Me AND my ....NOOOOTEBOOK
Written: May 07 '00 (Updated May 09 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Portable, easy to use, DVD Drive
Cons: Gets hot quick, fan is annoying!
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| angelsbear's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion N3250 (F1916A) PC Noteboo... |
I have wanted a laptop computer forever! My husband goes away quite a bit because of the military. There are times when a computer would come in handy in his travels but you can't cart around a desktop PC so we were out of luck. Also, I wanted a computer we could use for personal use but also could be used for business if the need arises. I wanted one I could pack up and take with us wherever we went. So on the wishing went...until just last week.
We went to Comp USA and started browsing the notebooks that were available. There were many to choose from so we decided what we wanted in a Notebook PC. There are so many different options you can choose and the price reflects it. So, price was the first thing to persuade us in which we were to choose. I feel for what this notebook has, the price of $1700 was reasonable.
Next, we had other needs (and wants) in mind. I decided I wanted a touch pad. I hated that little ball in the center of the keyboard. So, we looked at models that only had the touch pad. This provided me with just moving my hand on the pad to where I wanted the cursor to go. You can also double click on the pad and it goes into the links. You can adjust the sensitivity on this, as we had to since whenever I touched it, it was going into the link ...I am going to have to get used to that. Since it is closed up, it is very easy to clean and I won't have to worry about it sticking like my tracker ball I use with my desktop.
I also wanted a DVD drive in it. We will be driving to NY in October and being able to play a DVD for the kids is a plus. I am willing to hold the notebook in place for as long as they are quiet. This is going to be a long drive. Also, I wanted to be able to watch DVD's upstairs and instead of changing TV's out, this will be great. Our TV upstairs isn't compatible with our DVD Player so we have it downstairs. This gives us that option. And of course, it plays CD's. Listening to our music is a great option. You can even play the CD without having the entire computer up and running.
The picture we get from the DVD is great. The sound is also clear (the box boasts 16-bit Sound Blaster Pro-Compatible Stereo Sound), and with some adjusting with the function key, you can control your volume to your liking. The speed of the DVD is 6X, and overall, I am very pleased with the picture. The funny part is I dislike wide screen viewing but with the notebook DVD drive, this doesn't bother me at all.
Now for external ports, we have a PS/2 port, which we could hook up an external mouse or another keyboard. The external ports--the parallel port in which you could hook up a printer, a scanner or another external drive. The serial port you can use to also hook up an external mouse or a keyboard (depending on what kind of connector you have you will either use this or the PS/2 port). There's the VGA port for which we could hook up an external monitor. There is a place to hook up an external microphone and a place for a headset or external speakers; also a USB port and one last port for a PC card.
The battery that comes with this is a Lithium Ion rechargeable battery. This is good because there is no memory buildup like comes with a nickel cadmium battery. We used this once by itself and it held a charge for about 90 minutes and then it gave us a warning that we needed to hook it up to another source of power. Most of the time I just plug this in to an outlet, this way I don't have to worry about it.
The software that comes loaded on the computer:
*MS Works 2000, this has your spreadsheet, and word processor.
*Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000
*Quicken 2000. This is your money management software for budgets, and checkbook.
*McAfee Virus Scan
*Standard games of FreeCell, Solitaire, hearts and Mine Sweeper
This notebook comes with Windows 98, the Second version. My husband has been enjoying the screen savers and backgrounds that this provides. This notebook has a 56K internal modem. Now for memory, this one has 56 MB Ram but the box states it has 64. We find this kind of funny and will be calling Comp USA tomorrow. The hard drive space is 5.3 GB. For now, this suffices. I am sure later; we will upgrade to a larger hard drive. The viewing screen on this is 12.1. We find this adequate and we were not willing to pay the extra money for an inch bigger screen.
The guy at comp USA warned us about the digital switchboards at hotels. He said that if they had digital switchboards and we hooked up, it would fry our modem. We did notice however that there is an adapter you can buy to take care of this problem. If not, you just need to make sure and ask the person at the hotel/motel what kind of switchboard they have.
We did make sure we got the 3-year extended warranty. This covers the screen which could cost near $1000 or more if it is damaged. They will fix this twice. Also the modem problem I just mentioned, they also stated that in this warranty, this problem was covered. If the computer got in the wrong hands (we have three curious boys) and was dropped, and damaged, this too was covered. Of course, the rest was covered, such as the DVD drive, and all the normal areas where things can go wrong. Again, the box also boasts Tech Support 24/7 but so far we haven't needed this.
The one thing about notebooks is that they tend to get super hot. Holding this on your lap is not a good idea. This gets toasty. I found that using the desktop computer and keyboard and then going to a small laptop takes some getting use to. The keyboard is smaller and I tend to make more mistakes in typing. This will just take practice. I have to admit I am used to my tracker ball so going to a touch pad is also different.
Overall, I am very pleased with this notebook. It serves its purpose in what we needed. It is very easy to use--my oldest son has used it to write a pen pal letter and he was thrilled. It fit his fingers much better than it fit mine. :) I also find it comes in handy when I am on the Desktop and hubby wants to play a game. He just loaded his favorite games on the notebook and now plays to his hearts content... And I get to continue reading my Epinions until all hours of the night. BIG PLUS!
**UPDATE 5/9**
Hubby and I went to Comp USA and asked the question about the memory being only 56 Megs. That is because 8 Megs are used for the video card. I also got an email from a nice member from epinions and he told me the same thing:) Just wanted to let you all know where my missing 8 megs were.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
angelsbear
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Member: Tammy
Location: Upstate NY
Reviews written: 98
Trusted by: 112 members
About Me:
I am a Mom to 4 boys, ages 20, 18, 15 and 4.
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