HP Pavilion DV2-1110US 12.1-Inch Entertainment Laptop Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)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.


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EXQUISITELY THIN: Refining the dv series to achieve optimal mobility, the new dv2 wears a magnesium-aluminum alloy case, an LED display and a 92% of full-size keyboard. It offers optional WWAN, runs on breakthrough energy-efficient AMD processors and removes the internal optical drive. The elegant modern lines and metalized finishes that define the dv series remain but with a profile less than 1" thin and starting weight of just 3.81lbs. Lustrous magnesium-aluminum alloy casing on the outside is complemented by color-matched HP Imprint finish on the inside in Moonlight white. External optical drives are available in Espresso black. HP¿s mobile products have won coveted International Red Dot, iF and CES Innovation design awards and been recognized by other leading design institutions.SURPRISINGLY ENTERTAINING: Carry on your favorite entertainment with the standard, large-capacity hard drive.Burn CDs and watch DVD films with the external optical drive. Providing more choices than ever, HP MediaSmart enables access to DVDs, videos, photos, music, and Internet TV at the touch of a button.Get access to watch the best video clips from Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and MTV. Built-in demos show you how to add music to your slide shows or videos with drag-and-drop functionality ¿ and much more. An HDMI port enables you to watch films on an HD TV. Muvee Reveal makes creating films complete with effects and transitions a snap! SRS Premium Sound pours through Altec Lansing speakers delivering great audio.What's in the box: dv2-2110us laptop, 65W AC Adapter, 6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery, Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 with 60 days complimentary live update, Microsoft Works, HP MediaSmart. Muvee Reveal,Cyberlink DVD Suite, Adobe Acrobat Reader and HP Games Powered by Wild Tangent.

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Acer Aspire AOD255-2331 10.1 inch Netbook (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Picked this model up locally on sale (D255-2331). It's a nice, light, fast little laptop. I was concerned the 3-cell battery wouldn't last long enough for daily use, but if the backlight is turned down you can get 5 or so hours out of it. Initially when I first charged the battery it wouldn't get past 96%. I let it run for a day and discharged to about 10%, then let it charge overnight and now it's saying 100% charge.
Acer puts minimal bloatware on this machine, which is nice. It even comes with some actually useful apps pre-installed (Skype, McAfee, MS Works). There were a TON of Windows updates that were needed though once I got it on the net. The BIOS was also outdated. The network driver caused one bluescreen once, which is what prompted the BIOS udpate. The driver on their site claimed I already had the latest version though.
Speed-wise I've had very few issues and I've been impressed with how fast this netbook actually is (even with only 1GB of RAM). Web pages load quickly and applications are fast. I installed MS Office 2007 and it loads just as fast as my desktop machine. It's also worth mentioning that YouTube videos play well. I've also played some .wmv videos through Windows Media Player and they play well with minimal CPU usage.
Hard drive is quiet and bottom of the netbook is somewhat warm. There is a small fan and vent on the side. The fan is pretty quiet (can only hear it in a quiet room).
Keyboard is useable, though my hands do notice it is a little smaller than full size. Multi-touch mouse pad works well. The mouse buttons are a bit hard to press at first, as well being right at the edge of the laptop, but after some getting used to it is now acceptable.
Speakers are adequate. Not real loud, but good enough for normal use.
The wireless card picks up my home and work networks and connects to them quickly. For example I can get a 144Mbps link to my Cisco router about 25 feet away through 2 walls. There is no WLAN on/off switch, but you can control it via Windows or the driver software. By default the radio is set to be always on at max power, but you can always get a little more battery life by turning this down as well.
One thing I don't quite get yet is when the system goes to sleep when the lid is closed it doesn't always wakeup automatically when the lid is reopened. Sometimes it does it on its own, sometimes I need to press the power button. Not a big deal though.
Overall I'd recommend this laptop to anyone wanting a small light daily-use laptop for simple common tasks.

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Acer AOD255-2331 10.1" AMD N450 1.66GHz/1GB/160GB/XPH Netbook Computer (Diamond Black)

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