HP NX7010??

Hello,

I am looking to buy a new notebook. This model is one of four that I am considering. I would appreciate a review, comments, pros/cons, suggestions from any one that owns this model or one similar. The particualr one I am looking at is on CDW's website:
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=625057

I would also like to know about HP/Compaq customer service and tech support. Have you had any problems with your notebook and how well did they fix it? How is the build quality of this notebook?

Also, does it bother anyone else that all the 'important' ports are on the back (all 3 USB's and the Firewire). I actually prefer these on the side for the pocket drive or hooking up devices (extra drives, cameras, etc). I only like the back used for big stuff like printers and monitors.

Thanks in advance for your review, comments, suggestions, etc.

 

I had an NX7000 a few months ago. This was released last year in August I believe. Below is my take on the unit when I had it.

PRO's:
- 15.4" WSXGA+ LCD, bright, sharp, excellent for watching DVD's, you get almost the full screen filled
- Pentium M 1.6Ghz CPU, good performance, excellent battery life (3-3.5hrs) compared to my old Toshiba (1.5-2hrs)
- Wireless Network, connected without any problems, excellent signal strength when walking around the house
- DVD/CDRW Combo drive, allows for burning CD's and watching DVD's on the go
- Fairly light & thin, only 6.5lbs & 1.3" thick which makes hauling around easier
- 3xUSB 2.0 & 1xFirewire ports, allows for a multitude of devices to be connected, from external drives to digital video cameras
- ATI Mobility 9200 w/64MB, fairly up-to-date video card that will allow for good game playback
- Keyboard felt pretty good to type on, not too soft and not very noisy when typing

CON's:
- DVD/CDRW drive did not burn at the advertised speeds, it states that it burns CD's at 24X, but it only does that speed at the end of the CD. It starts at 8x for a few minutes, then jumps to 10x for a few minutes, etc... until the last minute of burn it hits 24X, this is what the call Zoned CLV. It took me between 6-10mins to burn a 680MB CD at 24X. Generally to calculate how long it should take is as follows:
80(CD Minutes)/24(Burn Speed)= 3.33mins, but put an extra minute for the header and trailer of the disc and you have approx 4.5 minutes. All the tech support told me was it was working exactly like how the drive was designed to work. So I gave up on trying to get it fixed.
- AC Adapter plugs into the right side of the notebook. First of all, it looks ugly and secondly and most importantly, it sometimes gets in the way of your mouse when working in tight areas. Plus getting your Kensignton lock attached is also a slight problem. Since it's located right next to the AC plug, the wires somewhat get in the way of each other.
- It doesn't come with a floppy drive. You'd have to purchase an external FDD. I know this is an obsolete technology, but it's a lot easier to get an FDD boot disk and much easier to transfer small files. You can use a USB pen drive, but then you'd have to install drivers on the other system (if it's not ME or XP), that's after you locate the USB port on the other system. I would have prefered an integrated FDD IMO.
- The HDD was only a 4200rpm HDD, because of this, I believe it slowed down the overall performance of the system. XP took a long time to load and the same with apps. A 5400rpm or 7200rpm HDD option would have been better.
- And the final issue, a buzzing noise coming from the upper right corner of the keyboard/notebook. I later found out it was a resistor or capacitor that was causing the problem. Hp's only fix was to take my unit and put some glue over the res/cap causing the noise. That was obviously not a solution I could live with, so I returned the unit.

Now, the Level 1 tech support agents you deal with may not be the most technically inclined people. They ususally read instructions from their computer and have you do things step by step even though you've already told them that you did those steps. Once you get higher on the support ladder, you will get much more knowledgeable people that will be able to provide more help, that's if the L1 tech didn't already solve the problem. With the Business Support, I believe it'll be a lot easier to speak to someone higher is the problem is not resolved by an L1 tech. I'm not sure, and don't quote me on this, but I think the Consumer support will keep you at L1 longer. I was actually capable of speaking to an L5 Support Engineer (I believe it was L5), which is 1 step short of speaking an actual engineer that designs the notebooks.

So, overall, the notebook was a pretty good unit, except for the problems I had, but the build quality was good. Everything on the unit felt solid without a lot of flexing or anything feeling cheap. The hinges were really good, tight enough to hold the 15.4" screen, but not enough to give you a hard time when opening the screen.

I hope this helps, just let me know if you have any other questions.

-Vb-

 

I just got one an hour ago. So far it is a brilliant laptop. I love the widescreen, sound is good for a laptop. I upgraded the hard drive to a 7200rpm (IGM/Hitachi 7K60) and strongly reccommend it as an upgrade. Almost double the speed as the 4200rpm hard drive the nx7000 comes with.