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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"A powerful dual core laptop for a reasonable price"
Pros: HDMI output (with nvidia graphics option), dual hard drives, very nice design
Cons: way too much useless software, full HD screen option not available, hard to setup ubuntu linux
Summary: The first thing that strikes you when you take this laptop out of the box is its design. The glossy black top with the radiance imprint is one of the main reasons I purchased this laptop.
Unfortunately, my experience with the laptop was not enjoyable until I uninstalled most of the preinstalled software that HP included with it. The computer took at least ten minutes to start up when I first turned it on. This is crazy considering it has a 2.0 Ghz dual core processor.
After I rid my computer of most of the software it worked like a charm. The screen resolution is great (1680x1050) and gives me ample space when working in Photoshop. Surprisingly, It loads the new Adobe CS3 suite very quickly and is not slowed down when watching an HD television channel at the same time.
The built in speakers sound better than any other laptop speakers I have ever heard. You can actually listen to music without much distortion of other laptops I have encountered. They also get very loud which is great when watching a movie with a bunch of other people. I would recommend buying a set of speakers with a subwoofer for movies and good rock music because very little bass is produced with these speakers. The two headphone jacks in the front are very helpful when watching a movie on the plane.
When trying to install Ubuntu linux on the second hard drive, I had a lot of difficulty. This due to the fact the current distro doesn't include an update video driver. Wait until October for the new release.
Overall, this is great laptop, but I just wish that HP would leave out the extra software.
