CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 09/27/2005
- Updated on: 11/06/2009
Like most mainstream business laptops, the HP Compaq nx6110 is far from flashy, though its all-black case lends it an air of sophistication. Likewise, its components don't inspire awe, but the $999 nx6110 performs well enough for basic productivity work, and it delivers almost four hours of battery life. If you're looking for a low-priced laptop to create documents and keep up with e-mail at the office or on the occasional business trip, the HP Compaq nx6110 will meet your needs.
Though the laptop's case measures 12.9 inches wide and 10.5 inches deep, its 1.2-inch thickness gives it a slender, compact look. Compared to most systems in its class, such as the 6.8-pound Gateway M460S and the 6.5-pound HP Compaq Presario V4000, the nx6110, at 6 pounds, is light. The average-size three-prong, 0.8-pound AC brick won't overload you, either. We're fans of the nx6110's keyboard, which is sufficiently wide and offers crisp key feedback. The broad touch pad has a line down its right side to guide your finger for scrolling, and the mouse buttons have a handy lip that catches your fingers. The laptop lacks multimedia controls--even a volume wheel--but it does include a convenient wireless on/off button as well as helpful icons that mark the ports located along the right and left edges. The internal fan occasionally spins audibly and vibrates (especially at bootup), but the laptop runs fairly silently otherwise.
Our nx6110's big 15-inch display came with an economical 1,024x768 (XGA) native resolution that we found a bit too low for the screen size, making text appear somewhat blurry, though still within tolerable limits. (Some more expensive nx6110 models have a higher-resolution SXGA+ display.) Sound from the internal speakers comes through the grill spanning the front edge; while our tunes lacked the bass of a commercial stereo, they sounded pretty good compared to the thin warbles that trickle out of most laptops.
The nx6110 squeaks by with the bare minimum of ports, jacks, and slots. On the left edge lie four-pin FireWire, VGA, and two stacked USB 2.0 ports (we prefer our USB ports dispersed around the case). The left edge also features Ethernet and modem jacks as well as one Type I/II/III PC Card slot. On the right edge sit headphone and microphone jacks and the built-in DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive.
The nx6110 runs on Windows XP Professional, and like most low-cost laptops, includes only a smattering of software applications for viewing and burning discs, such as Sonic RecordNow 7 and InterVideo WinDVD 5. In addition, it comes with a simple HP utility for creating system passwords and adjusting other system features.
At just $999, our nx6110 test unit's low price brought with it fairly mundane specs. It had a 1.6GHz Pentium M processor, 512MB of somewhat slow 333MHz memory, an Intel 915GM graphics engine that swipes up to 128MB of VRAM from main memory, and a meager 40GB hard drive spinning at an average 5,400rpm.
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