nw8240 on eBay.de from HP Renew Program

I've found a very good offer on eBay Germany, I'd like to hear what you think about it.

It's a nw8240 with WXSGA+ and 2GHz, 512MB or 1GB RAM (if bought directly), 60GB/7200rpm and only a DVD/RW-Combo drive, for 1699 or 1749 Euro.

The reseller first described it as a "sample unit with minimal traces of usage." I asked the reseller about the age and how long it was in demo, but no answer came.

Now, two days later, it's 1579 or 1599 (making it even more attractive), while the description changed to "from the HP Renew Prorgam".

The reseller seems to be a professional one and does have a good feedback rate (98,6% from 205), but I'm still not sure because

1) the reseller didn't answer my mail
2) I don't want to get a model from an early production, some seem to complaint about dull screens and heat/noise problems.

What do you say?

 

Sounds a bit shaky to me. If you're in the U.S. I'd stay away. You can get a comparably-equipped, refurbished 8240 on HP.com for the same price. It'll have a full, three-year onsite warranty AND a ten-day return option, too.

 

In fact, on HP.com you can get a new, better equipped 8240 for less (partly because of the exchange rate), but only on the US site. I thought about importing but with tax, delivery on top, it wouldn't be a better deal than to buy it here "normally", plus I'd have to change the keyboard.

I forgot to mention, it does include the 3-year HP warranty and a 2 weeks return option.

Hmmmm....

 

Never mind. It just turned out that I won't have the budget for a notebook for another few months.

Thanks anyway.

Hopefully there will be new and affordable models by then.

 

This sounds better to me.

 

Unfotunately, it's one of the numerous WUXGA offers (they are easy to find for below 2000 Euro), which I find way too high for 15,4".

Anybody knows if HP will be announcing new business models, say, during CeBIT?

 

In what way? I thought it was mostly a question of settings, like setting the text size in Windows. I have this idea about it being too much for me too, but I'm not sure. That's why I want to hear your opinion.
So stupid, in most of these cases you have to pay more to get less.

I'm also looking for new HP N_ models with Core Duo, they should arrive soon.

 

I double that. Really stupid. I guess the WUXGA models are cheaper because no-one wants them.

Actually I haven't seen a WUXGA screen live yet, but I've seen 1400x1050 on a couple of 15" screens (T43 and an Asus of a friend), which I already find almost too high -- I'm used to 1280x1024 on my 17" desktop LCD, which has the standard 96 pixel per inch. I wouldn't go too much beyond 120 pixels per inch. On the other hand, I find 1280x800 too low (had to work on another Asus with this resolution), so most of the consumer models are nothing for me.

Check out this table, too.

edit:
Oh, maybe I should point out why I consider WUXGA too high.

First off, the DPI setting in Windows doesn't adjust everything. Many applications are not affected, often the icons/buttons remain the same pixel size and therefore become really small and difficult to read and click. Same goes for many many websites designed with pixel measures (heck, I would do that myself), especially Flash sites.

Second, it's very far off from the usual setting. This is bad at least in my case because I also do screen design stuff. Being too far from how people normally see their screens means "What I see is not what they get" and that I should test everything on a "normal" screen additionally = extra work. It's also hard when you want to use 1pixel lines for example and you can barely see them yourself.

 

Thanks for your comments. I guess you're right, let's hope Vista can change some of that though, we'll see.

 

katamari: This one just showed up for €1666:

There are two drawbacks: no DVD burner, and it seems like it's not available right now. But it's worth keeping an eye on.
Maybe you could send them an email and ask if it will be available, I'm not so good writing in German.

 

Here's another one for €1749:

 

Hey, thanks for the hints! I hope this is not taking too much of your time, as my purchase is not urgent and I might need another month to get the money together...

No DVD burner is not a problem. I don't burn stuff very often and would probably prefer the weight saver, anyway. Instead, I consider this Asus external drive, which looks nice, is slim and light, has Firewire (and USB of course), and less than half the price of a Multibay II DVD-R drive.

 

No problem, I'm thinking about buying one too. Besides, it doesn't take much time to do some searching. The reason for why I'm looking in Germany is price, the cheapest Nw8240 cost about €800 less!!! A Swedish keyboard for it cost like €50, so I could save a lot of money over there.
And I also don't have money right now, so I just keep on looking for what to get.

 

I see

Btw, the 1666 € offer is up now. Ooohhh... this is so tempting :-S

 

Well, that's certainly a matter of settings. You change icon size and spacing here, click the "Advanced" button. Remember that it also changes the size of the icons in the start menus right column. You'll find some other useful settings there too.

I still see your point though about too high resolution.

 

I played a bit with the settings because of your post. But we misunderstood us a bit. I was talking about icons in my applications like 3ds max and Photoshop. Now max can be customized with bigger icons, but Photoshop does not. Plus websites (with their pixel navigations) don't get adjusted with the DPI setting. Too bad... :-/

 

No such settings in Photoshop? That's really bad! There's a possibility that PS gets it button text size from Windows settings, try and see.

Yeah, internet is the big problem. I'm using Opera, I can magnify everything in the web browser with it, even Macromedia Flash. I just have to press "+", I guess it's the same in Firefox. If this setting could be done permanently then there's one problem less with high DPI, although I haven't tried yet.

Here's a review of a slightly older Asus DVD.

 

Did some searching and found out that the zoom can be permanently changed in Opera, look here. Personally I think I could get a high DPI display after all.

 

Hey, I'm an Opera user too But I find zoomed pixel images ugly, unless it's "round" numbers like 200%.

Anyway, if you would get one with WUXGA, I'm interested in knowing how that works out and maybe do get that one, too, after all.