HP HDX 16t

Full review of HP HDX 16t

As a 16" HTPC, the HP HDX 16 sports all the features you'd want in a multimedia powerhouse. The 16" display is a flush glass 16:9 1920x1080 1080p HD ready spectacle of an LCD. Aside from that, the unit is stuffed with a P7350 Intel Core 2 Dup 2.0GHz, a 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GPU, 4GB RAM, a 250GB HDD and of course a Blu-ray player. All this going along with an attractive titanium liquid metallic design means the HDX won't be the least expensive laptop on the block, but the price is reasonable for the feature set.

Design, Keyboard and Mouse

The HDX is stylishly designed with silver and charcoal lines streaking across the charcoal lid and palmrest, even racing right across the trackpad. Above the keyboard are a number of pale glowing multimedia touch-buttons and sliders. The sliders unfortunately don't work as well as the buttons, but it creates an altogether attractive look. The keyboard is full sized and includes a number pad (although the num pad is somewhat shrunken), and it is relatively quiet and comfortable to type on. The trackpad was a joy to use, as the smooth surface never gave our fingers that sticky feeling at the end of a long scroll which we've felt on other trackpads.

Connectivity

The HDX comes with some noteworthy features, most of which are packed onto the left side of the unit. It comes with HDMI, eSATA, FireWire, VGA, ExpressCard 34/54, Ethernet, 4USB (1 shared with eSATA), a multicard reader, 2 audio out and audio in. HDMI is essential for any multimedia notebook and the second audio out is a nice thought - now you and your friend can both watch that movie on the airplane without splitting up your earbuds.

Multimedia Power

Aside from the gorgeous, glossy, flush glass 1080p 16" display, the HDX offers a number of other multimedia features. The unit sports an integrated remote which can be used to watch movies or listen to music from a distance, and there is preinstalled HP MediaSmart software to help your organize and enjoy your media. The Blu-ray player displays beautifully on the LCD and a TV tuner is an available option for those who want it.

Performance and Conclusion

The HDX scored an 80 on worldbench, a 3320 on PCMark Vantage, and a 1225 on 3DMark Vantage. Translating those numbers a bit, you'll find you have a computer that fares well on general performance and puts up average gaming numbers, although it's clearly not designed for it. Perhaps the weakest number revealed in our testing was the 80 minutes of battery life during Blu-ray playback, which is barely enough to watch an entire film, although regular use battery life almost doubles to 156 minutes. The laptop is a little on the bulky side, but on the whole this laptop is an excellent and beautiful multimedia powerhouse that you can take with you when you need to.

HP HDX 16t Technical Specifications

• Processor 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350
• Memory 2GB
• Harddrive 250GB
• OS Windows Vista Home Premium
• Weight 7.3 lbs
• Screen 16.0 in
• Screen resolution 1920x1080
• Graphic Card Nvidia 9600M GT
• Battery Life 156 minutes

Pros

• Beautiful LCD
• Beautiful lid/palmrest design
• Blu-ray + integrated remote
• Reasonably powerful

Cons

• Heavy
• Size is thick
• Runs somewhat warm