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Boltaction
Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2004
- Messages
- 939
I picked up this notebook this morning at best buy, which was on sale for over $200 off. Excellent deal, and as my review shows this hp model is surprisingly high quality for the price.
Specifications:
Intel Celeron M 410 Yonah core
940 Chipset
950 GMA graphics
512MB DDR2 533 cas4
60GB Hitachi 8mb sata
14.0 widescreen display (made by samsung) with truebright
Broadcom PCI-E wifi b/g
1394
High Definition audio
6 cell 4000mah battery
Philips CDRW/DVD scb5265
Windows XP Home
Initial impressions:
When I first opened the box it was packaged very typically: laptop with styrofoam holders and a cardboard box holding all accessories. Everything was neatly set and it was easy to put together. The notebook has a good outer shell, the design is standard for this model line. Overall it seems to be solid and usable with its silver plastic and front speakers. I was surprised to find a remote that fits into the PCMCIA slot when not in use, and 3 USB+firewire. This does not look or feel like a cheap laptop. Boot time was quick from BIOS but bloatware made it chug, even with 512MB memory. Fortunately none of the uninstallation forced me to do anything more than wait around at the add/remove window.
Very little options in the BIOS which is typical though it left me wanting more information (this is coming from a DFI fan) but the spartan menus did provide ample data to know what to expect from the laptop, nothing more.
SCREEN:
Crisp, clear and beautiful. Mine came with no dead pixels and has a native resolution of 1280x768 which is great for desktop use. Higher pixels are preferred but for the price it is pretty much amazing. Good detail and excellent visability give this screen a 10/10, which isn't too surprising since HP has been focusing on media inclined PCs for years. Reflective surface is not a problem mostly due to its high brightness, though a flaw can be found when pressing on the top of the lid: The front of the screen is very well protected but the rear is not, it is easy to ripple or possibly damage the lcd via the top of the laptop.
KEYBOARD AND MOUSE:
Unfortunately HP decided to use a small touchpad on this model, which is not forgiving to my big fingers. Another assumed part of an HP package is the ability to turn the touchpad off at the push of a button which was included. The keyboard is for the most part well made and designed well, the power button is a textured silver plastic but comes off as cheap. The arrow keys are highlighted and large, a nice touch. Function keys are placed poorly and it is easy to put your laptop into standby mode while trying to turn the brightness up or down. The entertainment buttons on top are typical blue as is with every other light on the case, which isn't an issue. Keyboard does not flex, though not very comfortable for touch typers.
PORTABILITY:
5.5 pounds and 14.0 screen make the HP dv1708nr an easy to carry laptop. I find it very well suited for school or work, you can carry it with you without hesitation. It seems to be just thin enough and just light enough to consider it a lightweight though the thickness was noticable. Reducing this by a few millimeters would have helped a lot.
GRAPHICS:
Intel GMA 950 graphics are subpar for real gaming but are just fine for older games. For example CS 1.6 played back well at native resolution but BF2 wouldnt load. For the price? Nothing can come close. It is quite faster than the original 900 GMA graphics, but that isnt saying much. Half Life Source runs very slowly.
UPGRADEABILITY:
UPDATE Because this laptop uses the 940 chipset as opposed to the normal 945, it upgrade path is very restricted. You cannot upgrade beyond a Celeron M processor with this board, and the dv1708nr is marked down again for using both DIMM slots. Basically, you really don't have an upgrade path save for hard drive and ram.
POWER:
The Celeron M 410 runs at 1.46ghz with 1mb L2 cache and 533 front side bus, making it pretty much a core solo from an architecture standpoint save for speedstep. At stock ram size it is capable, but when a 512 is added (making it 768 total) helps quite a bit in multitasking. Using CoreAVC you can play back HD content at 60-70% cpu usage, a fine example of the power of yonah.
BATTERY LIFE: Amazing. I can't believe this thing goes for over 3 hours on a 6 cell and a celeron. Out of all the positive aspects, the battery life is the best part.
ACCESSORIES: There is a useful remote that is included which controls volume, DVD playback, channel up/down, power and up/down arrows. It uses a conventional CR2016 battery and smartly fits in the PCMCIA slot when not in use. As is the case with more and more laptops there are no reinstall CDs only an AOL disk which was quickly burned. A 6 in 1 media card reader (which fortunately includes xd) adds a nice touch to this laptop which also solidifies HP's approach to the multimedia side of PC's.
Overall:
7/10
If you can get it for $399... 9/10.
Pros:
65nm yonah (i know this is very common, but its rare this cheap)
Good screen
Excellent battery life
good upgrade path
Unbeatable price
Respectable performance
Cons:
940 chipset is limited to celeron only!
Subpar touchpad
Loud CDRW/DVD drive
bad power supply input location (I mean, it sucks)
Lots and lots of bloatware
wrists cover up speakers
