Just one week after I buy this notebook from Amazon, the price falls by $27 and Amazon refuses to match the price drop. Quite disappointing in that regard. I ordered this on a Wed, Amazon shipped on Sunday and it arrived on Tuesday with free shipping. So that was good.On to the notebook. First the pros:
Build quality is good and it feels expensive compared to most sub $500 note/netbooks.
Large keys on the keyboard while not as spacious as a regular keyboard works better than than those from Acer that use the chicklet size keys. One of the reasons why I chose this over the Acer Timeline series.
Screen is bright and sharp.
Small compact and lightweight since it doesn't have a built-in DVD drive (uses an external drive). Design looks clean and modern with none of that clunky look from the low end Lenovos or Toshibas.
Uses Vista 64 bit edition
Has HDMI port to plug into HDTVs
Dedicated graphics processor and memory.
Now the cons:
Battery life is average 2-3 hours
Uses single core AMD Athlon Neo processor which is underpowered for Vista. There're occasional lags when running basic things like browsers, Word, etc. The CPU is maxed out at 100% most times.
The initial applications and drivers installed seem to make the notebook run really slow. I tried to watch videos on Hulu.com and they were jerky and slow. After installing updated video drivers and IE8 and Firefox, it worked better. Strange for a notebook professing to be an "Entertainment" notebook to be that bad at video until the drivers were updated. Despite the dedicated graphics processor and memory, video performance is just average and can a bit slow at times.
Bloatware. There are several but not too bad.
HP MediaSmart: this is pretty useless since the notebook already has Windows Media Center. The software itself is nothing great and eats up additional memory and CPU cycles.
Bottom line: This notebook is just barely able to run Vista 64 since the CPU is underpowered. It's a compromise between a full blown notebook and netbook since it has a decent size hard drive and screen. To make it perform better, you'll have to remove all the bloatware and unnecessary applications, and download the latest software updates and drivers. I'll be upgrading to Win 7 when it arrives so hopefully, that'll improve the performance further. Also probably look into upgrading the 2gb ram to 4gb.
as I wanted. There are some reasons I didn't bought a netbook:
Almost all have 160 GB HD
It has only 1gb ram, instead some that have 2gb
Some have reduced keyboard
They don't have dedicated video card
This HP-Dv2 has more good things like:
It's also thin as netbooks
It's only 2 inches bigger than netbooks
It comes with an exteral usb dvd drive
Good processor similar to the intel atom in netbooks
More space 250GB HD
Dedicated video card
2GB ram
The price doesnt have a big difference comparing with netbooks cause
the aditional things and performance are compensated in the aditional
money. The external DVD drive is original HP, if it would be sold it
could cost like U$100.
Well those who are thinking in buying a netbook I recomend to you this DV2
the model is very nice and interesting.
Here you have a review of this product:
Buy HP Pavilion DV2-1110US 12.1-Inch Entertainment Laptop Now
Straight to the point This little guy is great for the price. It runs great and I see no problems in Vista. HP's bloatware is a seperate issue.Things it can do better than a netbook:
1. Play games to an extent (slightly older games or newer ones with lower settings). Left 4 Dead ran fine on medium settings.
2. You can watch 720p HD video thanks to the discreet video! I used Media Player Classic with the CoreAVC h.264 codec. HDMI output to my HDTV played flawlessly.
The screen's native resolution negates 1080p, but even with CoreAVC 1080p is barely watchable.
3. Hard drive is larger so it holds more.
Things it can't do as well as a laptop:
1. Single core cpu doesnt to multitasking well. It was a little slow loading vlcplayer and IE at the same time.
2. Flash video on the web can stutter if it's high def. I blame Adobe for this. Flash is poorly coded. Why can this computer run 720p video with a good codec yet stumble on streaming flash video?! Adobe is working on hardware acceleration but it looks platform specific. Seems shady that I can play a 4gb video file flawlessly yet web video that streams at 150kbps stutters. Shame on you Adobe.
3. Edit photos or video. Photoshop loads and runs fine but can't handle large files well. I used a 150MB PSD file and it took forever to run some filters.
4. 1080p video basically requires at LEAST dual core.
Another downer BLOATWARE. Come on HP, things are ridiculous. I had to uninstall probably 15 different apps/trials and used msconfig to trim the startup to get decent boot times. This should be resolved with the free upgrade to Windows 7 I'm due. Clean OS load = happy computer!
Ratings 10/10 system
1. Hardware config 8/10 ( dual core proc probably would up the price $50 and GREATLY increase performance but also chip away battery life.)
2. Performance 8/10 (720p video is fine, flash stumbles, gaming performance is on par with hardware config)
3. Software config 5/10 (HP loaded bloatware, needed driver updates for best performance)
In short, this computer is a great step up from a netbook because I can watch movies on the plane, and play some games for entertainment. The battery life is about 3.5 hrs which is better than what I would get with a laptop that CAN edit video. I estimate I can get 4-4.5 hrs out of the battery if I play movies from a thumb drive (no spinning platters = power savings!) and dim the screen. I actually like the external optical drive cause it saves battery life! It does what I got it for. Plays 720p video, surfs the web, basic gaming. A netbook with similar performance is $700 at the moment, and this HP has a larger screen!
Can't wait to load Windows 7 on it. Since I'm an IT guy, I am used to tweaking units to get the best performance. I know having a straight load of Windows 7 will be best, loading only the HP drivers and performance might even go up a little more above its current "cleaned out" state. A standard user may not be comfortable doing what it takes to get an OEM computer performing as it should, but that's what it takes. That's why HP, Dell, Gateway, etc can sell computers so cheap, the money they get for including bloatware covers some of YOUR costs.
Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion DV2-1110US 12.1-Inch Entertainment Laptop Here
I got it for net of the rebate, and came with a free DVD player. Nice slick appearance, neat and light. I use the HDMI port to interface to a wide screen TV and play Netflix and other movies. I thought about paying more for the upgraded model with the dual core Neo but went ahead and took the deal for this one and I do not regret it. Without a doubt the dual core is faster, but this does what I need.It was loaded with HP garbage and it is annoying to have to spend the time to get that stuff off. HP gets two thumbs down for continuing this annoying practice.
Want HP Pavilion DV2-1110US 12.1-Inch Entertainment Laptop Discount?
This is a good price BUT with one BIG CATCH! There's only one ram slot in this laptop and one 4 gig ram cost around $200. Not a good deal if u plan to upgrade the ram. From what I read this laptop runs slow if u go beyond emails, surfing....even streaming video is jerky without the additional ram. You better of getting the Dv2z with the duo core and ram upgrade from hp.
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