HP 17" Notebook, Yes or No

HP 17\" Notebook, Yes or No

My Dad is looking at the notebook linked below. Anybody have a comment or experience with the 17" screens or these notebooks in general? He has an HP now that has given him good service for 6 years but it's tired and he wants another HP. He will be using the wireless network at home. It has the 54g network card and he isn't sure about that over the 802.11b. He's asking me and I could give him an opinion but I also knew I could come here for the right answer from some of you laptop pros.

Thanks

HP zd7058cl

Re : HP 17\" Notebook, Yes or No

Dave, don't have that one, but I have had an HP ZE1210 laptop for a year now, and I'm very happy with it. If he does get it, you'll probably want to bookmark this:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/categoryhome.do?categoryId=411

Joe

Re: HP 17\" Notebook, Yes or No

I have no experience with that laptop. However, most places have what they call refurbished units. Dell, IBM, Gateway, and HP. The HP refurbs can be found here.

They don't make the refurbs easy to find, and there are some good deals if you know what your looking for. Generally, you type in the word "refurbished" (without the quotation marks) in their search box to find them. Generally, they carry some kind of warranty. Also, many of them are stock over runs or uints that simply returned and never used. The company checks them out and since they can't sell them new .... they have to sell them as refurbished. I like to check there first, to see what I can find.

Hope this helps,

Mike

Re: HP 17

Ok, I'll ask a question and hope that your not thinking I'm being mean and rude, but what good will wireless do on a 17" notebook, the thing will be too big and heavy to carry around /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Just a pet peeve with me I guess, laptops/notebooks keep getting bigger and desktops keep getting smaller. I have a "desktop" which is 8"x8"x1.75" (mini-itx). It seems smaller and lighter than my wife's 14" laptop. My laptop has a 12" display.

Re: HP 17

If he was still traveling your assumptions would be correct, but he's not.

He wants wireless so he can carry the 9.5-pound beast out on his deck and watch the sunrise, sunset, wildlife and still work. Other times he will use it in his home office, in bed and on the couch in front of the TV. It makes all the sense in the world to me unless you want to travel with it and then it's still feasible but it's not a laptop you would want to lug on a airplane or back and forth to the office every day. He works out of his home and rarely travels anymore.

His laptop is his only computer. A laptop with a 12"-14" screen is obviously not as pleasant to view as a 17" laptop screen or a 21" desktop screen for obvious reasons.

Re: HP 17

Dave, this is going to seem like the lamest Mac plug ever, but it's not intended as such.

The screen hinge on that looks A LOT like the screen hinge on the previous generation Apple Powerbooks (Likely because they copied the design from Apple). That latch was {on the powerbooks} a poor design and an achilles heel. The newer Powerbooks have a much much beefier hinge that I can only assume will soon make it's way to the PC laptop world, but I don't really know.

Has he ever dropped his current HP? If so he may want to consider something a little different until lighter, faster, thinner, better designed laptops come out.

Just a thought, take it for what it's worth.

Re: HP 17

Saaby-

I'm wondering if that 17 wide screen is the same shape as my 17" desktop iMac?

If so, I have to tell you I thought that screen was butt ugly in all the pictures, Magazine articles etc.

But, when I got a look at it in the flesh it was fabulous. I bought and I'm very pleased with that extra screen width!

GregR

Re: HP 17

When I got back into computers, my first purchase, was a CTX EZBook 700E (win98 first edition), new. I got it so I could take it with me when I went to my home town from where I was living at the time (security reasons: anti-theft). I used it as a desktop.

I certainly understand his reasons.

Be sure to check in http://computing.net/ to see if there are any problems or issues with this or any other system being considered (or components like motherboards).

What is going to be important, is that he is happy with it. Notebooks are a major investment, and at best, a compromise.

Re: HP 17

Separate numeric keypad? That IS nice! About time a notebook had a separate numeric keypad!!

Re: HP 17

Update:
I believe he's hooking up. They sell it at Sam's warehouse for $1,697. The 3-year extended warr. is around $150. He should get the Laptop, extended warr. and a router for the out the door price of $2,000.

The model above this one comes with a DVD-R/RW AND a CDR/RW. Very tempting.

Sabby,
I read where the 17" Powerbook is what prompted them to start producing this unit. I hope they "borrowed" the idea for the hinge and improved it, time will tell.

Re: HP 17

Dave:

From the pics, this has the old style hinge from the Titanium PowerBook. The 17", and all aluminum PowerBooks have the new hinge which looks completely different. None of this is important though, as the 3 year extended warranty makes all this a moot point /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif