HP Mini 1000

Netbook has a killer keyboard, so-so speed

HP'S MINI-NOTE 2133 STOOD OUT with its high-res screen, Windows Vista OS—and high price.The new, low-priced Mini 1000 doesn't seem as distinctive, however, since its specs ate almost identical to those of its competitors.

The Mini 1000 is impressive, with solid construction, a stylish and svelte case, a superb keyboard, and a super-blight screen. The glossy black lid now sports a subtle Swirl pattern. The keys are no longer slick and shiny but subtly textured, and the screen has grown from 8.9 to 10.2 inches. Despite the larger display, the Mini 1000 has slimmed down to lx10.3x6.6 inches (HWD) and 2.5 pounds, making it the smallest, thinnest netbook yet with a full 10-inch-wide keyboard.

The standout feature of the Mini 1000 is its 92 percent keyboard.The keys feel solid, without the usual tapered edges, civing them flat tops with a slightly larger surface to hit.The layout is excellent, with none of keys found on other net books.The wide touch pad is very responsive; its buttons are easy to press, although we wish they were below the pad instead of off to the side.

The 1,024x600-pixel display is so bright that blacks looked gray at full brightness. Turning down the brightness solves this issue. The display is sharp and has a very wide viewing angle, but its glossy finish is sometimes annoying. Though I-W plans to offer an 8.9-inch screen as an option, the high-res 1,280x768 screen from the Mini-Note 2133 will not be available.

The 2133's anemic VIA processor has been replaced by the netbook-standard 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, backed by 1GB of DDR2 memory and running Windows XP Home Edition SP3. HP included a 60GB hard drive with our review unit; 8GB and 16GB SSDs, 2GB of RAM, and a Linux OS with a friendly "Mobile Internet Experience" front end will be available as options.

Performance is in line with that of other Atom-powered notebooks.The Mini 1000 scored 135 on Cinebench 9.5.Tasks like e-mail, Web browsing, word processing, and light numbercrunching were all smooth, but as with all netbooks, in terms of multimedia the Mini 1000 is more suited for video and audio playback than content editing and conversion. The netbook completed out Windows Media Encoder test in 27 minutes and 8 seconds and our Mines encoding test in 19 minutes and 24 seconds, which is almost identical to the $439 Lenovo IdeaPad S10's scores. With the included three-cell battery, the Mini 1000 lasted 2 hours and 21 minutes playing back an MPEG-4 movie; lighter usage, such as writing and browsing the Web, squeezed out another 20 minutes.

The integrated GMA 950 chipset does a fine job with Windows applications and full-screen video playback, but its poor 3DMark06 score of 91 means garners will be best off reliving five-year-old classics. The speakers are creatively placed behind a grille inside the laptop hinge, and although they don't have a
lot of volume, the audio clarity is superb.

For networking, the Mini 1000 includes 802.11b/gWi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 radios, as well as a 10/100 Ethernet port. You'll also find a pair of USB 2.0 ports, a combination headphone/microphone jack, an SD/MMC slot, and a VGA Webcam with a microphone.Though the notebook has a VGA monitor output, it uses a small custom connector, so you'll need to purchase an optional adapter cable to use an external monitor.



The Mini 1000 offers standout, solid construction and comfort. It is a worthy competitor in the netbook market, giving users the small size of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 without the compromised keyboard. Unfortunately, we're not convinced that its keyboard and weight are enough to offset the $80 to $120 price premium over competitors from Asus, Lenovo, and MSI that provide nearly identical performance.

Denny Atkin

Computer Shopper January 2009

Read More ..

HP Pavilion dv5t

Entertainment looker flaunts media features




WHO SAYS TRAVEL has to be boring? HP aims to make it as entertaining as possible with the Pavilion dv5t, a notebook built as much for games, music, and movies as for everyday computing.

Glam and glossy, the 5.8-pound dv5t features a shiny black lid with an illuminated purple-and-white HP logo embedded near one corner, an LCD flush with the bezel, a dazzling silver keyboard, and a wrist rest and unusually smooth touch pad painted to match.

Like previous Pavilions, the dv5t sports an LED button strip just above the keyboard, with media controls such as mute, volume, and play/pause, plus wireless on/off and QuickPlay buttons. We found the volume-cntrol bar a bit confusing: It's not immediately clear how you're supposed to interact with it.

HP earns top marks for expansion and connectivity, stocking the dvt with VGA and HDMI 1.3 ports, a 5-in-1 media reader, modem and Ethernet ports, a mini-FireWire port, and four USB ports-one of which doubles as an external Serial ATA (eSATA) port. A slick, 23-button infrared remote is included; when you're not using it, you can store it in the notebook's ExpressCard slot.

That remote will probably get quite a bit of use. There's no TV tuner, but if you're pairing the notebook with an HDTV (the 15.4-inch screen tops out a 1,280x800 pixels), you'll welcome the Blu-ray drive/DVD burner. The discrete 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT graphics card had no trouble cranking out 1080p video to an HDTV.



The dv5T also rocked our benchmark tests, eliciting stellar scores in our productivity benchmarks, though its 3D gaming results were less impressive. It earned a respectable 40 frames per seconds (fps) in our 1,024x768 F.E.A.R test, but barely 20fps in Company of Heroes, and even lower scores at its native resolution.-Rick Broida

Computer Shopper November 2008
www.hp.com

Read More ..

HP Compaq 6730b

Costly biz machine brings the battery life



NO ONE WILL MISTAKE the $1,387 HP Compaq 6730b for anything other than what it is-a button-down business notebook-but it runs circles around lower-end models. As suitable sa it may be for suit wearing travelers, however, the 6730b seems overpriced and underpowered-at least in the graphics department-compared with the similar Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (see the review below).

The 6730b weighs a hair under six pounds and measure 1.3x14x10.5 inches (HWD). Its matte-silver finish and black keyboard are dull, but the 6730b has one decorative bit of flair: an LED-lit, touch-sensitive strip of quicklaunch and volume-control buttons. (It even works when the notebook is off-simply tap the Info button to launch HP's QuickLook2 for instant access to Outlook 2003/2007 data.)

Based on Intel's new Centrino 2 platform, our test unit came with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a DVD burner with LightScribe, and Intel's GMA X4500 HD integrated graphics. The 15.4-inch widescreen LCD has a native resolution of 1,280x800, an antilare coating, and a fairly narrow viewing angle. The 6730b also supports Bluetooth and 802.11n Wi-Fi; other hardware perks include four USB ports, an ExpressCard slot, a memory-card reader, a VGA WebCam, and a fingerprint sensor. It also has a mini-FireWire port and a serial port.



A decent performer (except in games, thanks to its integrated graphics), the 6730b is a great choice for long trips. It lasted just under three hours in our battery-drain test, which means you should get close to six hours of runtime with the power-managementfeatures enabled.-Rick Broida

Computer Shopper November 2008
www.hp.com

Read More ..

HP Voodoo Envy 133

Whoa. We were wondering what would happen when the performance freaks at Voodoo teamed up with HP, and the first notebook to come out of this acquisition is a surprise. No, it’s not a gaming rig. It’s one of the sleekest and most innovative ultraporables we’ve seen. The Envy 133 (starting at $2,099) rocks an instant-on mode that lets you surf the Web and make Skype calls without booting into Windows (called Voodoo IOS) and a slick power brick that doubles as a wireless access point. Intrigued yet?

Voodoo was kind enough to let us steal a pre-production sample for a little hands-on time, and although the Envy 133 was not benchmarkable, we wanted to walk you through everything that makes this dream machine stand out. Stay tuned for a full review.

Design

It all starts with a druable carbon fiber case that weighs 3.4 pounds and measures a mere 0.7 inches thin, complete with retro-chic squared-off edges. This is the kind of minimalist laptop that Christian Bale would carry if they remade American Psycho for the 21st century–in a good way.

Customization options range from your choice of 14 Voodoo Allure paint finishes to a selection of laser engravings. Underneath the lid you’ll find a brilliant 13.3-inch, LED-backlit display whose high-quality fused composite glass runs from edge to edge for a unified aesthetic. Last but not least is a funky backlit keyboard with a space-age font and a multiple-gesture touchpad (for scroll and pinch options) that’s nicely textured.

No Port Envy Here
More important than the Envy 133’s stunning looks are the innovations packed in (and on) this 3.4-pound machine. You can also connect anywhere via optional integrated mobile broadband, a feature the Air lacks. Two USB ports (one of which doubles as an eSATA port for external storage), an HDMI port, and a low-light VGA webcam are just a few more reasons why we would happily tote the Envy 133 anywhere.

The New Instant On

The Envy 133 launches users into an environment where they can surf the Web and make Skype calls within a mere 10 seconds. Called Voodoo IOS, this environment is powered by Splashtop (see our Splashtop FAQ) and gives you the full Internet without having to run Vista in the background. Not only does this feature save time, it should also save battery life. You can also instant message your buddies (via Pidgin) in AOL, Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, and more, and access photos and music–but not movies on the optical drive.


Juice Meets Connectivity

The 133’s power brick isn’t really a brick at all. It’s more like a flat slab. Voodoo calls it Aura PowerConnect because it allows users to plug in an Ethernet cable for a point-to-point Wi-Fi connection. Essentially , you can create up to a 50-foot wireless network instantly, which is perfect for working in remote offices or hotel rooms with either spotty wireless connections or no Wi-Fi at all.

SSD Optional: The Envy 133 can be ordered with a 4,200-rpm 80GB hard drive or a 64GB solid state drive. Performance hounds will want to opt for the latter, although the instant-on functionality of this notebook makes the boot time advantage of SSD not us compelling.

More Power To You: While the MacBook Air forces you to send in your precious notebook when it’s time to replace the battery, with the Envy 133 you can simply swap and go. The standard battery lasts a respectable (but not great) 3.45 hours between charges.

Matching External Optical Drive Included: Although Apple charges $99 bucks for an external optical drive on the MacBook Air, Voodoo bundles every Envy 133 with an ID-coordinated DVD burner (sorry, no Blu-ray yet).

Outlook: Although the Voodoo Envy 133 is considerably more expensive than the MacBook Air’s starting price of $1,799, and it’s not quite as thin or light, you do get a lot for your money, including more ports, the best instant-on mode yet, and a replaceable battery. The fact that you can customize the Envy 133 to your heart’s content is icing on the cake.

Full Specs for Voodoo Envy 133


CPU: 1.6-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SP7500 or 1.8-Ghz SP7700

Operating System: Windows Vista

RAM/Expandable To: 2GB/2GB

Hard Drive Size/Speed: 64GB SSD (optional 80GB/4,200 rpm)

Optical Drive: external 8X or 6X dvd+/-RW

Display/Resolution: 13.3 inches/1280 x 800

Graphics/Video Memory: intel GMA X3100/384MB

Wireless Networking: 802.11g/n, Bluetooth 2.0

Ports: One usb, esata/usb, hdmi, headphone/mic • Card Slots: expresscard/34

Size: 12.7 x 9.0 x 0.7 inches

Weight: 3.4 pounds

www.hp.com

Read More ..