I bought and received my HP ZT3000 (aka Compaq x1000) a week ago. And promptly returned it for a Dell 700m (which arrived today!)
The HP ZT3000 was really quite a beautiful laptop -- nice screen, great keyboard, solid construction. But it was soo big! It just wasn't something you could pull out during a meeting or at class and have sitting in front of you (without being obnoxious). It was tough, because I hated to return something with such a gorgeous 15.4in widescreen, full-size keyboard, and relatively fast video card.
But I had to tell myself that I'll play games on my desktop, watch movies on my TV, so I really just needed something to bring to meetings and do wireless internet on.
My Dell 700m arrived a few hours ago. I'm very impressed with it so far! It's so tiny compared to the behemoth I received in the mail last week. I pulled it out and was almost worried I got a palmtop instead of a laptop.
The Screen: Is nice, crisp, and bright. I was worried about glare, but I don't think that'll be too much of an issue. No more so than my regular CRT. The only thing I don't like -- while it has a nice side-to-side viewing angle, the screen becomes noticeably darker and lighter if you move your head vertically. There's a very small "sweet spot" that you have to be in to see true black and true white.
The Keyboard: This was my other major concern. I'm a tall guy with big hands (not fat, just big). I can get around 85-90 wpm from this typing test on my MS Natural Keyboard. I drop to about 70-75 on the smaller 700m keyboard. The main thing that bothers me is the small "period" key. It was a truly poor layout decision to make such a frequently used key at 1/2 size. Still, though -- not too bad for a laptop keyboard. (As a comparison I got around 75-80 wpm on the zt3000 keyboard).
That's it for now... I'll update this thread with some more impressions as I move further into the laptop. I'll probably be replacing the harddrive now with a 60GB 7200rpm one I bought.
Oh, and the right mouse button looks kind of flimsy (and slightly lower). I might try to put a "shim" underneath, but I'm not exactly sure what that entails -- and I don't want to break anything! If there's an exact procedure anywhere, maybe someone can point it out to me! Thanks!
The HP ZT3000 was really quite a beautiful laptop -- nice screen, great keyboard, solid construction. But it was soo big! It just wasn't something you could pull out during a meeting or at class and have sitting in front of you (without being obnoxious). It was tough, because I hated to return something with such a gorgeous 15.4in widescreen, full-size keyboard, and relatively fast video card.
But I had to tell myself that I'll play games on my desktop, watch movies on my TV, so I really just needed something to bring to meetings and do wireless internet on.
My Dell 700m arrived a few hours ago. I'm very impressed with it so far! It's so tiny compared to the behemoth I received in the mail last week. I pulled it out and was almost worried I got a palmtop instead of a laptop.
The Screen: Is nice, crisp, and bright. I was worried about glare, but I don't think that'll be too much of an issue. No more so than my regular CRT. The only thing I don't like -- while it has a nice side-to-side viewing angle, the screen becomes noticeably darker and lighter if you move your head vertically. There's a very small "sweet spot" that you have to be in to see true black and true white.
The Keyboard: This was my other major concern. I'm a tall guy with big hands (not fat, just big). I can get around 85-90 wpm from this typing test on my MS Natural Keyboard. I drop to about 70-75 on the smaller 700m keyboard. The main thing that bothers me is the small "period" key. It was a truly poor layout decision to make such a frequently used key at 1/2 size. Still, though -- not too bad for a laptop keyboard. (As a comparison I got around 75-80 wpm on the zt3000 keyboard).
That's it for now... I'll update this thread with some more impressions as I move further into the laptop. I'll probably be replacing the harddrive now with a 60GB 7200rpm one I bought.
Oh, and the right mouse button looks kind of flimsy (and slightly lower). I might try to put a "shim" underneath, but I'm not exactly sure what that entails -- and I don't want to break anything! If there's an exact procedure anywhere, maybe someone can point it out to me! Thanks!
so give it some time for you hands to adjust and you'll be back in your regular speed in no time.
