Excellent Computer for an Excellent Price
I've owned my computer for almost a week now and I'm absolutely loving it. For the money I almost bought an Hp with a T6600 processor and 320GB hard drive etc etc. I bought this for the same price as the other hp and got MORE memory and a better processor. Why wouldn't you want an upgrade of 180 GB hard drive for free? If your a student and like to have lots of music videos and play light gaming and still have tons of room for your homework and projects this is a great computer.
I also love how its 14" monitor so I can take it anywhere and fit it into any bag. It has a very sleek and glossy exterior. A little bit of work to keep clean but that's no reason not to buy a computer. The speakers are great for a laptop. I was actually surprised how clear sounds and music was. As with most HP laptops you get the lightscribe burner which is great but it also comes with a disc replacement thing so if you don't care to use a disc drive you can remove it and save some weight. But really it doesn't weigh that much.
The only downfall I have with this computer is the slightly low battery life. I think a little bit of that might be my fault cause I just plugged in and played rather than letting the battery charge fully first before I started playing with it.
Great laptop for the price.
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Relieved and Extremely PleasedI bought this HP for my wife to replace her 3 year old Toshiba. It's 100% her computer but she places everything technical in our lives on me and then holds me accountable for its performance. My wife is brutal on electronics and her laptop is no exception. The Toshiba had a VERY hard life and ticked along perfectly until the past few months. After wasting $200 on a failed repair (hard drive) I decided it was cheaper to replace it than to nurse it along. I initially went shopping for another Toshiba and frankly I feel like I would be writing a 5 star review for a Toshiba if it hadn't come down to a $150 price difference. I was able to use the competing Toshiba at a retailer but when I went to Amazon I found this HP. Nearly identical in performance and appearance; aside from a couple of keyboard control features they were the same.
I bought the HP Amazon shipped it FedEX and it arrived to Fairbanks Alaska in less than 48 hours (used standard shipping nothing special). She loves it charged it up and it performs flawlessly and much better than my 8 month old Dell XPS (Argh never again...long story). I have not attempted to load Office 2007 yet but suspect from my research on 64 bit systems it will work fine. Neither one of us cares for the bubble scheme and thinks it detracts from the professional look of the rest of the finish (petty I know).
The mouse pad works perfectly and I particularly like the keyboard layout and feel of the keys. I REALLY like the number pad without having to buy a 17+ inch system which is of course standard now.
4 USB ports 1 HDMI output a great LCD screen and Graphics card...zero to complain about. Oh and Windows 7 works very well.
I'll report back if it doesn't hold up to the flagrant neglect my wife typically inflicts on her electronics but as of for now she is rightfully treating like a shiny new sports car!
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Great Workhorse (But Outclassed)Dell's XPI CD is my favorite laptop of all times. However it's not as nimble as it would like to be any more. So unfortunately there's only reason to keep this baby around: if you want the easiest typing experience available in a laptop.
== The Good ==
The trackball in this machine is by far the best pointing device I've ever used. You can drag/click and drag/right-click across the whole screen without contorting your hands or wrists into carpal tunnel syndrome candidates.
The keyboard is good very good - good action on the keys tactile feedback and relatively easy to clean.
It's wonderfully solid. I dropped mine any number of times without suffering screen keyboard or other problems.
== The Bad ==
At 166 MHz and 64 MB max RAM it's not suitable for anything past Win98 (I recommend the most recent Win95 if you have disks).
The optical drive is read only (no burning) and is painfully slow compared ot more recent versions.
2.1 GB of storage doesn't leave room for much (this will not be your MP3 storage device).
For modern internet you'll also need some type of PC Card ($40-100) and there's no USB built-in.
== The Ugly ==
As much as I love this machine it's not worth more than $50 in my opinion. You can get a 30 gig iPod for $250 which will allow you to store more pictures music and even software files. If you're willing to part with $400 you can get a Vista-ready laptop that's lighter speedier and more versatile.
== Conclusion ==
There is one overwhelming reason to buy the XPI: for the trackball. If you can't deal with trackpads this is the machine for you. If you only need the machine to write the great American novel while you're at the beach... and you don't need to logon to the net you'll be fine with the anemic features. (Make sure you have a home computer that you can synch up with often to keep this machine from being too cluttered.)
== [A note about Dell] ==
I have bought about 8 Dell machines over the years (for myself or as gifts). I've never experienced significant problems except for the first machine which was a nightmare (the Texas-based tech support misdiagnosed the problem on the first call and it took a half-dozen calls and about 30 hours of my time to get it right). However the company recognized they had sold me a lemon and eventually replaced the machine with a faster version with more memory upgraded the hard- and optical-drives.
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good value
It has served me well the few weeks I have had it now. The wi-fi is keeping me connected as I'm typing this from a hotel room. The processor is nice and fast. There are four high-speed USB connections. The unit is solidly built (perhaps a mite heavy).
My only criticisms are as follows:
The screen resolution doesn't look quite as sharp as on my desktop monitor. I'd say maybe 85% as sharp so it's usually barely noticeable. The other thing is that the soundcard doesn't have all the mixer capabilities you might expect to find in a desktop. I don't know if this is common in laptops and I sort of stumbled upon the issue. But I got around it by purchasing an external mixer from the Guitar Center.
I initially intended it only as a travel companion but have since begun using it in my recording studio (with Cakewalk Music Creator). Oh and to play SimCity (which doesn't work on Vista!) All in all I am quite satisfied with it.
The seller shipped it out immediately and it arrived by FedEx or UPS (I forget which) in a matter of days (two or three as I recall -- it was quick).
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Non-transerrable XP License
I bought one of these laptops two months ago. It has been working just fine. Today Microsoft told me that the license is not valid. It has a valid certificate of authenticity on the back but does not have a second "refurbished" CoA. When I look at the internal System Properties/General tab it says "XP Corporate" which means it was covered under a volume/site license which can not be transferred or sold. I will probably have to buy a fresh copy of XP ($150) and re-install.
Before I made the order I checked to see that the advertisement specified "Genuine Windows XP". I also checked the CoA when it arrived. When the Microsoft updater offered to run "Genuine Advantage" to check the authenticity I confidently thought "sure go right ahead." Now every time I restart I get a big message that says I am a victim of software piracy. I expect the operating system will eventually simply stop running.
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