HP dv9700t Review

For my first post, I'm going to review my new laptop! It's an HP dv9700t 17" entertainment PC with loads of features. Here's the specs:

-Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.50GHz, 6MB L2)
-3GB DDR2 SDRAM
-250GB SATA 5400RPM Hard Drive
-nVidia GeForce 8600M GS 512MB
-17" HP BrightView Widescreen 1680x1050 LCD Display
-Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit and Ubuntu Linux 8.04 Desktop 64 Bit


Well, to start off, this PC is amazing. It has tons of features found on high end desktops and it is also portable. It has a built in webcam, fingerprint reader, stereo microphone, and full keyboard. It has a touch sensitive strip above the keyboard for media controls (QuickPlay, DVD, Previous/Play-Pause/Next/Stop, Mute, and Volume). It also includes a media remote control that fits into the ExpressCard slot when you're not using it.

The Good:
Well, there's so much stuff on this PC that is good, I'll point out the best. First, the screen is amazing. It's bright, glossy, and wide. The 1680x1050 resolution makes images look crisp and sharp while allowing you to have multiple applications open on your screen at a time. At 17", it compares to many desktop displays. Next, the nVidia 8600M GS is a great graphics solution for a high performance laptop. I was able to run Half Life 2 Deathmatch at near 60FPS with all settings at maximum. It gets around 2200 3dMarks on 3dMark06. The CPU is also great, beating out most AMD dual-core chips. It can compute 1M of Pi (using the SuperPi benchmark test) in 17.5 seconds. The PC supports Wireless b/g/n with its Intel wireless chip and 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet with its Realtek Ethernet controller. Last, I really like the finish on the case. It is a glossy finish with HP's "Radiance" pattern embedded in the plastic. Apart from attracting fingerprints, it looks very nice.

The not-so-good:
There's very little that I don't like about this computer. However, there are some things that must be addressed. First, the otherwise incredible keyboard has a minor layout issue. To fit the arrow keys and a number pad in, HP cut the right Shift key in half. This takes some getting used to, as new users may find themselves pushing Up instead of Shift, leading to garbled messages. Next, I would like to point out that the touch-sensitive panel for media has a downside. Although it is a great, stylized input system, it can be triggered by sliding your hand accidentally across the strip. If you're pointing at the screen and lower your hand onto the QuickPlay button, you can open the program accidentally. Other than those issues, it's a fingerprint magnet, but that's to be expected.

So, to conclude, I give it a 10/10. No questions asked, the few minor flaws don't detract from the rest of the PC. Since it has Intel and nVidia hardware, it is also almost perfectly supported in Linux, with wireless and wired networking up out-of-the-box and accelerated graphics only a few clicks away.