Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I LOVE this laptop!, May 26, 2009
I am a website and graphic designer. For various reasons I prefer to do most of my work on a laptop rather than a desktop computer. My 2½-year-old Thinkpad T60 was beginning to groan under the strain -- it overheated constantly and began shutting down at unpredictable intervals, more than once causing me to lose work. Definitely, I said to myself, it's time for something new.
I researched carefully for several months before deciding on the 8530w. After a number of hardware problems with the T60 (two new keyboards, two new power supplies, new modem card, new power plug on the motherboard), I didn't think I wanted another Lenovo. I did want a machine built like a tank. I wanted a 15.4 inch, high res antiglare screen. I insisted on XP Pro. This one had all I needed and the price was excellent.
Shipping was fast and the machine was in perfect shape when I unpacked it. It took a day or so to load my software and set it up, and then I took off. It is perfect for my needs. The keys feel responsive and tight. The case is built to meet military standard MIL-STD 810F tests -- i.e., "built like a tank." Battery life is very good, with between 3 and 3½ hours on a full charge, even when running at full steam with the screen brightness all the way up. If I am running several heavy-memory programs at once the cooling fan does come on. It's noticeable in a quiet room, but not obtrusive. Better that than a warped keyboard and random shutdowns.
Other nice touches: A built-in LED keyboard light at the top of the screen. Touch a button and the light pops open, allowing you to type in a dimly-lighted room without turning on a room light and disturbing your partner. I also love the touch-sensitive strip at the top of the keyboard: you can turn on or off the wifi and sound with a simple touch. The strip also contains a volume control -- just brush your finger left to right to turn up the sound, right to left to turn it down. Too cool!
Cons? It is HEAVY. The solid case and drive guard add a lot of weight, and the power brick could be adequately described as a power anchor. Together the two add eight pounds to your laptop bag. A gym membership will not come amiss with this thing. Fortunately, I don't have to carry it around that much.
One other minor annoyance is that the lefthand shift and control keys are quite fussy about touch position. The keyboard is a little wider than the T60's, and if I don't pay attention I find that in fast typing I hit those two keys off center and the pressure does not activate the key. I've been spending a lot of time editing letters that should have been capitalized, and quite often I'll end up with a "v" instead of pasted text when the Ctrl key did not activate.
One last minor problem: The 8530w comes with HP Protect Security Suite (fingerprint sensor and other ways to lock the machine from unauthorized use). During setup, this kept recirculating every half hour and insisting that I set up my fingerprint ID, despite the fact that I had done so at the beginning. This can be remedied, according to HP Support, by doing something extremely scary to the BIOS. I uninstalled the software instead. The Windows password is security enough for my purposes.
All in all, I love this machine. Three-year warranty, beautiful graphics, true color screen, enough computing power to handle all my heavy applications at once without gasping for breath. I *highly* recommend it.
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