HP HDX 18 First Look

Input and Output Ports

As expected with a notebook of this size, the number of ports on the HDX 18 is fairly impressive. Here’s a run down of the ports:

• Three USB 2.0 ports
• One eSATA/USB port
• Firewire
• Expansion Port 3 (docking station connector)
• ExpressCard slot
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 5-in-1 multi-card reader
• 2 audio out
• microphone in
• VGA monitor out
• HDMI out
• Built-in TV tuner
• Kensington lock slot

We’re always glad to see the dedicated docking station connection on HP’s consumer notebooks. HP is the only notebook manufacturer that still offers a dedicated docking station connector on their consumer notebooks. The USB docking stations offered by other consumer notebook manufacturers are really nothing more than fancy USB hubs … and don’t work nearly as well as real docking stations.

We’re also fans of the eSATA/USB combo port currently being used on the new HP notebooks. Although many consumers might not realize it yet, eSATA offers MUCH faster data transfer speeds than USB 2.0 does. The great thing about the eSATA/USB port is that you can use it as a regular USB port or for an eSATA device if and when you buy a new eSATA-compatible device.

Performance and Benchmarks

The Intel Core 2Duo T9600 processor in our review unit provided ample processing power and never presented any problems when running applications or encoding video and audio files.

Performance with the Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 processor and NVIDIA 9600M-GT graphics card was excellent. Bottom line, this machine is extremely fast. You would typically need to purchase a high-performance gaming notebook to reach these levels of performance. This new HP was perfectly able to handle any software we tested, and even put up reasonable numbers with 3D games that usually don’t perform well on notebooks, such as Crysis.

Of course, with a notebook that tips the scales at almost 9 pounds … this beast better provide close to the same performance you expect from a desktop.

Let’s take a look at a few basic benchmarks so you can get an idea of how the HDX 18 stacks up.

wPrime is a program that forces the processor to do recursive mathematical calculations, this processor benchmark program is multi-threaded and can use both processor cores at once, it measures the amount of time to run a set amount of calculations.

wPrime comparison results (lower scores means better performance):

Notebook / CPUwPrime 32M timeHP HDX 18t (Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)27.416sAcer Aspire 6920 (Core 2 Duo T5750 @ 2.0GHz) 44.457s Lenovo ThinkPad SL400(Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz) 34.628s HP Pavilion dv5z (Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 @ 2.1GHz) 39.745s Dell Inspiron 1525(Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)43.569sDell XPS M1530(Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)

37.485sHP Pavilion dv6500z (Turion 64 X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)40.759sSony VAIO NR(Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz)58.233sToshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)38.343sToshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)37.299sHP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)40.965sSony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz)76.240sLenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)37.705sHP Pavilion dv6000z (Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)38.720s

PCMark05 is a benchmark that measures the overall system performance, so it considers the processor, hard drive, memory and OS as part of the mix. The HDX 18 produced more than reasonable performance numbers.

PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance (higher scores are better):

NotebookPCMark05 ScoreHP HDX 18t (2.8GHz Intel T9600, Nvidia 9600M GT 512MB)6,587 PCMarksAcer Aspire 6920 (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100) 4,179 PCMarks Lenovo ThinkPad SL400(2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9300M GS 256MB)5,173 PCMarks HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200) 3,994 PCMarks Dell Inspiron 1525(2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)4,149 PCMarksDell XPS M1530(2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)5,412 PCMarksDell Inspiron 1520(2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)4,616 PCMarksLenovo ThinkPad X61(2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)4,153 PCMarksLenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)4,189 PCMarksHP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)4,234 PCMarks

Screen

The 18″ glossy HP Ultra Brightview Infinity LCD is nice and bright with rich colors and deep contrast. The new 16:9 screen dimension gives you a full high-definition resolution (1920 x 1080) compared to the standard 1280 x 800 resolution on most 15″ notebooks. You get more horizontal and vertical resolution with this massive display. This is also nice for widescreen movies since it allows more of the film to fit on the screen with less of the black bars on the top and bottom.

Most of our editorial staff doesn’t care for the glossy Infinity display style compared to traditional glossy displays because it creates a separate layer of glossy reflection above (and in front of) the actual display. This isn’t a problem in low light environments … it actually helps create richer colors and gives the display an almost wet look. However, if you try to use a notebook with this type of screen under bright lights or outdoors under bright sunlight the reflections will make it very difficult (and possibly even painful for your eyes).

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the HDX 18 was quite impressive in that it has absolutely no flex over the main keyboard. The dedicated number pad does suffer from some flex directly above the optical drive, but that shouldn’t be a problem for most people unless you’re constantly using the number pad for data entry. There’s little to complain about here from a functional standpoint. That said, the bright silver finish does cause some pretty strong reflections outside in the sunlight. Just don’t look down while typing outdoors.

The palm rest and touchpad areas feature the same excellent Imprint finish found on the lid of the notebook that gives this notebook a smooth, futuristic feel. The touchpad surface is extremely responsive and the indicated scroll region works as it should. The touchpad buttons are nice and wide with nice deep feedback and quiet clicks. The only thing that makes the touchpad a little frustrating is the smooth surface that sometimes causes your finger to stick unless you have very dry hands.

HP also includes a new multimedia remote that fits inside the ExpressCard slot on the notebook. This makes it easy to use the HDX 18 as a television thanks to the built-in TV tuner and also works nicely when using the HDX 18 for presentations.

More to Come

As of this writing we’ve only had the HP HDX 18 in our office for a short while now. We wanted to make sure our readers had a chance to take a look at this notebook as an alternative to other 17-inch and 18-inch notebooks currently on the market.

Our full review of this notebook is coming soon. Stay tuned.