Everything I need!
Written: Apr 25 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast, excellent display quality, built-in modem.
Cons: Quiet audio, bad software bundle.
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| SmartConsumer's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion N3270 (F1917A) PC Noteboo... |
While shopping for a notebook computer you'll probably find that you have to search quite a bit until you find the perfect machine. Because you can't reconfigure or swap out the major components of a notebook computer, you have to find one that has everything you need or comes as close as possible.
I wanted a fast notebook computer for mobile multimedia, gaming, and internet applications. If your needs are similar and your price range is $2,000.00 or so, you will probably find the Pavilion N3270 as perfect as I do.
PERFORMANCE
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The N3270 runs at 475MHZ with an AMD K6-2 processor. I'm very happy with the performance. The operating system responds quickly, video playback is full-speed, and games run very well.
Hard disk speed is noticeably slower than a desktop computer. I don't know if this is typical of all notebook computers. Rapid and continuous hard disk access also seems to bog the entire system slightly. It's not a big performance problem but I notice it here and there. It's never disruptive.
Under normal use, I observe about 2.5 hours of use to a full battery charge. Playing DVD movies eats the battery very quickly. I sometimes have to change the battery out (extra batteries not included) to get through a single movie.
VIDEO
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The screen is beautiful. It's big, bright, and the color is excellent. No ghosting or blurry motion, either. This computer is wonderfully suited for action games or full-screen movie viewing.
This computer comes with a Trident Cyberblade 3D video accelerator that shares 8 megabytes of memory with the system. The accelerator is quite fast and the texture quality is good. Better than anything I've seen on a notebook, including the ATI 3D accelerator that ships in a lot of Dell Inspiron systems.
If you don't care about the 3D acceleration, it's still a big plus that this computer has 8 megabytes of video memory. Most notebooks have 1.5 to 2.5 megs. The only bummer is that it's shared memory. That is, the video card takes whatever memory it needs away from the system itself.
AUDIO
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This computer has two speakers mounted on either side of the touchpad. The sound quality through the speakers is barely acceptable. There's not enough bass or treble to provide rich sound. I also find that even with the volume cranked, the speakers aren't loud enough to hear clearly in some real-life situations. It doesn't help that the speakers are placed such that they are covered by your hands while typing.
Sound quality through a pair of headphones is excellent, and plenty loud. Since I almost always use the computer with headphones I don't mind that the speakers are fairly weak.
The sound card is some manner of ESS device that so far has worked flawlessly with all of the games and applications I've used with it. The sound card also has a built-in 56kbps modem. You just plug a phone cord into the side of the computer, and you're off! It's also nice that the modem dialing and other speaker operations play through the sound card and thus, through the headphones if you are wearing them.
INTERFACE
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Full size keyboard! The keyboard feedback while typing is very pleasant. It's soft with a light click, not mushy in the least.
The touchpad on this computer comes with a lot of really useful features in the form of shortcuts that you activate by tapping certain parts of the pad or sliding a finger along the edges. Makes using the pad a lot quicker and easier.
SOFTWARE
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I was quite displeased with the software bundle that came with this computer. The computer has a 6 gigabyte hard drive that came about half full of OEM software that I didn't want or need. I mean, a WHOLE lot of stuff. One of the first things I did was format the hard disk and install Windows 98 from scratch.
This computer comes with a recovery CD that will boot straight from the CD Rom drive and restore the computer to its 'off-the-shelf' state. That includes reinstalling all of the software I mentioned above.
I'm most disappointed with the DVD player software that came with this computer. The performance and picture quality was so bad that I had given up on watching movies with it. Someone convinced me to try a different piece of DVD player software (PowerDVD), and it provided excellent DVD playback quality and performance. Plan on buying your own DVD player software. Uninstall the one that comes with the computer.
SUPPORT
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I've called HP's technical support line three times so far, twice at ungodly hours, and got through to a helpful tech quite quickly all three times.
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Aside from the bad software bundle and the quiet external audio, I'm extremely pleased with my Pavilion N3270. So much that I use it much more than my desktop computer, even when I'm at home. It has all the power of the desktop and I can take it anywhere in the house.
I shopped for a $2000.00 notebook computer for several months and ended up buying a Pavilion N3270. After several months of daily use I'm still extremely pleased with it and still feel like I got an excellent computer for my money.
Recommended:
Yes
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SmartConsumer
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