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This is not a unit to take on a hike unless you are into keeping fit as it weights 3.6kilos that's close to 8lbs in real money. It is 36x29x5cm, the screen is 33x21cm giving the widescreen 15.4inch size and this displays 1280x800.

Booting was a rather disappointing 80seconds while shutdown was again not that great at 22seconds. In use the unit was responsive and ran everything I asked it to without delay.

As always with notebooks the screen brightness/contrast when on mains - probably how most will use this as a desktop replacement - was good. The normal eyestrain mode on battery power was not acceptable to me especially in bright light so after adjustment I arrived at a level acceptable to me and my old eyes. Working with it for 130 minutes had it virtually empty (4%). Recharge to full power took around the same time while switched off, slightly longer while working.

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I mentioned bright light and I found the slightly reflective screen not to my liking when working outdoors.

It was very quiet in use and even the DVD was all but silent when being accessed. The chip is an Athlon 64 with 1GB Ram it runs at 1.78GHZ. The hard disc is stated at 80GB but the actual size is shown in Windows as 74.5GB to me that is more than the normal 1024 v 1000byte debate. 10GB of the hard disc is already occupied by Windows XP Home and the generous raft of software supplied.

I have already mentioned the quietness of the DVD writer it is + and - R and RW with double layer support, this well specified unit also has a six in one card reader

10/100 LAN port and wireless 802.11 b/g. The unit has it's own 128MB of video memory (a lot of modern units steal some from the basic Ram). It has an 86key keyboard with four extra keys mounted behind near the hinge. Another nice feature is the ability to turn the trackpad that sits in front of the keyboard off.

It has four USB2 and all the normal other ports including a four pin FireWire. For full specifications including the generous software bundle see the link at the end of this article.

The stated price of the zv6179 Pavilion notebook is £799, I looked around various sites but could not find it, I then checked and was told it has been replaced by the zv6275 that has the same specifications and the same price but has Microsoft Works and not Microsoft Works Suite which includes Microsoft Word in the unit I looked at.

For use in a home or office indoors where you can choose how external light falls on the screen it was fine. I think that on batteries 130minutes of use with good screen brightness/contrast is acceptable, outside I was not happy as I found the reflective screen made things difficult.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06b/21675-38187-38191-38191-38191-12200672-53922087.html