hp pavillion build quality and material???

hi guys,
i am looking or a new laptop for me
i was considering HP as strong candidate.
pavillion series looks cool with nice specifications but i have found that hp is providing strong security measures (like magnesium alloy casing,data protection,hard disk header protection etc.)things only with their business series.so this thing is confusing.so can u guys give me deep insight into building quality of pavillion and recommend me whether its good enough or not?yours opinions are most welcomed.i will consider a laptop with strong build quality and good multimedia options.thanks

 

You don't often get both together =(

Normally, the good build quality comes with a business plain design.

The multimedia notebooks often come with great looking design but poor quality build.

I have a £1,300 HP entertainment laptop and it does not come with these security measures so if you need them you'll have to look at some Business models and very few/none of them have full multimedia potential.

 

you might wanna look at a dell, if your after those things

 

I second flipfire..

I have those specs you want on my dv9500t (3 months young) ...but only when they work.. display went black..come back repaired now the latch is not catchinglaptop does not close and it has to back again...and who knows after that..I'm holding my breath...but this is rock bottom quality all the way..can't get any lower!

I would look elsewhere..

 

thanx a lot for ur response.
material and build quality is v.important
so does that mean HP`s non-business line up is not worth considering???
is there any strong candidate which offers these up to date materials with multimedia pelasure?????
meanwhile i will look into dell

 

You would be best looking at a dell vostro 1500 . Those come with magnesium alloy and all that other stuff

HP's entertainment range isnt built aswell as business notebooks. Its mostly for show

 

cjawadz, I really don't want to be an HP downer because I've been a customer of theirs for 15 years. But let me give you a little background into my recent dealings with them in the past 3 years.

I bought a customized ZX5000 series about 3 years ago. Within 3 months, it went in for its first repair. It came back and within a week something else was wrong with it. It went back a total of 4 times before HP replaced it with a ZX5280. That replacement computer is still going strong.

Fast forward to last December. I bought a DV9500T. Within 48 hours, the DVD drive failed. It went back. They replaced it with a DV9700T and within a week, the screen started having a backlight flicker.

They gave me the "We're sorry" line and we value you as a long-time customer. I fell for the spiel and bought a 3rd one as the last time I would give HP just one more chance. I really liked the computer...when it worked.

You probably know HPShopping has a 21 day return policy. The third one arrived and worked for exactly 32 days before the screen went out just like pgifish's. Now it's sitting at the back door ready to go to HP repairs via FedEx.

It took pgifish 14 days to get his back and now he has to send it back again. So if HP keeps mine 14 days, they will have had it back almost 50% as long as I got to have it before it went in for repair.

I almost bought a Dell. Had it in my cart and everything but I have no experience with any other laptops than HP. I chickened out and, let me tell you, I really, really regret buying an HP.

There are plenty of others who haven't had any problems at all. This is just my personal experience. I don't know what's happened in my situation. I keep this laptop on my desk, it's never even left a single room, let alone left the house. The only time it left the desk it's been perched on for a month was to be packaged up to be sent to HP for repair.

I wish you luck with your buying decision. I wish I was still able to be at that stage because, personally, I wouldn't make the decision I made to go with HP just one more time. It didn't work out for me but obviously I don't learn too quickly or I would've caught on after my first 2 experiences went south rather fast!

 

thanx a lot for ur detailed response...
let us keep the opinions coming.

 

also tell me about dell and ibm.after a few seraches am finding them good performer as welll.sony vaio`s are costly...what about macbook??????

 

Plenty of problems when I ordered a Dell 1420, cracked case and two bad displays. Personally, I think HP has better hardware. Sure the case is plastic composite but it feels very durable. The part that is going to crack etc.. is the lid housings etc... and dell uses plastic in areas that can break.. around the hinge areas. Personally, I think the Dells look cheap around the keyboard.. the media buttons are more flimsy, speakers are total crap compared to HP's altec lansing. From these forums, it appears that their are tons more complaints on fit and finish and grainy displays from the dells in comparison to the HP's. Plastic composites are very strong these days and unless you drop the thing, I doubt you will have any issues. In that case, I doubt an inspiron would survive a drop either. All I can say is the instant I received my dv6500t I was very pleased and it felt and looked like a much higher end better built machine then the dell was. I looked at the dell 1525 the other day and it really looked like a generic bargain basement copy of my dv6500t. But the thing that worries me the most about dell is grainy displays and crappy speakers. It kind of messes up your experience when you get the parts that effect the senses screwed up. Dell does offer higher res screens but overall, HP screens look brilliant. Dell has issues with QC on LCD panels and they are very inconsistent. The bottom line is you are more likely to get "a good one" the first time around with a HP whereas with a Dell you might need to get a replacement or two before you are satisfied. But no matter what, the dell speakers will be crappy, nothing can be done about that until they start putting in something other then generic crap. The mag alloy case on the dells is not that strong either.. I have read plenty of posters who have had warped cases and they can wobble on a flat table.. People actually bend their cases back into shape to straighten them out. Its little build quality issues like this that scare me away from Dell. Dells customer satisfaction index also dropped a few months back to even below that of gateway which is rather pathetic. Not sure if they have turned that trend around yet.

 

Sony's are not worth the money and their warranties are too expensive. Not a good value for the money. But Sony's utra portable TZ line are amazing if you ask me.. LED screens carbon fiber case.. really state of the are specs.. but hugely expensive but IMO the best/lightest ultra portables if you don't care about spending 3 grand. Some of the IBMS are really tough designs and withstand spills and drops.. but at a cost.

As for Mac.. I think everything Apple makes is overrated and overpriced. But they have nice designs and have a strong following. But you can get better specs on MP3 players and laptops over the mac, ipods. I do agree that Apples OS is leaner and less bloated then Vista. Although I do have SP1 running nicely on my Hp now and its running fast now. I am still disappointed with MS on vista.. they could have done better.

I think the pavillons are a good value if you buy with one of their good coupons.. which come every month or so but they don't last long. Also make sure you get intel over amd on any notebook.. Mainly for power/heat savings which is hugely important on laptops. Many of the issues I have read on past HP's were on AMD models.

 

yeah...hp pavillion series has some of very nicely designed laptops with imprint finish and bla bla...the thing which attracted my attention was that hp is offering so many features like finger print sensing,remote control(for lazy ones like me ,webcam. EVERTYTHING in quite less expensive models...but these days my only tension is about this material thingy and build quality of case and overall body...looks on pavillion series are good....would that they have used magnesium alloy and 3d sensor !!!

 

Well I admit, the dells magnesium case/colorful case colors look nice enough. But once you get past the lid, its all down hill. At least it was with the 1420 I had. The ruby red lid looked great, but everything else is lacking. About the only way I'd get a Dell is if I wanted the 8600gt card with the cheaper vostro. If your a gamer, that is probably a good value.

But to be honest, I think the hinge assemblies look stronger on my HP. I am not worried about the composite plastic since I know its more then strong enough for my needs. But the plastic hinge housing that was on that 1420 I had (cracked) did not look good. If only dell used quality components past the case design I would be more impressed. But the flimsy media buttons, cheesy speakers and grainy displays make dell seem really cheap to me. And IMO, they are junk. But after trying two systems they could not make it right and HP shipped me a good one first time around.

Honestly, if build quality is that important I would buy business class anything or an IBM.. Any consumer class notebook may not measure up for your build quality needs.

 

you also got to remember that the people that are satisfied with their products are not really going to post that. Here you get a response usually of people who had a bad experience. Like if you go into the dell forum you will get people saying to by an HP. There is a reason that HP is the worlds
largest notebook maker, so it should be fine either way you go.

 

You said it all when you wrote consumer grade "HP's look nice". That's it. They look nice and they're relatively cheap compared to competition for a reason. They're poorly made and their customer service is in the dumps. And by dumps, I mean they completely redefined what I thought horrible customer service meant.

HP had my laptop for 40 days before they finally decided to send me a new one. I'll be without a laptop for 54 days as long as I get the new one when it was promised (I won't hold my breath). After I sent in my HP, each time the repair date would tick by I'd get a call from HP telling me "another two weeks". That is their standard line.

After 30+ days of broken promises, I escalated my case to a Case Manager. The case manager promised to call me on approximately 6 different occassions. He never called. (They never do). It took emails to all kinds of hp departments and copying the CEO on every one of them before I finally heard from my case manager. He made another promise again that was broken. According to him the parts were to arrive last friday and I'd have my laptop back on Monday. Of course Monday came and I got a call telling me "another two weeks". At that point another case manager called and put in an order for a new DV2000t with upgraded specs.

That's nice, but i'm selling it to pay for my Mac. I'll never buy another HP again because saving a few hundred bucks just simply isn't worth the gamble that it will crap out and having to deal with their terrible service. If you google "case manager HP", you'll find MANY experiences like the one I had. For the record, I had another HP prior to this one that went dead just a few days out of warranty.

I expect hardware failures in PC's. It's almost a shame that it's a given to have one within warranty these days. I simply went with a Mac because I can take the damn thing to a store, talk to a human being that understands me and my problem (vs. automated systems and non-native english speakers), and can take care of me right there.

If others are suggesting going with other manufacturers for features you are looking for, I strongly suggest you heed their advice.

 

Please , you dont need to be obsessed with BQ, since it is all hype.
It is marketing and therefore some still belive thinkpad is so so so tough , but I can't believe how easily they actually break.

No need metal since all laptops are DiSPOSABLE, and metal is even not better material than Plastic.

I think most of people do not use them long enough to care about build quality but price and specs.

 

And HPs are well built , I mean very exquisite and quite durable, nothing less than these Thinkpads or Sony, but Panasonics are tougher but less cute.

 

My dv9500t when it works it's good.

As far as I can tell from my research is this

HP Dell Apple etc get all their components from the same source and when the laptop works great.

BUT what matters when it breaks down where you bought it and service quality ..the big companies like HP Dell ..minimize their customer support , service cost with outsource repair to the cheapest...rock bottom cheap..
that's where the problem is.

I got my laptop back fixed for what I send it in for but the repair center did not put it together right so they caused the next problem the laptop did not lock....& one more none excusable they send the pc back dirty. metal scraps & oily fingerprint on the lcd.

Off back to repair...who knows how it comes back this time.

I checked this laptop with the same specs out online at another small laptop builder and the price was $1500 more. To me this the the XXXtra $$$ you pay for repair & service of the machine.

That's the decision you have to make before you buy one.

 

FWIW, my first laptop, a 6 or 7 year old ZE1230 that I bought from Best Buy, is still kicking. I passed it on to my Mom and she uses it every day. It can't handle today's games, of course, but my 60+ year old mom's not much of a gamer!

Also, the ZX5280 HP sent me when they replaced my CTO ZX5000 is about 3 years old and I was just using it last night since my brand new one is already in for repairs. Now it chugs along pretty badly on today's games with its itty bitty ATI 9600 graphics card and the fans are constantly going but it's never given me a problem.

For some odd reason, the only troubles I've ever had with HP's laptops have been CTO! Every single CTO laptop I've had (4 now, with 3 of those being just since Dec.) has had something wrong with it. Go figure.

 

If you go to any manufacturer's thread, you will find customers with problems. As pointed out above, satisfied customers rarely post how happy they are with their computer.

I've had my dv6275us for a year and have had zero hardware problems. A friend was so impressed with mine that he bought a similar model (don't know the precise model no., but it is a dv6xxxt) and he has had no problems.

The dv6275us replaced a four-year-old HP Pavilion ze4200 notebook, again with zero problems.

The only complaint I have with my present notebook is that the right palm rest squeaks a bit if I apply pressure to it. Actually, about the only time I hear it is when I intentionally press down on it. Another minor complaint is that the CD/DVD drive is sometimes too loud to me. Considering how persnickety I am, this is pretty good.

I do like the build of the HP business notebooks better, and I probably don't need a lot of the entertainment capabilities of the dv6000t. Nevertheless, it's a lot of bang for the buck computer.

Bill

 

I just got this laptop 3 days ago and their are already problems. I'm returning it today for a refund because I can't deal with it anymore.

I suggest going with a Dell I heard they are really durable

 

I second that statement to the highest degree possible. Hardware/software problems are pretty much a given. What's really gonna matter is the service you receive WHEN the problems happen.

Caveman also has another good point. You won't hear a peep about companies that do a good job, however that means you won't hear any positive OR negative. My recommendation, browse through these threads and search for the brand that has LESS negativity than the others.

I chose to switch to Apple for customer service reasons, but I realize it's not practical for everyone to take their laptop to an Apple store ( I have one just 5 miles away) and that people are hesitant to switch from one OS to another. I'm not talking Apple up yet, simply because I haven't had it long enough to say it's better than a PC or not. As far as service goes, IMO you can't get any better than walking into a store and talking face to face with someone that understands you and will take care of you.

 

This is where I buy my next laptop .....

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/PowerNotebooks