HP 530... Opinions? Reviews?

Hi!

I'm thinking of buying a HP 530. I know it's a budget laptop, but I don't have any problem with that... I just need something to read my emails or run firefox...

My problem is that it's a relatively new model and it's difficult to find good reviews or opinions about it.

Has anybody this computer?? I would like to know how is the build quality and the screen...

EDITED. For the same price I can get a nx7300... Maybe is it a better deal?

Thanks!!

 

I do not have the computer, but I know that HP is a great brand and have great support, I would stick with them.

 

How much? And what does it have in comparison to the 530? It already has WAY better build quality going for it.

 

Here is the spec sheet for the 530: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/321957-321957-64295-3251176-89315-3375953.html

It is an SBO notebook as well, but appears to be using older chipsets for a newly-released unit.

 

Really the nx7300 is a bit more expensive. For example, for the celeron version:

HP 530: CM 410/ 512 MB / 80 GB -> 407 €
HP nx7300: CM 440/ 1GB / 80 GB -> 470 €

Here are the specs for the nx7300:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/321957-321957-64295-321838-89315-3310301.html

Moreover it seems that the nx7300 comes with a better battery... and I have read two reviews about it on this website and it doesn't seem that bad.

I couldn't find any user reviews about the 530...

Well, what do you think?

Thanks!

 

The nx7300 looks like the better machine, as it won't have the neutered 940GML chipset and officially supports 4GB of ram for future upgrades.

 

Yes, I agree with you... It seems that the nx7300 is the way to go...

Thanks!!

 

Edited: Double post

 

ya dont have to double post it LOL

 

i got the CoreDuo T2050 version laptop to 'play with'. The laptop is well built (but for the screws), the hinges are strong and the screen does not flex or ripple when compressing from the top. The screen is extremely bright. However the keyboard is too big (spaced out) and trackpad was not sensitive and click buttons felt 'hard'. No digital card slot and onboard mic requires an external mic to be plugged it (didn't work with msn/google talk without external mic). Performance - OK and weight is 2.5Kg (so OK as well)
I am in the process of reviewing it.. will post it at the earliest (with tests/pics) etc.:GEEK:

 

http://dexterneedsabrain.googlepages.com/hp530

 

any review's/ pics out? unable to find any on the web.

 

I bought this computer three days ago. The configuration is:

Core Duo (32 bit only) 1.8 MHz
1 GB RAM in a single slot (second slot is free)
120 GB hard drive
Intel 940 graphics chipset (slow but ok for office/internet/programming)

The computer came with no OS (technically it had FreeDOS installed) so I had to get XP
separately and install it. I did receive a CD with Windows drivers.

The design is good-looking. But enough good news.

This is actually a replaced computer. The one I bought originally turned out to be making an annoying high-pitched squeal that seemed to be related to the display. There is a button
above the keyboard that's pressed when the lid is closed, thus turning off the display;
when I would press the button by hand, the squeal would disappear.

Regardless, the store I bought it from replaced it without any contention on the same
day with an identical model.

Installing Windows

Even while trying out the computer at the store, it froze a couple of times during the
BIOS memory check. When I got it home and booted into FreeDOS, it also froze once when I ran a program (I think choice.com). The freeze was such that Caps Lock didn't respond but Ctrl-Alt-Del rebooted it. I shrugged and moved on to the task of installing Windows.

As the Setup CD booted and started loading its files, it would either freeze, or abort saying that some file it was loading was corrupt. I once got to the stage where it says "OK, now Press Enter to Install Windows", whereupon it informed me that there was no hard disk to be found on the system (!) and there was nothing for Setup to do.

It dawned on me to dig through BIOS, and I set "Enable Native SATA mode" to Disable.

This worked, and I was able to install Windows. So far I haven't had it freeze again.

Installing drivers

A few drivers - chipset, graphics and sound - installed by running their corresponding Setup.exe files. Others, such as the Ethernet and WiFi drivers, I could only install via the Device Manager. It's a good thing I knew where to look.

Sound

Above the keyboard there is a perforated strip under which the speakers must be located.
The sound is actually good, loud enough without distortions. However, when playing some
mp3s with Windows Media Player, the sound skips every once in a while. Playing the same
music with mplayer didn't result in any skipping, so I don't know whether this is a hardware problem. I haven't tried Winamp yet.

Keyboard

As one reviewer put it, the HP engineers took great care to make sure the keys don't accidentally get activated when you press a corner and that you have to hit them dead center for the keypress to register. Nothing could be closer to the truth. You will need to type with surgical precision and make sure your fingers touch the keys in their mathematical center, otherwise you will miss keys all over the place. Actually I said "touch" but it should be "slam" because the keys don't register even when fully pressed! Not only are they pretty solid to begin with, thus ruling out any accidental keypresses, but even if you overcome the initial resistance and push it down past the "snap", the key doesn't register. You have to press another nanometer *past* the point where it "snaps". This is counterintuitive and frustrating. As I am typing this review, there is heavy use of backspace and the general feeling that I am fighting the keyboard. Maybe this will go away as I get used to it.

Home/PgUp/PgDown/End are on a vertical row to the far right. This is OK. Insert and Delete are in the far right corner.

There are two Ctrl and two Alt keys, which is good. The F keys are separated in groups of four, also a sensible decision.

The only keyboard light is for Caps Lock, which I suppose is good design sense - who needs to know that Scroll Lock is on?

Screen

The screen is like the old run-down Rolls Royce that Jeremy Clarkson drove into a pool on his show. It has nice colors but an overall washed out, bleak look that takes getting used to. There is no contrast and the black is quite approximate. Viewing angles must again be chosen with mathematical precision. The "best" viewing angle is with the eyes positioned perpendicularly to the screen, looking down on the bottom line of the screen. If you're tall this means you have to hunch down or lean back, because the lid doesn't open to a full 180 degrees but stops somewhere around 130.

Have I mentioned how frustrating it is to press Enter and the computer not registering it?

Touchpad

The touchpad is completely nontraditional - just a rectangular area with a grid of dimples on it. There is also a separate strip for scrolling. It works very well. The two buttons are hard to press but I don't care.

Hard disk

It's silent and pretty fast, even with SATA disabled (I tried enabling it back now but Windows crashed 1 second into loading). It self-parks on inactivity with a "clack", but it's perfectly tolerable. There is no activity LED for the hard disk. THERE IS NO ACTIVITY LED FOR THE HARD DISK. You can always put your ear down when you need to ascertain whether the hard drive is doing something.

Ports

Every single port is located on the left side. Modem, Ethernet, Power, VGA out, two USB ports and PCMCIA and that's it. That's right, two USB ports. If you use a mouse, the cable will have to go all the way around the back and plug into the left side. Sounds silly but in practice it's fine - what could be a better place for a long mouse cable than around the back.

Audio out and Microphone in are on the front. Good luck using permanent external speakers, but using headphones is pretty much OK.

Heat and Noise

The air outlet is also on the left side. When the fan goes off it's a low quiet hum. I am in awe with the fact that they finally realized the simple truth that it's a good idea to run the fan on low speed and thus keep the CPU temperature reasonably low, instead of keeping the fan off until some temperature threshold, and then turn it on full blast. This used to happen on my previous notebook, and it was distracting.

When the CPU is under load, the fan gets faster and louder, but the sound stays remarkably gentle and nonviolent. This is the first time I don't object to a notebook fan going off at full speed.

The air intake is a round hole on the bottom, so don't put it on a pillow or something.

Overall feel

The whole thing is cognitive-dissonant. It's minimalist (good) but remarkably unwelcoming during the actual user experience. Typing soon becomes a chore you're actively trying to avoid. The screen lid stops opening far too soon, and you have to hunch down to find the only good angle. I don't think HP is ripe for building notebooks yet.

Would I buy it now? Definitely not. My typing speed is down to 20% of normal. I'm hunching to see the screen. And I had an initial frustrating experience with the original laptop, so I don't trust there won't be problems with this one.

Again, the biggest problem is the horrible keyboard. I'm going to look around different showrooms and type on identical models, maybe this is just an exception and I should replace it again.

My advice is don't go for the low price because you can't afford it. I should have saved up for a Thinkpad as I planned to.