout some of the basics.

Hardware:

Imaging: a bezel integrated 1 megapixel webcam (yielding an image about as good as a mobile phone's camera)

Processor: 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5550

Storage Space: a 320 GB hard drive

RAM: 4GB of RAM (this is the maximum allowable by the motherboard)

Optical drive: a Blu-ray ROM drive with CD R/RW and integrated dual-layer DVD +/- burner

Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 8600M GS (using up to a whopping 2303MB of dedicated and system memory)

Dimensions: 15.1" x 11.2" x 1.6" and weighs in at 7.7 pounds

This notebook about has it all. It is quite powerful with the 1.8GHz Intel operating as its power plant. It also has a great video card allowing for most games to be played flawlessly. Surprisingly when you take this notebook on the road it also gets up to a total of 2.5 hours of battery life. This is astounding to me since it is powering such a large display and has such strong performing hardware. I love that it has a bluray drive, this allows the consumer to enjoy high definition video, and it works great on trips (as long as the 7.7lbs notebook doesn't put your legs to sleep).

Connectivity:

Integrated Wireless

1 ethernet port (so that this notebook can connect to a wired network)

4 2.0 USB ports (this is used to connect peripherals ranging from input devices like mice and keyboards to devices such as printers, and MP3 players)

1 FireWire port (designed for high speed data transfer between other PC's or a digital camcorder)

1 HDMI output (so that this notebook can use HD televisions as a display)

1 VGA output (this is a typical monitor output)

1 S-Video output (this is used to connect to projectors or some compatible televisions)

1 ExpressCard slot (this is used to add hardware like a cellular modem or bluetooth adapter)

2 Audio outputs / 1 Mic input

5 in 1 memory card reader (this allows the consumer to directly insert their solid state memory from mobile devices into the notebook)

This notebook has excellent connectivity. I love that it has the HDMI output. This means that you can take this notebook into the living room and use it as a BluRay player on your HD television. This will save you money if you don't currently have a next generation player. The good news is that Sony's BluRay has won the format war over HD DVD, so don't worry about this machine becoming antiquated. This is an excellent notebook for those looking for entertainment or a pure desktop replacement. If you're looking for mobility I would look elsewhere.