New Compaq V2000 and HP DV1000 series watch

[BullNY]

I got my dv1000 yesterday! If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them. I can also make some pictures available if you'd like.

Here's my config:
- Pentium M 145 (1.8GHz)
- Brightview Widescreen (VERY VERY nice looking)
- 512MB RAM (1x512)
- 80GB Hard Drive
- 4X DVD+R/RW & CD-RW Combo Drive
- Intell 2200 802.11BG & Bluetooth
- 12-Cell Battery (Yes it DOES stick out - BOTH down AND back some, but battery life seems fantastic with it. Still, I think that I'll get a 6-cell to use as my main battery most of the time.)
- Remote Control

In total it came to about $1740 after the $50 mail-in rebate. The $25 e-coupon I entered didn't go through for some reason and since I'm not in college anymore I can't really take advantage of the student discount. That would be nice, but it's all good though - the 12-month no interest financing is a pretty sweet deal in itself.

I'll post some more thoughts on this thing after I have a few days to mess around with it and configure it the way I want it. I will say right now that the QuickPlay feature is pretty cool and works as promised.

 

[larciel]

what's running time on that 12cell you got there?

cong on your laptop

 

[deejayshakur]

all you guys with dv1000's--i'm jealous!

any mini reviews? i'm especially interested in the heat aspect. can you use it on your lap without burning your genitalia?

 

[LoFidelity75]

Hey, quick questions: how much was the brightview upgrade? It's not there right now and I'm thinking about waiting for it to come back before I order.

Also, is there any way to figure out how much power the quickplay option saves over playing movies within Windows? Early reviews that I've seen haven't offered specifics.

Thanks and congrats on the purchase! I'm soooo jealous!

 

[BullNY]

According to the system information with the 12-cell battery:

with wireless enabled and screen at full brightness: a little less than 6.5 hours
with wireless disabled and the screen at full brightness: probably about 6 3/4 hours

with wireless enabled and the screen dimmed down: about 8.5 hours
with wireless disabled and the screen dimmed down: about 9 hours

Those figures are with the system being pretty much idle, but it gives you some idea of what to expect from the 12-cell battery.

Heat isn't really that bad - I used it last night for a few hours and spent a good amount of time with it on my lap. It was somewhat warm on the left side towards the front, but not unbearable and certainly not enough to burn you in any way.

 

[larciel]

do you mind taking actual pic of the laptop w/ the battery installed?

i can host it for you if you need space.

larciel@pacbell.net

thanks

 

[BullNY]

Originally posted by: LoFidelity75
Hey, quick questions: how much was the brightview upgrade? It's not there right now and I'm thinking about waiting for it to come back before I order.

Also, is there any way to figure out how much power the quickplay option saves over playing movies within Windows? Early reviews that I've seen haven't offered specifics.

Thanks and congrats on the purchase! I'm soooo jealous!

DEFINITELY WAIT on the BrightView option. I am at work now with flourescent lights directly over my desk area and I have absolutely no annoying reflections in the screen like so many people complain about.
I can't remember how much the option upgrade was when it was available! $75? $100? Something along those lines.

I'm guessing that the quickplay saves a lot of battery juice - especially if you're just playing a DVD. If you're accessing media content from the hard drive then I'm sure it drains a bit more, but still less than booting into the OS. I also read somewhere about using QuickPlay to wirelessy access content on other devices on your network. Am I just dreaming this? I haven't delved into QuickPlay enough yet to see if this is possible, but if it is I could easily can my desktop PC at home and just hook up a NAS device to store gobs and gobs of MP3s and videos.

 

[BullNY]

Originally posted by: larciel
do you mind taking actual pic of the laptop w/ the battery installed?

i can host it for you if you need space.

larciel@pacbell.net

thanks

I found an image of the 12-cell battery in place here.

I'll take a few more pictures this evening and try to get them up for you all to see.

Also, I found this out: when you are using the QuickPlay feature there is a button on the remote that will display the % of ramaing battery life.

 

[larciel]

you mean brightview isn't standard on these laptops?

 

[deejayshakur]

latest rumor on the block--reinstalling windows will KILL quickplay. not so quick anymore, esp for those of us wanting to reinstall our own copy of xp pro.

edit: going to reintroduce the idea of somebody starting a www.dv1000forums.com, a la x1000forums.com. i'm too lazy, but i'd be happy to contribute with mod/admin stuff.

edit2: apparently, quickplay can be reinstalled. hmf.

 

[BullNY]

Here are some pictures as promised. They're not the greatest, but hey - better than nothing, right?

dv1000 pics

You can see the reflection on the screen in some of the pictures - I tried to do that on purpose so you could see the glass-like quality of the surface. Also, the last picture shows 8.5+ hours of battery life remaining. That is with wireless enabled and the screen brightness turned all the way down...still completely useable especially in a dark or dimmly lit room.

...to answer larciel - the BrightView option is not standard.

And yes - the quickplay feature can be reinstalled. I'm not 100% sure how to do it, but it seems that it would be pretty simple. Dual-boot setups are always a little tricky but as long as you follow the right steps you're fine.

 

[DeadMonkey321]

Hey, I want to buy a dv1000, and i have a few questions before I buy it.
1. How glossy is the screen? Is it really as bad as it looks in pictures?

2. How important if BriteView? I see they took it off of the website.

3. How does the keyboard feel? Is it comfortable to type on?

4. How long does it take to arrive once you order it?

5. How does it compare with the Gateway 4525gz? I saw that at Best Buy and it looked pretty good but not as fast.

 

[BullNY]

Originally posted by: DeadMonkey321
Hey, I want to buy a dv1000, and i have a few questions before I buy it.
1. How glossy is the screen? Is it really as bad as it looks in pictures?

2. How important if BriteView? I see they took it off of the website.

3. How does the keyboard feel? Is it comfortable to type on?

4. How long does it take to arrive once you order it?

5. How does it compare with the Gateway 4525gz? I saw that at Best Buy and it looked pretty good but not as fast.

The screen is glossy, but so is your TV when you turn it off. In my personal opinion the BrightView is amazing - wait until they have it in stock to order one if you can wait.

The keyboard feels pretty good.

Mine took about 2 weeks from order date until I had it in my hands - would have been sooner, but the package missed a flight en route and got held up for an extra day which went into the weekend.

 

[larciel]

thank you for the pic.

that 12cell battery really is giving me a headache..

better go w/ 6cell

 

[Corporate Thug]

BullNY, does it live up to the 8+ hours of battery life????

 

[BullNY]

Originally posted by: shady06
BullNY, does it live up to the 8+ hours of battery life????

I think it would...with the 12-cell battery of course. Last night I had it running on batteries almost constantly from about 6PM until 1AM with wireless enabled the entire time. When I shut down the system still said it had over 1hr 30min of juice left.

I really need a 6-cell to use most of the time - lighten things up a bit. Although honestly, the 12-cell is not really that bad to deal with.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: BullNY

Originally posted by: shady06
BullNY, does it live up to the 8+ hours of battery life????

I think it would...with the 12-cell battery of course. Last night I had it running on batteries almost constantly from about 6PM until 1AM with wireless enabled the entire time. When I shut down the system still said it had over 1hr 30min of juice left.

I really need a 6-cell to use most of the time - lighten things up a bit. Although honestly, the 12-cell is not really that bad to deal with.

wow, i think i'm sold

is the 12 cell considerably heavier than the 6?

 

[BullNY]

Originally posted by: shady06

Originally posted by: BullNY

Originally posted by: shady06
BullNY, does it live up to the 8+ hours of battery life????

I think it would...with the 12-cell battery of course. Last night I had it running on batteries almost constantly from about 6PM until 1AM with wireless enabled the entire time. When I shut down the system still said it had over 1hr 30min of juice left.

I really need a 6-cell to use most of the time - lighten things up a bit. Although honestly, the 12-cell is not really that bad to deal with.

wow, i think i'm sold

is the 12 cell considerably heavier than the 6?

I don't yet have the 6-cell to compare, but my guess is that the 12-cell can't add more than 6-8oz.

One thing I forgot to mention about the time I had the laptop running last night was that 1/2 to 2/3 of that time I had the screen brightness turned down some or all the way depending on where I was in my house.

 

[vJaNakI]

Here is what the HPShopping.com has to say about the BrightView...


"I understand you are interested in purchasing the HP Pavilion dv1000 notebook, and are curious to know why the BrightView display option was removed. At this time, this information is not provided to me, although I am predicting that it is due to the fact that the dv1000 notebook was to be initially released as the "power conserving" notebook. If this notebook was to have the BrightView display, it would counter-act all other power-saving components that were built into the notebook as BrightView displays tend to require more power than a regular LCD display. This is not an explanation provided to me by the manufacturer, rather it is my personal assumption."

Any comments? Is his Personal Assumption correct? Have HP taken it away never to bring it back.
BOOOHOOOOOOO.

 

[leo221]

what's the case made of? metal, plastic?

 

[BullNY]

Originally posted by: vJaNakI
Here is what the HPShopping.com has to say about the BrightView...


"I understand you are interested in purchasing the HP Pavilion dv1000 notebook, and are curious to know why the BrightView display option was removed. At this time, this information is not provided to me, although I am predicting that it is due to the fact that the dv1000 notebook was to be initially released as the "power conserving" notebook. If this notebook was to have the BrightView display, it would counter-act all other power-saving components that were built into the notebook as BrightView displays tend to require more power than a regular LCD display. This is not an explanation provided to me by the manufacturer, rather it is my personal assumption."

Any comments? Is his Personal Assumption correct? Have HP taken it away never to bring it back.
BOOOHOOOOOOO.

My feeling is that his "personal assumption" is bullshit. It wasn't designed as a "power conserving" notebook. Printed right on the case is "Entertainment Notebook PC".... so the option to have a BrightView screen makes complete sense. Based on my experience with it so far I don't see any power problems created by the option. Hired sales reps who read from cue-cards shouldn't speculate... =o) I expect the BrightView option will be back soon.

By the way, the case is plastic but does feel quite sturdy.

 

[skeptah]

Hey people. I have had two models of the dv1000 in my posession for a few weeks now. My first model had no brightview option and a 6 cell battery. The benchmarks i saw in this forum are incorrect. I got at most 3 hours from the 6 cell.

pm 1.6
1gb ram
brightview
40gb 4200rpm hd (swapped later with a 40gb hitachi 7200 which is unfortunately being rma'd due to a high pitch buzzing that occurs for ten seconds, every minute or so while idling.)


I returned this laptop and bought one with a 12-cell, brightview display. The 12 cell battery is impressive, normal use(office apps) clocks in around 5:30
I hate how the battery sticks out of the azz like hemorroids. But it lasts long.

I also bought a zeroshock sleeve from shinza. The case is worth every penny. bulletproof.

Brightview is a damn good option to have, for an extra 25 bucks the display is almost twice as sharp and vivid. sucks how they took the option off the site again.

Unfortunately the case is PLASTIC, however it is fairly sturdy. The build quality is OK. It moans. There is a soft spot at the optical drive, easily bent. The screen can be pushed in from the back. It isnt as sturdy as the ZD7000.

The keyboard is spacious, very easy to adjust to.

Speakers are great. Touchpad is precise.

I successfully installed my own copy of XP corp with sp2 integrated. Reinstalled quickplay with no problems. Remember to read the instructions carefully. You need to leave at least ~270MB free for the quickplay partition when repartitioning your harddrive.


Feel free to ask any other questions.

The things i like the most about this notebook:
AMAZING DISPLAY
BATTERY LIFE
RIDICULOUSLY EASY TO REPLACE HARD DRIVE.

The things i hate most about this notebook:
BUILD QUALITY (however keep in mind that my standards are high. I was considering purchasing a toughbook or an x40)

Hemorroid 12-cell battery comes out of the ass, gives the laptop a tilt when on a flat surface. It does provide airflow to the bottom of the laptop, most importantly where the HD is.

 

[skeptah]

but regardless, a damn good notebook for the money. With APP i was 1500 out the door.

 

[EvanAdams]

I really regret getting the 12cell now.

 

[BullNY]

Originally posted by: EvanAdams
I really regret getting the 12cell now.

Don't have regrets =o) ...just purchase the 6-cell and use the 12-cell as a 2nd battery. If you ever get to where you need to use the computer and can't plug in for more than 4-5 hours you'll be glad you have the 12-cell.

On another note - I've been using my dv1000 at work for the past 2 days and everyone can't believe how great the screen looks... not to mention all the other cool stuff the system has. I work for computer reseller/systems integrator company so we see ALOT of computers.