Pros: I bought this to replace the stout and heavy HP Pavilion 17inch laptop powered by the oven-hot Intel P4. This new HP laptop is almost disconcerting with its lightweight and low heat output--the fan is just whisper quiet if you hear it at all. I needed a laptop to run Solid Edge (3d design software) and AutoCAD 2008 on the fly. I do no gaming, but I need the screen to look really good for 3D technical presentations and small videos/technical animations as I intend to start a small business as soon as I finish grad school in a semester. Ran SEv20 and AC 2008 without skipping a beat.

Biometric sign-on was very quick and easy to set up. A useful gadget.

Relatively fast start-up considering the resource hog that is Vista.

Cons: The audio was okay, but didn't really notice anything different with the subwoofer at the bottom.

My biggest complaint is probably more a Windows thing: when working on a project or even just surfing the web, the hard drive would just be cranking as if it were churning out the answers of the Universe. It didn't overtly affect my work, but hearing it crunch like that while using the laptop, even casually, was like trying to watch a TV show with someone running in place beside you--doesn't affect you, but, man, is it annoying. Task manager did not reveal the culprit.

These stylish laptops have a harder-to-see color ink on the keys (along the lines of gunmetal grey on dark grey/black keys). No backlight keyboard is much bigger drawback than I realized. Think long and hard before buying a laptop without one.

Other Thoughts: Newegg (Not I) RMAed the laptop because they sent me the wrong battery. This is a blessing because for a few bucks more I bought a lapop at HP website with: better video card (important to me) 130M, slightly faster CPU, and backlight keyboard.

Pros: This laptop has a very big and bright screen and came with no dead or stuck pixels (bought from Newegg). The finish is very nice (once you peel all the stupid stickers off of it). The sound is the best I have ever heard from a laptop, truly amazing listening to Pandora with the built-in speakers. The touch pad has an on/off button which is a very, very nice feature, especially when typing in a word processor.

Cons: The unit only comes with Windows Vista Home Premium. I know this is not HP's fault, but I rated 4 stars out of 5 just for this reason alone. This laptop has the potential to scream, but because of Vista it runs so-so. My keyboard has the raised bumps on the J and F keys like they are supposed to be, not like another reviewer pointed out. But, my keyboard has a slight waving bend to it. It's as if something is underneath pushing up on it. I can still type ok, just odd looking. The unit comes preloaded with a lot of crapware so make sure to uninstall that right away. That helped the overall performance a little bit (and some MSCONFIG tweaking). The unit also comes loaded with the usual stickers - some of which leave lots of gooey stuff behind when you peel them off. Just an annoyance I guess, easily cleaned. It also has a built-in fingerprint scanner. Does anyone actually use these?

Other Thoughts: Bottom line - this is a very, very nice laptop. Vista rates this unit as a 4.8 on its scale of goodness. I plan on wiping Vista as quickly as possible and going to Windows 7 as other reviewers have done and suggested. You will be very happy with this unit.

Pros: If you want a big laptop this is it! This is high end. NewEgg delivered right on time as promised. Everything was a breeze to install. All the latest and greatest of mobile hardware. Cool HP ware.

Cons: It's heavy, not like hauling around a bag of mulch all day but it's not a light weight. Windows Vista strikes again. Not everything works like one would hope. Bought a MS wireless mouse, needed to conect to the bluetooth on the comuter (hid) and it won't work, it stops working all the time.

Other Thoughts: If you want a really great laptop this is it. Really high end.

Pros: This is an amazing notebook. The screen is just perfect and everyone I know likes it as well. It's a very powerful notebook. The Intel quad really shines through(and I'm normally an AMD guy) This outperformes my desktop AMD quad(Phenom I) easily. The remote is kind of cool and more usable than I anticipated.

My biggest fear with notebooks are the hinges and their strength. These are very solid and stable; I could not be happier with them.

I -completely- thought that this would have heating issues and none! None whatsoever! I'm so happy with it. (and I haven't even ordered my cooling pad yet).

Windows 7 - This runs perfectly with Win 7 other than a couple drivers(very unimportant, fingerprint reader etc) which will probably all work in the next couple months anyway. By the time Windows 7 comes out this will still be a top of the line laptop.

Cons: A few things but mainly preferences.

The only real problem I have had is that the Bluray won't read my UDF formated DVD's if they use the full size of the disc. This is uncommon for most people as most burn Joliet ISO 9660 anyway.

Minor preferences. For the price I wish it would have come with 6GB Ram but oh well.

The video memory is 512MB and up to 2GB which is not a setting you can change. It will auto adjust to what the computer needs at the time. This might seem even better to most people; I prefer more control over my memory with very specific applications I use. (Sampling related)

The fingerprint reader is Validity brand and does not work natively with Windows 7 RC1(granted Win 7 doesn't release until Oct 22 anyway). Hopefully this will work soon. (Validity has a WIN 7 demo released in April but it doesn't work with this[or at least my setup].)

It is big(but I still love it) so I would recommend a backpack carrying case instead of a breifcase style.

Other Thoughts: It's a very good computer. It's very nice to do homework on and it handles music sampling very well. The layout of the ports could not have been put together better.

The "HP" on the back lights up and is kind of neat. The pattern on the laptop is as on Newegg and is a beautiful design.

Not to be conflicting but whoever reviewed this touchpad as not being smooth(if I remember right) I don't see how. It has the design of the laptop (which completely reminds me of Typha[aka cattails or corndog grass]) which goes from the sides onto the touchpad and out. But this is merely the design and there is no texture to it. The touchpad is as smooth as you can possibly imagine.

The 1080p is great. It's georgous with video files and furthermore the subwoofer on the bottom. Wow! I am very impressed.

- *Tip of advice* - if your half smart you will uninstall all the garbage loaded on it. There are even free tools online now that do it all automatically.

Pros: Nice video card that can handle anything you throw at it. I use it a lot for gaming because I am always away from home. I would highly suggest this to any mobile gamer. It can also handle 3D modeling to an extent but would never replace a hardcore rack render unit. HP did not skimp out with the parts in this bad boy, nice blue ray drive with lightscribe. Sound is outstanding with a subwoofer in the laptop to boot very innovative.

Cons: Battery life if you decide to play games off of the battery it will not last very long.

Other Thoughts: None really but it would have been nicer if they would have used the 1gb Geforce video card in this model.

Pros: very fast
for basic use of any student will never use more than 50 percent of the prossesor. and very future proof because the only upgrade u will ever need is ram. but not for a couple years when software get more complex

Cons: hard to find a case for. very big

Other Thoughts: best laptop ive ever owned

Pros: 1. Fantastic Full HD 18.4" Screen
2. Keyboard is great
3. Speakers are amazing
4. Cool Design
5. Lots of USB and other ports
6. Blu Ray Drive
7. Great Video Card
8. Great notebook for watching movies
9. Slip Cover and Media Remote included
10. Fantastic Price

Cons: 1. Heavy (but that's normal for a 18.4" screen)
2. Power Cord is bulky
3. Volume Controls are laggy and hard to press
4. Battery Life is under par
5. 18.4" screen doesn't pan to the edges, there is like an inch of casing around the screen, unlike macbook pros it goes to the very end of the notebook
6. Heavy

Other Thoughts: I've tested a lot of notebooks in my time and they either broke hardware wise or software wise. I've tested Dells (software issues), Gateways (software and hardware issues), Macbook Pro (print on screen is way too small and they are way overpriced), and I've never tested Acer/MSI, etc because they look too cheap for me. I have had a Compaq in the past and since HP and Compaq joined heads, I thought I would try them out again. Of course they didn't let me down this time either because this is one great notebook, take it from me. I am a fanboy, but I just had terrible luck with other brands of notebooks. HP/Compaq is the way to go for Price/Performance/Reliability.

Pros: Great computer, super fast. Very clear and bright screen. Very good keyboard. Fingerprint reader a major plus.

Cons: The wireless receiver maxes out at 54mbps even though it receives N broadcast signals. Maybe I'm doing something wrong...?

Other Thoughts: Dual booted Windows 7 just a bit ago, works beautifully with half the RAM usage

Pros: This is a great laptop. I love it.

Cons: The standard QWERTY Keyboard has two bumps on the F and J keys for touch typing; this way a typist can find home row without looking. HP in their infinite wisdom decided to move one of the bumps from J to K; making typing very difficult.

Other Thoughts: This laptop (as any other tier one manufacturer) has plenty of bloatware installed.

Netzero Internet
Juno Internet
Office 2007 Home Trialware
and
Norton Internet security.

Do yourself a favor and uninstall all of this and for Anti-virus/ anti-spyware purchase a license of NOD32 from Eset.

Pros: This computer is absolutely amazing. Lightning fast and it is the coolest looking computer there is. The screen is absolutely HUGE you really don’t know just how big the screen is till you get it. All the little features and shortcuts are a very nice and well done, simple but very effective. Setup was a breeze nothing to it at all. The graphics card is way more than any game to date will need, you can run WoW GW have the setting to extreme while having the internet going type this review while listening to music without any lag or any problems. Simply amazing. The fact that is has a Quad core processer, and a Blue Ray player makes all that much more future proof, and you can upgrade it to have 8GB of ram making it the perfect computer for today tomorrow and the future. If you are looking for a great computer stop looking you just found it.

Cons: There aren’t that many things to complain about. You will have a hard time finding a case for it, it does get a little warm so a cooling stand would really help (but that’s how most laptops will be) and all the “bloatware” or stuff that is loaded on the computer is annoying, but that’s not a big problem just uninstall it and your done. That’s all that is “bad” about this computer.