Review: HP HDX18 notebook
Despite the wide adoption of 16:10, with an increasing amount of people using laptops as entertainment devices and Blu-ray appearing more often every month it makes sense to improve the viewing experience.
With some notebooks touting 18- and 16-inch displays the focus on outputting video to a television is diminished as well-they still can, but an 18-inch, 1920×1080 display is good enough for most people. Click to enlarge HP's HDX18 is their newest entertainment powerhouse.
It, along with the HDX16, is it the company's first 16:9 offering, marking one of the earlier releases in what will be a major trend. The HDX18 is a do-it-all computer that HP is hoping will appeal to people who want to accomplish a lot with one purchase, from a Blu-ray player, to a media PC, to an entertainment hub, to an HD television. It runs Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit.
Also included is an HDTV tuner, and two remote controls, one which fits the ExpressCard slot for easy storage. This is to say that it's built well enough for home use and light traveling, but it doesn't compare to something like the company's Elitebooks. This approach has generally been more than sufficient for consumers.
The 8.82-pound notebook is on the thin side for what it is, but the 18.4-inch display is going to ensure that it doesn't get moved around much. Above the trackpad is a button that will disable it, in case you want to use your mouse instead.
Above the keyboard is a touch-sensitive panel where users can adjust the volume, use media controls, and toggle WiFi. It uses stylish white LEDs along with blue orange for the WiFi indicator. This panel was actually the part of the HDX18 that gave me the most trouble. The problem was that our test system kept adjusting settings for no reason.
When this happened HP's software would be triggered and it would say that the volume, bass treble, or WiFi status had changed, which would interrupt a movie or gaming session. HP's Assistant software could be removed to stop these pop-ups, but it didn't seem to fix the touch strip. Anyway, WiFi still toggles itself off and then back on occasionally but, from my research, this problem appears to be isolated to our test system.
From a performance standpoint, the HDX18 did quite nicely under most circumstances. The T9600 processor did its job well and combined with 4GB of RAM and 9600M graphics means 1080p playback goes very smoothly. You can upgrade to quad-core, but it's not necessary for the vast majority of users.
Desktop work, even intensive tasks, can be handled with relative ease. This is not a system that you'll want to take on the road much, but it is under the nine pound mark, so it's better than some other "luggable" systems. This is a respectable number for a system this large, but nothing amazing. The use of a 16:9 display along with included Blu-ray makes it a great system for watching television and movies.
Throw in a remote controller, better-than-expected sound, and a setup powerful enough to playback 1080p video and you have yourself a very nice media machine. On-board Firewire, eSATA, and a TV tuner all help complete the experience. I purchased to replace a zd8000. The HDX runs cool - and quiet - the zd8000 had its fans running constantly. The 17-inch screen on the zd8000 is sharper than the 18-inch. But the extra resolution is definitely worth it to me.
Both laptops are about the same weight, but the zd8000 seems more robust. I do not travel much with my laptop, but they do get heavy carting them around airports. My big issue is screen flicker. Occasionally the screen appears to flicker when coming out of sleep mode. This can last a couple of second to 30+ seconds.
I plugged in an external monitor and only the laptop screen flickered. Tech support round 1 went as expected - flash the BIOS and reinstall the video driver. To be expected, but not the solution. A couple more contacts resulted in the ticket being closed.
The "explanation" is that this can occur when the battery is installed and the AC plugged in. The system clickers as it determines which power source to use. I can accept that this explanation is correct. THe laptop screen dims when on battery and the flicker could simply be the screen switching brightness. However, this worries me.
If the problem gets no worse, the I can live with it. But I worry that this is a hardware issue. I am interested in knowing if I am the only one experiencing this problem. I looked at the reviews on the HP site. I also posted a review so I will see it that appears. The screen does dim when you unplug the power cord, but that's because of a setting in Windows power management. Sounds like their may be something wrong with your notebook.
Source:
Keywords:screen, laptop screen, screen flicker, screen switching, screen flickered, screen dims, screen zd, screen dim, issue screen, owners screen