How is the HP DV3500T?

My Acer 5920G has died a 2nd time, and I have college next year, so I'll be definitely looking at a new laptop, question is whether I get one now or wait till summer to get one. I'll be doing A LOT of work with Microsoft Word probably, very light gaming (depends if anyone in my dorms has games I can borrow), but mostly internet browsing and college work. What do you guys think? I want a powerful laptop (even though it seems I don't need one) but it seems like I'll be sacrificing battery.This is for $1100. What about the Dell XPS M1330? What about the new $1300 MacBook?




# • Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
# • Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T5800 (2.0GHz)
# • 13.3" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
# • FREE Upgrade to 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
# • 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS
# • 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
# • HP Imprint Finish (Intersect) + Microphone + Webcam + Fingerprint Reader for LED Display
# • Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card with Bluetooth
# • Integrated 56K Modem
# • SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
# • 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

 

I think it's still kinda expensive. Try asking in the what notebook should i buy forums.

 

Don't know if they would know as much about the new HPs, but who knows. Do you think I'm just being impatient? I can wait, I mean I have a lapotp that works and Microsoft is sending me the Vista Repair DVD that will hopefully fix my Acer (broke while it was updating to service pack 1), but I'm wondering if battery will get a lot better soon. What's the difference between 6 cell and 12 cell battery? 2 hours vs 4 hours?

 

Wow, I'd guess the 3500t would get hot as hell, judging from how hot my old dv2000 used to be. lol

 

The difference would be like 2 hours to 5 hours.

 

I been looking at the DV3500T for a long time now...

also did quite abit of reading up on the 9300M GS(dedicated 512mb), apparently the 9400M(integrated) on the Macbook is indeed better though its sharing memory(DDR3 on the macbook) with 16pipelines compared to the 8pipelines of the 9300M GS...but there isnt real world feedback from anyone yet since the DV3500T is very new. so i do wonder if 512mb of ram feeding the gpu will make up its lesser pipelines to perform just as well or better than the 9400M.

what i like is the backlit keyboard and hdmi port on the HP compared to the $1299 macbook with no backlit. also it seems in future i could spend some money and insert a blu-ray drive into the hp...and if memory prices come down enough...put 8gb of ram into it with Vista 64bit...

if you are looking to buy the dv3500t...you should probably check out the bestbuy offer.

 

Yeah that HDMI port (which my current laptop has, but it's waiting for Microsoft's Phoenix Down (Vista Repair Disc) to bring it back from its death(can't boot up after installing SP1)) was on mine, but I don't know if I'll have a HDTV in my dorm though I'm highly considering a 30-40" Samsung LCD. But what's so good about a backlit keyboard? I always type without lookig at the keyboard, unless there's some other benefit.