Digital Home Thoughts: HP Pavilion HDX Entertainment Notebook Reviewed

Only my slightly crazy friend Stephen Hughes would try something like this: taking the HP HDX9200 (a.k.a. THe Dragon) to a local coffee shop and set it up to do some work. It was certainly an attention getter, that's for sure! This is the most detailed review of this product that I've seen, so if you're thinking about purchasing this laptop, give it a good read. In my own time with it, I found it to be an extremely powerful and fast machine, and the screen was nothing short of glorious. You're paying more for the integration of all that hardware than you would if you bought a desktop and a screen that size, so this type of computer is really aimed at someone who needs a top-end computer and the ability to move it from place to place: wedding photographers, video editors, live recordings, etc. Or, really, if you're someone who has money to burn and likes busting out the biggest and baddest mobile computer at at LAN party - this thing has your name written all over it.

The price has come down a bit since we did the 31 Days of the Dragon giveaway, and you can get the basic configuration for $1399 USD with a respectable 2.1 Ghz CPU, 2 GB RAM, and two 120 GB hard drives - but that configuration lacks the 1920 x 1200 screen. The fully-loaded, take no prisoners configuration will run you about $4000 USD - but what a laptop!