The HP Pavilion dv5000z, launched on January 5th 2006, is virtually identical to the Pavilion dv4000 with one major exception: where the dv4000 can be configured with Intel's Celeron or Pentium processors, the dv5000z features an AMD processor - either the Pentium-equivalent Turion or the less expensive, Celeron-equivalent Sempron.

With the Pavilion dv5000z, HP delivers a well-designed and versatile multimedia laptop that starts at a highly affordable $679, which is a few dollars less than the dv4000. It weighs the same as the dv4000 - about 6.5 pounds - and just over a pound more than the thin-and-light dv1000. Like the dv4000, the dv5000z is chock-full of entertainment features and is quite competent at productivity and multimedia tasks. It can be configured with a few different ATI graphics cards, which give it the potential for decent, though not exceptional, gaming power; for a higher-octane gaming experience, we recommend the more expensive Dell XPS M170, which has a much more powerful graphics card. Though it still lacks the built-in TV tuner found on significantly more expensive systems, there's not much else that the Pavilion dv5000z can't handle. We think it's a very good choice for any student, home, or small-office user.

Our loaded Pavilion dv5000z test unit, priced at $1,522, came outfitted with a 2.2GHz Turion 64 ML-40 processor; 1GB of DDR SDRAM (1x1,024MB); an ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress graphics card with 128MB of VRAM; a 120GB hard drive running at 4,200rpm; Windows XP Media Center; a 15.4-inch BrightView wide-screen display; a DVD burner featuring HP's neat LightScribe technology; an integrated 54g 802.11a/b/g networking card with Bluetooth; and an extended 12-cell battery. Equipped with an extended 12-cell battery, however, the dv5000z delivered great battery life, running for 5.5 hours; the dv4000 we tested, equipped with a standard 6-cell battery, ran for 2.4 hours. Though the extended battery adds only $40 to the price, it adds almost a pound to the system's total weight of 7.4 pounds (8.3 pounds with the small AC adapter), which makes the dv5000z a bit too heavy for regular travel. For more information about the Pavilion dv5000z's design, features, and warranty, check out our full review of the very similar Pavilion dv4000.