HP ZT3000
Wireless, networking and Ports:
notebook pretty much has the standard set of ports, most of which are on the back. It comes with 3 USB ports, 1 fire wire port, 1 parallel port (for printers), 1 Ethernet, 1 phone, 1 S-VIDEO, and 1 monitor. On the left side is a single PCMCIA slot; on the right is an infrared port, power cord plug in, and notebook lock mechanism. The built in Intel(R) Pro Wireless 2200 802.11b/g WLAN card is excellent. There is a button on the front edge of the notebook that allows you to activate the wireless card. As soon as you do, the notebook connects almost immediately to the best available connection. Windows XP also allows you to see all available networks in the area. I have noticed no significant power drain while using the wireless card.
HP ZT3000 Back-Side with Ports
At the very front edge of the notebook, there is a built in SD card reader. I wish that HP offered a multi-card reader option rather than just an SD slot. Nevertheless, I think this feature is very useful, especially if you have a digital camera that takes SD cards.
HP ZT3000 Front-side with SD Card Reader
Battery:
I get 4:10 minutes of charge provided I stick to Word Processing and checking mails. However, the 3.5 hours is pretty consistent whether you run movies, play games or just use word processing. Thanks to the new Lithium Ion batteries, charging does not exceed 2 hours. 3.5 hours is pretty decent because it allows you to watch a full-length lord of the rings DVD and still have a few minutes to spare. For the price range, I believe the battery power is quite decent.
OS and Software:
The choices for OS are Windows XP and Windows XP Professional. I opted for the professional just because it gives me a bit more control than the standard home edition. The notebook comes preinstalled with all the software listed above plus a free 1-month trial of Microsoft Office 2003 edition and some other useless CD burning software. I opted to do a full reinstall because I did not want the preinstalled copies of Microsoft Office Trial and AOL. One thing I liked is that the notebook comes with a driver DVD that contain up-to-date drivers for all ports, cards and features in the notebook. As soon as I do a completely reinstall, all I have to do is to stick in the driver CD and it automatically installs all necessary drivers. I found this to be very convenient as I frequently format my hardrives.
