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.
