What do you think about HP / Compaq ?

I am an owner of the ThinkPad T61 (7663A21).
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=177092

HP has been enormously popular after Dell and yet some owners dread it so much that they hope it will go out of business.

It has tablet notebooks yet reviewers often comment that its passive screen lacks the sensitivity and ease of calibration, unlike those with active digitizer screens.

Some view Compaq notebooks as inferior to those from HP, even though they are part of the same group.

So what do you, owners of HP / Compaq, think ?


rgds,
Benjamin Chin
15 Oct 07

 

If you are talking about the consumer line, I have owned both. There is no difference between them other than the Compaq being slightly watered-down in the options department.

Neither have ever given me any real trouble........

 

I'd say a lot of people don't understand HP/Compaq's strategy. HP offers a wide range of PC products, from low to high end and the majority of its sales are the low end models. These low end models are very cheap, and you get what you paid for, but most of the time they tend to still be OK for budget product.

People then compare them with high end models offered by other manufacturers, e.g. a Thinkpad and say all HP/Compaq notebooks are crap. They are not comparing apples with apples.

HP has a highly successful line of high end business notebooks, the P and W series and they are comparable to the Thinkpad and other high end premium models from other brands. Unfortunately, they are also priced much higher than your regular HP found at Best Buy since they are made of much better components and have different warranty, service, etc. Consumers also rarely know these business models exist because they are not sold by normal retailers. HP actually sells a lot of active digitizer (Wacom) tablet PC's. They are in the 2710p notebook, which costs twice as much as the tx1000 Pavillion that is being criticized so much.

So, HP Compaq isn't a "budget brand" at all. Like Dell, they just have a very wide product range, so you can't compare a $1000 HP to a $2000 Sony that people so often do.

 

HP makes a good quality for Compaq and I am happy with Compaq anyway.

 

My notebook has faithfully served me for over a year. I enjoy it.

I'm a college student and I get the opportunity to see and work with essentially every type of notebook under the sun, and I greatly prefer HP's consumer notebooks to those of Dell, Toshiba, etc. Having also use HP's business lines, Thinkpads and Dell's Vostro notebooks, I can safely say HP's business notebooks are easily on par.

HP has outpaced Dell for a reason. Dell's consumer notebooks - anything outside of their business lines and XPS notebooks - are much more poorly built than HP's. My ex-girlfriend bought an E1505 at the same time I built my notebook, and she's had a number of build-quality related issues with it, and I've seen several of my friends have other issues. I'm really not a fan of Dell's consumer-oriented products at all (except perhaps some of their monitors...).

As a Thinkpad owner you'd probably only be interested in the comparable business notebooks. The only thing I can say is to check them out yourself. That's the best way to get a feel for things.

 

I'm impressed with this Compaq F500 series (F572WM) from walmart. i bought it for my hubby for school..
definatley not a bad notebook for being a budget model
quiet...
nice keybad..
touchpad is nice to work with
nice glossy screen..but it is pretty reflective (but a lot of glossies are)
built well..IMO for a budget notebook
good speakers..impressed with them for being "budget"

my only problem with it is the gfx card (nvidia geforce 6100/6150,) but what do you expect from a 559 dollar notebook..

all in all i was impressed with it!

 

After 1 year, I have not had a single problem with my HP Compaq nw8440 Mobile Workstation (Part of HP's business line), with the exception of the power adapter failing 3 times and the point stick cap wearing out twice (I'm on my 3rd one).

The only other experiences I've had with HP have been with their printers, which have been, for the most part, fantastic. The drivers for their newer printers, however, are overly bloated, complicated, and buggy.

I'd definitely recommend HP.

 

I think hp's consumer line is great comprimise between looks, build, specs, and price.

 

Listen, 10 years now and 20 laptops later I came to know one thing. You get what you paid for. If you are asking me, all companies Dell, HP, Gateway, IBM have problems. And in more of the times it is in their consumer lines which are usually the cheapest. In the last 3 years I am literally changing laptops every 3 months since I teach in a university and my department is kind enough to provide us with laptops. This year I had a Dell Inspiron (from my department) which went belly up after 3 months of usage. After 3 months the mobo was gone!!! Then they gave me a latitude which is really nice I might add. You can definitely see the difference in quality between the two laptops and both of them are made by Dell.

Hp is no different. I personally bought a tx1000z to use with my presentations and I am pretty happy. However I only use it 3 days a week and that for a couple of hours a day. I know that it is meant to be a consumer laptop so I guess it is not as sturdy as the latitude.

 

Hands down IMHO I think HP is the best. My first ever desktop was a Hp.....that was several years ago. I have been on new a new Toshiba, 2-Acers and a gateway. They all seemed inferior compared to my HP. Also being a young professional I love the asthetics of the Hp as well as its power. I mean after I bought mine three members of my extended family have placed their orders. I'm actually in the process of getting another one for my G.F. and later on I'll be getting a dv9500 for my design software. i think they are the best. I love how I can get my girlfriend one that is low on performance, I mean why would you really need all that power for going on myspace, but yet having the option to being able to run software to design a 10 story building. I mean Hp's are def. on top of their game.
M.R.

 

I've run a Compaq 2175us for the last 4 years and I have to say the laptop has stood up to my expectations. Its still running and I'm now looking to replace it not because its broken, but because I've outgrown it.

On the contrary I have a bunch of HP desktops at work that have a design flaw on the power switches and almost every cd-rw has failed. Is this HPs fault? for the power switches probably but for the cd-rw drives I blame the maker of them.

 

Hi everyone,

We've had 3 Apple DT Mac's & 2 Mac laptops, 3 Gateway laptops & 2 DT's, a couple of custom desktops & have just got our 2nd Compaq laptop - model F730us. All have been excellent.

Briefly shopping for our latest 2 systems & our conclusion was HP/Compaq appears to be the quality + features + performance = value leader.

We're very pleased with our Compaq's & HIGHLY recommend them.

s/ apostle
forum noob

 

HP SUCKS, the Ibm is 100x better. I have owned several thinkpads in my carrer and bought myself an HPDv2130us and it is a POS.....

Customer service is horrible.

 

What's your opinion of the HP Pavilion tx1020AU Tablet Notebook PC (GC213PA) ? (Good and Adverse views are all welcome.)


rgds,
Benjamin Chin
16 Oct 07

 

I have the tx1000z which is the customized version and I love it. I bumped up the memory to 4 gb and it is flying. When on battery it is silent and it runs cool. If on AC power it runs a little bit warm but nothing too bad. I use it for my classes and it never let me down. Of course it is a brand new unit so I guess only time will tell.

Oh and if you had a tablet before, I would recommend to go with an active digitizer. The tx has a passive touchscreen so you need to press harder on the screen in order to register. I do not have a problem with this, actually for me it resembles natural writing as opposed to an active digitizer that even the slightest touch on the screen registers (have a compaq tc1100).

 

My 8510p beats the T60 I had a few months ago hands down, and I loved that thing. Haven't dealt with Lenovo customer service in that time, but I've heard horror stories from them like I have from everywhere else.

 

This has been hashed a few times.... Here are two posts that gives you opinions about both HP/compaq

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=124900

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=126974

I've had both the dv & v series and like both... it is more a matter of preferences. Like Intel with the dv and AMD with the v etc.

I like my compaq... especially the looks compared to the HP

 

Thank God for Futureshop. Their 14 day return policy is pretty open.I started out with a toshibaA200-ah1,,returned 14 days later for toshiba U300-NS5,then compaq,Sony,etc 7 laptops later YOU COULDNT take my HP DV2410ca away for me. For me,,the build quality,apperance,keyboard,****,,Iam playing Fear on it.Mind you settings for the game are 1/3 of max,,but ALL IN ALLits a pretty good machine.
HP has a new customer.

 

HP business line = ftw

 

I used to love HP CD writers!!

 

HP got their design and built issues right with the DV2xx series. All they need to do now is improve the materials (slim and light is good) and bump up the options/specs.

 

I always assumed compaq brought over their laptop technology to HP. compaq is one a very old name in notebooks

 

Yeah, I agree too.

 

I notice you have a 12 cell battery for v6000 series I am curious how long it lasts?

 

You can't compare a Thinkpad to a dv2130. That's like comparing a Hummer to a Civic. As mentioned earlier, you get what you pay for.

 

I wouldn't ever own a thinkpad... give me a hp/compaq any day!
And don't insult the Hummer!

 

I love it, not only does it elevate the notebook for better air flow underneath, I get between 4-5 hours depending on my settings and what I'm doing.

 

I'm sorry that in your opinion I have degraded the Hummer to that of a Thinkpad.

Still, like a Hummer, the Thinkpad is expensive, built tough, and has a utilitarian design. And like the Civic, the dv2xxx Pavilion is cheaper, constructed for average consumer use, and designed with style over function.

Some people would say I'm insulting the Civic. Regardless, the point is that it makes no sense to directly compare laptops in different categories.

 

WRONG!!! Thinkpads SUCK. I've owned two thinkpads in the past and didn't care for them.

 

I had a Thinkpad for a long time and thought it was an excellent laptop; very durable and dependable especially with all of the traveling I was doing at the time. Of course it was a company machine and I didn't have to pay for it as they are a bit pricy.

At home I've used desktops though now I'm looking for the freedom a laptop offers especially as they now have the performance to match a desktop. After spending a lot of time in stores and playing with various machines I'm leaning towards the HP dv65XX or dv95XX though most likely a cto. After reading these posts it seems the consensus is that the HP machines are pretty good.

 

I sent my HP 6500 back. Darn thing get hot... 107 on the left side. Graphics were a little poor with the 8400 gs (max you can get), and quickdock does not work with my monitor. I even purchased an extra 90w power adapter because dell said it would work since the notebook only ships with a 60w power adapter.

Can't get xp on the thing easily... I'm not going through all the slipstream crappola... not when I have other options.... I went with a dell 1520... much more computer for about $175 more...

I've owned a compaq for the last couple of years (ok, maybe four years) and it has worked fine. The new HP/compaq computers don't seem as sturdy as my old one.

 

Of course! This is an HP forum... no one wants to admit they purchased a POS.

 

Think HP/Compaq is still decent if only they give user more options. depending on the market.. somewhat here (my country) is very restricted... Support is at most average i must say... (my very recent experience - yesterday to this morning only!)..

 

Personally, I hate HP. Yet I purchased a dv2550se after playing around with my father's dv2400 (which replaced his Thinkpad). The computer works well, but does have its flaws.

The printer that came with my laptop didn't last too long though - I smashed it because I hate HP.

 

If you hate HP then go back to the stinking thinkpad site and stay outta here.

 

But I'm a spy

 

A lot of folks, including myself, don't have problems with our DV6500T. I have had no problems installing XP and it's works just fine. I'm making separate Vista and XP image so I restore to whatever OS I want to boot up. Of course I can make dual-boot, but I don't like dual-boot.

Anyways, sorry to hear that you didn't get it to work the way you wanted.