*HP dv7t (1XXX series) Owners Lounge*

Well, after looking at ASUS (out of stock on the AMD special at Newegg), Sager 2096 (and Compal white box clones) and the dv7t, I went with the dv7t. I looked at the dv5t too, but the bigger drive, screen, battery and reduced upgrade cost for video just did not make sense to lose for a few bucks more.

It helped that HP has educational pricing, and that MSes live.search.com was kicking in 5%, instead of 2% yesterday when I checked last. That really made the cost difference negligable

I ended up with

2.26 P8400 (Really debated just sticking with the 7350, but I do a lot of compiling code... so I splurged ;-) )
3 GB / 320 GB
9600GT w/512
17" 1650 by 1080 non-infinity

For $1,225 with tax, but 5% off thanks to MS and 1% for Discover brings that down to $1,152, which is not too bad all said.

Oh, and if you intend to use MS live search, I found the percentage varies a bit. Not sure if it was time related or simply due to looking again after lots of shopping for different brands, but either way you may want to check a few times.

 

Hi TSD,
Glad you're having a ball with your new toy. Quick questions re: the Infinity. From your pic I can't tell whether it's Infinity or not. So do you think the screen would look just as good without the Infinity? I'm still having reservations about the glare and the quality of the display. Hope you don't mind -
Ed F.

 

Ed,

I don't mind at all. The screen I have is the Infinity screen. When I got my first DV7T last month, I used the laptop during the day time, by my huge window(s), which resulted in SO MUCH glare... I was immediately turned off by it. It looks great but personally, the glare was too much for me...

Then I used the unit at night and my opinion changed completely. The picture was so crisp and clear that I decided that it was a good choice for me. There is almost no glare in darker conditions which I loved. As long as there isn't too much light (sun light or other), the screen is great.

Me, personally, I am rarely home when the sun is up (work, school, etc), so I will be using the laptop in low light or dark conditions. So I don't think I am the best person to answer this.

I think the best opinion will come from someone who uses the Infinity in high sunlight / under florescent lighting conditions.

re: your question about looks - the infinity screen makes the unit look very slick and clean. I have seen 17" models @ bestbuy that were non-infinity, and to me, one did not look better than the other. i think the non-infinity screen looks pretty nice and will definitely not experience problems with sun/direct light, etc. so that's a matter of personal preference.


If you look back about 15-20 pages in this thread, I posted about 10 pictures of the infinity screen when it was very sunny. I, personally, could not stand it because you can not find an angle in which you could see the screen w/o any glare. Take a look at those pictures and see what you think.

edit -- here are the pics taken in high sunlight conditions.

 

Just got my system, I'm setting it up for a fresh install now!!

Quick question to all those *without* the Infinity screen... move your taskbar to the top of the screen, maximize an explorer window without the status bar on, and tell me if you see dark spots in the lower corners. I'm slightly annoyed but I don't know if I want to replace this YET again!

 

Hi everyone
I got my second new hp dv7t last week, and after using it for a week now, I have a few pointers
1. I don’t have the infinity screen, and I absolutely love it, no reflection, only when turned off or with a black screen. timesquaredesi I think you should change your position, or close the drapes
2. The laptop is very stylish, but you’ll have your finger prints all over it within one hour or less!
3. Love the finger print reader, no more typing in the passwords.
4. Games run very smoothly, on different resolutions of course, even at 80-90C, but do I really want my system to run at 80C+ for an hour or two?
5. The hard drive on the left side of the touch pad warms up, even after removing the remote control, which make it better by the way, so don’t leave the remote in the express card slot.
6. The machine is fast and is definitely a desktop replacement, but needs a proper cooling system for games; maybe I’ll look into the zalman cooler.
7. Windows is still windows, if you install a lot of programs no matter how powerful your machine is, your system might become buggy. But that also depends on the compatibility of the program you install with the windows and its programs (IE7, Office)
8. I love the fact I have two hard drives on my laptop, gives me the chance to experiment around with other OS’s (such as Linux) without messing my windows boot file. (I still need to find out how to disable one hard drive from the BIOS; maybe someone can help me out?).
9. The TV tuner is very good if you have cable, windows media centre stores all the channels and program times in a guide. So you have your own digital box in your pc.
10. The sound is great; you don’t need any external speakers. Well my xps M1210 has really crappy speakers, so I don’t think that’s a good comparison.
11. I didn’t need to reinstall windows as everyone suggested, I just uninstalled some programs, and removed some startup and service programs, and everything was like a new install, I mean this literally, because I did a clean install just to compare.
12. Full keyboard is really the way to go if you use your computer 18hrs a day on weekends and holidays. And even if you use it for an hour for doing anything.
13. The computer runs under 50C with simple programs at the same time (IE, yahoo, skype, some networking programs and a terminal, office). But if you run video’s and games it’s going to go up. Sorry for repeating this three times, but I really think that hp should have made more efforts for making this machine cooler, because everyone, and I’m one of them, is screaming that this is a powerful machine, so powerful machines need good cooling systems. And I don’t see why I have to pay $50+ for a cooling system for my new laptop just to play games.
14. Anyway I’m happy with my purchase since gaming is not my main purpose, although unreal-3 looks awesome on this machine, and I would recommend this machine for intense work, college homework and entertainment, big screen + power + 4GB ram = happy user
This blog by the way is one of the greatest blogs ever and I have learned a lot, so keep up the good blogging, oh can someone help me out with 8, “HOW TO DISABLE ONE OF THE HARD DRIVES FROM THE BIOS”

Thanks

 

im planning on getting a HP dv7-1002ea, is this good specs? i would be using it for office 2007 word processing, listening to itunes and watching films from my external hd and sometimes playing games.

Intel® Centrino® 2 processor technology
• Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P7350
• 2 GHz , Level 2 cache 3 MB
• Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection

Ram: 4096 MB
Hard Drive: 250gb

17" WXGA+ High Definition BrightView Widescreen

NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS
Video RAM
up to 1535 MB total graphics memory with 256 MB dedicated

is this a good buy?

 

My dv7t with a Brightview Infinity display is estimated to ship on the 9th. I’m under florescent lights in my office so I’ll be able to see how it works, I’ve also got a nice sized window I like to keep open.

I had no buyers remorse, but I’ve really become concerned over the last 5 pages of posts. I’m a graphic designer, so a good display is very important.

 

zoopzoop,

Seems like a nice config, may even be a bit much for word processing

You may want to go with a 9600GT if you want to play newer games.

 

I Clean installed and with Vista Ultimate was right around where you are now, I think I was initially at 65 with the clean install. In my opinion it was not worth the hassle. I always do clean installs but never has it made such a little impact as it did with the dv7t.

With 4gigs of RAM I guess it really doesn't matter as I am right now only using 1.87 gigs as I type this with 5 firefox windows open and 11 items running in my task manager.


On a side note I have to say that its a shame they didn't offer the Ultra Bright monitor on the dv7 series. Coming from the dv9700t that thing could illuminate a room practically. They should have skipped the lighted HP logo and flipped that little LED light around LoL

Also the Digital Persona Software doesn't recognize the majority of the log in screens I have tried it with. Oh well...


Great laptop though!

 

Ok, aside from the faded lower corners I am also seeing a bit of a "texture" on the screen, like angled bumps. I have the same thing on my dv8000t, but it's much less prominent. I'm still thinking the LCD looks kind of washed out too... anyone else seeing at least the dark spots in the corners?

 

If I move my mouse into the corner it does get darker... I have the infinity screen. I personally would never really care as its not generally useable space IMHO

 

Can someone tell me if this is a good deal for the dv7t

http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-DV7T-DV7-2-5...goryZ177QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I am new to this forum but this notebook looks awesome and I don't wanna get ripped off.

Thanks

 

As long as you don't think you'll be playing Bluray movies on your laptop at all I think it's an excellent deal.

 

thanks, my current laptop (dv6152eu) starting to struggle under office 2007 word, itunes, safari and wmp so i need something that is more than capable of handling those apps.

been trying to find a pre-configured dv7t with fingerprint reader but it seems there not available to us UK'ers.

 

*edit - mods removed post, user banned for two days for illegally offering software*

 

Just a shipping update - my machine was indicated as shipped on the 1st with a delivery of no later than the 5th at 12:30PM. Well it actualy arrived today - the 4th - so if you did remove the international part of the trip, it was only two days (the service level of shipping we paid for) once it got to the US (on the 2nd).

Side note: I wasn't actually home today and it needed a sig, so I'll get the machine in my hands tomorrow.

 

im am buying the dv7t but noticed on some reviews people saying the screen was kind of dull.... yea kinda made me a little nervous since i was planning on watching movies and some photopshop on this perhaps some gaming but really how is the screen u guys?

 

Lol poor cobra...

Anyways my dv7t arrives tomorrow! I honestly don't think the bloatware will be as bad as some are making it out to be. My mom got her latest computer from HP and yeah it came with some unnecessary things but even with them it runs excellently.

Basically what I'm saying is that I don't think it would worth the trouble/hassle for me to do a "clean" install of Vista. But I'll know for sure tomorrow.

 

TooFly,

I am by no means a computer guroo, but I have used a lot of computers... This one, in my opinion is great; display and all. I can't complain.

 

Thanks Gemiar just was a little curious bout the display but im sure its great

 

I have had no problems with it. I actually didn't notice the dark spots in the corners until someone on here mentioned it and I looked at a completely white screen. I really don't think that is a big problem- you won't notice it unless you look for it.

 

This may seem like a strange question, but what were the dimensions for the box it got delivered in (shipping box, not product box). I'm trying to figure out international shipping costs for getting one. And HP have a habit of being mental with boxing.

 

My dv7t is out for delivery...

I got it with the Infinity Screen which I think it will be very nice.

 

Anytime, Ed. I had buyers remorse with my first dv7t - I had gotten it spec'd to about $2200 but went with the T9400 processor and no fingerprint reader. I felt remorse because I went all gung-ho on ordering such a 'high end' model, that I wondered why I didn't go absolutely crazy and get the fastest processor - the T9600. When you're going to go crazy, it doesn't make sense in going partially crazy. It's either all or nothing ;-D lol. I told myself I was either going to get the most expensive machine I could get - or the cheapest. I am a man of extremes. hahaha!

At the same time, the 30% coupon was released and that sealed the deal for me. I bought the fastest laptop that HP offers (I mean, before their gaming machines which cost and arm and your first born) for under $1,600. Threw in the docking station, and tax, and I paid $1,838. I will be using this machine day in and day out for the next 2-years minimum, 3 years max. By that time, I would be craving a machine with a Oct-core processor and 1tb of solid state hard drive

I hate remorse! lol! but I am glad that I returned my 1st unit and got this beast. I have not used my desktop in the last 2 days - I copied all my files/etc onto this machines and I've been happy since. I still have another 2-weeks to go on my vacation and I will be using this unit for around 14-hours per day, until September 14th or 15th. So far, I've had no complaints.

Good Luck with your purchase.

re: the view -yeah, I am in Times Square now (for the past 2 years) and the view is stunning. I can see Queens/New Jersey/George Washington Bridge/Hudson River/Central Park/Harlem/Hells Kitchen all from my Window! Not to mention I overlook 42nd street/Times Square. I wake up every morning and feel like I'm dreaming. LOL. I used to live in Manhasset, LI until the early 90s, and have been in Manhattan ever since. I too lived on the east side with river views. Now I'm on the west side with (practically) tri-state views. LOLOL

Cass - are you waiting at the door or looking out the window for the delivery man? ;-D

 

Checking the window every 5 or so minutes...it's like a game!

 

i installed picasa 3 from google - to manage family pictures - and i absolutely love it! whoever has not tried picasa 3 yet, please do so and thank me later.

when you view pictures after installing picasa 3, picasa has it's own picture viewer which lets you scroll through the pictures. it doesn't open picasa, it just lets you scroll through that current folder of pictures.

i am scrolling through like 300 7-megapixel photos on my dv7t and they're taking a fraction of a second to come up on picasa photoviewer. this machine is handling these huge pics + so many of them (as i scroll through quicly) with ease.

picasa = priceless, although you can't argue with 'free'

/ rant

 

Haha, I know that game, except with Wacom or Viewsonic, you can literally play that game for weeks, sometimes months.

I know it's a strange request, but can you measure the box, or approximate at least, so I can estimate shipping costs with the US. strange new "volume shipping" system where size can supersede actual weight.

 

I have it right now but **** it it was damaged in transit here.

The box had a cut across the top of it.

The notebook itself had a dent on the back right above the battery space. And there's 2 little cuts/lines that are around the same area.

I'm so pissed off right now.

But I'll be glad to measure the box for you.

Their packaging is really ****ty though I must say. I mean there was no bubble wrap and nothing at all to protect the laptop while it was being shipped.

And this dumbass I'm speaking to is telling me that I'll be charged over 400 dollars because the coupon I used when I bought it no longer exists. So theyr'e going to charge me that money and then refund me that money.

Here's an idea...why not just simply give me the exchange and not mess with my credit card account.

I'm really starting to hate their customer service. It's almost as bad as sony...

 

^ o man, sorry to hear that. my 1st dv7t box was also damaged in transit - like you said - with a cut across the top. how idiotic of them to charge you for a replacement. what the hell? luckily in my case, the unti itself wasn't damaged but i sent it back anyway for other reasons.

yeah, the packaging sucks. it's basically what you get if you went to a best buy and bought the unit. nothing extra to protect it.

i would hang up with who you're talking to and call again - maybe you'll get someone that won't charge you for a replacement.

GL with this =/

 

Sounds like a problem with the retailer/shipping company that you're being drawn into, if you requested a fast replacement, they probably offered the option of paying for a new one and getting a refund when the other is returned, otherwise they should either do an on-site swap or take the damaged one back free of charge. I dunno what consumer protection laws are like the in the US.

I will never buy anything from Sony at consumer level. And I'm wary of their professional level goods too.

EDIT: I always find it handy to have their returns policy in front of me when phoning a company, half the time customer service have no idea what they're talking about: http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/return_exchange.do

 

I'm giving HP one more chance and if this new notebook arrives in less than stellar condition I'll just return it all together and give up on owning a laptop.

 

OK, FedEx came back early today for the 2nd attempt (glad I got up early and headed back this morning). I'm kind of pinched for time as I'm just trying get some tools installed (VS2005, SQL, etc.), but here's my quick first impressions:

I know this doesn't count for huge points, but it's a very slick *looking* machine. I guess since the aesthetics of PCs were always a little drab, it's interesting to see this design. Very nice - though I can see it could easily be a fingerprint magnet

Seems super fast (2.24GHz), quiet - though when it first fired up it sounded like a 747, I guess it does a full speed fan test during boot.

The display looks beautiful (1680x1050) - OS/apps are amazingly sharp. Fired up Goodfellas on Blueray, looks good (just using the HP quickplay for now).

Vista (32bit) looks very groovy - I haven't actually messed with it much since all my machines have just been on XP Pro (and our servers on Server 2K3). Spent some time letting everything update, patch, download, etc., and it's all running solid.

Hooked up to our N-spec WiFi and the status is reporting 65.0 Mbps - seems very quick.

Finger print reader is pretty groovy - honestly logging in isn't a huge deal, but I wanted it to experiment as a possible option for one of our apps.

Happy so far, I'll have a good couple of days with it over the weekend to see how it holds up under a little development duress and whatnot.

For < $1300 it's absolutely fantastic!

 

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the great reviews by you and TSD. Now I have an excellent idea of what's wrong and right with the dv7t. Should I decide to go that way it will be the dv7t maxed out (but no Infinity). I am a bit concerned by the heat under high stress. Do you think it could be due to the 2.8GHz CPU? It's probably been pushed to the max by Intel. Any possibility that the T9400 (2.53GHz) would run cooler without too much of a performance hit?

Anyone want to weigh in on this? Fire away -

 

Hi,I'm troubled about the display also. PC World called it "dull" in their review. That bothers me. Excellent display quality is #1 in my list of "must haves".
Ed

 

Hi TSD,
I noticed that you used Flickr.com to link to your dv7t review. Can you do that with Picassa? BTW, a friend is a professional photographer and he uses and recommends Picassa.

 

i know with picasa 3 you can upload to google albums but im not sure if you can use it to directly upload to flickr.

ED - re: tempratures of the dv7t, i think that talk about it are blown out of proportion. the unit does not suffer from heating problems or anything like that at all. i had my unit on yesterday from about 9am to midnight and i keep CPUID open at all times to check the temp. not once did it get too high - and hovers at a reasonable temp. i think this topic is like beating a dead horse.

i've had my unit on today also from about 9am til now, and temps are fine. im using it on a wooden desk. i know that it's concerning to see people talk about it and it makes you think twice if you're considering buying one. but im telling you that this is not a concern at all. the only concern should be whether or not you can get it for a good % off the website price ;-)

the machine does not get too hot with the t9600, which is what i have. i think if you had the t9400, the temp readings would probably be the same. this is really a non-issue in my book. get the faster processor and enjoy the performance.

the only time i think temps would be a problem would be if someone left this unit on a blanket or in a place where the vents are covered. obviously the temps would go up but this is an error of the user, not the machine itself.


DT - when you start using your fingerprint to log into websites, and not having to type in your username and PW - you're going to wonder how you ever lived without it

 

I gave up all together. I had to send my 1st laptop back because they would not adjust my coupon for me (I ordered it with a $400 off and wanted to change it to the 30% off).

After my 2nd laptop arrived with a bad keyboard, I just figured I would wait on buying new laptop for a couple of months.

 

Well the people that own the 2.53GHz processor have to answer that, but if you look back in some of the reviews everyone agrees that playing games will make the CPU+GPU temperatures go higher than 80C, Plus the 2.53GHz cpu that hp is offering (Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T9400) consumes 35W, same as the 2.8GHz processor, now intel has the Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 2.53GHz model which consumes only 25W, which should make them run cooler than the T9400 model, but I would really like an opinion of somebody who has the processor and has actually run games on it, so they can tell us how well it is. But don’t worry games run perfectly without slowing down; it’s just your preference if you want your investment to run in those temperature ranges every day with the one year warranty. So I think if anybody wants to do this they should get the full four year plan, so that hp can pay for their gaming.

I hope this helps.

 

I think the display is gorgeous, and I was planning to buy a mate screen if it was available, and probably still will, if possible!!. But this also depends on your taste, so go to bestbuy and check it out

 

Why not? I believe it says it comes with the Blue Ray drive.

 

Thanks for the info TSD. I'll stick with the T9600.
Ed

 

Thanks Steve. Isn't the T9600 a Celeron II - supposed to consume less power and run cooler??
Ed

 

What is the best place to get a new Dv7t? I went to best buy and they had one but, it was pretty bare (2.0Ghz, no blue ray, low res screen, no fingerprint reader).

I live in NY and these are the specs I want....please help.

HP DV7T
Vista (64-bit) SP1
2.53 Ghz PC2D
17" Infinity Display (1680 x 1050)
4GB RAM (2x2)
512MB NVIDIA or GeForce
320GB SATA Hard Drive
Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
5100AGN WiFi + Bluetooth
LightScribe DVD burner

Thanks

 

It’s definitely not a Celeron; it’s a Core 2 Duo. The T9400 will give more performance over power optimized performance for the P9500, and the T9400 is $30 cheaper than the P9500, so who do you think is better?? As I said until someone who has it can verify, we’ll just have to wait.

 

I ordered the laptop with a DVD drive instead of Blu-ray drive simply because budget is tight. Does anyone know how easy it should be to some day in the future replace the DVD drive with a Blu-ray drive?

 

^ not tough at all. it's simply a drive you pop out and replace with the blueray drive.

Pure Ride - I think the best thing to do is to wait until HP offers a nice coupon. The machine in my signature below cost less than $1600 with a 30% off coupon HP made available a couple of weeks back. You can save so much money putting together a high-end machine that way.

Otherwise, you can simply go to best buy, pick up a unit that MAY HAVE what you want, but maybe it won't . This is a hit or miss.

I would wait for a nice, generous coupon then build a crazy machine and get it for a fraction of the price.

My unit was $2,279 before the 30% off.

Final price came to $1,595 .

 

I'm so pissed I missed that coupon, now I'm stuck waiting, it's giving me time to possibly consider other options lol.

 

l0l - trust me, you're not the only one that missed it. i priced a sony fw as someone on here mentioned, and even a dell, but price vs performance, none of them came close to the bang-per-buck deal that HP had with the 30% off. a similarly configured dell was almost 2 grand, but they didnt even offer the t9600! i think the sony did (sorry i dont remember) but that unit was over 2 grand.

it's funny tho, this is a vicious cycle. in 2 months, im going to be crying because this model will probably cost 20% less, and then HP will release another 30% off coupon. LOL.

 

Well I just bought this amazing laptop on HP's website. I was buying it with the coupon, and when I pressed next, the coupon had expired (I did it at midnight of Sep 1st when the coupon expired). But I had already fallen in love with the laptop so I got it anyways. Specs are below.
The price came out to be 1339.99 after the 230.00 instant rebate. This is my first laptop and I wanted to get an above average laptop. I think I have succeeded.

Code:

    * Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
    * Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26 GHz)
    * 17.0" diagonal WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Infinity Display (1680 x 1050)
    * 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
    * 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
    * 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
    * [For BrightView Infinity] Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
    * HP Color Matching Keyboard
    * Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100AGN and Bluetooth(TM)
    * LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
    * 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery