Review of HP Pavilion Dv5-1250us Entertainment Notebook PC

I purchased my HP Pavilion dv5-1250 Entertainment Notebook PC a few weeks ago after my three year old Sony Vaio started giving me fits. The constant clicking and whirring of my aging Vaio was a nuisance during videoconferencing and it didn't have the power to handle movies without being jumpy. Top that off with the agonizingly long start-up time of Windows XP and I was at my wits end with the old machine. Let me say, I'm quite pleased with my purchase.

I actually went shopping with a different computer in mind, but after speaking with the sales clerk about my needs: heavy media use such as dvd's and streaming video, web use, school, the ability to play graphic intensive games if I want, and reliability, he pointed me in the direction of the HP Pavilion dv5-1250us Entertainment Notebook PC. The salesperson described it as being a class above the machines I went in looking for, but was on sale that week for just slightly more than the computers I was looking at. I got it for about $750, and it typically retails for around $1000.

The HP Pavilion dv5-1250us Entertainment Notebook PC comes with a speedy 2.1 GHz AMD Turion X2 ZM-80 dual-core Processor, ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics card, and 4 GB of RAM. This provides the power to play dvd's, stream movies online in high definition, and handle the majority of graphic intensive games. With a 15.4 inch monitor, it's large enough to view movies and work off of without straining your eyes. One of my favorite features is the HDMI slot which when connected to my HDTV allows me to use my big screen television as am over-sized monitor. Believe me, eye strain is not a problem anymore!

I like the volume control being on a bar at the top of the keyboard, along with play, reverse, and fast forward buttons for whatever media you are watching. The built in camera and microphone is conveniently located at the top of the screen, and the speakers are pretty loud. It's loaded with a 400 GB hard drive. The keyboard doesn't feel cramped and is loaded with shortcuts. I haven't used it yet, but Lightscribe Direct Disk labeling was a neat feature too which allows you to create your own labels on the dvd itself. It also comes with a handy remote that you can use if you want to park your HP Pavilion dv5-1250us Entertainment Notebook PC on the other side of the room and use it as a media player.

There are a couple of cons from what I've seen so far. The first is that I have to use headphones when on a video conference, particularly when I'm on my machine and speaking to my girlfriend on her HP Pavilion of a different model. We've tried several online chat programs and can't get rid of it, so we suspect that it is the proximity of the speakers to the microphone causing a bad reverberation that gets increasingly louder. Additionally, the keys are a very stylish gunmetal color, but the letters are black. Ever try reading dark colored letters on dark keys in the dark?

The benefits of flawless media presentation and beefy processing and memory capacity of this notebook PC far outweigh my perceived flaws with the design of the HP Pavilion dv5-1250us Entertainment Notebook PC. I'm very satisfied.