I finally got around to doing a review of my laptop, which I’ve been putting off for a while. I’ve been way too busy with business contracts of all sorts, but finally I’m writing a post that required some time and effort to process.

The HP Pavillion line of laptops were, in my opinion, not as reliable as the Japanese brands. But this time I decided to let the skepticism go. After all, my old laptop, which was a Toshiba, eventually had lines going across the entire screen, making it useless. Also another huge deciding factor was the price/specs factor. The Toshiba P100-MA1 which was comparable to the DV9205ca was another $100, and had less features. It did not have a built-in webcam (so I can give my nightly strip shows) nor a touch-pad media keyset (the play/mute/skip buttons). It also lacked an internal sensor for screen open/close sensor (the Toshiba still had the old white-nipple thingy that gets pressed down – old technology).

Here are the features I like about it :

• 4 USB ports – 3 wasn’t enough on my old Toshiba laptop.
• The built-in webcam – I don’t use it very often, and no, I don’t give nightly shows of my fine ass, but still, it’s a cool thing to have just in case. With some software, it can serve as a monitor for my room if I need to.

  

• The metal latches for the screen – Most laptops use finicky plastic for that stuff but HP put metal latches on there.
• The touchpad media keys – It’s just way cooler than the old-school plastic buttons. Also, the volume controller is a longer touch-button, and if you drag your finger across it, it will adjust your volume!

  

• A remote – The remote controller is used to control your media, mostly. It’s pretty handy when you play music, while lying on bed, and want to skip songs.

  

• The glossy finish – Unlike most laptops, this has a glossy shell-like finish that is, according to HP, more durable against scratches, cracks, and smudges.
• All of the cables/outlets are located on the side of the machine, with nothing on the rear – I often end up with documents underneath my laptop that I need to digout while I’m using it, and with the old Toshiba, I couldn’t simply lift up the front of the laptop without flexing the power cord in the back. This machine has no connections on the rear which means I can lift the front of it up and swivel the whole body up and back without damaging anything.
• The touchpad mouse has soft buttons. Most laptops have a stiff mouse button on the touchpad, but this one is softer with a deeper motion. It’s actually nice once you get used to it.
• A touchpad disabling button right above the touchpad – No more Function+F8 button or whatever to disable that touchpad when you have a mouse plugged into the USB port. The button is right there for easy access.

Things I dislike :

• It has Windows Vista on it, which isn’t the most reliable at the moment. Oh well, wait for the upgrades.
• The DVD RW Super-drive is a bit wonky at times. Sometimes the disk doesn’t sit well and makes clicking noises, and I need to take it out and put it in again.
• The memory card slot does not spring-load. My old Toshiba had a 14-in-1 memory stick reader, and it had a spring-load mechanism to it. That meant that I push it in, it locks, and then if I push again, it unlocks. This one doesn’t have it. Also, the depth of it is not enough that my memory stick adaptor sticks out too much, so I can’t just leave it in there. I need to store it separately when not in use, otherwise it’ll snap off one day.

  

So, overall, I am satisfied with this laptop. I tossed in some extra memory so now I’m running on 1.5G of RAM. It has an AMD 64 bit chip in it (so I can take advantage of it once I upgrade to 4G of RAM along with Windows Vista 64 bit version), and 288MB of shared video memory by NVidia, which isn’t bad at all. The Toshiba I was comparing it to, which cost another $100, had 128 MB by Intel.