Specifications

PC MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 16, 2003 www.pcmag.com
34
BILL HOWARD
A
fter Apple introduced
its innovative Power-
Book
G4 with a 17-inch
screen earlier this year (First
Looks, May 27), it was only a
matter of time before other
PC
makers got hold of wide-screen
panels.
HP and Toshiba have
recently introduced such mod-
els. But unlike the large though
still portable 7-pound
G4, these
newer entries—at around 11
pounds—are best thought of as
transportable machines to re-
place a desktop
PC.
With their dazzling 17-inch
wide-screen displays, the
HP
Pavilion zd7000 and the Toshiba
Satellite
P25-S507 are very allur-
ing multimedia entertainment
systems, capable of capturing,
editing, and playing music, pho-
tos, and video. Toshiba offers a
similar model with Microsoft
Windows
XP Media Center Edi-
tion, and
HP will have one soon.
The screen is the most im-
pressive, most imposing part of
these computers. These panels
provide a resolution of 1,440 by
900 pixels, which works out to
100 pixels per inch. Smaller
high-resolution panels cram in
120 to 130 pixels per inch, which
makes it hard to view Windows
fonts, screens, and icons without
rescaling them.
The screens on these
HP and
Toshiba models also retain their
color fidelity even when viewed
from well off center, so they’re
great for presentations and
watching movies. All in all, these
represent a big improvement in
screen capabilities for a portable.
The dark-gray zd7000 has a
numeric keypad to the right of
the
QWERTY keyboard (yes,
there’s that much room), and its
front edge slopes away comfort-
ably. The blue-and-silver
P25-
S507 has an off-white keyboard
inset (no numeric pad) and a
sharp crease along the front,
which some users may find un-
comfortable while typing.
Both machines have massive
batteries that account for about
1.5 pounds of the system weight
and yield similar runtimes: 2
hours 17 minutes for the
HP and
2:25 for the Toshiba. Both have an
S-Video-out jack (for quickly
connecting a
TV set), a FireWire
port, four
USB 2.0 ports, and Har-
man Kardon speakers with pret-
ty fair sound.
The
P25-S507’s advantages
include front-mounted multi-
media control buttons and the
availability of a $29 multimedia
remote control. We also like the
two identical media bays on the
front. Typically used for an opti-
cal drive and battery, the bays
could be loaded with two optical
drives (for disc-to-disc copying
while on
AC power). The P25-
S507 also has a slot for SD cards
separate from the dual
PC Card
bay and a reasonable software
bundle: Microsoft Works, Arc-
Soft’s PhotoStudio 5, Panasonic
Motion
DV Studio, and Drag’n
Drop
CD+DVD.
The
P25-S507’s Winstone per-
formance was very good, on a
par with that of similarly
equipped desktop
PCs. Wireless
performance from its 802.11a/b
Atheros chipset was also very
good: The unit was still receiv-
ing a usable signal 160 feet from
our test access point. That said,
802.11a—as opposed to “g”—is
an odd choice for what is clearly
a consumer-oriented box.
Before you plunk down cash
for the
P25-S507, however, note
that the zd7000’s advantages
make a compelling case. The
HP machine includes a five-
in-one media card reader
(Memory Stick Pro/Mem-
ory Stick,
SD/MMC,
and SmartMedia)
in addition to
two
PC Card
slots. There is a
numeric keypad and
Windows
XP Profession-
al (not Home Edition).
We also prefer the
zd7000’s software bun-
dle, which includes Roxio’s
Easy
CD & DVD Creator,
Microsoft Works, muvee
autoProducer, InterVideo’s
WinDVD Creator, and an
HP-
produced photo-imaging suite
called Image Zone, which lets
you edit images, create photo
CDs, and even set up a slide show
timed to run exactly as long as a
set of linked audio files.
As for performance, the faster
processor and higher-end graph-
ics in the zd7000, as tested, gave
it the edge over the
P25-S507 on
our Winstone tests. Its wireless
performance under 802.11b was
similar to that of the
P25-S507,
and its 802.11g capabilities were
very good.
You won’t be unhappy with
P25-S507, especially given the
price. But if both were placed in
front of you with receipts marked
“Paid,” you’d probably be better
off taking home the zd7000.
HP Pavilion zd7000
With 3.2-GHz P4 processor, 512MB
DDR SDRAM, 60GB hard drive,
DVD+RW drive, nVidia GeForce FX
Go5600 graphics, 17-inch LCD,
802.11b/g wireless, Microsoft
Windows XP Professional, $2,377
direct. Hewlett-Packard Co.,
www.hp.com/go/notebooks.
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Toshiba Satellite P25-S507
With 2.8-GHz P4 processor, 512MB
DDR SDRAM, 60GB hard drive, DVD-
RW drive, nVidia GeForce FX Go5200
graphics, 17-inch LCD, 802.11a/b
wireless, Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition, $2,099 direct. Toshiba
America Information Systems Inc.,
www.shoptoshiba.com.
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FIRST LOOKS
High scores are best.
Bold type denotes first place.
Processor Graphics chipset
Business
Winstone
2002
HP Pavilion zd7000 P4 (3.2 GHz)
nVidia GeForce
FX Go5600
27.1
Toshiba Satellite P25-S507 P4 (2.8 GHz)
nVidia GeForce
FX Go5200
26.4
Multimedia
Content
Creation
Winstone 2003
Business
Winstone
BatteryMark
2003
(hr:min)
10 feet
802.11b
46.8 2:17 6.3
41.5 2:25 6.3
802.11g
60 feet
802.11b 802.11g 802.11b
21.9 6.3 16.6
802.11g
N/A 6.3 N/A
802.11b
5.5 8.1 2.5
4.0 N/A 2.3
802.11g
2.2
N/A
Wireless throughput (Mbps)
160 feet
120 feet
BIG-SCREEN PORTABLES
N/A—Not applicable: The model we tested did not come equipped with 802.11g wireless.
Large-Screen Notebooks Push the Limits of Portability
The 17-inch screens on these
notebooks make them ideal
for entertainment apps but
not for carrying.
Toshiba Satellite
P25-S507
HP Pavilion
zd7000