How reliable is the Compaq Z2000?

Does it have above average reliability? Anyone that has bought one before could add their opinions?

 

I find mine to be much better than my previous Dell 600m. It's not too heavy, the screen is crisp (w/ Brightview), and the general build is aesthetically pleasing. Though, I wish I had gotten a cd-rw upgrade when I bought it. My only complaint is a better video solution. Then again, you get what you paid for.

 

j0hn00 : how about the battery time ?

 

I have the 12 cell, but it's always plugged in and haven't run off the battery yet. But from what I hear, you should get around 2.5 hours from the 6 cell and about 5 hours from the 12 cell.

 

the 12 cell battery is obviously heavier.. but does it rise above the laptop back ?

 

It lifts the laptop up about an inch and doesn't go across the entire back of the laptop. Some people complain that it's fugly, but I'm of those that like the slight slant for easier typing. It also promotes better air circulation.

 

thanks for input! v2000z is interesting but the extra 45 min for a pentium m model is also something to think about!

 

True... but they're more expensive.

 

Oh, I hate this. I typed a long message and lost message when submitted because of router problem. But anyways, I will do it again, but in short.

I have this V2000z for two months, and only issue I had was HDD giving SMART failure waring twice(Before replacement). I know it is nothing to do with laptop quality. Ofcourse there are some quirks I mentioned about DVD Drive Tray issue in my review here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=28492

I had a chat with HP rep with their chat app, and I had my replacement HDD by FEDEX OVERNIGHT with in a day. WOW! that is what I call service. They also sent me Fedex lable to return the old.

I can not say same with my Dell and Toshiba experiences.

Little over 2 years ago the Inspiron I bought came with wrong HDD(4200 vs 5400RPM ordered). I had spent 6 hours over phone, 2 harddrive shipped in 3 weeks and all are wrong version(4200RPM drives instead of 5400RPM drive). I was so fedup and sent laptop back to them, thought it was a good price. Bad experince.

And then I bought Toshiba P10-s429 laptop and it had HDD MBR corruption one month before warrany expired. Talked to rep, but was told I have to give to service center.
Service center replaced the HDD and gave it to me in 5 day. Not bad, but Toshiba was not willing to send HDD to be directly and in total it took 5 days. Not bad, but not as good as HP. I was told by Service Center guy that Toshiba ship replacement typically Overnight or in 2 days. Not bad at all.

All-in-all I am happy with it. But I would suggest handling it careful, it is definitely not as tough as a Thinkpad.

 

I'm also happy with my V2000z but I have some complaints about it
1.the build quality is not that good. I only get it for 2months but now it looks like 5-6 months old. it get scratched easily so treat it carefully.
2.I don't know why HP/compaq don't offer MT chips for this model (or ANY models).And they cost like 5-10$ more than ML CPUs. I want MT family notebooks !!
3.they don't offer DDR400 memory for this when the chipset can support DDR400. They just give us DDR333 and we have to upgrade it to DDR400 ourselves. (other brand like Voodoo came with DDR400 memory also they offer turion MT CPUs)
4.No dedicated Graphic cards..... all HP/compaq notbooks with Turion64 NEVER come with great GPUs like x300/x600/x700 WHY!?! other brand (can't remember the name) start with Raedon x700 AND "turion MT".

I know that at this price range it's a decent notebook but it's just that If we can configure the notebook why can't I just get the options I wanted? it's not impossible...but they just don't do it (for some reason?)

 

I disagree. The casing on the V2000Z is decent... I have no blemishes whatsoever. Then again, I take extremely good care of my laptop (sleeve + padded backpack).

 

So what's your point? by take extremely good care of your laptop and have no blemish, to prove it is not easy to scratch?

 

The previous post implied that the V2000Z had poor build quality because it scratched easily. I said that I disagreed by saying that the casing is decent. Yes, I do take good care of my laptop. Regardless of that fact, my point was that the V2000Z isn't as crappy as one may think. Is that good enough for you or should I use bold letters too to spell it out for you?

 

Get your point. My experience also shows the top is prone to scratch, although I take reasonable good care of it.

Yes I think the build quality is generally decent

[edit by adding: I'm currently actively using 3 lappies to compare with]

 

I've had numerous laptops and can't say that the V2000Z is any more prone to scratches than the Dells and IBMs I've used. Anyway, for the price, I think the build quality is quite good all things considered.