HP Pavilion dv9000t (Core 2 Duo)

Summary: Overall this is a fabulous machine that does have its slight shortcomings.

To me the most annoying and worst is that half sized right hand side Shift Key... I might even start typing all caps that are on the left side of the QWERTY keyboard in lower case. This was just a bad decision on the design engineers' part. The second is: I think the catch mechanism for holding the top closed with the two metal catches that stick out of the top of the screen panel are a bit cheesy and not up to par for a machine of this quality. Another shortcoming (in my mind) is the standard QWERTY keyboard has key locations that are different from my last notebook (a 17" Toshiba) that also cause me to hit the wrong keys (ctrl) when I want to insert or delete - I'm sure I will get used to these eventually. With the setup of the keyboard you have to move your right hand from the home keys to use the delete or insert/scroll keys at the top right of the keyboard next to the function keys. With my typing skills the delete key is one of my most critical keys and this is a nuisance. Lastly, try out the keyboard prior to purchase… it is just a ‘bit’ too tactile for me.

I paid extra for the system disks and fully expected to get an actual WinDoze XP system disk and a separate driver’s disk. Instead I got a set of 'system recovery' diskettes that have all the bloatware that comes on the machine and will reinstall the OS with all that extra garbage. A separate call to HP and additional money is required to get the true OS system disk that I expected to come with the machine.

HP SHOULD offer the configuration option of a single one gig RAM chip (or even a single 2 gig) instead of forcing you to either configure with 2 – 256 chips, 2 – 512 chips or 2 – 1 gig chips. Maximum RAM for a machine of this caliber should be 4 gigs (instead of 2 with Vista – the memory hog – on the horizon) since 2 gig chips are available.

Even if the additional recovery disk is ordered HP partitions the hard drive and places the recovery files on the partition. On my 100 gig HD it occupied almost 14% of the total capacity of the drive. There is an option to delete this partition and keep the configuration that you have spent some time getting to with directions on how to do that in the support literature. There is not too much ‘bloatware’ but it would be better in my mind to send this crap on DVD’s. I have absolutely no use for AOL, Internet connectivity solutions and promos, MS Office free 30 day trail versions or MS Works and resent having to uninstall this junk. When they take the order for the configuration of the machine, HP could also configure the setup of the software at the same time OR they could ship on DVD’s and eliminate the problem. The WinDoze media center OS had 52 security patches that had to be loaded (including the Validation BS) after receiving my brand new machine – God forbid if I had dial up!

I thought that I got some kind of free skin option when I placed the order but I guess that extra had expired because I can find no evidence that it ever existed (must have been Dell offering that option). This would help because the glossy finish of the exterior is a fingerprint magnet. I took the original static vinyl that came on the top and 're-installed' it to keep from seeing the top covered with fingerprints all the time.

Final shortcoming (for me) is the screen itself. It is very pretty and glossy... I much prefer a matte finish for the surface of the screen in the majority of my ambient lighting situations. Back lighting (behind me) can be distracting when the glow of the fluorescent lamps can be seen on the screen.

Now that is the end of my complaining.

I would re-rate this machine down to an 8.8 if that option was available. It is far closer to my 'ideal' laptop then any I have previously owned. I opted for the 100 gig 7200 RPM HD and am truly glad that I did. I had returned an 8000 to HP because of dual RAID HD problems early this year... if you order one of these, the faster hard drive is well worth it since it is so easy (and cheap) to get USB large capacity portable HD's to store all the junk you don't need to be defragging all the time. The hard drive feels at least twice as fast as the 4800 RPM HD's I previously used.

The DV9000t is a joy to use and very attractive. It is faster than my old tower which is being retired. It is not so heavy that I can not tote it in my 17” notebook carry case. The switch to turn off (or on) the touch pad is a joy and will eliminate the pain of reconfiguring in Control Panel if you want to use a mouse. The number keypad is an asset for what I do… if it is not something that you need the smaller 15” machine is also out there. I opted for the 256 MB video card since I am not a big gamer and it will do everything that I need to do on this machine. I have had it almost a week and have almost everything loaded that I need to use and everything is working nicely. It took some time getting to that but I think that it was worth the effort. The machine is definitely worth the price if you want a 17” capable laptop. HP delivered machine almost a week before promised… now if they can teach this kind of attention to their design engineers they will really need another CEO, again.

Let me change my mind again and give it a 9.2.