Construction - Build, Appearance, Size
Upon opening the notebook, we were surprised to be greeted with a nice and shiny display. This is very reminiscent of the coating that we saw on the Toshiba 5205 notebook".
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The display for this the HP Pavilion DV1000 Entertainment Notebook PC is also very similar to the one that we saw on the Acer Aspire 2020, on which the resolution is limited to lower than 1280 x 1024 (the Aspire 2020 is limited to a max of 1280 x 800). Since most of the wide-screen displays are of the 15.4" variety, we are used to resolutions like 1920 x 1200, or 1680 x 1050. But the main difference from the rest of the pack is the special coating that makes everything from text to images more brilliant and details more vibrant, particularly during multimedia use. HP apparently calls this BrightView. The coating itself seems to be a high gloss plastic film.
In our field tests, movies seemed to be able to show details to a finer degree than other notebooks that we were accustomed to. However, we should note that this 14.0" WXGA display is limited to 1280 x 768 (15:9 ratio), which means that if you plan to do even some light gaming, you will be limited to 1024 x 768 (unless you use the notebook's VGA out option). This is aside from the fact that it uses an Intel IGP solution, as opposed to something from NVIDIA or ATI.
And while HP calls their display a high-definition one, it is not HD in the way that we know HD from HDTV. Why they use this term is more likely a matter of marketing in reference to their BrightView technology.
The keyboard is just what we expect on a consumer notebook from HP: tactile with a reasonable degree of feedback. Compared to our Compaq Presario 1500T, it is fairly comparable. And in the whole scheme of laptop keyboards, it is probably average, noticeably shy of HP's business line and IBM's notebook keyboards. The function and control keys are appropriately placed, which is definitely a plus. The only thing we noticed was that some of the secondary functions require two hands, since the function key is on the lower left hand area of the keyboard, and there are secondary function buttons all along the top side of the keyboard.
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The touchpad is just what we expect from a multimedia notebook: good feedback with a good texture. The touchpad buttons are smaller than what we are use to, but they have a large enough profile that it doesn't become something that annoys you, and they feel somewhat natural for the keyboard. Note that above the touchpad, there is a button that can enable/disable the touchpad, which solves the problem of the cursor "magically" appearing and interrupting your viewing when you are watching a DVD.
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Perhaps one of the most aesthetically appealing design features of the DV1000 is the backlighting implementation for the various function buttons surrounding the keyboard. Lit in a neon blue hue scheme, it gives clarity and a marker for where specific keys are located. Keeping in mind that most people like a "theater" effect (i.e. a dark room) when they watch movie, we think that this was a nice addition to have. Often times, we found that in a flight, we had to turn our ThinkPad's display light to find the appropriate button. With other notebooks, it is often times a guess and check scenario. In this respect, LEDs are very beneficial. And the fact that the casing is a translucent black helps hide the LEDs when the system is off. (The backlit LEDs are only active when the system is on, which includes when the lid is closed.) However, we should note that we have not found a way to turn off the LEDs when the system is on.
The mute button and wireless button will only have their backlights active when the function is active.
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The LEDs for the system are on the front of the system: power on (blue when active), hard drive activity (blue when active), and battery status (solid blue when charging, blinking blue when low). There is an additional wireless LED centered upon the display lid above the keyboard, which is blue when wireless radio is enabled. This LED is also visible when the display lid is closed.
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