dv2500t vs the others

i'm in the market for a new laptop, and was originally deciding between the sony vaio fz and the mbp...but i stepped into a best buy today and was impressed with the dv2660 (bronze special edition of the dv2500). but i have a few questions....

1. in another thread everyone said the sony fz screen is definitely better than the dv2500 screen. but in best buy, the hp screen seemed better than the fz's there (which all had the dimmer xbrite-eco, not the brighter xbrite hicolor). so are my eyes deceiving me? i'm interested in very high contrast because i look at text on word processing programs for hours on end.

2. the sony fz has horrible battery life. the smaller screen for the hp doesn't seem that small to me, so maybe i should get that for battery life alone. with the extended life 6 cell and using only integrated graphics, and doing word processing and web and itunes, how long of battery life do you think i'll get?

3. is the 12 cell battery really awkward to put on your lap because it doesn't extend across the entire bottom of the laptop? the fz extended battery is like that...what a bad design.

4. is the laptop too hot to put on your lap? that's how i spend most of my time with the computer. i'm thinking of getting the 2.2 ghz processor, and probably integrated graphics, but i hear the touchpad and palmrest gets really hot. is it as hot as the macbooks which are notoriously hot?

5. how do you think the dv2500 compares to the sony fz and the macbook pro?

thanks!

 

Got a dv2500t with 2.0GHz and the NVIDIA card last week. Cannot help you out on your comparison questions - but as far as the heat is concerned, if you change the Power mode to Power Saver (in Vista) and with the integrated graphics, you should be OK (just gets warm, not hot). The trackpad is not too great (too smooth?), you might want to see if you like it by testing in-store.
The 6-cell extended battery will give you at least 2 hours (w/ Wireless on) if you do browsing & word-processing.

 

two hours? is that all you're getting? i thought the regular 6 cell gives three. i was expecting the extended to give more.

 

HPs are notorious for their crappy battery life. The extended batterys may give you up to 3 hours. The regular 6 cells for the dv2500t are crap. 2.5 max without wireless. The 12s though are TOO much power IMO because it gives you more like 5 hours of charge.

The 12s have an advantage in that it leans the keyboard towards you slightly and makes it easier to type. And it's easier to hit the number buttons. But it does push the weight of the laptop to six pounds which can be a pain in the rear. the Dell 1420 is actually a better 14.1 IMO, but its far more expensive, esp with the 30% coupon HP has going on right now.

 

My 6 cell gives me a little more than 2 hours with dedicate graphic card, and wireless on. 12 cell gives me 4.5 hours. You can get more time out of integrated cards.
the left bottom runs a quite warm under intense stuff. for regular usage, it does not gets bad at all. comfortable on my lap.
Hope this helps.

 

really? on power saver i get about 3 hours wifi on, bluetooth off with nvidia.

 

Got a 2.2 ghz, 8400gs graphis card, Dv2500t.
It gets pretty warm, I measured the temp on the hard drive and its about 105degress, that heat rises and heats up the left side of the laptop, especially the palm rest area.

The battery life is not that great. i get about 2 hours on power saver setting with LCD brightness all the way down. this is on 6 cell.

Ive got a 1400Vostro coming in and i would have to compare the two and see how it does.