After realizing that my 2-year-old Compaq laptop (aptly baptized as Maximus) wasn’t serving my needs anymore (despite my fruitless attempts at ‘pimping’ it), I decided to hunt for a new one while I as on a 10-day tour of Manila. In particular, I was looking for a lightweight yet powerful PC with quick processing speed, more-than-enough disk space and lots of RAM. I was getting kinda bored with Compaq’s and HP’s offerings and true enough, as I was scouring Glorietta’s Park Square, the picture was bleak. So I thought, why not a Vaio? I entered Electroworld’s store and saw a Sony display table with a Vaoi FZ on it. It was beautiful — a strikingly vivid 15-inch LCD screen, 250GB HD and 2GB of RAM — all that for just 74,000 pesos! The Electroworld guy said that the unit recently got a big price slash, something like 50%. So I was totally sold! When I was getting ready to buy it, I was told that the display unit was the last one they had in stock. Oh my. Ok, later dude, I’ll think about it, is what I told him. The security guard was even trying to convince me, saying the Vaio was put on display only on that day. Fortunately my cousin Ria was bugging me from outside the mall to haul my ass out coz she and her posse of blogger friends were waiting for me. I did go out empty-handed, which is good I guess, coz that would mean more PC-obsessing the next day. I looked up the FZ online and what do you know. The FZ that Electroworld was trying to sell to me did not have the specs I was told it had! The actual specs were: 15-inch non-LCD screen (but the colors were still pretty), 160GB HD and 2GB RAM. The specs above were for a different model that costs 160,000 pesos, while costing about the same price. Darnit.
I went back to Park Square. I ran into TCA (The Computer Authority) and saw this fabulous, shiny HP Pavilion DV3000 on their window display. I can’t believe I missed it the previous day. I interviewed the salesguy but all he could say was that it was a newly-released model and overall a fantastic buy. The specs were quite impressive: 250GB HD, 2GB RAM, Nvidia Video Card with 256MB dedicated memory, a nice titanium finish, really sleek-looking (the salesguy said it’s because it was made of the same material as golf clubs lol). The screen was 13.3 inches which is perfect since I wanted something lightweight. Ah yes, I think I’ve found the one! It set me back some 77,000 pesos or $1,833.00. Notice my consistency in my blogging lately? All because of my new HP DV3000, although blogging didn’t buy me this laptop 🙂
I’m not the “benchmarking” type of guy, but so far I’m loving how lightning-fast it opens and runs applications. In a week or two I’m going to install Warcraft and see how that fairs. Hope you like this review.
Product Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 2.4Ghz
2GB Memory
250GB Hard Drive
NVidia Geforce 256MB Video Card
DVD+RW Drive
WiFi Enabled/Bluetooth
13″ WXGA LCD
1.3MP Webcam
Dual Mic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Fingerprint Reader
eSATA/USB Combo Port
HDMI Port
HP 3D Driveguard
If you’re looking for an affordable notebook, research some of the Dell.com Laptop deals online before going to your nearest retail outlet.
Oh I hate the review, and I hate your new HP DV3000, and I hetchoo! 😀
(mala Juned na hate… lulz!)
Posse much?! Wala bang gratitude pay?
What happened to you in Electroworld shows that one should check online specs and prices before going out and visiting stores or be ready for a surprise.
Sleek! I heard thats the one with the eSata/USB combo dual/port, right?
@Blogie: Hate begets hate. I hetchu2!
@Ria: None that I know of.
@Manila: That day made me recall how much I hate Electroworld.
@Jeff: Yes, its sleekness makes me cry. Uhm, yeah it has the esata/usb port plus the fingerprint reader. I shall update post.
Hi there you made a bad choice in buying an HP laptop. You are now stuck with the preinstalled OS. You try installing xp or vista or anything else without using the recovery and you’ll see what i mean.
@miel
actually, u just have to disable the SATA drive at BIOS for you to install without using the recovery discs. 🙂
@andrew
the laptop is good. got like 8 friends bought the same thing. all are happy 🙂
waaaaah I want a new laptop toooo
great buy 😛
bagong bago pala to.. kaka review lang din ng endgadget.. arrrrrrrghhhhhhh! ganda!
@aldrin when i searched yesterday i found that solution of turning off SATA at the BIOS hehe. I have a DV5215 and i got a virus and it needs a reinstall so perfect time for repartitioning since i want to use the extra 20GB thats being used by recovery. surprise! surprise! it shuts off by itself when reaching the part that xp is installing the drivers.
well I’m gonna try reinstall w/ the SATA off after i get it cleaned bec. the fan stopped working(i will never buy an amd cpu laptop ever bec the fan they supply is not very good). And it overheats and turns off by itself.
BTW do you know where in Davao i can get my laptop cleaned?
Congrats sa new toy mo. I’ve been using HP computers for ten years and I really like it. Actually, kabibili ko ng HP DV2810us and it’s super fast. I’m using it for four weeks and I have no problem. Enjoy your new laptop.
I love the Mac air. I like that’s its light weight and can fit in an envelope.
love it kuya. ksk ksk ksk. itago mo na…nanakawin ko. hehehe.
Fortunately, you found a stunning notebook PC from HP, but unfortunately it’s for your eyes only. After you buy that stuff, let’s see if you won’t get irritated with the no-smooth touchpad, and DVD end-point that is prone to cuts and wounds. I just bought one unit last month after my last year’s DELL M1330. All I can say, HP haven’t still learnt from their cheaply made laptops that is attractively designed only for marketing purpose, and not for the convenience of the more important users who are paying for more just to get a satisfying one. TAKE NOTE, my HP unit’s palmrest is burning my palms of the heat produced, and the covering is really not as durable as magnesium/aluminum alloy of my DELL M1330. So before buying, consider a lot of things first. My advise, 13-inch laptops are designed for portability. So they must weigh below 2kgs. But so far, I enjoy the brightview display and convenient layout of keyboard.
hp must have done something right with that coz u bought it…wouldn’t normally reccommend an hp though…anyways, congratulations to ur new techie toy…although i have a feeling ud fall in love with an alienware (area-51 m15x, for example — and that is not even the lappy with the highest specs)if you ever get to bump into one… ^.^
Nice spec and the sleek ang shiny titanium body OK na OK. Parang si War Machine Naging Laptop (oops na sobrahan sa kakanood ng Iron Man hehehe)
IMO HP produces excellent laptops. Why?>> Well I had a Pavilion dv1000 which I bought 3 years ago and last April it died. I use it to download stuffs and as far as I can remember I only had it RESTED for a total of one week in 3 years time (HYBERNATE MODE). WHEW, it was running 24/7 with the download manager running, Microsoft Outlook and YM open EVERYDAY!!!What else, well when I come home from work I would watch 720p movies which I downloaded that day (coz pentium M cannot handle 1080p). Had it connected to my LCD tv via VGA output. So I was not surprised when it died on me. I have chosen to buy the ARTIST EDITION instead of the DV3000 because of the Expansion Port that the AE has. Now with AE can watch 1080p movies thru HDMI and surround audio thru the expansion port (S/PDIF). Eversince I bought the AE I haven’t turned it off yet. No issue whatsoever especially after updating to Vista SP1. Though I have to admit the processor + the body quality of DV3000 is much more impressive than the AE. If the AE wasn’t around I would surely have chosen DV3000. Nice work HP guys!!!
In my opinion, HP is the worse computer product I have ever purchased and one of the worse on the market. It has crashed on me 4 times, and HP is useless in helping to fix it. I am switching to Dell. I will never buy an HP product again.