Bought a new laptop... review and details.

[Beancooker]

So I cashed in on the Black Friday/Saturday sales.

I picked up an HP DV4t.

$650 after rebates.

Intel T5800 Core 2 Duo 2MB L2 Cache 800 Mhz FSB4 Gigs of RAMVista 64 bit14.1" Brightscreen802.11 wireless a/b/g/nDual layer DVD burnerBuilt in webcam which I'll never use...

The processor:I am really impressed with the 2Ghz proc. It has no problems with Photoshop and runs all the tasks I have thrown at it well.

Display/Graphics:The Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD card that it has, isn't going to do crap for gaming. It does display DVD's in hi definition, and the picture is great. Awesome with the excption that you can't game on this card.

Touch Pad:The scroll feature works well, and the pad is great as far as sensitivity. It has such a broad range of settings, that you can customize it exactly to your preferences. There is also a shutoff button, so you can shut it off when using a standard mouse, which is convenient to keep from bumping it and moving the cursor.

Keyboard:I type really hard. I mean I pound the hell out of the keys. The keys are going to take some getting used to. When you barely touch them, they recognize that you have touched them. In order to preserve the keyboard, I will have to lighten my touch. There is also a touch pad for the volume, mute, forward, back, play/pause, and stop.

Wireless:It has a built in 802.11 a/b/g/It does great at picking up signal, and has a great range (I know the wireless router has a lot to do with this as well). There is also a "one touch" connection button for wireless. This is convenient, even though if you know how to turn on a computer, it's just as easy to connect to a network.

Battery:For a cheap 6 cell battery, it lasts a long time. I have gotten about 4 hours of use without a need for a recharge. I hope it continues to preform like this. It also recharges pretty fast. Usually takes about an hour to recharge.

Sound:It comes with Altec Lansing. I have never had anything good to say about Altec Lansing. However, I will say, this system is the "High definition audio" system, and it does sound great. It doesn't sound like a picnic spinner in a coffee can, so all in all I am pretty happy with it.

Aesthetics: It is a sharp looking notebook. It's black with a fair amount of chrome, and has some pretty white lighting. Definitely not ugly or embarrassing to carry around.

On a scale of 1-10, with the crappy netbooks being a 1, and the Dell XPS 1730 as a 10, here is my reasoning and rating.

Figuring price, mobility, speed and overall functionality. Overall, I am really pleased with this notebook. For the price, I couldn't go wrong. It is plenty powerful for the usual daily tasks, and will accomplish many extensive tasks as well. I looked around for a few days before deciding on this one. If looking for a powerful affordable notebook, this is a great choice.

I give it a 7.5

[Looneybomber]

Pics for us lazy people? BTW, that's a good price for a non-crappy laptop!

Sound:It comes with Altec Lansing. I have never had anything good to say about Altec Lansing. However, I will say, this system is the "High definition audio" system, and it does sound great. It doesn't sound like a picnic spinner in a coffee can, so all in all I am pretty happy with it.

More than a generation ago...err well, 35-45 years ago, Altec Lansing was among the elite for sound reproduction, both privately and professionally. Even in the 80's, they were still high quality, used in the (I think) '84 olympics and Disney World. Then in the 90's they went overseas to China and now...well.

[Beancooker]

So here are a few pics...

[adidas2go]

Nice! I love HP's! Good choice, and an even better price!

[marlin29311]

the picture you took has this thread open...lol.

I actually just bought a Lenovo T500 myself on monday - got a Cyber Monday discount along with a corporate discount - saved $800. It should be coming in the next few days. Gotta love black friday/cyber monday!

[Warped161]

I picked up a Sony vaio cs190 in red bundled with the bag and mouse for 500 on black friday.