any hp dv4z owners?

I am about to buy one with APP discount and free ram/hd upgrade for only 632 dollars. Is this laptop worth buying for a college student who plans to commute/light gaming? I have tried to look for reviews but could not find any. Any input is appreciated.

 

Plus one......

 

I ordered mine last week & also wasn't able to find any reviews. Mine worked out to $787 with ZM-80/160-Gb/3-Gb/LED/Hi-cap battery and Lightscribe. The only thing I have found on the internets is that the battery life may not be as good as the dv4t's since the AMD proc's are 35-watts. I have handled two dv5t's at German stores - without LED displays - and I am impressed with the build quality but the non-LED displays appeared kinda dim. If they are anywhere near as good as my dv2000t has been then I think you will be pleased - especially at the price. I was going to order a third Eee PC 1000H for myself, at $580 shipped (old price), and decided to get a larger but much more capable laptop for $200 more.

 

I bought one for my girlfriend and it's quite an impressive machine. It's sleek, very fast, and can game pretty good considering it has the 780G chipset and HD3200 graphics. She can play Spore and Simcity Societies with great framerates and good settings. It rips through vista, too. She's very happy with its performance.

I did blast the HD and install Vista fresh. The bundled bloatware was pretty yucky.

Very impressive chipset behind these puma based laptops.

 

Just ordered one with the $200 off coupon. Came to ~$740 shipped with the 2.1 GHz Turion Ultra, LED screen, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, and Radeon 3200. Seems like a great laptop for a good price.

 

As a new owner of a dv4z I can say it's awesome. Picked it up last Thursday and I have no complaints. After removing the crapware and cleaning it up I can say the computer is fast and powerful. I'm able to play Spore very well and enjoy it a lot.

It was very bad at first. After getting rid of everything unnecessary by uninstalling and defragging I can say it's very fast. I was also a bit worried about reloading the drivers because it's time consuming and sometimes things don't work the way they're suppose to. I can understand doing a fresh install though.

The quality is excellent, keyboard nice, and the touch buttons are responsive (although some people may say otherwise). If you have any questions I can probably answer...

 

What resolution, settings, and approximate framerate are you getting with Spore? I've been playing Spore at max settings on my desktop and am expecting to play it at low settings but I'm curious...

Have you tried Company of Heroes on it by chance? I didn't buy this with gaming in mind but it would be a nice perk to be able to run COH.

 

I'm playing Spore at 1280 by 800 (native resolution) with a combination of low and medium settings (half and half). It plays at a very steady framerate. I usually keep my laptop plugged in while playing so that may make a difference in performance. I'm not really sure though.

I have not tried Company of Heroes but I'm sure it would be able to handle it at about the same settings (1280 by 800, low to medium settings). Sorry I'm not very specific but I hope this helps you out.

Edit: This may apply to someone because I had a problem with it. The free media remote that comes with the computer goes on the left side of the computer. However, there's a plastic filler card on the side. I couldn't figure how to get it out. You have to press really hard before the spring kicks in. Took me a while because at first I was being delicate on it. I don't know if it's just my laptop or because it's new but on mine I have to press hard.

 

I am tickled to hear all of the good reports on the dv4z - especially regarding the graphics. Do any of you have the LED-backlit display? I am hopeful that the extra $100 was a good investment for it. My system has been shipped & I can't wait to get it!

 

Yes, I would like to know what battery 6-cell or high capacity 6-cell you have, and also the battery life?

 

I have the 6-cell battery. It lasts about 1 1/2 hours. I don't like to turn up the brightness while running on battery because it drains the battery a bit faster but I'm not sure how much it makes a difference.

I'm not disappointed with it but it could be better. It suits me well.

 

1.5 hours!

I might cancel my order cause that really sucks. I was expecting around 3.

 

Let me try something out. I haven't fully drained the battery because I keep it mostly plugged in but I'll give something a try for you. I'll try to get a better approximation.

Laptop unplugged: 1:36 PM PST
Battery drained: 3:46 PM PST (stopped at 10%)
Total time: ~2:10
Note: Looks like I could have gotten a bit more juice out of it. You get the point. I drained the battery faster than I should because I started using the webcam and plugged in a wireless USB mouse.

I'm just going to be browsing, maybe watch a show or two, nothing too intensive.

 

Great, thanks

 

No problem. I'm a half and hour in at 81% battery left. Now that I look at it I'll most likely make it to 2 1/2 hours. I haven't had it go below 30% yet but even then I had the brightness all the way up while defragging and doing other stuff. That's probably why my guess was way off. We'll see though.

I feel bad giving you bad information especially since you were thinking about canceling your order.

Edit: 1 hour mark, 63%
1 1/2 hour mark, 42% (I was way off, I'm sorry)
2 hour mark, 17%, I plugged in a USB wireless mouse and used the webcam so it drained the battery a bit faster

 

No problem, thanks for the info. I figured it was about that long anyways, hopefully the extended capacity 6 cell gives a few extra minutes too.

 

A spare battery is always a good idea. Agressive power saving options in Vista can make a big difference, too. I find tha turning off wifi and dimming the screen while on battery can give you up to an extra hour of use. I always carry a spare battery and AC adapter with me. I find that in most cases, I am near a power cord and only need the battery here and there, really.

 

people actually play Spore?

 

so is this LED display like totally awesome heh? Like way better than the regular brightview? regular brightview seems a bit washed out.

 

Just got my dv4z yesterday... holy crap the LED screen is awesome! I haven't seen the regular screen to compare but wow, the backlight is perfectly even and the screen gets really bright. Even the dimmest setting is pretty bright compared to my old laptop (HP nc8430). Colors are great and it seems to have great contrast. I'm impressed. I was worried about the lowly 1280x800 resolution but at this screen size it makes text look great. Another nice thing is that the speakers get surprisingly loud compared to other laptops I've had.

Performance seems to be fine (got the Turion Ultra ZM-80, 2 GB RAM, 5400 RPM hdd) in general use, just as snappy in Vista as the high end desktop I just built. Although my last three computers have had Core 2 Duos I'm totally happy that I saved ~$150 by sticking with AMD. Gonna try playing Company of Heroes soon to see how well it can handle a relatively recent game. Not expecting much but as long as it runs I'll be happy.

**edit: it plays Company of Heroes great! I played a 1v1 skirmish @ 1280x800 with a mix of high/med/low settings (shaders on high) and it ran really smooth, even with lots of explosions and stuff going on. I'm used to playing the game maxed out on my desktop but honestly it looked great on this laptop with integrated graphics. Crazy. Definitely happy with this purchase and can't believe I only paid $700 for it (and to think I almost bought a crappy EEE PC for only $200 less!)

 

thats kind of stupid... if i want my laptop's screen to be dim, i expect it to be dim.. not bright

anyway, im glad you liked the laptop. the EEE laptop is not worth the money at ALL... $700 for a full featured laptop that is still LIGHT and portable is great deal. oh, and the speakers ROCK!
i used the 1280x800 resolution and i must say that im very impressed.
just wish battery life was better.

 

Yea the battery life seems to be the biggest downside. Even with the "High Capacity" 6 cell it seems like I'll only get ~2-3 hours--can't tell exactly how much because it only shows percentage remaining, another downside.

 

haha yeah i agree completely... u cant even tell how many hours remaining because it only shows percentage. usually on my dv9500 if im just typing i can get like 2 hours.
2-3 hours seems decent enough

 

I received my dv4z this past Friday. I am very happy with the LED display and its pretty fast for Vista - although I put in a new HDD and did a clean install of Vista. I tried an XP install and it didn't work so well - I never did get the sound or the brightness controls to work. I also tried Ubuntu 8.04 with even worse results. But, the clean Vista install runs very well and, for the price, I am happy with it. I haven't conducted any formal battery-life tests but it appears to be just over two hours with brightness set at the fourth level - which is plenty bright.

 

Another minor downside is that the front-bottom-left of the laptop gets relatively hot. It's still usable in your lap but gets a little uncomfortable after about half an hour or so. It looks like it's due to the hard drive--I have the 250 GB. Anyone not having this issue? If not, what HDD are you using?

 

I haven't noticed any heat issues - with either the original Seagate or the Samsung-160 that I had running in it for awhile. Sure wish I could get either XP or Ubuntu to work though... One thing for sure - the LED display makes up for the lack of a fully working dual-boot OS.

 

i am still waiting for my dv4z. hopefully it will be here by this week. i am also wanting to install ubuntu on it. Have you tried the new ubuntu 8.10 beta release? what does and doesn't work in hardy?

 

I haven't downloaded 8.10 yet - I need to try it. It was frustrating though - my wife's D620 (from her office), when booted from 8.04 LiveCD, worked like a charm - wireless, brightness - the works. My ASUS F8 worked almost as well - had a small video hiccup at first - but everything worked. It was pretty frustrating to have both Ubuntu and XP Pro tank on the (otherwise great) dv4z...

 

Hi everybody!

I have a serious problem with my new DV4Z, and I don't know where to ask, so I come here.

It's about the LED display. When browsing the internet, playing games, watching movies... etc, it works great. But it becomes TERRIBLE when it comes to displaying IMAGES. My old favorites beautiful pictures now seem too grey, too burned-out, and too ugly, comparing to their real quality when being display on a proper monitor.

Does anyone out there has the same problem? Please share with me and, if possible, please tell me how to solve this problem - without buying another laptop.

Thanks in advance.

BTW, my DV4Z specs:

AMD ZM-80, 2GB memory, 250 GB harddisk, 14" LED LCD display at 1280x800.