I needed a fast video editing machine with greater portability than the usual desktop. The dv8t runs my copy of Pinnacle Studio 14 without straining. The software makes full use of the high resolution wide screen. There is no specific illusion of lighting speed because this quad core is smart enough to utilize its power only as and when necessary. For this reason the laptop runs cool! In fact I am surprised at how little heat it puts out which is a good thing. This baby is heavy but I expected that, I will not be choosing to carry it around on airplanes but when I need to take it with me on vacations I will not have to pack and unpack a full desktop system. There is an optional video tuner which has a tiny cable adapter for hooking up cable TV (not tried yet). I was pleased that HP does not force me to use the fingerprint reader although the HP software at times can be a little irritating reminding me more often than I desire to try out different features. I treat this monster with great care and respect and will look for a "gun case" to store it in when I do travel. So far (after about two months - January 2010) I am thrilled. It is a particular pleasure to boot up and put to use.

We took the plunge and bought this for the family, despite HP's dismal service record. So far so good. It's big (REALLY big), fast and with a good feature set particularly for the money. Windows 7 appears to be finally relatively debugged for a first release (much better than Vista in that regard). Lots of OS eye candy, in terms of the Aero features. If you're looking for a desktop replacement, that's mostly plugged in most of the time, and you need a lot of features and don't mind the weight, this looks like a good PC system for the money.

Pros:

1) fast and capable

2) rich feature set: high-definition screen (1920x1010), Blu-Ray, big 7200 RPM hard drive, full keyboard, several other bells and whistles

3) Windows 7 appears to be pretty reliable (so far!)

4) neat fingerprint reader (definitely a gimmick for some, but it makes switching between password-protected users a lot easier)

Cons:

1) we did say it was big (honking would be more like it)

2) poor battery life, at most about 1:45 (not sure why, given that we bought the larger battery which of course adds to the svelteness)

3) not portable (forget about traveling with this monster)

4) HP's legendary service (regarded as about as bad as it gets, just about as bad as Dell's)