COMPAQ Armada E500 Battery |
Posted: September 16, 2014 |
While I am becoming increasingly mobile, my old Dell Inspiron 1100 has become too heavy to carry around. I needed a computer that would perform well in multitasking, have decent storage, possibility of DVD backup. After some tedious research, I bought a ThinkPad Z60t, shortly before the Z61t with dual core processor came out. One feature that I found useful on ThinkPad in comparison with the HP, was its rather painless System Migration Assistant: on the HP, I ended up doing everything manually. I returned the ThinkPad because the wireless did not work properly, and I decided I could not put up with the loudness of its keyboard. Then, I bought a Dell e1405, only to return it the next day. After handling a ThinkPad, I was very disappointed with the poor quality of the new Dell design: its fragile plastic was a sign of regression from the older models. It also turned out that the sound card installed on the Dell did not allow for recording through Stereo Mix, but only through the microphone, i.e. with all the noises of typing, talking, etc. And, as I spoke about it to the customer service, it also turned out that $200 invested in a 4 year warranty did not buy me any technical support: I would have had to pay additional $200 to add that on! All HP business models, on the other hand, come with 3-year international support.The HP nc6400 has the sturdy feel of a ThinkPad. There is no flex to the keyboard; the hinges on the lid are strong. I haven’t carried it around much, yet, and am not sure if it gets scratched easily, but it doesn’t give that impression. The ports are conveniently located, and the location of headphone and microphone jacks marked on the top with small off-white icons. I guess due to the size of the laptop, there was no room for indicating the location of the USB ports, etc. The entire surface of the computer seems framed inside a thin trim that protects the ports, optical drive, and speakers from direct impact, should one accidentally bump into something while moving the laptop around. The screen is kept from brushing against the keyboard by little rubber bumpers placed around the screen and two at the bottom of the keyboard. Measuring in at 160 nits, the display is much dimmer than competing notebooks. The display produces a clear image making both text and media easy to view and the color contrast is decent considering the devices low-entry price point.The more serious issue for the display is its limited viewing angles. The HP Pavilion Touchsmart 11z’s screen is equipped with an anti-glare coating, but it doesn’t seem to help much. Titling the display backwards or forwards even slightly causes a noticeable glare to appear on screen along with reflections of background images. The display fairs slightly better on the horizontal axis though the screen becomes difficult to view past 90 degrees. I was happy to observe that I did not have any such problems with the version installed on HP nc6400.I haven’t much used the multiple security software, but I can already tell that it’s not as user-friendly as ThinkPad’s. With its choice of logins (fingerprints, tokens, passwords), it is software destined mainly for multi-user corporate client.HP includes a small remote with the dv5t, which fits in the ExpressCard/54 slot. There are many multimedia controls on the remote. This remote is designed to be used in media center. Overall, a handy and useful component.
The HP dv5t’s keyboard is truly enjoyable to use and feels of high-quality. The tactile feedback is excellent thanks to the just-right key travel and soft but not too soft cushion. The keys have a smooth, almost-glossy coating and feel nice. This keyboard is rock solid and does not suffer from any flex even when abnormal pressure is used. It is easy to feel your way around the keyboard without looking down at it.The HP dv5t’s touchpad functions as expected. It has separate left/right buttons and a vertical scroll zone on the right. Its most unique feature is the on/off button above it, which is extremely convenient. The surface of the touchpad is glossy, which means if your fingers are moist, they will drag over it; dry fingers will have no problems. The buttons give solid feedback and are relatively quiet. It is easy to tell the left button from the right without looking. It is also easy to tell the boundaries of the touchpad, since it is inlaid in the palmrest area and has a lip.The 802.11b/g card in the HP dv5t is made by Broadcom. I have had no issues with range or drivers, nor connecting to a variety of networks. Unless you have an N network, I recommend saving the money and sticking with the base wireless card. The optional built-in Bluetooth works well with my external Bluetooth mouse.Battery and Power Adapter At the time of writing, there are two battery options on the dv5t – a standard 6-cell, and the High-Capacity 6-cell. I have the latter in my dv5t. Using Vista’s “Power Saver” power profile and while creating text documents, I measured two hours and thirty minutes of battery life. The battery time is not impressive but not exactly disappointing, given that my dv5t has a powerful 512MB video card. Non-gamers should opt for the Intel X4500 integrated graphics, which are power-friendly and should boost the battery life to well over three hours.Above is a standard Dell 90W adapter on the left vs. the HP dv5t’s 90W adapter on the right I was surprised at the small size of the HP dv5t’s 90W AC adapter. It is light, small, and easy to travel with.The HP dv5t comes with a one-year limited warranty and one year of toll-free tech support; a three-year is available. Accidental Damage Protection (ADP) is also offered. I stuck with the 1-year warranty; if something is wrong with the notebook, chances are it is going to show up within a few months. I have yet to have any notebook fail after it has lasted a year without problems.The 160GB 5400RPM Fujitsu hard drive has good performance for a 5400RPM drive. Its access time (17.9 ms) and burst transfer rate especially lag behind 7200RPM and larger-capacity 5400RPM drives. I find this drive to be a big step up from my previous notebook’s 80GB 5400RPM Samsung. These benchmarks will put the spotlight on the Nvidia GeForce 9600M-GT 512MB graphics card. The 9600M-GT is between 15 and 20 percent faster than the popular 8600M-GT; while both cards have the same number of processor cores (32), the 9600M-GT has higher clocks.Synthetic benchmarks are just that – synthetic, not real. This section of the benchmarks focuses on the actual in-game performance of the HP Pavilion dv5t using several of today’s most popular and demanding games. Results are measured in Frames Per Second (FPS). The minimum FPS for a gaming to be playable (not choppy) is 30. All of the games were run in DirectX 9 mode (if applicable).I first started looking around for a laptop around Feb 20th when my previous HP dv4000 mysteriously died on me. While I could have gotten it fixed, I decided it was easier to upgrade to a more modern notebook. I had settled on getting a HP dv6000t until I saw the HP dv9000t. The glorious screen and video card at only 7.8lbs was irresistible. Most people would consider 7.8lbs too heavy to carry for a college notebook, but my previous dv4000 with a 12-cell weighed about the same, so I was set! I also considered the Dell Inspiron e1705, but the dv9000t was more affordable, plus I didn’t need the power (and heat) a 7900 GS would probably give off. The screen is huge and the notebook itself is very slim. Previous 17” laptops from HP were very bulky weighing 9.8lbs, but it’s nice to know that the dv9000t is easy to carry when needed. Believe it or not, I actually carry this thing around every day (some people would call me crazy), but it is manageable. The fingerprint finish is also a nice touch that HP has now put on desktops and laptops that really makes the laptop shine. HPs design on this laptop is a process I’ve seen evolve over the years to make a much better product. It looks like it’s worth more than you paid for it, especially with the suave imprint finish applied to the top. One thing to be weary of is that the latch requires 2 hands to open, and the hinges don’t seem as solid as my previous laptop. It looks great on a desk, but it’s not a ThinkPad in terms of durability so no one should treat it as such. I compared the dv9000t to my previous 15.4” dv4000 and found that it weights just as much with the 12-cell battery while being MUCH slimmer. That’s definitely an improvement in that area.HP’s service is moderate compared to other companies. It’s not the best and it’s not the worst but somewhere in between. Personally, online help was more receptive when I was exploring my options about my broken dv4000 compared to phone help so that avenue was much better. I haven’t dealt much with tech support at all before that, so I can’t make much of a decision. HP has a LOT of software pre-installed on my notebook, some of it I quickly removed but others I did keep, most notably HPs Total Care Advisor. It’s a helpful program that keeps track of the state of your PC, advising you on certain updates for drivers, basic support, and browsing HP accessories. It was useful enough that I kept it. Be aware that HP uses a recovery partition as a “worst case” backup instead of discs, so you’ll need to make them yourself. One thing I dislike is that reinstalling Windows Vista from the recovery partition and discs installs all the other unnecessary software as well; I might just have to get a Vista RTM disc and install Home Premium myself. HP does easily offer all the downloads for installed drivers, so that is a huge plus.HP decided to give the new dm3 a clean look with a two screwless access panels located on the bottom of the notebook. Simply remove the battery and slide a release switch to upgrade the RAM or swap out the hard drive. This is actually a great idea not only for making upgrades easier but it has the added safety measure of forcing you to remove the power supply before you can mess with the internal components (something you should do anyway).
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