Very capable laptop, mainly for desktop replacement use

Author's Rating:

Pros: Bright Screen, DVD +/- R Burner, WiFi, Media Card Reader, Many inputs, 24/7 Tech support

Cons: Somewhat heavy, loud fans, no bitsetting on burner, no CF card support, no PS/2 support

The Bottom Line: 
Buy it for your desktop replacement. Not for road warriors, a bit too heavy. Great build quality for the money.

Author's Review
I bought this laptop about three months ago from Office Depot on a price match to CompUSA and got a bargain. This is a very nice unit with virtually everything you could want - DVD Burner, WiFi built-in, ClearView screen, full-sized keyboard, media card reader, firewire...the list goes on.

I had been looking for some time for a replacement for my aging IBM laptop with a Celeron 500MHz processor from 2001, and this unit came along at just the right time.

The cabinet is sturdy, although somethimes the entire base lifts up when I try to raise the lid, so I have to hold down the base while opening it. That may change as the unit ages and the hinges wear slightly.

The DVD burner is a 8X8X24 (8X write, 8X rewrite, and 24X CD). The only drawback to this is the lack of bitsettng capability, you cannot change DVD+R to DVD-ROM booktype as you can with some other models of internal burners. This can be resolved by using only DVD-R's in this burner, which are automatically compatible with most DVD players on the market today.

I found the WiFi (or antenna) isn't quite as sensitive as the one on some Compaq laptops that I tried out, although it is quite capable if the AP is within your home. I don't have any issues with connecting at full speed.

The touchpad is nice with a row of ridges along the right edge vertically, which allow you to scroll through documents quickly and easily. This is adjustable for your touch preference, hard to soft touch.

There is a front mounted volume control with a mute button that allows easy control of the surprisingly loud and decent sounding speakers made by Altec Lansing.

The media card reader had a hard time with my 2GB Sandisk card at first, but there are updated drivers available that will allow it to recognize larger cards such as this one (see the HP website). Note the lack of CF card support, if you have an older camera, you'll have to use an outboard media card reader.

There are an array of inputs and outputs along both sides and the back of the unit, however, I was disappointed with the lack of PS/2 support that my IBM had. I prefer to use an external keyboard, as my wife has a Russian keyboard we use for this purpose. We solved that by buying a USB - PS/2 adapter for about $10 at Fry's Electronics.

Since the unit has two RAM slots, you'll have to use some expertise to remove the keyboard to access the one underneath, that will require some technical skill. There are instructions available online on how to accomplish this. There are two DIMM RAM cards installed already (2 X 256 MB) so you'll probably be better off replacing just the one easily accessible one on the bottom of the computer with a 1GB RAM card.

This unit also has firewire (IEEE1394) input, so you can directly hook up your camcorder to it and transfer the video for editing to the hard drive. The 2 GHz processor is quite able and up to video editing tasks, simply because it uses an Athlon 64 desktop processor.

One of the few drawbacks is the two fans which seem to run at all times, and can get somewhat loud occasionally. It's something you will get used to and a small annoyance compared to the power you get from this machine.

I am very satisfied with this PC and would heartily recommend it to anyone needing the power of a desktop in a laptop PC. Except for the somewhat heavy weight of 8 pounds, it is one of the best I've owned yet.