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HP ZT3201


Date
: 08/5/04 – 11:55:12 PM

Author
:

Category
: Systems

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer
: Hewlett Packard

Price
: $1399

A laptop; such a wonderful thing to have, but not quite the easiest thing to buy. Why are there so many options, and so many configurations; what should I get?!

I had this same dilemma when my Dell Inspiron 4000 (P3 850mhz, 256mb Ram) was not quite keeping up with my computing needs. So I took the plunge and began searching for a new system.

I came to HP's website knowing their long presence in the market place might help with their innovative touches. I was without a doubt not disappointed. To myself, a laptop is a delicate balancing of power and performance along with the ability to be mobile. So a laptop that is fast, wireless, has good battery life, and also not a mammoth would do perfectly! Not quite as easy to find as one would think. Although HP does a wonderful job in their zt3000 line of notebooks to fit this bill.

The United States preconfigured model of this particular series is known by the model number zt3201. It is a slim-line notebook configured with the Intel Centrino package (which consits of a Pentium M processor, and an Intel integrated wireless controller). =More specifically the zt3201 has a 1.5ghz processor, and two 256mb PC2700 DDR chips to total up to 512mb of RAM. Also inside of this machine comes an Ati Radeon 9200.

Now some people are still leary about getting a Pentium-M chip, as it is not "as powerful" as a Pentium 4. This is similar to the discussion of how AMD chips are not as fast as Intel chips because "their clock speeds are not the same". This is as far from the truth as one could possibly be. Here is a wonderful link discussing the new Pentium M processor. To summarize:

and

So you can clearly see the comparisons. With that said, let's get back to the laptop itself.

HP's box comes with all the goodies including software, manuals, and a power supply. You can pull the laptop out of the box and it boots right up into Windows! Ready to go! Now I like HP, but they still load too much extra stuff on a system for my liking, so I booted into the system once, looked around for about 10 seconds (also noticing about 5gb of space gone), closed the lid, and proceeded to load my own copy of Windows XP Pro on the system :) After my version of Windows XP Pro was on the system (only about 2gb used) I was ready to begin customizing the laptop for myself.

Now we know a little more background, let's take a look at the technical specifications

Page 2 : Specifications

Processor: Intel® Pentium® M processor 705 (1.5GHz)
Operating system: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Memory: 512MB DDR SDRAM (2 x 256MB) at 333MHz
Graphics card: ATI® MOBILITY RADEON 9200 with 32MB DDR (dedicated)
Hard drive: 60GB Enhanced IDE
Primary CD/DVD drive: DVD+R/RW and CD-RW combo drive
Display: 15.4" WXGA TFT WVA (1280 x 800) display
Wireless connectivity: Intel Pro/Wireless 2200 802.11b/g Integrated Wireless LAN
Digital media: Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard digital media slot
External ports: 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, 1 IEEE 1394 (FireWire), 1 FIR (Fast Infrared)
Communications: Integrated 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector),integrated V.90/56K 56K modem (RJ-11 connector)
Dimensions: 14 (L) x 10 (W) x 1.24" (H)
Weight: 6.5 lb.
Sound: Internal Harman Kardon® speakers; AC audio link, 16-bit Sound Blaster® Pro-compatible audio, volume control buttons and mute button

Page 3 : Layout

The first thing I noticed about this laptop was its length. Since it is a 15.1" wide screen the entire laptop ends up being about 2" longer than my previous one. This was quite awkward at first when I was trying to keep the thing balanced in my lap. :) They keyboard is centered in the laptop with the speakers on either edge of it. Also included on the top near the speakers for easy access is the volume control and the mute button. These nice integrated Harman/Kardon speakers when cranked to full volume still provide excellent volume and clarity. They have decent bass response and good treble considering the size of their driver.

The touchpad is slightly off-set to the left side of the palm rest, making it sometimes easy to accidentally hit knocking you off of your current document. But, what's this?! Right above the touch pad is a wonderful idea of an "on/off" switch for the touchpad, as well as an indicator light.

The touchpad also has a built in hardware scroller so you don't have to worry about the drivers as much as some laptops that use virtual scrolling.

The latches for the screen seem to be pretty durable. What I mean by this is when moving or pushing on them, they actually have a bit of beef to them if you will.

HP did a nice job on this laptop to design it sleek and slim. The indicator lights near the palm rest hide behind a translucent piece of plastic to add to its sleek look.

With integrated wireless, it's sometimes a good idea to be able to turn off your radio signal to help conserve battery life. HP Also thought of this and added a nice button to the front of the laptop top to do just that.

I have no use for an SD card reader, but its also hanging out on the front of the laptop if you need.

On the back of the laptop you have your generic ports, Printer, 3xUSB's, VGA, modem, RJ-45 network, and a 4-pin mini-firewire.

I dug around a little inside the laptop to find some information about upgrading the ram, and WHAT'S THIS?!

HP's description clearly states:

This is what's inside the expansion slot:

NOTHING!! I wonder if I am just special :) That means I have room for 1gb (2×512) of RAM! Thanks HP!

Here's the battery:

Not too much special. Now on to the good stuff :)

Page 4 : Benchmarking

NOTE: These benchmarks were not run on a clean system, although this should not deter the system's hardware performance, it may not be it's full potential.

The competitors!
O² Simon Lau's Desktop (all settings stock):

Epox 8KHA-L
Athlon XP 1700 +
512 MB PC 2700 KingMax Memory
MSI 64 MB Ti4200
40 GB Maxtor 7200 RPM Primary
80 GB Segate 7200 RPM Secondary
WinXP Professional SP 1

and the Acer Travelmate 290 XVi up against HP's zt3201.

Page 5 : Conclusion

Hewlett Packard has once again brought to the table their innovative research and customer oriented devices for their customers. Their zt3000 notebook series packs the performance features in a nice slimline casing that many manufacturers are turning away from. In multimedia notebooks many companies are trying to pack more and more technology into these "portable" devices, sometimes pushing their portability to that of simply a desktop replacement. Keeping true to the notebook style, HP kept their package down to about 7lb and 1.3" thick. More than easy enough to haul around. Also with minimal external moving pieces, this greatly reduces your chances of breaking something during the haul to classes at school, or wherever you may be traveling with the laptop. The 15" wide screen along with the Harman/Kardon speakers also makes the multimedia experience on this notebook phenomenal.

Some features that are beginning to be added to the notebooks such as a place to turn off your wireless radio to conserver battery, or volume control buttons make the usability of the laptop much more convenient. The only feature that I can think to add to this laptop would be a full size 1394 firewire rather than the mini-firewire currently in place.

Excellent features and an affordable price! What more can you ask for? In your search for a decent notebook that won't kill your wallet, check out HP's pavilion zt3000. You won't be disappointed.