Thoughts of dv9000t

Can someone give me their thoughts on their dv9000t? I'm about ready to order it but I want someone else's experience with it. In-store kiosks are a bit hard to deal with when they lock the PC down to the table.

A couple of questions:

1) Weight: Do you ever notice how heavy it is? Is the weight distributed evenly? The 12-cell battery on a 15.4" from my previous laptop makes one side heavier than the other, making me always conscious of it's weight

2) HDMI work in Vista?

3) Sound quality of speakers?

4) Screen resolution? Does your laptop have 1440x900 or 1680x1050. I'm interested in the higher resolution screen, but I don't know if it will be too much. My 20" monitor has the same resolution, so I'm wondering how it looks squeezed into 17". Also, is the screen evenly bright?

5) Battery life? I'm going to get the HIgh capacity 8-cell but no review tells me how long it should last

6) Wear and tear? Does it beat up from normal use? Plastic on my previous laptop got scratched up a bit. Also, what kind of material is the casing made out of?

7) Keyboard is good too right?

8) List any problems you've had with it so far!

Thanks! As soon as my ride comes, I play on going to a Best Buy to check it out myself, but I want to know what to look for before I go later tonight. Thank you all!

 

It is heavier than a 15.4 but not as heavy as other 17" lappys and the weight seems quite well balanced to me. I have the 8 cell battery so dunno bout the 12 cell.

dunno boout HDMI in vista

sound quality is alright, not as good as real speakers but good enuff to listen to music and watch vidoes with reasonable quality

I got the 1440x900 so dunno there

my battery lasts 2.5 to 3 hours if i recall so the high capacity one should be better

i have kid sisters who scratch and wreck everything but my laptop stood against their evil and came out without a scratch

keyboard is alright, right shift key size gets a bit used to on account of it being small

cant remember any problems but i think i had one or two but not anymore

 

1) Weight: Do you ever notice how heavy it is? Is the weight distributed evenly? The 12-cell battery on a 15.4" from my previous laptop makes one side heavier than the other, making me always conscious of it's weight

With the battery the weight does seem to be distributed more towards the back, but it's not overly so. Probably 40/60% front/back. IMO, anyway.

2) HDMI work in Vista?

I honestly can't say anything about this, as I haven't tried it. I don't have a TV/Monitor with HDMI to try it with.

3) Sound quality of speakers?

Really good, although still not perfect. Compared to other laptops, though, they're some of the best.

4) Screen resolution? Does your laptop have 1440x900 or 1680x1050. I'm interested in the higher resolution screen, but I don't know if it will be too much. My 20" monitor has the same resolution, so I'm wondering how it looks squeezed into 17". Also, is the screen evenly bright?

Mine has the 1440x900 screen. It's a very good resolution for me; to me, if it were smaller, it'd probably be hard on my eyes. As far as brightness goes, it's fairly even although if tilted at an angle, it can be hard to see the top edge of the screen.

5) Battery life? I'm going to get the HIgh capacity 8-cell but no review tells me how long it should last

I can't answer that one, although the regular 8-cell battery that I have lasts a little over 2 hours with fairly extreme power measures. I never expected outstanding battery life, though, considering the screen size.

6) Wear and tear? Does it beat up from normal use? Plastic on my previous laptop got scratched up a bit. Also, what kind of material is the casing made out of?

It's made out of a glossy plastic (maybe fiberglass?) which attracts fingerprints like no one's business. But it's still beautiful. I've only got a few minor scratches on mine, but I baby it.

7) Keyboard is good too right?

Oh yeah, full size and includes a numberpad (never thought I'd miss it until I got my older laptop. ). Keys are really good, although they do make a little more sound than my old iBook, but overall they're a dream. Only thing different about this keyboard is that it has a smaller right shift button because of the arrow pad. I haven't had a problem with it though.

8) List any problems you've had with it so far!

Only problem I had was with the latch button not wanting to come back out all the way, and therefore not latching the screen/lid. But, after numerous swipes with a card (library card works wonders ), it now works almost like new.

Also, if you really want to get a feel for its weight at Best Buy, ask a clerk to unlock it and let you lift it. They'll do that; I asked them to do it with mine before I bought it. Be forewarned, though, it does weigh about 8.5 pounds w/battery; reason why that didn't concern me was because I was considering the Dell E1505 before that with the larger battery, which put it at close (if not to) 8 pounds already for a laptop with a smaller screen.

 

Don't quote me on this, but a friend of mine just got back from an HP workshop and they claim they have problems with HP drivers on Vista. In my point of view, I think HP's quality has boosted up in the last couple of years and they are excellent. The problem was probably from the workshop, we (Kuwait) have the worst pc support ever.

 

Eh...I haven't had any problems with mine in regards to drivers. Then again, I don't have anything else besides what came with the laptop (and a mouse) that I use with it. Oh, and two flash drives, but they work fine.

 

Mine taking some pictures if possible?

I think I'm settled on this lappy though. The Dell Inspiron e1705 would probably have a bit more power from the GPU, but I don't game and prefer more HDD space instead.

Here's my planned configuration so far.

HP Pavilion dv9000t customizable Notebook PC
EPP_00_EZ345AV

* – Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
* – Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T5200(1.60GHz/2MB L2Cache)
* – 17.0" WSXGA+ BrightView Widescreen (1680x1050)
* – 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7600
* – HP Imprint Finish + Microphone + Webcam
* – 512MB DDR2 System Memory (1 Dimm)
* – FREE Upgrade from 80GB 5400RPM to 120GB 5400RPM!!
* – Super Multi 8X DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer Support
* – Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network w/Bluetooth
* – No TV Tuner w/remote control
* – High Capacity 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
* – Microsoft(R) Works 8.0
* – Mobile Stereo Earbud Headphones (1 pair)
* – HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
$1,222.57

 

If you can I'd definately recommend a gig of RAM for Windows Vista. Especially since you're using Home Premium.

 

1gb shud be a minimum with vista especially when u start installing other programs

 

I own the dv9260us, which they sell at places like BestBuy. To answer your question about HDMI and Vista, it basically works. One thing to caution you though, I'm running Vista Ultimate, with a built-in HD-DVD drive, and this sucker wants all the resources it can get. We're talking CPU and RAM. On that note, getting a bigger battery won't help you with HD playback because HP warns that watching HD-DVDs requires the laptop be plugged to an AC outlet. If you're seriously considering going to Vista at some point, you may want to ante up for 2GB of RAM instead. Since you asked, I have tested HDMI playback to a 50" Panasonic plasma and it's nothing short of glorious. I just watched Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in 1080p and it is pure eye candy.

As for the resolution, I've compared this to the Toshiba av-660, and anything over 1400x900 is just a strain to my eyes. Watching HD on a 17" screen won't make you notice the difference even if you threw enough pixels at it. On a 50" plasma, you'll definitely see the details your eyes have been missing.

 

Lol, RAM can be bought cheaper from other places anyway, so I didn't bother upgrading it from HP, especially since they will always give 2 sticks (making the 1GB option rather pointless if I want 2GB).

Anyway to make them use 1 512MB stick instead? Those are much easier to sell!

 

It says "512 mb 1dimm" That is one stick.

 

Lol, how'd I manage to overlook that!

 

Here is a pic of mine, running off battery power. Sorry about the poor quality, all I have is a cell phone camera.

Also, it's running at about 30% brightness since it's on battery. Works for my eyes in most conditions, and I'm under adequate lighting (as you can see from the reflection ).

If you notice the gunk over on the right-hand side below the number pad: that's where the "Windows Vista," "Intel Core2Duo," etc., stickers were. I wanted to take them off and have a clean finish, but unfortunately I was left with the sticker residue that I can't get off. I'm kinda affraid to use something on it: anyone have recommendations?

 

1) Weight: Do you ever notice how heavy it is? Is the weight distributed evenly? The 12-cell battery on a 15.4" from my previous laptop makes one side heavier than the other, making me always conscious of it's weight

It doesnt seem too heavy to me. It's not ligher or heavier than I expected. I don't think the weight seems unbalanced.
2) HDMI work in Vista?
I don't have an HDMI compatible tv, so i can't say. however I can say that the S-Video output does not work.
3) Sound quality of speakers?
They sound fine. Not bad, not great.
4) Screen resolution? Does your laptop have 1440x900 or 1680x1050. I'm interested in the higher resolution screen, but I don't know if it will be too much. My 20" monitor has the same resolution, so I'm wondering how it looks squeezed into 17". Also, is the screen evenly bright?
The screen resolution on mine is 1440x900 and it looks pretty good
5) Battery life? I'm going to get the HIgh capacity 8-cell but no review tells me how long it should last
I use it mostly with AC power. The one time I used it on battery, it lasted 2-3 hours with low brightness on the screen. part of the time i was playing DOOM3, which would drain my battery faster than simpler things.
6) Wear and tear? Does it beat up from normal use? Plastic on my previous laptop got scratched up a bit. Also, what kind of material is the casing made out of?
Can't really answer that one. I've had it for less than a month. So far, it's still in brand new condition. My only complaint is that fingerprints show very well on the top of the lid.
7) Keyboard is good too right?
A very good keyboard, for a laptop. It even has the numpad, which is unusual. I like it.
8) List any problems you've had with it so far!
"broken" video card drivers. This is partly Microsoft's fault for changing so much of how the video works in Vista, and partly nVidia's fault for not releasing better drivers, even though they've had plenty of time to do so.
- games and stuff still run fine. i can't adjust settings that i should be able to. stuff i was able to tweak on my xp pc. bright/contrast/gamma... that sort of thing. Generally, everything on the screen looks a bit... washed out. I really would like to tone down the gamma in the video settings. but it's locked up until nvidia improves their drivers.... /sigh

Overall i'm satisfied with it, and think it was well worth my money.
The built in mic is rediculously weak.

 

Ordered! Apparently HP charges tax so I had to cut back on a few things to still stay within budget. My order says it should ship March 23. Any chance it will ship before then?

 

I couldn't wait to get mine, so i picked it up at Best Buy. If I had ordered directly from HP i would have gotten higher specs, and also spent considerably more money. So it's good and bad, i guess. My next laptop probably won't be store bought.