Hewlett-Packard Pavilion N3270 - HP's K-6 based notebook - Hardware Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, May, 2000 by Victoria Hall Smith

HOC RATING 8

* Configuration: Win 98, 475MHz AMD K6-2 processor, 64MB SDRAM, 6GB hard disk, 14.1-inch active-matrix display, 6x DVD-ROM drive, 56Kbps modem * Est. Street Price: $2,100 * Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard Co., 800-322-4772, www.hp.com

ONCE UPON A TIME, ANY NOTEBOOK PC that included extras like DVD and a 14.1-inch screen was cost-prohibitive, not to mention too heavy to carry for long. While still no lightweight, Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion N3270 is a loaded notebook at a reasonable price.

HP's thrifty design scheme teams AMD's 475MHz mobile K6-2 processor with shared memory architecture--the generous 8MB of display RAM is borrowed from the 64MB of system memory. Based on our experience with earlier economy PCs, we feared this sharing would adversely affect performance, but saw little evidence of that in our tests.

And that's where the cost-cutting stops. The 6GB hard disk can handle a hefty multimedia presentation, as can the built-in Polk Audio speakers with Dolby Surround Sound. And the 1,024 by 768-pixel active-matrix display is crisp and bright with slides and videoclips alike. The built-in DVD-ROM and floppy drives and V.90 modem are really icing on the cake.

A quiet keyboard; plenty of standard ports and PC Card slots; a software bundle starring Microsoft Works, Quicken Basic, and McAfee VirusScan; and easy access to HP's e-Center backup, fax, e-mail, document delivery, and other services for small businesses make the Pavilion a complete system. At 7 pounds, it sure feels like one.

All is not perfect with the N3270--the lithium-ion battery is rated at 3 hours, but we got only 2.25 before running out of juice. And while we prefer the Pavilion's cursor touch pad to IBM and Toshiba portables' pointing sticks, it was sometimes overly sensitive. Overall, though, we were impressed enough to rate the Pavilion a must-see for mobile users in the market for a new traveling partner.

[up arrow] A lot of laptop for the money

[down arrow] A lot to carry (7 pounds)

RATINGS

HOME OFFICE COMPUTING rates products on a scale of 1 to 10--with few 9's or 10's--based on value, performance, innovation (medals go to rare standouts in these areas), ease of use, and suitability for home offices. The [up arrow] and [down arrow] symbols indicated pros and cons.