Value priced laptop with a few shortcomings.
Written: Apr 07 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
 |
|
|
Pros: All drives built-in, 2 USB ports
Cons: No serial PS2 Infrared. Runs Hot.
The Bottom Line: A good value for a decent laptop.
|
|
|
| imation1000's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion xf145 (F3413HR) PC Notebo... |
The HP Pavilion xf145 is powered by a 1GHZ Mobile AMD Athlon 4 processor. This processor supports PowerNow technology which adjusts processor speed according to power used (AC or battery) and system need, effectively improving overall battery life.
This model is equipped with 512MB Memory (shared with the video card, varying from 8, 16 or 32MB), 20GB harddrive, DVD/CD-RW combo drive and most importantly a floppy drive.
The display is a 14.1 active matrix display capable of 1024x768 resolutions. It features a multi-level backlight control. The audio system uses a stereo speaker setup as well as a headphone and mic jack. The pointing device is a touchpad type. There is a Ethernet port and 56K modem port adjacent to each other. Inclusive are the VGA, Parallel and dual USB
ports. Lacking however are infrared port, serial and PS2 ports. A plastic blanking plate sits where these ports would have been. A single PCMCIA slot is provided as well.
Be sure to take into account the missing ports if you are using a device requiring such ports or wish to use an external PS2 mouse or keypad.
The machine in this review is running Microsoft Windows XP Professional.
Upon turning on the computer, it takes approximately 10-15 seconds to boot up to the welcome screen. Overall performance of the machine using default power management is very good, with the operating system responding quickly to commands. DVD playback is smooth even at full screen.
Setting the power management to its best battery life setting drops the maximum CPU speed to 500mhz. At that setting some performance is sacrificed particularly DVD playback. It is still most useable for most business applications.
The xf145 employs a full size keyboard with very good and quiet tactile feel. The wristrest area is expansive to allow having both floppy and DVD drives to be built-in. The overall aesthetic design of the laptop is simple and clean with most colors being a dark muted blue. Only the LCD panel release and HP logo contrast in silver. Although considered an thin and light laptop, it is still fairly heavy at 6 lbs. Although keep in mind you are carrying both drives at all times. The laptop is 1.4 inches thick however there is a curious hump towards the upper section of the LCD panel, perhaps to allow a better grip when picking up the unit.
Typical of most AMD processors of this generation, the unit runs hot at full power. This is indicated by the constant running of the system fan (especially when plugged in) and general relatively warm bottom area (memory and CPU sections). I would not recommend having the xf145 on your laptop for extended periods of time because of the temperature (again especially if it is plugged in).
Under battery power however, the units runs cooler because the CPU is cycled down to a lower speed to save battery life.
Overall the HP Pavilion xf145 is a decent performer for the price. It can be had USED for a reasonable price as well (~$500-$600). And because its and HP you can be assured reliabilty as well.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
imation1000
|
|
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.