HP/Compaq Pavilion dv5000
This is a mini review on the HP Pavillion dv5000 notebook PC. My wife purchased this notebook 2 weeks ago but I’ve been using it for the past 2 days and I have to say I am really pleasantly surprised by this laptop in a number of areas.
First the specs, it has a Core Duo 1.66GHz processor, 1GB of ram, an Nvidia 128mb go7400 video card and a 15.4” shiny (whatever HP calls it) display.
First I’ll talk about the display; it is absolutely brilliant and better than displays on laptops substantially more expensive, I'd say it's very close to the Sony Xbrite displays. Bright, sharp and colors are just beautiful, I’ve even used it outdoors and though it is shiny and you can get some reflections it’s easier to see than my other laptop with a matte display.
With the 1.66GHz Core Duo chip this laptop is extremely fast, yes HP loads a boat load of bloatware on it so I uninstalled everything that was not needed (I didn’t reformat) and it purrs like a kitten. It has Windows Media Center edition as its OS and it boots very quickly and apps load in no time. Also there is no lag when multitasking; running anti virus or other maintenance programs in the background produces no lag. It’s a very sleek looking machine and seems to be well built, it has a row of multi media buttons along the top which are in a nice blue color and it has a media direct button so you can listen to music through the excellent Altec Lansing speakers without booting into Windows. There is no creaking at all when opening the top, the only thing I find is a little flexing in the keyboard but it doesn’t feel bad, as a matter of fact the keyboard is extremely comfortable with big full size keys which are quiet and have good travel.
Another surprise is the battery life, I’d say it gets a good 2.5-3 hours of battery uptime and that is with the display at full brightness, it would probably do better with the display at a lower setting. I believe it has the 6 cell battery, HP makes a longer lasting 12 cell battery as well.
All in all for a $1,300 laptop HP has a winner with the dv5000. Downsides? Well as I mentioned the little bit of keyboard flex and it is kind of heavy. That’s not bad, 2 minor complaints. I’ve enjoyed it for the last couple of days!
First the specs, it has a Core Duo 1.66GHz processor, 1GB of ram, an Nvidia 128mb go7400 video card and a 15.4” shiny (whatever HP calls it) display.
First I’ll talk about the display; it is absolutely brilliant and better than displays on laptops substantially more expensive, I'd say it's very close to the Sony Xbrite displays. Bright, sharp and colors are just beautiful, I’ve even used it outdoors and though it is shiny and you can get some reflections it’s easier to see than my other laptop with a matte display.
With the 1.66GHz Core Duo chip this laptop is extremely fast, yes HP loads a boat load of bloatware on it so I uninstalled everything that was not needed (I didn’t reformat) and it purrs like a kitten. It has Windows Media Center edition as its OS and it boots very quickly and apps load in no time. Also there is no lag when multitasking; running anti virus or other maintenance programs in the background produces no lag. It’s a very sleek looking machine and seems to be well built, it has a row of multi media buttons along the top which are in a nice blue color and it has a media direct button so you can listen to music through the excellent Altec Lansing speakers without booting into Windows. There is no creaking at all when opening the top, the only thing I find is a little flexing in the keyboard but it doesn’t feel bad, as a matter of fact the keyboard is extremely comfortable with big full size keys which are quiet and have good travel.
Another surprise is the battery life, I’d say it gets a good 2.5-3 hours of battery uptime and that is with the display at full brightness, it would probably do better with the display at a lower setting. I believe it has the 6 cell battery, HP makes a longer lasting 12 cell battery as well.
All in all for a $1,300 laptop HP has a winner with the dv5000. Downsides? Well as I mentioned the little bit of keyboard flex and it is kind of heavy. That’s not bad, 2 minor complaints. I’ve enjoyed it for the last couple of days!
