Product review: HP Pavillion dv 9000

The HP Pavillion dv9000z is a well rounded laptop that has many features for a relatively low price. I received mine with the following specifications:

Price: 900$ – 1000$

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 x2 1.7Ghz

RAM: 1GB

LCD: 17inch wide-screen

Optical Media: DVD-RW drive

Camera: 1.3MP

Battery: 47Wh

Audio: Internal Speakers, Dual Headphone jacks, internal mic, microphone jack

Wireless: 802.11 b/g broadcom

Graphics: NVidia GEForce Go

Other: 3 USB ports, internal modem, Ethernet, remote control, s-video

The 9000z is outfitted with the AMD Athlon x2, which is pretty good power for the price. With 1GB of RAM, this laptop is capable of running Windows XP pretty quickly, and runs Vista O.K. The laptop comes with Windows Vista by default, but an XP option is available.

The first thing I noticed about this laptop was its aesthetics. It has a black piano-finish lid, with a silver-coloured interior. The back of the screen has an interesting wavy pattern printed on it. Very nice. However, it is highly susceptible to fingerprints. After only about a day of use, the back of the screen was covered in them. The computer does come with something reminiscent of a glasses cloth for cleaning the computer, and the cloth does work quite well.

The interior of the computer shares the asthetics of the exterior perhaps a little too closely. The palm-rests under the keyboard are susceptible to skin oils, causing a layer of dirtyness to form. The cloth works a little less effectively here, effectively only spreading the accumulated grease. As well, the trackpad is coated with the same glossy finishing material, causing it to have much more friction than the average laptop mouse. However, I find that the added friction allows for greater precision, and it is relatively easy to get used to. The keyboard is a nice size, and the keys have sufficient depth to allow for rapid typing. It makes a very good note-taking and writing laptop.

The audio quality is pretty good with the internal speakers, although they could be louder. The additional headphone jack is surprisingly useful, allowing more than one person to listen to the laptop. There is a convenient touch-sensitive volume slider on the top button panel, but it is sometimes difficult to get it to work, as it is very narrow and not very sensitive.

The video on the laptop is great. The screen is bright and clear, and there were no dead pixels. Mine came with a glossy coating, and I find it really enhanced the colours. The integrated video is actually sufficient to watch high-definition movies, even on low-power modes! I was really impressed. As well, mine included a remote control, which was honestly not very useful. How often do you find yourself sitting too far from your laptop to adjust the volume while watching a movie? It is cool to play with, but not worth paying extra for.

The real downside to this laptop is the battery life. The battery that came with the laptop could only last a little over an hour on standard settings, and not much longer on power saving settings. The low-power mode dims the screen to a degree where it is difficult to see, especially with the glossy screen. This is not a usable note taking portable computer without a larger battery. However, I have ordered and received a double-capacity battery, and it is able to provide >3.5 hours of battery life, at the expense of some added weight.

All in all, it is a solid laptop, and is relatively cheap for the features. The real cost of this laptop is the battery life. Outfitted with a larger battery, however, it is a good writing laptop with lots of extra features. If you want a cheap laptop for a variety of day-to-day tasks and entertainment, this is a good choice.

Related posts:

1. Product reviews: Asus EEEPC notebook computer – Part 1 ... I had an old Targus DVD bag to...
2. Macbook Air Review At first sightComputer manufacturers have responded positively to our...
3. Product reviews: Lenovo Thinkpad laptop ... up, go to the factory fresh disk image...
4. Interior and Exterior Review of the Toyota Camry Hybrid ... . From the leather-wrapped steering wheels, to the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.