My Hp DV2000T Review

Well I just bought a DV200T, and am writing a quick review. Forgive the grammar, mispellings, and no pictures. I have yet to edit it. Just wanted to see what you guys thought of the core work, before I go ahead and start editing.
Input is appreciated, whether it be good or bad.

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Where And How Purchased
I purchased this laptop from Costco.com for, a good price in my opinion. It was ordered through Costco.com, and it took about a week and a half to build because of the components I wanted in it. It then took about a day to ship, and that was odd, considering I didn’t pay for express shipping.
Reason for Purchase
I bought this laptop for schoolwork and for multimedia uses. I like storing pictures, music, and videos. I also wanted to play the occasional game. Before this laptop I had a 4-Year-old P4 2.66 GHZ Toshiba Satellite computer. It served me well but it was falling apart. So I started looking for other computers. I first was looking at the Sony Vaio FJ computer and was going to take the plunge, but then Core Duo came out, and I could get this laptop for the same price with way better specs. And then I heard about Core 2 Duo, and I waited for that. I finally took the plunge when this laptop was made available with a Dedicated Graphics Card and a Core 2 Duo Processor.
The specs are…

-Core 2 Duo T7200 with 2.0GHZ and 4MB of L2Cache, with a 667 MHZ FSB.
-2GB of DDR2 Ram at 667MHZ
-Intel 802.11 B/G with Bluetooth
-Built in camera and 2 Microphones
-Nvidia GO 7200
-Lights Scribe DVD-RW, DVD RW+, DVD Dual Layer, with Lightscribe

All this for 1,500 dollars with tax and everything. Before tax it was 1,305 dollars.
Design
In my opinion the design is top-notch. Coming from DTR Toshiba, which weighed 8 pounds this laptop is light as a feather, and the “Piano Black” finish is very appealing. The only downfall to the finish is that it does attract fingerprints, but HP kindly offers a cloth for cleaning although it is not very good. The hinges are good; not the greatest, but they do their jobs. The only complaint I have is the camera, is placed higher than the rest of the display, so the display is kind of leaning on the camera. It looks kind of fragile, like the whole display is leaning on the camera, kind of silly, but you never know.

Durability and Build
The case yielded no creaking or flexing when picking it up from one side or another. The screen is durable and yields no flexing when twisting it. It is a very durable laptop in my opinion, more so than my Toshiba, or even the Vaio FJ I handled. The only problem is that the DVD drive, wiggles a little when picking it up by the drive. The hinges are nice and tight. The screen falls flush against the unit, which in my opinion is a good thing. Another thing is that the coating is actually VERY scratch resistant. I haven’t had one scratch in the 2 weeks I’ve been using it. I was very impressed by this. Considering that the Vaio FJ got 3-4 scratches in just 5 minutes.

Screen
The screen is very nice in my opinion. It has about 9 brightness levels but I keep it on 8 or 7 when normal because any more, and It’s a little too bright. The screen is coated with a glossy layer, which really makes the colors pop, and the images to look sharp and vivid. It is a 14.1-inch screen with a resolution of 1280*800. The screen is just the right size for portability. I am writing this review right now outside, and the glare is not very noticeable, but it is there. If I really look, I can see my reflection. The screen is about as good as the X-Brite ECO on the Sony’s, just a little less bright. This isn’t too bad for me because I usually keep the brightness down anyway. But the color and contrast is just as good. One more thing, I have the SEC or Samsung screen, and I don’t have any light leakage, just some minor leakage around the bottom of the screen, I don’t know why people are complaining so much about the screen. Of course I haven’t seen a QDS screen, but I’m kind of glad I haven’t because then I will have an urge to take this computer back, and get one with the QDS screen. Overall I’m pleased with the screen.

Performance-Everyday Tasks
The Core 2 Duo with a 2.00GHZ processor, coupled with 2GB OF super fast ram, make this computer absolutely TEAR through everyday tasks. It takes a second too open up Microsoft word, or too start up Windows Media Player. Everything is extremely responsive, and Photoshop is a breeze to go through. There are no real heat issues, and nothing gets too hot. The fan is whisper quiet. The computer got an absolutely amazing Super Pi score of 1 minute and 3 seconds on Super Pi Calculating it to 2 Million digits. In contrast my old computer got 1 minute and 26 seconds counting Pi to 1 million seconds, and this was a 2.66gh P4. This proves the theory even more that clock speed isn’t everything. The multitasking on this thing is also phenomenal. When I first got this computer I was doing all of the following at once; Installing Half Life 2, Downloading 3D Mark 05, downloading Gun bound, Downloading AVG, Downloading Windows Media Player, Downloading Ad aware SE, and Grabbing Music and Pictures from my Local Area Network, and uninstalling the bloat ware. As you can tell I was really pushing the processor and ram, and it wasn’t stuttering one bit. Playing music in the background, while typing up an essay or viewing 10 Fire Fox tabs is no problem either. Neither is running a virus scan, a spy ware scan, and typing an essay, while music is playing in the background. The only time it ever stuttered was while I was doing a disk defragmenter, AVG Virus Scan, AD Aware Se scan, playing music in the background, and doing a little Photoshop. This was the only time it ever even broke a sweat. Most computers can barely run Photoshop smoothly, let alone all those scans, while doing a disk defrag. It was also nice and cool. The only time the computer gets hot is during games, and that is the GPU, not the CPU. The CPU always stays at around 50 C even at heavy load, but the GPU, cranks up to 80 at the highest load I even got the GPU all the way to 90C. By the way this was the most I got to at benchmarkable settings, because I did get the blue screen once or twice while gaming, presumably because of the GPU overheating. I never got the blue screen just doing normal work. I haven’t had one crash, just while gaming, and that was because I taxed the GPU to bad, and it didn’t have sufficient cooling power. After all the computer is whisper quiet.

Performance-Gaming
The gaming performance is very good, in my opinion, for a thin and light, with a 3dMark05 score of 1504. I can play HL2 at all high at 1024*768, with AF AT 4X. And no AA. It always gets more than 50 FPS. Quake 4 is also very playable, averaging 45FPS with no AA and No AF, at 800*600 at High settings. Gaming is the only time the laptop heats up, the GPU can reach temperature of 80 Degrees Celsius, and at idle about 46 C. It does heat up the palm wrest. It can also play Battlefield 2 at Medium Settings/ High with NO LAG whatsoever. Prey is also no problem, I can run it at 1024x768, with 2xaa, and all eye candy enabled, albeit at medium settings. Doom 3 runs at med/high, at 1024x768. I can likely crank it up to the monitor’s native resolution, and only get a 5-6 fps, framerate drop, but I don’t want to lose any frames. The 3d Mark score is also kind of low because I have seen people get 1800-2000 with the same card. I guess I have to mess a little with the Powermizer settings, but no over clocking for me, considering the GPU already gets pretty hot. In comparison, my old Toshiba got 110 3Dmarks, and the Sony Vaio FJ got 254. That is 15 times faster than my Toshiba computer, and 14.5 times faster that The Sony Vaio FJ.

Battery Life
The battery life on this thing is nothing amazing. Because of all the high-end parts in this thing it averages about 2 Hours and 35 minutes with the standard battery. This is with just word processing. I haven’t tried movies yet. But I expect it will get about 1 whole movie through. It is way better than my old Toshiba nevertheless, which couldn’t even get through two full episodes of family guy but that did have a bigger 15.4 inch screen. The battery life will probably get better as I start tweaking the power usage, but for now it’s nothing but ordinary. So far I have used it for about 30 minutes, of word processing and playing music, and I have 80% battery left.

Speakers
The speakers are not bad, they are better than normal laptop speakers, but they aren’t amazing. The speakers are oddly placed, and it gives the sound an “echoy” feel. But they are Altec Lansing, and they are better than most computer speakers. They can fill a whole room easily. Also closing the lid and listening to music, is impossible, without considerable sound quality loss.

Wireless
The wireless does a weird thing, I don’t know why but only with my wireless, it goes on and off for no apparent reason. On other wireless networks, it doesn’t do anything like this, just on my router. I might just buy a new router, and see if it fixes the problem. It also does it plugged in to an Ethernet cable. It might just be the router because the router has started acting weird with my Dad’s desktop.

Quick play
HP’s answer to windows media center is quickplay. For the most part it works GOOD. Not great. It does allow you to listen to music, watch videos, pictures, and DVD’s without booting up into windows. It can feel a little slow sometimes though. Not because of the computer, but because of the program. It also takes a pretty long time to start up, but it can be used by the remote, and with and S-Video output, this computer could be a DVD Player, a jukebox, a game console, a picture album, and an Ipod Video.

Remote
A cool feature that comes with this laptop for only an extra 12 dollars is a remote, which lets you start the laptop, play movies, play music, and watch DVD’S without getting up and touching the computer. It is stored in the PC Card slot of the computer.

Notes
This laptop does not come with a standard PC Card slot. It is a variation, and it isn’t compatible with most pc card add-ons. You can also get a TV tuner that you plug into the PC Card slot.

Conclusion
In conclusion this Thin and Light is an amazing computer. It is very fast, and it is very nice looking. It weighs only 5.3 pounds, and it is thin at about 1.4 inches. It is a good student computer, and is good for general gaming. The battery is pretty good, for the power in it. And the screen is nice. It is an all in one solution, and it will last for a good 4-5 years.

 

No One is interested?

 

I also got a HP dv2130US (it is similar to your dv2000 model except mine is less configured). I got mine at CompUSA during their 2-day special for $890 (including tax & after rebates).


It was pre-configured as:

- Duo Core 2 T5500 @ 1.66 mhz
- 1 GB RAM
- 120 GB HD
- XP Professional
- Intel GMA 950
- LightScribe 8X DVD burner.
- Remote

Pros
-Great value, nothing comes close within $350
-(Core 2 is quick!)
-Decent battery life for 6 cells (without dedicated card)
-Shiny screen.
-LightScribe label DVD/CD burner!
-Fast, response keyboard.
-2 mics, 1.3 megapixel webcam (non-rotating though)
-2 stereoheadphone jacks, now you and your friend can tune in.


Cons
- No bluetooth included in this model.
- No dedicated graphics card with this model.
- Ceramic/piano feel at the hinges, ok for the cover, but just doesn't do it for me at the hinges.
- Can get warm at times.

I'm getting about 3 hours and 20 minutes on my battery with the intel 950 integrated graphics card. Roughly 2 minutes for every 1% battery power. That's with screen dimmed a few notches and with wifi on and surfing casually, typing on notepad and recording lectures. I haven't done other benchmarks, but just using it for few days has already convinced me that this is faster than Core Duo 1.83 mhz SONY SZ I used to have (everything seems snappier), I'm sure when 64 bit software comes out, it'll be even better. Great deal and great price.

 

anymore comments or questions anyone. feedback would be appreciated.

 

I like the review, but post some pics if you can and also the SuperPi times of it.

Cheers