 Great Design & Good Quality. No bluetooth & Poor Operating System. Strengths: - Very nice looking, modern design.
- Very bright wide screen display.
- Good quality. Reliable.
- Multimedia features (speakers, webcam, remote control).
- Option to install second hard drive.
Weaknesses: - No PCMCIA slot.
- No bluetooth.
- MS Vista Operating System gives LOTS of problems.
- Crippled NVIDIA video drivers prevent secondary output of more than 1024*768 to secondary monitor
Summary: 2007-12-09 18:08:23 This is one of the nicest looking notebook computers on the market. The price is very attractive and the quality is very good. The screen is of a very high resolution and wide screen format. The ability to add an additional hard drive (for a total of two) is quite unique and very useful. Installation is very simple requiring only the removal of one screw on the bottom of the computer. Unfortately the installation requires a special HP caddy which HP sells for about 50 dollars (including shipping), eventhough it provably costs less than 1 dollar to make..and nobody else sells it. So there is no way to get around the cost if one wants to have a second hard drive. When I bought this notebook computer I was under the impression that it had a PCMCIA slot, but after having purchased a new PCMCIA card I realized that the slot that comes with this notebook is NOT a PCMCIA slot, but a new type of slot (that is the same size of a PCMCIA slot, except shorter), which is NOT compatible with PCMCIA cards. This new card slot is so new in the market that there is VERY few cards available for it, and NONE of the regular PCMCIA cards will work with this PC. The other dissadvantage of this Notebook is that there is NO built in bluetooth adapter. HP does sell the components to add bluetooth, but installation is VERY difficult (requires you to open up the computer completely, voiding the warranty), and the adapter sells for almost 100 dollars, and is ALWAYS out of stock. So my recommendation is to buy the model that comes with integrated bluetooth, even if it costs more. You will save yourself a LOT of hassle and expand the functionality of your notebook quite a bit. I regreat not having done that orignally. You can ofcourse add a usb bluetooth adapter to it, but the convenience of having the bluetooth adapter built into the notebook computer is worth it (in my view). Last, but not least, the notebook comes with the Vista Operating system and while that may seem like an advantage, it has been the worst technical nightmare of my life as a PC user. Vista has LOTS of problems with 3rd party applications (even if they claim to be 'vista certified'. The Operating system continiously have problems with the installation of USB devices (particularly after using the computer for several months), and the NVIDIA video adaptors that come with the PC are crippled. They do not allow resolutions higher than 1024 by 760 on the secondary monitor. I have spoken about this issue with NVIDIA directly, and they tell me that the video card is capable from a hardware perspective to output much higher resolutions, but the NVIDIA drivers do not. They don't know when they will have drivers available that provide for custom resolutions on Vista. Please note that this DOES NOT only apply to this notebook, but to ALL notebooks that have NVIDIA video cards and are running Vista. So if sending output to a secondary monitor is important to you and you need more than 1024*768, you will NOT be able to do it yet (until NVIDIA releases new video drivers for Vista). If you buy this PC you may want to consider buying the XB3000 Notebook Expansion Base made by HP for this notebook. It is a great docking station that has a slot for an additional hard drive and expands the number of input/output options of the PC. Furthemore it raises the monitor of the notebook to eye sight level and doesn't take more space on the desk (since the HP notebook goes on top of it).
UPDATE. -- Just a short update to inform you that after 7 months of use the computer broke down completely. It simply would NOT start at all. Since the product was still under the 12 month manufacturer warranty HP sent me a box and pre-paid label to ship the notebook computer back to them. What case as a suprise to me is that they DID NOT replace the computer; instead they made me wait a total of almost 3 weeks before I got the repaired computer back. The replacement arrived with unrequested and unwelcomes upgrades (for example a screen with a much higher resolution that makes reading text impossible) and with new hardware problems (which arrived as a result of the repair). After complaining OVER AND OVER AND OVER again, and even calling the corporate office, HP has finally agreed to replace the computer. Therefore my rating on this PC has changed from Very good to Completely Unsatisfactory. It is SHOCKING to see that HP considers 3 weeks turnaround to be OK. I am surprised that they repair notebook computers in the USA. Their printer division DOES NOT repair printers. They simple send out a new or refurbished unit....RIGHT AWAY....not after 3 weeks! In this day and age when consumers depend on PCs for day to day activites such as paying bills, writting letters, receiving email, etc.....it is incredible that companies still consider a 3 week turn around to be normal.....plus it is even more unbelievable that after waiting for 3 weeks one ends up getting a computer that presents new problems
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