HP dv9999us Review

I’ve been looking for a new laptop for a couple of months now. My MacBook Pro is nearly 3 years old, still has the original Core Duo cpu, and it over heats so much it just freezes. I had Apple look at and they replaced a heat sink but it seemed like it didn’t help. They also replaced the battery and power adapter plug – still didn’t help. They finally said that the temperature is normal and they can’t do anything else. My co-worker’s newer MacBook Pro doesn’t heat up as bad. Anyways…

I started looking at the netbooks. They are very light-weight, ultra portable, no CD/DVD-rom drives. I thought it would be perfect for what I need. I can still carry my MBP and have a netbook too. I waited and waited. Then I saw an ad at Office Depot for a laptop. It was a total opposite of what a netbook is but for the price I had to take a look. I ended up buying the HP dv9999us. Here are the specs:

• AMD Turion-X2 64bit 2.0GHz
• 4GB ram
• 250GB hdd
• 17” WXGA 1440×900 BrightView LCD
• USB 2.0 (4x)
• Firewire 400 (1x)
• S-Video out
• Built-in web cam
• Media remote control
• 2 audio out headphone jacks and 1 input
• 5-in-1 memory card reader
• Express card slot

You can view the hardware specs here. So after about 2 weeks of use, here’s a list of likes and dislikes.

LIKES:

• 4GB ram
• 64 bit OS and CPU
• numeric keypad is part of the keyboard
• 17” screen is great
• Vista Home Premium 64bit has been impressively stable (so far)
• memory card reader
• has remote control for media software and can be stored in the extreme card slot
• built-in webcam
• after rebates the laptop costs only $490
• physical on/off switch for WiFi
• no incompatibilities so far being Vista and 64bit (programs that are 64bit are stored in the Program Files folder * while the rest are stored in Program Files x86)
• S-Video out support
• light scribe DVDRW drive

DISLIKES:

• media buttons on top of the keyboard are too senstive
• video card is not all that good when it comes to games
• right, Shift button is awkwardly positioned and size is smaller than usual – I sometimes press “/” key to the left of it
• heavy 7.7lbs (but it is a 17” laptop)
• media software isn’t too responsive, too cluttered – OS X has a more intuitive interface
• lots of pre-installed software (can be removed, but why are they there in the first place – doesn’t exists in any Apple computer)
• took almost an hour to access the desktop during first boot – must be a Vista thing
• no HDMI support, but no biggie
• sometimes I hear buzzing sound when the laptop seems like it’s heating up – I’ve had this happen on several other * laptops so it seems normal

Overall the laptop is great for the price. My views towards Vista have changed a little bit. It seems the 64 bit version runs a little more stable than the 32 bit version. I do miss my MacBook Pro and OS X but I don’t miss the overheating. I still have Apple desktops at home and at work so it’s not that bad.