Pavilion N5150: Notebook BANG for the buck
Written: Dec 26 '00 (Updated Dec 29 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Battery life, price, HP Quality
Cons: Somewhat flimsy screen, Limited Off Axis Viewing
|
|
|
| solpo's Full Review: Hewlett Packard HP Pavilion N5150 (F1938A) PC Note... |
After stepping on my trusty old Omnibook (P-133) and living without a notebook for a while, my wife and I decided that it was time to re-enter modern times and get a new notebook.
Our needs? Cheap, 1024x768 TFT screen, and a DVD drive. There were cheaper machines (a Compaq comes to mind), but this is a great balance between price and performance.
What's so great about it? We're using it primarily as a DVD player, although both of us have used it for MS Office as well. As a DVD player, it's beautiful. The sync problems which we've been warned of (where the sound gets ahead of the picture) haven't come up. The picture quality is great on axis, although it seems a bit worse off-axis than on other TFT screens (including my older HP Omnibook). The sound is particularly surprising. I'm not saying that it rivals our near-audiophile surround sound system. I'm not saying that it rivals our Sennheiser or Sony Studio Monitor headphones. But for 3/4 inch high speakers buried in a plastic case, they sound great. And they put out a meaningful quantity of volume. I can put the computer on a table and listen to movies from about 10 feet away with water running while I'm washing dishes.
Enough about play, you say.... Does it work? 64MB of RAM isn't a lot, but it's enough to load up an ISP and web surf (the modem has connected to registration servers and to, don't judge me harshly for this, Compuserve, on every try). The processor is perfectly adequate for Word, web surfing, DVD playing, and Age of Empires II. A Pentium III-600 is a lot of power--more than enough for "normal" tasks. I know that HPs have a reputation for running a bit slowly, but at this price, I had expected an AMD K6 or Celeron processor, so even if it runs slowly, it's still good enough for the price.
The trackpad is annoying, but no more so than any other trackpad (to its credit, for some reason it feels better than the original Apple trackpads). Then again, it's hard to find TrackPoints any more, so I'm not sure that it's fair to hold the pointing device against this machine.
The keyboard? It's lousy. But it's no more lousy than any other notebook computer. The keys are either full size or really close to it (my fat fingers have no trouble typing on it), but the lack of travel is an annoyance. But, again, this is what happens with notebook computers. (Travel, by the way, refers to how far a key moves down when you press it)
What's it like to travel with? The computer weighs the standard a-little-more-than-seven-pounds. It doesn't fit well in my old Targus NotePac, but I bought the bag back in the days when an 11" screen was beyond top of the line (I used it to carry a 4 lb 486-SX IBM subnotebook). The AC adaptor is light, has a long cord, and auto senses power all over the world. The really good news? I've made it through a 2 hour, 15 minute DVD movie with 15% left in the battery with the volume and backlighting turned up. Extra batteries are a reasonable $150 from HP.
As far as quality.... I haven't had it long enough to tell you if it will last forever. The screen panel seems a little thin (I like to either keep my hand centered or use two hands on it), but other than that, it seems okay.
Here are my past experiences with Hewlett-Packard products.... I just replaced my HP LaserJet IIp, bought used in 1990. I still have my HP 48g calculator, bought in 12/1994. My dad is still using his HP DeskJet something or other, bought in 12/1995. And if I hadn't stepped on it, my HP Omnibook 5500, bought reconditioned in 1/1997 would still be working fine as well (actually, it does work, just that the screen is crunched).
Here's the bottom line: I design websites for not for profit organizations for a living. I'm beyond tech envy. I don't buy computers because they're cool, or neat, or cutting edge. I buy them because they do what I want them to while leaving me a few bucks leftover for the mortgage. I have no doubts that this HP will do what I want it to, for work AND for play. And that's what matters.
Here are the basic stats for you comparison shopper types:
10gb hd
Floppy drive
600MHz Pentium III with Speed Step
64 MB RAM
S3 Savage/IX AGP 2x Video with 4MB
1024x768x16.7million color 13.3" TFT Display
8x DVD ROM
Built in 56kbps V.90 Modem
Li-Ion battery
Ports:
Serial
Parallel
VGA
2 USB
PS/2 (mouse/keyboard)
Headphone
Microphone
2 Type 2 PC Card
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1450
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 501-600
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 9-12
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
solpo
|
|
Location: Edina, MN
Reviews written: 65
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
Husband. Traveler. Manager. Glutton.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.