Varun’s Blog on Technology

I bought my laptop (HP Pavilion dv9502AU Portable) around 3 months ago and I guess it is the right time to write up a quick review.

Overall I am very happy with this laptop. It suits my needs very well and I am very satisfied with it. The price (50K INR) is also a bargain for a 17 inch laptop in India. I bought this laptop from the Croma store in Malad.

This laptop has many good features (that is after all why I settled for it in the first place). Almost all of the laptop’s “basic” features get a pass grade easily. The processing power (1.8 GHz, 2 x 512 KB L2 Cache) and RAM (1 GB) allow Windows Vista to run reasonably well (though an extra gig of RAM would help significantly) and anything other than Vista (say Windows XP, Ubuntu Linux) runs like a breeze. The 8-cell battery consistently lasts for more than 3 hours and takes around 90 minutes to recharge fully after being fully drained. The laptop’s looks are decent enough but nothing stunning. The laptop also has all the bells and whistles expected from a modern machine (CD/DVD reader/writer, Ethernet card, modem, 5-in-1 card reader, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth, ExpressCard slot, all kinds of slots, VGA webcam, microphones etc.) and till now I have not felt anything amiss. The laptop weighs a respectable 4 Kg, though this is pretty heavy if you have to lug around your machine a lot.

However what sets this laptop apart from others are its “frills”. I love the bigger 17 inch monitor, it feels as if I am working on a normal desktop machine. The bigger size also allows the keyboard to have a separate numeric keypad. I find this much easier to use than the usually cramped and confusing laptop keyboard. The Synaptics touchpad works like a beauty though I prefer to use an external laptop mouse whenever possible. The touchpad has a “switch off” button that I use when using a mouse and this does not cause the mouse pointer to jump around when I hit the touchpad accidentally (which I do quite a bit). The external Altec Lansing stereo speakers are as powerful as small desktop speakers and good enough for “personal” music and movie purposes. The sound quality is beautiful (they are Altec Lansing after all) and do not seem to consume a lot of power (though I have not measured this scientifically). The in-built stereo microphones are good enough for making calls. The wireless cards (WiFi and Bluetooth) also have a dedicated physical on/off button that allows quick switching off if you want to conserve power.

This model does have a few minor annoyances (but no major ones). I hate the HP BrightView screen. BrightView is just HP’s marketing term for anti-reflective coating on the screen. Dell uses the term TrueLife and IBM/Lenovo use the term VibrantView for anti-reflective screens. These screens are good for watching movies or working in low-light conditions but for normal usage in well-lit surroundings they have a distinct mirror effect that is extremely annoying. I recommend that you check out the following 2 links to understand the cons (and pros) of these types of screens - Dell TrueLife Screen and Glossy versus matte: fight!. I work around this annoyance by making sure that there is no light source right behind me. This laptop also uses a lot of the new fangled blue LEDs. These are very bright and stressful on the eyes. Till now I have not found a software way of switching them off and they are distracting when watching a movie or when all lights are off and you are trying to sleep. The right shift key is also too small and I used to almost always miss it earlier. However I am a 2-finger typist and not the best judge of keyboard layouts. Nowadays I have just got used to where it is and do not make many mistakes any more. The locking mechanism for the lid also leaves a little to be desired since the laptop screen does not lock gracefully when lowered. If Windows Vista is going to be your regular OS (this model comes pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium) then I recommend another gig of RAM. The default 1 Gig is good enough but 2 GB will make it noticeably faster. A more sensible option is to install Windows XP or go the Linux way if you can. The 4 Kg weight (including the charger) can get quite heavy if you move around a lot and I recommend the more conventional 15 inch version of this model if you move around a lot.

All in all a very solid laptop for most people. I am sure this laptop is going to last me for at least 3-4 years and keep me quite happy.

Do you have any questions about this laptop? - Feel free to post them as comments, I will be glad to answer them and maybe work the better ones into the post afterwards.