My old laptop met with a sudden and unfortunate demise, so I needed a replacement quickly. After looking through everything Amazon had to offer, I finally settled on the HP Pavilion HDX18 and I must say I am very pleased! It is an aesthically appealing machine, although I find (because of its glossy features) I must "polish" it weekly. A slip jacket is included with this laptop and helps keep the casing scratch-free. That may not be a big deal to some purchasers, but I found it to be a nice little extra. I am also very pleased with the performance of this machine. The finger-print reader is wonderful! The huge 18.4" high-definition widescreen will impress those of you who can't bear squinting at tiny monitors...and just wait 'till you hear the sound! OMG!!! This laptop offers the best sound I have ever head on any computer. The backwards compatibility to "a" and "g" Wi-Fi (this computer has wi802.11n Wi-Fi) is another plus...there's no hurry to upgrade your wireless router. Connectivity was painless. The preinstalled software is also nice (Microsoft Works and a trial version of Microsoft Office) for those who don't wish to invest in expensive software right off the the bat, although I uninstalled these programs since I use MS Office 2007 Professional. For many home users, though, MS Works is perfectly adequate. The 500GB hard drive holds tons of software and I've found that in spite of loading many graphics software programs I still have lots of hard drive space left. A word of caution to those of you who have not updated your software...there may be compatibility issues with Vista and/or the 64 bit processor. I was running Adobe Illustrator 9.0 on my old XP machine...but its a "no go" on this one. Although it installed OK, when I tried to launch it I got an incompatibility message and it corrupted my Photoshop CS color profiles which required reinstallation of Photoshop. Also, Photoshop Elements 4.0 and Premiere Elements 4.0 are not compatible...so I did incur some additional expense upgrading my software. Oddly, some older games (the Myst series) run just fine, although some people have reported difficulties. I did incur a little glitch the first day I used this computer, but got through to HDX technical support immediately and the problem was resolved in moments. This special HDX technical support phone number appears on a removeable label on the lower-left corner (below the keyboard)...so make a note of it...it will save you lots of waiting time. The weight of this machine is listed as a "con" in some reviews, however I do not find this to be a problem. Finding a case is more of a challenge. I purchased the Miltigiant 20 Largest Multi Design Nb Case. It is very large (almost like a small suitcase), but now that I've used it, I like it. It holds lots of extras...headphones, external hard-drive, etc. with room to spare. I only have two negative things to say about this computer (although they would not have prevented my purchase): first, is its lack of a latch to keep the laptop closed and second, one additional USB port would have been nice (my old HP had more USB ports than this one does) and in a world with so many USB peripherals, lots of ports are essential. An inexpensive USB hub took care of this problem. All-in-all, though, this is a great computer...lots of computer at a great value. I love it!Get more detail about HP Pavilion HDX18-1180US 18.4-Inch Laptop.
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