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 HP Pavilion dv8000tMultimedia might for a reasonable price. Price:
$1,698 (after $50 rebate)
by Edward Distel 
When we reviewed the Pavilion dv8000z two months ago, it earned an Editors’ Choice for its slick design, multimedia chops, and bright display. If it didn’t impress you then, it should now. This 17-inch desktop replacement is now outfitted with a dual-core processor and superior graphics. The dv8000t looks and feels the same as its predecessor but with a serious boost in performance and features.
This machine still has its sloped silver-and-black design. Altec Lansing speakers line the front, and a beautiful bright 17-inch display offers good horizontal and vertical viewing angles. The full-sized keyboard is still a draw, as is the row of extra function keys that control sound, wireless Ethernet, and the calculator.
Two other buttons access QuickPlay 2.0, HP’s proprietary software that runs DVDs, plays music, and displays photos within 30 seconds (instead of the two minutes generally required to boot Windows). This feature adds to the dv8000t’s appeal, and QuickPlay reads files stored on the hard drive, optical drive, memory card reader, and a USB memory drive.
For this model, HP swapped out the 2.2-GHz AMD Turion 64 ML-40 in favor of Intel’s 2-GHz Core Duo T2500. The dv8000t’s MobileMark 2005 score of 241 represents a 37 percent increase over the dv8000z’s score of 176. The other major update is the addition of Nvidia’s GeForce Go 7400 graphics processor over ATI’s Mobility Radeon Xpress 200m. This GPU boosted the 3DMark03 score to 4,042, representing a 158 percent increase over the dv8000z’s 1,566. This is not a gaming machine, but we saw a fairly decent 23 frames per second when playing F.E.A.R. on autodetect settings (800 x 600 pixels).
The dv8000t gets one extra hour of runtime on the same eight-cell battery, clocking in at 3 hours and 46 minutes, thanks to Intel’s more power-efficient CPU. This nine-pound laptop is too heavy and large to be carting around to coffee shops or on airplanes, but not having to be tethered to an outlet at all times is a bonus.
The 17-inch LCD is an eye-catcher, partly because of HP’s Ultra BrightView technology, which delivers rich colors and excellent contrast when watching DVDs. If you want to watch TV on this system, upgrade to the ExpressCard Analog TV Tuner ($130), which comes with a remote control. Paired with Microsoft’s Media Center operating system (an extra $30), you can record your favorite shows to the 100GB hard drive and watch them anywhere. The bundled software is unremarkable, with a 60-day free trial of Norton Internet Security 2006, Muvee AutoProducer 4.5, and Real Rhapsody.
The large size of the dv8000t means it has plenty of real estate for ports, including four USB 2.0, one FireWire port, a 6-in-1 memory card reader, and an Expansion Port 2. The latter can be used for docking this system in the optional HP xb2000 Notebook Expansion Base ($249), which comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse and built-in Harman Kardon speakers.
This is a top-notch system with impressive performance, and the $1,698 price tag is competitive given the cutting-edge hardware. Overall, the HP Pavilion dv8000t is an excellent choice. Compare Prices | HP Pavilion dv8000t Specifications
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