HGL30 mini-review and some pet peeves

For a bit of background, I bought the PowerPro L 8:14 SUPRA from powernotebooks.com, with the T2500 2.0GHz proc, 2 GB of RAM etc.

As for powernotebooks, service was tremendous, and I will certainly be buying from them next time I need a notebook.

For the money and size, it is quite a good machine. And it is as fast as the components would imply. Basically, for under $1600, I don't know of anything else that is semi-portable and has this power.

Now for the down sides, mostly little things.

First is the battery management. The drivers the system comes with don't really have any power management, so you have to go with the window system power management. This isn't a big deal, since I found in previous laptops that for battery life what you are doing (watching video, browsing the internet) is more important than what your power settings are anyway, but it would be nice.

Second, there is no volume control on the machine, it all has to be done with the system sound monitor, which as you might guess, is a little annoying with movies and games.

Third is the touchpad, the system drivers have this really annoying tick where when you scroll using the touchpad, the pointer jumps to the scroll bar. Again, gets rather frustraing. I actually do not have the standard drivers installed as a result, and have been searching for drivers which don't have this quirk.

Fourth, the keyboard has a bit of flex, and after a Toshiba tablet with tremendous build quality, it doesn't feel as satisfying. This isn't news, but if you are really into build quality this might be more of a problem.

So, finally, if I had to do it again, I would definitely buy exactly the same computer. Just thought I would let you know what you would be getting yourself into, I am happy because my overiding concerns were power, size and price, and for all of those, I couldn't be happier.

Hope this helps someone. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

I just built my HL30 two days ago and had a chance to play around with it a bit last night. I am happy, but not as happy as I thought I'd be.

Battery management doesn't bother me. Most of the proprietary battery management stuff from IBM, etc are not that appealing to me. Windows is enough for me.

The lack of volume control is strange, but I think you can program the media buttons? (haven't had a chance to mess with that, mostly loaded the system and put my apps on)

My touchpad is pretty good. It is too sensitive. I think you can turn off the jumping to the scroll bar and the annoying tick in the touchpad app. Mine doesn't do it.

I agree wholeheartedly with the keyboard comments. It feels cheap. I would gladly have paid $20 or more for a better keyboard. Why can't manufacturers learn that paying $20 (or more) is less of a negative than a cheap keyboard that feels like you are typing on a toy. It's pretty important. Can't change that I'm afraid.

How is your screen? I have no complaints except for blacks. I'm having two issues with the blacks.
1) it looks like I get light leakage from both the top and the bottom. Is anybody else getting that?
2) the quality of the black is highly dependent on the view angle. Only with balck.

Finally, the other issue is the fan. I'm getting that annoying fan goes on, fan goes off, fan goes on, fan goes off, etc... I also noticed that the fan stayed on for about 15 minutes this morning and the air coming out was barely warm. Do you have this issue? Anyone running speedfan or another fan control app?

I'll post some pictures on the build process later.

 

Have you guys seen the threads that tell you how to fix the keyboard? Especially since you built yours Mattk, it should be simple:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60006&page=64

 

That looks good for the flex, but for me it's the individual keys. The resistance they put up is pretty weak and it just doens't feel right. Thanks for the note though, I will do that to reduce the flex since it is pretty easy.

 

I've never really like typing on laptop keyboards myself. I will always use an external keyboard and mouse when possible. To me it's just more comfortable.

 

An external keyboard is better, but then I would just build a nice desktop system if I was going to do that. I guess i've been spoiled because this keyboard seems to rattle the whole system. And the fan is still annoying the heck out of me.

 

Bios update. WWW.bizcom-us.com has a BIOS version 1.09 and it looks promising. I'm going to install it tonight.

 

The idea is actually to have more of a desktop setup at your desk, but with the added convenience of being able to take your system/software/data with you whenever you want.

You can even setup up an external monitor and have a dual-monitor setup at your main work desk.

 

I can see that, I do that for work. This is for home use. I like the notebook so I can roam around the house which, with kids, you really need to be able to do. If I had a room for the computer at a desk full time, I might setup a notebook with an external keyboard, but I'd probably build a desktop instead as they have their place, especially as a file server in addition to normal use.

 

Mattk,

There are a bunch of both HEL80 and HGL30 users here who have put some double-sided tape to the back of their keyboard. According to them it has really stabilized the feel of the keyboard.

You may want to look into doing that. It's very easy and simple.

Here are some pictures of the HGL30 opened up. iamsamwood actually inserted a thin piece of steel rather than taping his keyboard though.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1560586&postcount=632

 

I saw that. At first I thought it was the keys and not the flex, but I think it is the keyboard after all. The keys on the outside edge are much firmer. Typing in the middle of the keyboard makes all the keys rattle, so I think that will be the fix. I'm going to give it a try tomorrow when I get can some double sided sticky tape. Thanks! Going to do a bios update for the fan right now.

 

Double sided sticky tape is the answer and the missing screws. Note to anyone who installs this by hand, the extra screws are not there in case you are missing some, they are for the keyboard! Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I put on more tape than I probably should have but the keyboard now feels very sturdy. I didn't tighten the screws all the way down as I figure I'll tighten them over time as the tape begins to permanently compress.