HP's Athlon 64-based Pavilion zv5000 is a great value laptop. Its 15.4in. wide-screen display is bright and crisp and the superior-sounding Harman Kardon speakers make for an excellent movie-viewing experience. It also has a 3.5-hour battery life and runs cool to the touch, integrates a 5-in-1 memory card reader, and comes with a raft of productivity and multimedia software. For the price, it's hard to beat. Gamers beware though - nVidia's low-end GeForce4 440 Go comes with just 64MB of video memory, making it a sub-par solution for running the latest 3D games.

Pros: Bright, crisp screen; 64-bit CPU; card reader; good battery life
Cons: Low-end GPU; no built-in Wi-Fi; no ExpressCard


HP's Pavilion zv5000 desktop replacement laptop (362x284x456mm, 3.72kg) is decked out with all the trimmings, just like its big brother the Pavilion zd8007 (from £825 ex. VAT).

However, whilst PCIe graphics (albeit a low-spec nVidia GPU) is still present, the 17in. widecreen display has been swapped for a smaller 15.4in. panel (normal aspect 15in. screen also available) and ExpressCard/54 stripped out in place of a regular Type II PC Card.

The standard model we've reviewed here is based on an AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor. It also comes as standard with 512MB of DDR SDRAM (upgradable to just 1GB), a 40GB hard disk drive (4200rpm), DVD±RW/±R drive (not dual-layer), 15.4in. BrightView WXGA TFT (1280x800 pixels), and nVidia GeForce4 440 Go GPU with just 64MB of dedicated memory.

The system also includes built-in Bluetooth (dedicated on/off button). A powerhouse it's not, but the Pavilion zv5000 is more that adequate for general business computing, Web browsing, and playing back DVD-Movies.

We're disappointed that HP hasn't integrated a ExpressCard/54 PC Card slot, the new technology that is set to supersede PC Cards. First seen on the Pavilion zd8007, ExpressCards support new PCI Express-based modules, which offer high-speed transfers of 250Mbit/s each way.

These modules, which are not yet available (due any time soon), will have similar functions to those of the PC Cards they're meant to replace and promise to deliver greater and faster throughput as well as use less power. For more information on ExpressCards, please see our in-depth Technology Insider guide.

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