HP's Big Showstopper

17-inchers used to be showstoppers at almost every event and LAN party, but as performance requirements and expectations grew, these multimedia entertainment behemoths have grown to be generally well embraced by the mainstream crowd and are pretty common these days. Now, just when we thought that we have seen it all, the HP Pavilion dv9014tx notebook caught us by surprise with its bold and stunning looks.For all its years in the notebook market, HP has never emphasized so much on design aesthetics and this new move certainly marks a significant change in direction. Previously overshadowed by the alluring VAIOs from Sony, it seems that HP has now finally come to task with something that might actually tackle the CE giant in the design department. Armed to the teeth with its latest Pavilion notebooks that are blessed with looks, specifications and features, HP shows their hand with the Pavilion dv9014tx:

Who would have thought that a 17-inch notebook could actually be so sleek and sexy. Definitely one of the most attractive multimedia notebooks we have seen around.

Trekking around the exterior of the notebook, the side profiles harbor a wide variety of ports and expansion slots and is perhaps one of the more generous multimedia assortments we have seen: four USB 2.0 ports (two on each side), one 4-pin FireWire port, 15-pin D-SUB VGA, S-Video out, an Ethernet and modem jacks, a propriety expansion port (for HP's optional expansion base unit), an ExpressCard/54, a 5-in-1 Card reader and even one HDMI output port to ensure that it is well geared for next generation display sets. This isn't the first notebook with HDMI output that we have reviewed, and this certainly won't be the last too as the market plays catch-up with the new high-definition standards. However, unlike Sony's multimedia monster, the VAIO VGN-AR18GP, the dv9014tx doesn't sport a Blu-ray (or HD DVD) drive.

A very generous spread of multimedia ports that include a 5-in-1 Digital Media Card reader and even a HDMI port. The propriety jack beside analog VGA port interfaces with the massive HP xb3000 Notebook Expansion Base that is sold seperately.

Found just below the touch pad is an infrared port (for the bundled remote control), a microphone jack as well as two audio-out jacks (one of which doubles up as an S/PDIF output).

The usual audio options with a special touch - the secondary headphones jack also doubles up as a S/PDIF jack. An infrared port can also be spotted in the foreground for use with the provided multimedia remote control.