8460w Review

I know I had previously mentioned that I was getting the 8560w, but because of battery life concerns I ended up with the 14'' model. This review will consist mostly of personal opinions because you can decide what performance/ports you need. I welcome any questions.

Packaging- I only mention this because it was so poor that my laptop was scratched upon opening. CostCentral did well, HP did not.

Case- excellent build all around. The hinge is excellent and has no play. The bottom feels nice in your lap, and was cool enough to keep on my lap for almost 2 hours of Team Fortress 2, however, the hot air was too hot to keep my hand next to. The bottom door is very secure, and the way it pulls off in 1 piece is very clever. Unfortunately the 'P' in the HP logo was not glued on properly, and was peeling off. I think the heat in the shipping container caused this. Or just poor quality control.

Trackpad, buttons and touchpoint- It's fantastic, no arguing there. This is the first PC I have ever used (Ive always had Macs) and it rivals them. The buttons are quiet and have depress at just the right force. The trackpad is the best feeling one Ive ever used. Unfortunately the software multi-touch implementation is quite poor. Even with 2 finger scroll installed its way jerkier than even my old macbook. The touchpoint feels nice, but the color is off, and the actual rubber part isn't as easily manipulated as Lenovo's implementation.

Keyboard. Very good. No flex as far as I can tell and I tried to make it move. The arrangement is good, but different from my mac keyboards, so theres a lot of learning. I keep on hitting the function keys on the side, but that is user error, and not poor design. The up and down arrows are small, but still easily workable. They cut corners off the keys next to the trackpoint meaning I can't rearrange my keyboard into Dvorak, which is making me really learn it, but its still a pain.
Keyboard light- Either mine is defective (a distinct possibility), or it just doesn't work. The screen illuminates well though.

Battery life- 6.5-7 hours normal use(web, gmail, taking notes), screen brightness on the lower half, but closer to the middle than the bottom. This is with the 9 cell and 2630qm.

Screen(900p)-I'm no videophile, but even I can tell it's bad. The colors aren't bad, but it's the viewing angles that kill it. There is not an position I can find where all the colors colors look good. Either the top or bottom will look a bit off depending on the angle. It's not bad when doing normal activities, but when I game I can tell. I tend to adjust positions a lot when working which probably means the poor angles will bother me more than others.

Speakers- Unacceptably bad. Partially because the speakers are just of very poor quality, but mostly because they're both on the same side as seen in the photo. The sound they produce is dull, uneven, and scratchy. I know this isn't supposed to be a multi-media computer, but this is just ridiculous. Even the sound card was bad. All my music is on lossless, and I have a nice pair of IEMs, but even those sounded sub-par. I'll stick with my Cowon.

Conclusion- The 8460w is a fabulous machine marred by a few large flaws. Not even the great keyboard, case, and trackpad can make me OK with the poor screen and atrocious speakers. I have already called costcentral and had my return papers taken care of. They were very helpful and friendly, although their customer service weren't very knowledgeable, but they always asked someone before giving an answer. I plan on ordering the W520. I know the screen will be good, and even if the speakers are bad, at least they aren't all on one side. The plastic case and textured trackpad aren't anything to get excited about, but they will be worth the tradeoff.

 

The 8460w keyboard is not backlit. Only 8760w and 8560w have backlit keyboards.

 

Yeah...I know that. I own the computer. There is a light on the bezel next to the camera (similar to Lenovo's thinklight) that is used to illuminate the keyboard.