Home > Consumer Reviews > HP Pavilion X16-1040US 16.0-Inch Laptop (2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

This laptop is a replacement for my HP zv6000 series. This is truly a great laptop. I think HP hit a home run on this one!

First, the performance is great. I will update later after I run my DVD NLE (video editing) software, Avid Liquid 7, but so far, the performance is stellar. It is fast. This comes configured with Vista Home Premium (64 bit) and it runs like a champ. I love the eye candy with the Aero interface. As someone who is highly experienced with computing, I was leery about Vista, but there do not appear any problems at all with this flavor of Vista on this machine. It's great!

The screen is gorgeous. Color, brightness, resolution all pop out. The flush screen makes for very clean lines and a professional feel. I feel the 16" screen is a perfect size. Not too small and not humongous, either. It has the wide-screen 16:9 ratio so movies look great.

The keyboard is great. This chrome design looks great but it has a solid tactile feel and is not a cheap keyboard. There is no flex in it at all. Solid. And I love having the dedicated number keypad. Time to sell my wireless Targus number keypad. The number pad keys are slightly narrower than a standard pad, but that's quite OK. You really do not notice it too much and it is a very, very small price to pay to have a dedicated pad. No more [fn] button and pressing numbers on a QWERTY keyboard!

This leads in to the size of this laptop. It is compact, thin, and even narrower in depth than my 15" laptop was. It is also lighter. There is so much to this laptop in a medium size. Very portable even though it is my desktop replacement. The AC/DC brick is even smaller. It is one of the smaller, lighter type of bricks that you will not notice in your bag.

I am a music educator. I loved my zv6000's sound system. There was none better than it on the market. This unit's sound is also tops for a laptop system. The built-in subwoofer does make a difference and there is no tinny quality to the sound. And you can get decent volume from them also. Depending on the sound levels of what you are watching or listening to, you can hear these speakers throughout the whole house. The Altec Lansing speakers really do their job well.

I love the fingerprint reader. I no longer have to type in passwords to log on to Windows or any webpage that requires a login. After I set up the login for the webpage once, I use the fingerprint reader and it's done. I use to use Roboform autofiller and I suppose it will still have its purpose for online purchases, but for everyday logging in (like my bank or corporate email or blogs) it is just a fingerprint swipe away. Very convenient. And cool.

I really like the mouse touch pad. It has a good feel to it and good response.

I like the touch playback controls at the top of the keyboard. Yes, there are some issues with the volume control as it is a bit flaky. I avoid using it when something is booting up. For example, wait until *after* your DVD player is running and at the menu to change the volume level. Otherwise it gets lost in the CPU cycles or something and you can hear it clicking and it takes forever to respond. Another thing that is helpful is to just use the really cool remote that comes with the laptop. I found that using the volume controls on the remote is easier and it responds better.

The remote control is stored in the Express Card slot. It is the newer style with a rotating ring around the select key which acts as a type of scroll wheel. For example, when you are watching a DVD and you put it in pause, moving this wheel advances or rewinds the video frame-by-frame. In certain menus like when in Windows Media Center, it scrolls the menu up or down. I haven't tested the range limits on the remote, but I do know that it still works strong at least 30' feet away, more than enough for the average living room.

Like I said at the beginning of this review, I purchased this laptop to do DVD editing and authoring. This computer has all the right ports: USB, Firewire, and eSATA. There are not many laptops that have the IEEE or Firewire port and that this also has an eSATA port is bonus. This will make dumping my DV video easy while having a fast data transfer eSATA port for my external hard drive.

I'm very satisfied with the battery life. With the standard battery, I get about 3 hours with it. That is with WiFi enabled and mostly surfing the net. I purchased the 12 cell battery and I get about 6 hours while surfing and watching a DVD. This is with Vista Aero fully-enabled (contributes to battery drain). I love it.

This bigger battery sticks out the bottom. Like most people, I find it to be somewhat of a bonus that it protrudes as it does provide a good typing angle, an extra "handle" to grab when carrying it from room to room, and extra elevation from a surface to allow more air to circulate from the fan. Another bonus with the 12 cell is that IT IS RECHARGEABLE OUTSIDE OF THE LAPTOP. You can plug in the AC/DC adapter directly into the battery to charge it. This is unique in the laptop world as you can hardly find any manufacturer with an independent battery charger. The battery also has a button the gives you an indicator of its charge so you don't have to boot up the computer to find out. Very cool.

Speaking of the fan, it is extremely quiet. And it doesn't need to run very much. My last laptop ran very warm too hot and the fan ran almost continuously. I had to get accustomed to that when using it on my lap. This laptop, however, runs very cool. No overheating.

I have no need for the webcam, but I did try it out and it seems fine. Actually, I've been playing around with it and it is fun. You can create photos with special frames and graphics. For those who webchat, the on-board software will make it fun as it has pre-set replies with graphics.

The internal mic also enables you to make use of Vista's built-in voice recognition software. I've played around with it a little and it actually works, but I'm still not quite sure if it is ready for prime-time yet.

Just burned two Lightscribe discs and that made a nice, personalized Christmas present.

I hope that this review helps you in your purchase. I feel that HP really made a great computer in this HDX. I think it is at a great price point and has tons of features (ample ports, 6 in 1 card reader, 320 MB HD, WiFi/Bluetooth, fingerprint reader, terrific screen, light weight, good battery life, graphics card with large memory, 4GB RAM). I simply find it a joy to work with.

Highly recommended laptop, i found it great, its fast, its has everything you need in computer desktop and more.

The sound is great, the media center is excellent and includes windows vista home and norton sofware which is great, The laptop design and functions put everything into your hands so you can perform any activity you want. From TV recording and burning dvd to working in your office.

I reviewed a lot of laptops before buying this one i think i made the best choice.

The delivery was fast, i always take two days shipping which is better and safer.

Thanks HP and thanks amazon, and of course Ups.

I have really enjoyed this notebook. It has replaced my desktop and I use it with a generic docking station and a 24" HDMI monitor. I run it as a dual screen and it performs beautifully. I have blu-ray on mine and the picture when hooked up to the monitor is unbelievable. Any office related tasks are easily done by the machine. One thing I didn't expect is how good the chassis looks. I have received several unsolicited compliments from both people I know and don't know when I am in public with the notebook. It also has nice little extras like fingerprinting, built-in webcam, HDMI output, eSATA output, etc. If I were to share one negative, it is that the battery seems to run out amazingly fast. I would HIGHLY recommend buying the 12-cell battery as a backup to the 6-cell that comes with it. It is worth every penny of the $100-$150 you will pay for it. The 6-cell battery that comes with it usually lasts about an hour to hour and a half before giving you warning messages, even on power saver mode. Needless to say, that is frustrating on a 3-4 hour flight. Because everything else is so perfect, I felt compelled to still give it a 5 star rating. Enjoy.

I would definitely recommend this laptop to anyone looking to upgrade. I had an old Dell Inspiron 1200 (512 MB RAM, 40GB HD basic laptop) from 2005 and decided earlier this year that it was time to upgrade to a faster computer better suited for my needs. I am a college student and frequently play World of Warcraft. I wanted an entertainment laptop that would be able to run WoW properly. After 6 months of intense research I settled on this laptop. The features are excellent. I will comment on the main features that make this laptop an excellent buy and a great deal for the price.

The main features are the 4 GB of memory, 250 GB HD and the awesome graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with up to 2302MB Total Available Graphics Memory with 512MB dedicated). I could not find another laptop with this combination at a reasonable price. The 16" widescreen allows enough room for a numpad, and the screen is bright and sharp! Ever since laptops switched over to widescreen, I find that the 15.4" laptops are too small - 16" is the perfect size and the laptop is not too heavy, given its size. This laptop has a subwoofer and controls for treble and basss - for a laptop, the sound is awesome - definitely NOT "tinney" like the old laptop speakers.

This laptop rivals an HP desktop computer - the graphics are awesome in World of Warcraft (lagging in the game is a thing of the past) and I can quickly and easily multitask. The physical appearance of this laptop is stunning - crisp grey and black, white lights on the display. This laptop is an eye-catcher!

I've found that with the cheaper laptops ($600-$900 range), you often have to sacrifice a desired feature (i.e., go with a smaller screen, less memory, smaller hard drive or older graphics card). With this laptop you don't have to give up any of those features (and of course, the best price can be found on Amazon.com)!

If you are looking for an entertainment laptop capable of running World of Warcraft flawlessly, or are looking to upgrade an old computer with a faster one with great features for a reasonable price then this is the laptop for you!

This computer is just amazing, it is not just gorgeous design, but works wonderfully too. i had several crappy laptops with overheating problems, cursor jump etc etc...

this computer doesn't overheat, it handles a bunch of programs open with not the slightest effort. quiet and fast.
the sreeen is wonderful the colors are vivid.

it has no lock but it doesn't need one, it stays shut and it comes with a protective cover which i love since i aklso us it to wipe the screen with and before i put it in my case i used the cover for additional protection from scratches etc

it comes with a webcam, and has the best keyboard ever, high quality, it's just amazing to type on, and it looks so good too! not to mention the numberpad...i hate laptops without it.

also the speakers are placed in a logical place, i had laptops where my hands covered up the speakers cuz they were placed stupidly, this one is placed above the keyboard, and has a really really good sound, it has also treble and bass controls.

the touchpad is great and you can shut it off right from the keyboard with a click! but it's not even neccesary because this computer won't do that annoying cursor jump when you type.

lots of controls with just an easy touch.


so yeah i cannot say one bad thing about this computer. i am in love with it and i am very happy that i chose this one, thanks to the amazon reviews :)