Decent Entertainment Laptop (HP Pavilion Dv2045ea)

Member Name: elmopants

Product:	HP Pavilion Dv2045ea
Date:	23/01/08 (184 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good battery life, features, design/style.

Disadvantages: No built in webcam, wireless switch in a daft place.

I would like to start by saying that I am using this particular laptop to write this review. I am not a super techie so I won't go on about the front side bus speed and processor bit rates etc but will try and let you have an insite into the features and what its like to live with a dv2045ea HP.

I think I am right in saying that this particular model was one of the first of the "new" fingerprint design cases that HP introduced. Its made of the same type of high quality and very shiny plastics that you might find on an ipod etc. Looks great until you touch it, then oh the finger prints!! I can see how the design got its name, although they do supply a quality cloth to polish your shiny black laptop with but then who wants to spend time cleaning their laptop? A minor problem I know but if you hate finger prints on stuff this isn't for you. Once you open the lid your met with more of the finger print design but the silver inside isn't as bad as the black plastic case for collecting prints. The keyboard is good and laid out well and as a touch typist myself I appreciate the quality feel and for a laptop its laid out pretty well. The touch sensitive media buttons are a nice feature although it is easy to accidentally hit the wrong one and launch the built in media software for example when all you wanted was the F4 key for example. The other obvious interface it the touchpad which is the usualy fare with a scroller at the side and the option to quickly switch it on and off is welcome as accidentally scrolling the screen whilst typing is a pet hate of mine when using the laptop. The rest of the case feels well made and has nice rounded corners and flows nicely with sturdy looking hinges for the screen, which is of the now fairly standard fare, shiny black wxga variety, producing great contrast and clarity for a laptop. I would go as far as to say its better than my HP LCD desktop screen. Other case features are a pop out remote control for the HP media centre which is handy and functional but feels cheap and I'm not sure how long it'll last with regular use. The multi card reader is good and is accompanied by the usual firewire and usb ports which are on each side and not on the back making them nicely accessible. My only real gripe with the layout of the case switches etc is the wirelss switch is located on the front edge and can get turned off accidentally.

Other than that what else can I tell you... XP Home works well with usual bundle of unused software. HP Media centre can be used seperately from the operating system allowing you to use the machine for DVD's and music without draining the battery with unecessary operating system stuff running in the background. The speakers are pretty good from Altec Lansing for general use but struggle with load music. The Duo processors run much quieter and cooler than my previous HP machine which had the hot Pentium 4 chip.

My only downsides to this machine are I'd expected a built in webcam but when the machine arrived it didn't have one although the microphones are there and that daft wireless switch. Oh and it would have been good to have dedicated graphics although the Intel chips seem to cope with general video and games, I have run C&C Generals on it ok.

So to finish, it works well otherwise, looks great if you keep the prints cleaned off that shiny black case, and is light enough and with descent battery to be portable.

Summary: Nice lappy with plenty of features and a shiny case.

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