HP HDX-9000

At a time when many manufacturers are putting their focus on increasingly smaller form factors, you almost have to admire HP's resilience in sticking with a 20 inch size. Other 20 inch giants, like the Dell XPS M2010 and the Acer Aspire 9805WKHi, aren't completely out of the picture, but they have been stagnating from more than a year of no upgrades.

Many companies have given up on the idea of putting anything larger than a 17 inch screen on a clamshell but not HP. The HDX-9000 (Penryn) sits proudly on a firm desk at 15.7 pounds and has the footprint of a common desktop. It's still lighter than both the XPS M2010 (18.1 pounds) and Aspire 9805WKHi (17.1 pounds), which is largely why HP dominates the 20 inch laptop market.

The overall design hasn't changed at all since reviewed the first iteration of the HDX-9000, and it's hard to imagine that HP would spend any more money on something that generates so little revenue. The decorative patterns, so far, have worked well with the glossy black finish.

HP even came up with the name "Dragon" to commemorate the design and its large proportions. Not only do the dimensions allow for a full size keyboard and a numeric keypad, but HP manages to add a bay for a Media Center remote, which is about half the size of the one found on the HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC.

The keyboard is the same tactile one found on all Pavilion laptops, whereas the perforated touchpad is found only on the HDX9000 and the HP Pavilion tx2000z. Obviously, the 20 inch screen is the primary reason why the HDX-9000 is as big as it is.

HP has added 1,920 by 1,200 (WUXGA) resolution on top of the unit's existing 1,680 by 1,050, so the HDX-9000 is officially 1080p compliant. Adding the higher resolution is fitting for the Blu-ray ($250) and HD DVD ($475) drives that HP offers as options, although would wait out the format war before committing to one of these.

My configuration came with a BD-RE drive, which plays Blu-ray titles wonderfully well over HP's QuickPlay software. Besides burning regular DVD and CD blanks, the BD-RE drive can also burn 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray media, if you can afford these high capacity blanks ($20 to $25 for a 25GB disc around $50 for a 50GB).

The bundled Media Center remote was a little sketchy at times when pausing and stopping scenes, but the laptop's touch sensitive keys worked as a reliable alternative. Its LED back light keyboard stretches across the length of the laptop, with volume, bass, and treble leveling controls added along with the usual DVD and QuickPlay control buttons.