So we finally got our new lap top and I don’t have to tell you that I am impressed. It’s a new HP Pavilion DV7-1212tx with a chunky 1T hard drive (that’s 1000 gigs) to fill with junk. In getting the new PC I face two major challenges… OK… make that three. Overall these are just challenges that I need to face due to my rather large comfort zone! Generally speaking when it comes to monkeying around with PC’s (or computers in general) over the years I have pretty much been against making too many changes in the way I move my folders, store my files and run my programs.
But now I’m faced with how to manage all my data. Photo’s, music and all that other junk that fills up your C:, D: right through to Z:. With the photo’s I risk doubling up everything I have as I have two programs used to store files. Problem is that if I just rely on one of them then I may not carry over not just the photos but lose the tags and other related items that I have placed on them over the years. Then there’s my on going battle with audio. I like to use Windows Media Player as it syncs with my Xbox 360 so I can play the music through the big stereo. But I have an iPhone which doesn’t like WMA files. So I end up doubling up my music to accommodate both standards.
But before I could get into any of that I have the challenge of just hooking up the lap top to the wireless network. I would have figured that this would be the least of my hassles as most new PC’s have wi-fi built in so no need to install wi fi adapter drivers etc. But it took about 30 minutes of tweaking settings till finally (and for no real obvious reason) it just started working.
My other hurdle is more for the sake of me being too use to a “proper” keyboard. Hey this keyboard is still pretty cool. It’s just that I’ve been use to my hands being on the desk and having to raise up to get onto the keyboard itself. This keyboard has your hands typing down onto a flat surface as your palms/ wrist rest on the laptop itself. Then the mouse itself is something to get use to as well. Try playing Bejewelled 2 Blitz with this mouse, touchpad. You see there is a scroll bar on the right of the touch pad. This kicks in by accident quite often in games so a more traditional mouse is more desirable to me.
But niggles aside this is a beast of a machine. Mind you I’ve been use to Dell bought in 2004 so it’s been quite some time between nerd fixations! It features a metallic shine to the keyboard with responsive strokes made possible with the high quality keys. Being wider than most laptops it also houses a dedicated keypad. My old laptop I had in 2001 was missing this and it was painfully absent when using Excel. Above the keypad resides a long speaker grill with the touch sensitive quick keys above that with the usual suspects being present such as mute, play, volume etc. It has two extra buttons though that I’ve never seen before. One is for HP’s own MediaSmart program (sorry HP but I’ll give that a miss). Also a quick button to activate the Wi Fi access. The monitor itself is surrounded by a highly reflective black casing which smudges like crazy. The outside also is black with the same material and it sports a HP glowing logo ala Apple style on the bottom right hand corner. No prizes as to who HP looks to for design ideas here.
It’s no light weight. 3.4kg’s of fun here but due to the widescreen and all the features that this bad boy contains then this is a given. It’s screen is of high quality for the most part being very vibrant and crisp but the viewing angle on it is not the greatest. I find myself having to move the screen up and down to get the optimal angle. Also I find the the colour is just lacking slightly and this is more noticeable in photo editing programs. Sound is quite beefy for a laptop but the maximum volume could have been perhaps a little more beastly as it is meant to be a “entertainment” device. I was expecting more when I noticed the word “sub-woofer” housed UNDER the laptop itself!
The software that come installed with the HP is quite generous for out of the box. True I would have liked a FULL version of MS Office 2007 for the drachma I forked out on this thing. But that aside, HP try to fill in some voids with a HP MediaSmart suite. For an in house effort they have managed to really put together a great looking package with MediaSmart. But I find myself wanting to know why they bother with MS dishing out for free this stuff already. I am tired of swinging back an forth between different software for this so I will most likely stick to Windows Media Player and the Adobe software I already owned. But for those wishing to stick with HP’s offering you won’t be left in the cold as it’s quite big and bold in it’s looks with many features you’d expect from expensive software. One bizarre but cool software called HP MediaSmart webcam is quite fun. It allows you to superimpose a range of cartoon or fictional characters onto your face. When you talk, they talk. When you move, they move too. It’s very strange indeed but certainly a conversation starter. Speaking of webcams, the cam is of good quality with a crisp image that adequately does the job but not the most hi def image you’ll find.
I was disappointed to learn that my wife didn’t order the Blue-Ray enabled drive and she also left out the TV tuner. I was looking forward to hooking this up to the Samsung TV for HD goodness. But looks like I’ll have to hunt a drive down later. One plus side for the DVD burner included however was that it features Lightscribe. A technology that enables you to BURN the labels onto the disc itself. Neat! Problem though is that you need specially marked DVD discs to take advantage of this feature. More on that later as I hunt them down on eBay.
It comes with 4G RAM and is upgradable to 8G. The 1T hard drive is partitioned into two 500G drives which I’ve never been a real big fan of but has it’s benefits for those wanting to install other OS such as Linux. The laptop also comes with a remote control which is neatly tucked into the left hand side for easy storage. Neat! Speaking of ports and connections being tucked away… it has 2 USB ports and Ethernet connection on the right (yawn) but on the left is a large array of different connections such as eSata, HDMI (for connecting to big tellies!), monitor outlet, Multicard inputs and direct digital camera connectivity. No connections or ports of any description can be found on the rear of the laptop.
I’m still getting my head around Vista but overall I’m finding Vista to be OK. The amounts of criticism I hear of the system makes me weary but so far I’m finding it to be quite good. Years of XP has probably spoilt me. Let’s face it. XP started off bad but in the end proved to be a great system. Vista is already going to be phased out with Windows 7 so I guess I’m not going to get too comfortable with Vista as I’ll no doubt be one of the eager few to jump to the new system. Anyone looking at buying a new laptop should give HP a looking. There are some good specials on at the moment with the financial doom and gloom still gripping the economy. But if you put Kev’s $900 towards this laptop you’ll be doing yourself a favour me thinks!
I’ve got so many side projects going on it’s hard to work out which one I should focus on first. First there’s my Japan/China 2006 DVD that I am editing. I’ve also got my dining table that I need to paint (it’s a natural pine lacquer but needs to be deep brown). Also I have my Blackout site that constantly needs updating. We’ve got a skylight to be installed. A heater that also needs installation. A shower that needs re-tiling. Not to mention all those unfinished RPG's and other games in general sitting in the storage room.