P-7805u or HP HDX18t

I bought a Gateway P-7805u from Bestbuy last week @1049, which is not open yet. Should i keep this one or buy an HP HDX18t at similar price after its 30% off coupon?

BTW, is there anyway to tell the resolution of P-7805 without opening the box? The display machine in BB is 1920x1200, but some1 here got a lower res.

Thx a lot.


spec of HDX18t

Operating system Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit) edit
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.4 GHz) edit
Display 18.4" diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p) edit
Memory FREE Upgrade to 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) edit
Graphics card 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT edit
Hard drive 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection edit
Personalization Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Fluid) edit
Keyboard HP Color Matching Keyboard edit
Networking Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card edit
Primary DVD/CD drive Lightscribe Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer edit
TV & entertainment experience No TV Tuner w/remote control edit
Primary battery 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery edit
Productivity software No Productivity Software edit

 

The 7805 is quite a bit more powerful than the HDX. The HP's are nice and i generally like their "feel" but point for point the 7805 kick the crud out of the HDX in almost every way preformance wise

 

You can compare your laptop's date of manufacture and batch number (should be on the box) with one's already posted here to tell if your laptop has a WUXGA or WXGA LCD and if it is WUXGA, whether or not it is made by AUO or LG. I gathered this information from right here in this forum and used it myself to purchase my laptop.

Laptop Batch #

- Lower WUXGA
I006597 WUXGA
I007332 WXGA
I007603 WUXGA
I007759 WXGA
- Higher WXGA

Laptop Manufacture Date

- Earlier AUO
11/16 AUO
11/17 AUO
11/17 LG
11/19 LG
11/29 LG
- Later LG

*Note: Due to the inconsistency of Gateway's manufacturing, as well as potentially inaccuracies in this data, your laptop could potentially be different.

 

Especially when it comes to the GPU...

 

Thx a lot.

Do i need to turn on the laptop to see the information?

The batch# on box is: H365871

BATCH: H365871
22-25-029-01 B
Q: P22 A: 481274
D: 102 S: 5

 

BTW, the specs on the Box

"Screen: 17" Ultrabright WXGA TFT LCD"

does it mean the laptop has WUXGA LCD with 1920x1200 res?

Thx

 

So it seems that yours should have an AUO WUXGA LCD.

 

They all say that.

 

Did you see the HP HDX18t review of 1/14 : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4791

 

While not the HDX18 or the 7805, I'll give my 2 cents on related laptops based on what I remember from a few weeks ago since my 7811 is back in for repairs (it's 3rd so far since aug 2008)

I don't do much of the newer, higher-end games, so I can't really comment on how well one runs [insert game here] over the other, but both seem to play games such as COD4, Quake/Enemy Territory/CS fine for me.

Major similarities/differences not easily found from specs and/or based on ordered config
*Both have 1920x1080 displays
*HP has T9400 processor
*HP has blu-ray rom
*HP has bluetooth
*HP fingerprint reader

Image Quality: The HP display looks better to me....better uniform color/lighting, both has light bleed around the edges

Sound: The HP has better sound by a wide margin, but it also has a subwoofer

Heat/Fans: The HP appears to run cooler under normal activities (web, email, word) and the I don't recall ever hearing the fan(s) turning on/off like I did with the 7811. Under 3d game load, the HP left palm rest does get very warm (and even now it is warmer than the right side), but fan noise is still less than 7811. I do not have measured heat numbers for the 7811, but I've been using the HP for web/email crap for about a hour now and everest shows:
hd: 38
gpu:48
cpu/core1: 40
cpu/core2: 41
cpu: 50

Looks: Obviously a very personal/subjective thing, but I prefer the looks of the HP over the 7811, but I'm also a black/chrome guy

Integrated controls/media buttons: Hp again, they just feel and look nicer, the 7811 where more like plastic afterthoughts to me although I really only use the mute and vol up/down controls. Trackpad I can't really comment on since I use an external mouse 99%+ of the time. I don't recall any major difference between keyboard feel, BUT the HP has the ctrl in the "right" space

OS: Both run vista off of clean installs fine. I also got them both running XP. I had ubuntu running on the 7811, but have not installed it yet on the HP.

Wi-fi: same connection performance

DVD drive: no performance specs, but I prefer the location of the HP drive (right side) and have had no accidental opens....not sure if the 7805 has the drive on the left and the same trigger mechanism, but the one on the 7811 was poor.

In terms of things that I like on the 7811 (and I assume would be the same or close on the 7805)
--2 hard drives bays/raid support
--more bios options for basic tweaking iirc
--higher end nvidia gpu

I've never compared battery life since I'm on line power 99%+ of the time.

Now without any discounts, the HP would have cost be about $700 more than the 7811 did, but after the 40% (I got in on the Nov BF deal), they both came out about the same. If I could keep only one, it wouldn't even be close, the HP would stay, but I'm also biased against the 7811 as I've had nothing but problems with it and BB refuses to refund my money and just keeps sending it out for repairs.

Not sure if that helps or not.

 

The 7805u has the optical drive on the left side. This is one of the few things I don't like about it, as I'm used to having them on the right side (every laptop I've had going back to an IBM 365XD, which was on the front, has been on the right). It seems to work just fine, but getting used to popping it out with the "other hand" is taking some time.

 

Bah, i just saw that and realized I still don't know my left from my right, the hp drive is on the right and the 7811 and based on what you said, the 7805, is on the left. I edited my previous post to reflect this.

 

mindstorm, I read the review of the HDX18 and your comparison, what is causing the lower left to heat up? Is that where the hard drive is? Can it be cured?

 

I really don't know what the cause of the heat under the left palm rest really is. The hd is located more towards the center. I also have NOT attempted to see if the increase in heat is more because of cpu or gpu activity. Under QW:ET it gets fairly hot. Not so much that I can't play the game using the WSAD keys, but more along the lines of ", that's pretty hot". I don't think there is an easy cure, but I really don't consider it a problem at this point. What will the long term effects be? Time will tell.

 

Really? I'm thinking my QX9300-equipped HDX18t might do some serious damage to your 7805 in more ways than one...

All-in-all, I agree with Mindstorms comparison 100%. Having both myself, the HP out-classes the anything from Gateway, but in particular the 7811 and 7805. It is better built, looks better (IMO), and with discounts can come close to the cost of the 7805u.

The only downside, I can see, is the GPU. If gaming is your sole purpose, then the HDX18t is not for you. If you want a gaming rig on-the-cheap, then a refurb 7811 is great. I'm probably keeping my refurb 7811 (which came in MINT condition) and taking back the 7805 because of the cost difference.

So, whilst there are some pros AND cons on both sides of the fence here, I certainly wouldn't claim that the 78xx would "kick the crud out in every way".

 

Hey just checking out your specs, are you a gamer or a developer or both?

 

Pure gaming... Gateway ( b/c of the GPU )
If not then HP... better in everything else.

 

Lol! I'm glad I'm not crazy, the first time I used this thing I was slappin around on the right side to eject the tray and looked over there like "where the hell is my DVD drive?". Absolute only notebook ive ever used that had it on the left.

As for the HDX, I haven't used one personally, but from my experience HPs definitely have a build quality edge on the higher end models vs the 7805u. That's not to say I think my 7805 is poorly built, it just doesn't feel as good, even the cheapest HP I owned (G50-104nr which is a total entry level model) was probably comparable in "soildness" though the gateway looks a lot better than that machine, but my DV6609 was much nicer looking and more solid. If you plan on doing any gaming or anything graphics intensive though I really think the 9600M GT disqualifies at least that build (i dont know if you can up-option it higher than that?) also the build you posted has a slower and smaller HD than the 7805. Other than that, as has been said, it has pretty much a nicer everything else. That said for the money I haven't seen much that can compete with the 7805, if HP had had an offering at the time that could compare for the price I would have bought another HP since I've owned 3 and liked all of them.