With its outstanding 18.4” screen, immense power and superb media capabilities the HP Pavilion HDX18t is the ideal multi location notebook or desktop replacement and starting at just over $1,300, it’s very well priced.

With a Blu-ray optical drive, HD screen with 16:9 ratio, 3GB of RAM, and a choice of Intel’s Centrino 2 processors up to the Quad Core Q9100 2.26 GHz, there is no better large format entertainment notebook on the market.

New HP Design

At 9 pounds, the HDX 18 is no light weight, but it’s sleek ultramodern design belies its weight and its also thinner than the majority of the competition. Externally the HDX 18t is a show stopper with its titanium “liquid metallic” design and full-size, color-matched keyboard with numeric keypad. Open the lid and you will see matching palm rests and touchpads with the same high gloss feel an silver and patterned black lines span across a charcoal background. The keyboard and touchpad are silver, and the titanium pattern even extends to the touchpad.

The full size keyboard and numeric keypad is an excellent example of the new HP Pavilion models and its equally as good as the keyboard on the dv7 which is excellent to work on for long periods. Also like the dv series, the HDX has a row of touch-sensitive backlit buttons above the keyboard to control media playback functions.

Multimedia Powerhouse

With its full HD display, and 16:9 aspect ratio widescreen movies just look awsome. In a word, it’s stunning. Watching any Blu-Ray movie and you’ll see the format in all its glory, with excellent colour and sharp vivid contrast. The glossy screen is tad too reflective, and does limit the viewing angles slightly, but don’t let that comment put you off, this is an outstanding screen.

Sound reproduction is also excellent from the built in Altec Lansing speakers, and the do produce stunning theater-quality sound. With the Dolby Home Theater software it simulates the surround sound experience to give the impression of Dolby True 5.1 Surround.

Fancy some network television? Well, providing you can get a signal the HDX 18 has a built-in TV tuner with an external antenna. If you are close to an external antenna the PH HDX 18t, like the HDX 16t has a coaxial input to give a clearer, sharper picture, and of course you can record all your favorite shows.

Inputs and Outputs

The HDX 18 has all the usual ports which include four USB ports, FireWire, HDMI, VGA, and eSATA ports, Ethernet and optional 56k modem. and Like the dv7 you get two headphone ouputs and a microphone, an ExpressCard/54 slot and a 5-in-1 memory card reader.

The low light Webcam produces good video and still photos the CyberLink YouCam software, offers a plethora of special effects, including filters, distortions, avatars, backgrounds, and animations.

Entertainment at the Extreme

We love the HP Pavilion range of high performance notebooks including the HDX 16t, and the HP dv7. What makes the HDX 18t stand out is its sheer size and power. The screen can only be described as staggering and the Theatre quality sound is excellent. Without doubt this is an outstanding entertainment centre but the HDX 18 also doubles up as a great work horse and it breezes through multi tasked Office apps, number crunching, and photo and video editing tasks.

Graphics Performance is exceptional with the Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics card and 512MB dedicated memory driving the the 18.4-inch display and it delivers a higher than average score.

Our favourite game along with millions of people is World of Warcraft and if you’re going on a weekend trip and can’t stand being away from all your guildies, then the HDX will serve you well.

It would be a brave man or woman though that ventured on to an aircraft with an HDX. As with the dv7, the HP Pavilion HDX 18t is certainly no laptop. This is a full blown multi location entertainment PC for moving about the home, from home to office, or to your weekend place in the trunk of your car. Going on a long RV trip? The HDX Premium Series makes an ideal travelling companion, combining a full blown HD  Media Entertainment Center, a games machine and a powerful workhorse in a transportable configuration.

HP have redefined the desktop replacement and entertainment notebook sector with the HDX Series. If it fits the bill and you can afford the best, then don’t hesitate.