The Dream Machine »
FERDY CHRISTANT - FEB 15, 2007 (06:46:19 PM)
Dark, wet, cold weather. A commute of 3 to 4 hours per day. Work draining me. Evenings spent documenting PIMB and doing the final tests. And let's not forget the idiotic commercial pressure of valentine's day. This week has its challenges for sure. Luckily, things turned around yesterday. Yes, the weather was nicer. But more importantly, this arrived:
It's been years since I last treated myself something this expensive, but it was worth it. This machine comes close to the perfect laptop to me. It starts with the unpacking. It is a lot more beautiful than can be explained with a picture. First, it is massive, a 17" widescreen machine with a full keyboard (including numpad). Its coating is impressive, shiny black with a fine detailed imprint. The keys feel awesome, stubborn with great feedback. The mousepad is large and works well, but I can't work with them. I prefer a mouse. There is a hardware button to disable the touchpad, so that you cannot hover over it accidentally. There's lots of visual indicators and extra mediakeys on the keyboard. They are indicated with blue LEDs and audio feedback when you press them.
At the heart of this beast is a Intel Core 2 Duo 1.66 MHz processor, 2048MB of RAM, and a Geforce 7600 512 MB video card. For storage, there are 2 100 GB discs. The optical drive burns CDs/DVDs, but also Lightscribe DVDs. Around the laptop are connections for virtually anything, including HDMI and a slot for memory cards. Inside the laptop is an extractable remote control, which is targetted for usage with Media Center, which is preinstalled. Furthermore, a webcam is built-in, as are two microphones.
Crapware, the unwanted pre-installed software, is limited. I removed some and left the useful apps on there. One nice little detail is the Desktop Manager software that comes with the video card. It enables all kinds of cool desktop effects, such as Window throwing, transparancy, etc. The video processor is amazing (for a laptop), I am simply not able to lag it, no matter what I throw at it. Finally, the system has excellent system restore software on board, and...a free upgrade to Windows Vista. I'm not sure if I should consider that an upgrade, but hey, it's free.
Summarizing, at the end of the storm...is a bright blue sky.
Disclaimer: this post is not sponsored. I wish!
Comments: 3
COMMENT: STEPHEN HOOD
FEB 15, 10:44:27 PM
Don't want to burst your bubble but if you have a short warranty you may want consider a longer one. We "switched" from Thinkpads to HP's for a little while because they had more memory, bigger screens and HDD for less cost. 3 out of the 4 machines had problems within the first year. The keyboards got more stubborn over time...keys just stopped working. Screens were nice and problem free but the keyboards were a bugger. They had a really short travel from the get go - not sure if that was the underlying issue or not.
Like I said I don't want to burst your bubble, just don't want you to get caught with grief down the road either since it's a bit of an investment. Felt the need to speak up about our experience. These are different models so I certainly can't say it will be the case with these ones..but we were kind of left with a bad taste in our mouth about the units we got from HP.
Needless to say we went back to Thinkpads. «
COMMENT: FERDY
FEB 16, 07:39:41 AM
No bubbles bursted here, your feedback is very welcome. The machine comes with a 2 year warranty by default, hopefully that is enough. I will use the HP intensively but will not travel too much with it, it is for private use only. It will not make a difference for the keyboard, but maybe the other parts.
And I could not agree more on Thinkpads: they are the best laptops, but also expensive. «
COMMENT: STEPHEN HOOD
FEB 16, 05:37:50 PM