HP Pavilion 18t Premium HDX notebook

By Keith Shaw, Network World
November 10, 2008 12:05 AM ET

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Cool Yule Rating: 4 stars

Price: Starts at $1,499

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Description: You'll want to show off this mega-notebook by moving it out of the office/den in your home and giving it a spot in the living room (maybe even replacing your TV). The HDX 18t notebook includes an 18.4-inch flush-glass display with optional 1080p resolution and 16:9 viewing ratio for watching movies or TV (optional tuner card), as well as Blu-Ray DVD. Performance is not an issue, with NVIDIA graphics cards, and Intel Core 2 Duo Edition processors available. The notebook boasts 2.1-capable speakers (7.1 audio available through HDMI), Dolby-simulated surround sound and a triple bass reflex subwoofer. DVR software is included and you can also edit HD video. A built-in fingerprint reader helps protect the videos you create from prying eyes.

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The most striking feature of the notebook is the huge display, this is definitely not a notebook that you'll be taking with you on the road, unless you really want some shoulder pain. With the optional TV tuner card, it's more likely that this notebook would be placed in a secondary room where you want to have a computer and TV in one device. The large screen and advanced speakers definitely makes viewing video content a nice experience.

My only complaint was with some of the hardware – the unit got slightly damaged, causing the volume controls above the keyboard (it uses a touch interface, no physical buttons) to stick and cause an annoying clicking sound. I couldn't turn off the touch interface, and this also affected my ability to turn on the wireless network (again, there was no physical wireless on/off switch, it was activated by the touch button (which was slightly broken).

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