Personal ZT3000 Review

First, I would like to thank all of this forum that helped me in making my decision. I spent over three months on this forum before I joined gathering info and narrowing down my choices. Once I joined, I have found the fellow users to be helpful and knowledgable. Thanks Everyone!![ ][ ][ ]

[ ]This will not be an in depth review right now. As you can see it is late. My first 30 days is nearing an end and I am just about done with checkout. I wanted to report that all is well. I am very happy with my zt3000 so far. It is working great. I am listening to my first ever burned full music CD (if you don't count the two song demo I did earlier just to make sure I could burn one). I tested it tonight for dead pixels and there were none.[ ] I almost did not do this test because I really did not want to know. The LCD looks great and could not see any problems with it in normal mode. I know me, If I would have found a dead pixel, it would have nawed at me to return it. However, if I did not do the test and found some later, I would always wonder were they there from the beginning. Catch 22. So, I am glad I did the test.

As for finding out which LCD I have...a big thing on the x1000 forum with some...I have decided not to do that one. My LCD looks great to me and there are no dead pixels. So even if it is the undesired Hitachi, I will keep it. My point is as long as it works, and looks great to you what does it matter who made it. You can return it and try for the more desired ones (Samsung, LG and ?), but what if they come with a dead pixel or two. As a matter of fact, some one on the x1000 forum did just that...returned a screen with a dead pixel (don't know the brand), but received a new model with a desired Samsung LCD. But guess what? You guessed right, it too came with a dead pixel. So he/she just proved my point as to why I will not even bother to find out. I just pray my screen keeps working without any dead pixels for the next few years.

I have tested all that I know to test right now (all USB's, CD burner, cordless mouse, played a game...Monopoly, played first 10 minutes of a DVD). All is well. I have typed a few letters, used a jump drive for the first time. Yes, there are a lot of first for me. I like to read about technology but am slow to adopt or use them until it becomes necessary or I want/get a new toy. I am still trying to get my PDA to sync via the infrared port. I point the two at one another and they seem to connect. You can see the symbol in the taskbar window. However, no data is transferring, plus it is really slow. Since this is XP, I think I have to download the latest version of the Palm desktop software to get it work (at least this is what Palm suggests). I will be trying that in the next day or so. I was able to put a file on the SD card using the notebook. But, I am having trouble getting the PDA to read it. I think it is just a matter of figuring it out on the PDA. I have had it two years and never used a SD card in it. Never had anything else that used one. [ ].

Wireless worked. I was able to connect to a network, but did not have the key to access it. The modem works because I have been able to use my dailup ISP. I have drained the battery fully once. It died trying to sync the PDA via infrared. The second time, it nearly drained but I plugged it up so it would not die again during the sync. However, no data transferred anyway. I now will use the battery calibration tool in the BIOS to do the conditioning. This too will be done in the next day or two.

Some Tech stuff: Solid build. Runs very cool. You can hear the HDD when it revs up, but it is relatively quiet. The CD revs too (at first) when loading a game, but again not loud. Then silence. I will try a full DVD tonight (update: DVD worked just fine). However, the first 10 mins of the movie I watched was great (Shrek). Battery life is a little over three hours. I have not sit at it for three hours, but adding all the times comes close. HP put all in that I requested (i.e. no mix ups).

Times UP. My CD sounds great with iTunes. It sounds better than MS Media player. I am a satisfied HP Pavilion ZT3000 owner. Goodnight all!

OK, I guess it is a little longer than I thought it would be. I guess I'm REALLY satisfied![ ][8D]