Review of the HP DV9320US Pavilion 17" Laptop

Notebooks with large displays can often times have a large price tag to go with it. Luckily for the consumer, HP has made the HP DV9320US Pavilion which claims to include the performance of a large sized desktop replacement notebook without the monster price tag. I've gotten my hands on one of these and have decided to see if the performance actually does outpace the price. First I'm going to start with some of the basics.

Hardware:

Processor: 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 dual-core

Storage Space: a 120 GB hard drive

RAM: 2 GB installed RAM (Unfortunately this is an un-upgradable maximum)

Optical Drive: a CD R/RW with an integrated 8x Light Scribe DVD +/- burner

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 video card (using up to 288 MB of shared system RAM)

Dimensions: 15.1" x 11.6" x 1.5" and weighs in around 7.8 lbs.

This notebook is powered by an impressive 1.8 GHz AMD which hums along nicely generating quick boot times and rarely lagged for me during typical usage. The hard drive is a little small for my tastes especially in a notebook that could otherwise easily take the place of a desktop. The graphics card isn't anything to write home about, but gets things done as far as watching movies and playing basic laptop games. The notebook does include a wonderful 17" display that is very bright and clean, I would say it is the highlight of this notebook.

Connectivity:

4 2.0 USB ports (The gold standard in peripheral connectivity use with the likes of digital cameras, keyboards, printers, and iPods)

1 FireWire port (these ports are used for high speed data transfer typically between digital camcorders or other compatible PCs)

Integrated Wireless

1 Ethernet port (to be used to connect this notebook to a wired network)

1 VGA port (this is a typical monitor connection)

1 S-Video port (this is used as a typical projector connection, and sometimes a compatible Television)

1 ExpressCard slot (to add temporary hardware like a Bluetooth adapter or cellular modem)

1 audio output (with SPDIF digital audio) / 1 microphone input

5 in 1 memory card reader (capable of reading Secure Digital, Memory Stick, xD Picture Cards and more)

I love that this notebook has the 4USB ports, 1 more than the average. Other than that the connectivity is basic. I like this notebook as a simple desktop replacement. The average online price of $899 is only slightly above what I would have expected judging from performance. My only concern is that the 2GB of RAM isn't upgradable indicating to me that the motherboard may be slightly antiquated. In the end it is a basic notebook that will make the professional happy, so look out for a price drop, then go ahead and pounce.