Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion DV2840SE 14.1-inch Special Edition Laptop (AMD Turion 64 X 2 Dual Core TL-60 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased this laptop for my wife to replace a bulky 17" unit for her. She loves the smaller size and the speed even impresses me (I'm typing this review on my 17" laptop that runs dual hard drives, dual SLI video cards and the fastest dual-core processor you can get today). The video quality is very good and the easy connectivity to wireless networks is very helpful to my wife. Overall, this isa great buy for the money. If I hadn't just bought my 17", I'd probably get one for myself (this coming from someone who upgrades his laptop every 12-14 months - so you know it's a good one).

I've had my new laptop for about 2 weeks. I love it. The outside design is very cool, but it was the many features packed into such a compact laptop at a great price that sold me.It is smaller and lighter than my previous laptop. The computer boots quickly and connection to my network and the internet was simple. This laptop even has a switch in the front to turn off the wireless in case you're in an area that you do not want to chance someone accessing your computer or to just save on battery power. The battery time is OK, but I ordered a 12 cell replacement from Ebay to supplement. The built in speakers are pretty good and the webcam works great. The 250 MB hard drive was one of the largest I saw on the market, as was 4 Gig of Ram. It will easily accommodate larger files and multitasking will not slow things down. I also like that the little remote control tucks into the side of the laptop so that you won't misplace it. I am not a gamer, so I didn't need some of the higher end graphic capabilities. This computer is perfect for surfing, small business, picture and media viewing and editing, or for a student. I'm considering purchasing the optional TV tuner. I would highly recommend this laptop!

I have Sony SZ110 laptop which I bought two years ago. I decide to look for a new one since the Sony seems to run very slow consider the amount of money I paid for the Sony one($1500). I have looked at HP, Dell, Gateway, and Toshiba, and then decide to go with this HP. I did a custom build this laptop on HP site and cost around $1250. When I saw at best buy discount for $799 ($100 off), I didn't wait very long. I have been a long fan of Sony due to their quality, however, this time it is HP.

Pros: 1) I like the design and the finishing - very shine and glossy. At night when you turn it on, the blue light on the laptop looks outstanding 2) The performance is very good. I have alot of software on this machine including Adobe CS3 suite and this thing shut down in 30 seconds and will boot everything up in 1 minute - fully load. 3) A great price for this kind of laptop.

Cons: 1) The volume control is slow to reponse when using the assign buttons. 2) this baby give out heat about 20-30% more than my sony. 3) The screen is not as bright as my sony (10-15% less), but if you don't have a sony before or don't care about the screen to be very bright, then it doesn't matter.

For your my normal usage, the battery last about 2.25 - 3.00 (6 cells).

Overall, this is a great buy. If I have to buy again, I would buy this one again.

This piece concerns my review of Sony Vaio CR420 vs. Pavilion dv2810US...

I suppose it should come as no surprise that the Sony name will cost a little more. This Sony Vaio CR420 laptop combines a new Intel T8100 processor with attractive style multiplexed with all the accoutrements of a modern laptop and maybe more considering it has the no yet agreed upon N-wireless 802.11. Aside from enumerating all the other features, you go ahead and read for yourself the fairly detailed Amazon description.

Although it does not contain a separate graphics card it's nvidia graphics chip does provide enough power to turn on all the Vista Aero features I know.

My major gripe with this pretty laptop is that when I compare it to the HP dv2810US it doesn't deliver me anything more (of what I need). Note that the HP Pavilion's CPU is AMD TL-60. While I have heard AMD is getting their butt kicked with T8100 (Penryn) I just don't see it here.

Without going to great detail I considered drive size/speed, memory, weight, screen size (Sony is a noticeably brighter screen btw),Bluetooth (pretty sure both stereo -a2dp),battery life, optical drive, speakers, touchpad, and overall quality of build. The HP performs well in all aspects. Note, I say "performs" instead of compare to differentiate my real world experience versus marketing specs. I do think the Sony is prettier. Note: I got the blue case b/c it uses a silver keyboard I preferred, most if not all these Vaio's have black keys. The Pavilion has black keys also.

Overall, I think a case could be made for choosing the Sony over the much cheaper Pavilion, however, for my station in life and value of a dollar, I chose the Pavilion dv2810us.

Things (of note) I did while I possessed both aforementioned laptops...

connected both wirelessly and wired to my home network (and ultimately Comcast broadband), signed in wirelesly at coffee house to web surf, downloaded and installed updates to Vista, streamed audio/video from Windows Media Server, installed VMWare Server GSX and then multiple OS's within -very slow to start on both laptops(slower than my previous Lifebook S Pentium M 1.6Gz w/ 2MB RAM running XP home).

I contacted both vendor's customer service departments about "downgrading" to XP Pro from the Vista Premium and it turns out to be not so easy. In the case of HP, while they highly recommend against downgrading the Web Chat HP guy said he could point me to some of the drivers on the web... but could not say if all the XP - flavored drivers were available. I didn't get into a discussion with Sony as much but got the same indication.

Hope this helps someone.

PS I like the Sony battery adapter more, it plugs into the laptop from the back with an "L" shape, the HP plugs from the side and sticks out approx 2". Also the Vaio has what I consider and annoying light emanating from under the touchpad -I dislike stray light-sources like that and not sure if it has a reason for it.

Lets start by saying it is a pretty laptop indeed!

Nice HD,the most of it's ram capacity, so, i don't understand why it is so slow! I guess windows vista sucks and this is the major problem because otherwise with 4 ram and a dual core 2.0 ghz procesor i would expect to run nice and smooth! But it does not!

It gets too hot fast and speakers are pretty lame!

don't get me wrong, it's just an average machine, don't spend time and money on this if you are tryin to work with heavy programs that involve nice sound and video or graphics! But it's ok for everything else though!

To me, this is a 600$ laptop instead of the almost thousand it costs!

I won`t make a big review telling you all about this notebook because it`s been done already. Here`s what I think:

Pros:

- The specs help it to work real smooth, especially the 4gb RAM

- It`s stylish and has many shortcuts among the keyboard that will help you navigate through the system

- It`s very complete with webcam, DVD-WR drive, Bluetooth and Wi-fi, slick keyboard, in-built mic, 3 USB and stuff.

Cons:

- I`d like at least one more USB and located on the back of the notebook, not on the sides. It makes connecting "permanent" peripherals ugly with lots of wires appearing

- The ethernet connection is sideways as well which is not good either

- The notebook comes with Vista. Its ok, but you cannot downgrade it to XP `cause hp didn`t release many drivers to the older windows system yet. So you MUST use vista to enjoy all your new computer has to offer.

- Vista system can be lazy and slow sometimes, which is very irritating.

That`s all I think.

I can't begin to say enough good things about this laptop. I was looking for a laptop with enough system memory and other appropriate features to accommodate a good video editing program and was just about to purchase a different computer when I came across this one, which had all of the features of the first laptop plus an additional GB of RAM for $150 less, so I decided to go for it. It was the best decision I could have made. This computer is amazing. I am still in the process of discovering all of the different components and pre-installed programs and am so very impressed with its capabilities. This being my first laptop, I have to admit I am not too adept at using the touchpad, but I easily added a wireless mouse which works perfectly. I have not yet done any video editing, but the computer appears to have more than sufficient memory and other system resources to accommodate a good editing program. This is the first time I have worked with Windows Vista, but having worked in all of the other Windows OS formats, I have found Vista to be as easy to work with as any of the others. All in all, I would highly recommend this computer - purchasing this was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time!

I've had this laptop for a month now and I couldn't be happier.Bought this for a super price ($820) after rebate from Amazon. This laptop is fully loaded with 250GB hard Drive 4GB Ram, Wireless ABGN with Bluetooth. Remote Control and beautiful finish with a cool design. Machine is very fast and stylish. Battery life with the standard battery is only a couple of hours. Laptop does get a bit warm on the bottom, but not as hot as my 4 year old Mac Powerbook. The only thing missing from this machine is an HDMI connection which I would have liked. Reality was, that I would not really use it that much anyway and there is still RGB output and S Video. I hear HP tech support is lousy but hopefully this laptop won't need support.

I picked this up at Best Buy for $799 and the performance has been perfect. Speed seems exceptional. Wireless connectivity is very sensitive. Weight is right. It does give off a lot of heat, so beware.

One thing I don't like are the ergonomics of the touchpad. It's a bit scrunched, but this is a 14-inch screen computer, so I guess it goes with the territory. I purchased a wireless mouse and use that mostly anyway.

I haven't begun to tap this unit's full potential yet, but it seems to be positioned to be useful for a long time to come.

I had to call HP support after multiple blue screen crashes leading finally to being unable to open Windows. Tech support tracked down the problem to a faulty memory chip. They are sending a replacement. This machine came with 3GB of memory. The 2GB chip is the one that went bad and is being replaced. I am now running on 1GB while waiting for the replacement chip. Performance is slower but no problems. I am satisfied with the computers features and performance and wouldn't try to talk anyone out of buying it. I think my problem is probobly a fluke.