HP/Compaq nx9010- Not brilliant, but satisfactory (HP Compaq Business Notebook Nx9010)

Member Name: amandag

Product:	HP Compaq Business Notebook Nx9010
Date:	02/08/04 (11108 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Attractive, Affordable, Nice design/ergonomics

Disadvantages: Slow, Fuzzy Screen, Heavy

INTRODUCTI ON
Why did I purchase a new laptop? My old laptop (Dell Inspiron 4000, see short opinion) was not sufficient for my needs anymore.

I had been very happy with my old Dell, and would love to have replaced it with another Dell... however, I now live in South Africa, where Dell is one of the most expensive brands on the market, so I couldn't afford it.

What I could afford was an entry-level HP/Compaq from the local Computer Chain Store (much like PC-World in the UK).

The short of it is: Its ok. Not brilliant, but ok.

The long of it:

SPECIFICA& #84;IONS:

Intel Celeron 2.8 GHz processor
256Mb DDRAM
30 Gb HDD
DVD-ROM/CD- 7;R combo drive
15" XGA TFT display
Firewire
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet Network Port
Integrated 56k fax modem
3 USB ports
Radeon Graphics card (which can be set to use between 8 and 64 Mb of RAM in the Bios, but be aware this is shared RAM)

*ERGONOMIC S/DESIG& #78; :

* Its comes with an attractive looking casing, in silver and graphite.
* I liked the space-age blue lights that indicate power on, HDD-access, CAPSLock, etc.
* The battery indicator light is amber (charging) or green (fully charged). Very pretty.
* It also has nifty little buttons on the right hand side to control or mute the volume (although you can also do this with the keyboard controls). I found this quite handy.


* It has 3 USB ports - 2 at the back and one on the right hand side - great for attaching a USB mouse at the side (if you're right-handed) or easy access to attach USB - Flash disks (no fiddling around at the back).
* Its a little heavy, but it comes with an integrated 1.44" floppy drive.
* Firm keyboard (not flimsy like some other models)
* Its a little thicker than I am used to, so some wrist issues, but this can be fixed by finding myself a higher chair.


* PROBLEMS/IS ;SUES I have had with the laptop:

Power Cable: The power cable connection into the back of the laptop is very loose and often falls out without me noticing, leading to untimely warnings of Low/Critical Battery. Also, it would have been nice if the cable came with one of those nifty little velcro straps to secure it once you have wound it up. However, on the plus-side, the size of the power supply is small compared to, eg Acer's power supplies.

Video: The screen resolution is only 800x600 or 1024x768. No higher resolutions. This is disturbing, but is apparently a function of the monitor, and not the graphics card, so nothing I can do about it. At 800x600, everything appears to be out of focus. My computer-techie boyfriend insists that this is some function of the number of pixels across the monitor, and is not a malfunction of the laptop, but I am not convinced. I will phone HP Tech Support and query this. Even at 1024, the text and graphics are not as crisp as they should be, in my opinion and comparing the same images on my old Dell. I have turned off font-smoothing (significant difference!), and updated the video drivers (more improvement), but its not as clear as it should be.

Additionally, there
is n
o function to adjust the contrast of the screen. Brightness, yes. Contrast, no. Not good.

Speed: Its slow. Granted, it is a Celeron processor, but this 2.8 GHz machine still runs slower than my old Dell with 0.8 GHz P3 processor and half the RAM. Additionally, I went online and discovered that the hard-drive speed is only 4200 rpm! I need to take this up with the shop I bought it from - they should have mentioned this! However, in their defence, Dell's Inspiron models also come with 4200 rpm HDDs, so perhaps this is an industry standard for laptop HDDs vs desktop HDDs? I don't know yet what is causing this sub-optimal performance, whether its the HDD speed, the fact that its a Celeron processor, software or what.

Performance: I can go and make a cup of tea while I wait for it to boot into WinXP Prof. It doesn't multitask as well as my older, "slower" laptop, but this could be software. Watch this space as I play with it some more - I've only had it for a week, and I will update this review when I can. So far, it seems capable of handling general tasks such as WordProcessing, Spreadsheets, Internet Access and some games (specifically, Age of Wonders ), as long as you don't have too many windows open. Its locked up on me once, playing a VCD of Evil Dead on Windows Media Player, but again, I don't know if this is hardware or soft ware. It may have been improved if I had increased the RAM available to the graphics card.

CONCLUSIO& #78;:
Suitable for a student or home office user. Processing speed, RAM and HDD capacity are all adequate. P
robably n
ot suitable for power-users, but for the most part, it is an acceptable, entry-level laptop (as of August 2004).

(Appologies for any issues with Capitalisation/Code.)

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UPDATE: 27 August 2004

The infrared port is in the most useless place - its right in front of the casing, so when you try to connect to another infrared device, the device not only needs to be behind you, but you need to get out of the way, too (its situated so that is blocked by your body as you sit in front of it). You can, of course, move the laptop sideways (to the right) to be in line with whatever device, but its awkward working with it, and I think its just poorly designed!
Capital letters courtesy of: http://www.chuckleweb.co.uk/fixit.php

Summary: