Sep 21, 2007 11:47 AM
2790 Views
(Updated Nov 27, 2008 03:23 PM)
(For those of you who would like to see just the detailing on the negatives, jump to the itallicized text, for those who prefer to read the entire experience, read on...)
I bought a HP dv5200tx laptop about a year ago. I just want to share with you the overal experience so that you can take a call on buying it or its next closest variant (which has similar specifications).
My main purposefor buying the laptop was a combination of the following:
Running MS office and carrying out part office work, documentations, presentations, etc.
Running software like money or emails, simple software designer suites.
I have NOT installed larger applications like oracle apps or SAP(Surprised? But I know of someof my friend who have done it on their laptops). I have not run middle tier softwares like IIS servers, etc.
I do like to spend some time watching movies or playing games (if not me, my family)
Carry my important data, emails and downloaded documents with me. As well as be able to access the net while I am traveling.
1. Overall product features and usability:It is excellent as a personal laptop with combined gaming and personal usage. Just good as a professional laptop for an individual small office guy, Average as a pure professional laptop.
The Geforce graphics has made gaming great. The large screen makes picture viewing a pleasure.
The cpu power is dual core with high speed and I have not faced problems with a single workable application till date, however cpu hungry it might be. Please also note that I do not load with large applications that are generally not meant for laptops.
Here are some negatives - There are cases when the RAM/bios does get corrupt. This has happened to me almost at the end of the year of warranty, so I thankfuly got that fixed for free. But that also prompted me to make sure that I renew my warranty for the next two years and had to pay money for that. But more interestingly, I note that many other people have faced a similar issue, who had come to fix their laptops in the service center.
Not that light. Whatever is the number of pounds, etc. people companies display, I prefer going by the feel, handlability and the overal feeling of weight. The equivalent Acer model and the Dell models are lighter.
I did try to overload the application with Sql server and visual developer, and yes while it works, it makes the system crawl at times. Workable, but not anything near to awesome performance in these cases.
2. Value for money- Just OK. Lets face it, its a pretty good product and he is milking you out for the money. And HP does not have a Dell strategy of low price. So you will see some similar Dell models which are cheaper.
3. Support and service- HP has a good system and smart engineers (usually) working, but their overal management of the support activities, scheduling and communication is pretty pathetic.
He promised me fixing the issue in 2 days and took more than 2 weeks! I would have been able to prepare myself better if the 2 weeks were informed before hand! And to top it all, their bangalore center has a snobbish manager (a lady) who doesnt understand when her team has genuinely goofed up and when the customer is pressurising unduly.
Do I feel I should have made a different decision when I look back at the end of one year of usage?
NO - Its been a good call. For one, when I need to cool it off and watch movies or play games, its a marvel. For two, apart from the memory issue, there has been absolutely no other problem faced by me. But please do mind it, the BIOS/RAM issue is there and I am pretty confident there would be ample others out there owning this model who have faced it.
What alternatives would I have considered: Dell XPS series, the smaller size model or the Acer travel mate. But both these would reduce the multimedia experience althought more rugged and lighter.
*MY OVERALL RECOMMENDATION:
BUY THIS LAPTOP** if you are a person who is not going to travel too much with this laptop, and who enjoys multimedia, and would like to run standard applications with minimum hassles.
Do NOT BUT THIS LAPTOP IF for mainly professional purposes, more travel and if you need to load it will heavy applications that demand high cpu/ram usage continuously.
Best wishes!!
Prakash
FOLLOWUP UPDATE BELOW:
Some points after 2 years of buying:
Laptop runs fine, here are the negatives:
Microphone/earphone jacks sometimes dont work and need elaborate adjustment, plugging/unplugging, cleaning. And no, its not because of dust/dirt, I have already checked that.
After usage, the mouse area and the laptop speakers have lost their coating and look of a different colour (not rusted, but colour pealed off)
Support still is bad, if not getting worse. I went for a battery charger replacement and saw a very customer unfriendly attitude. Even the engineer at work seemed sloppy and with an I dont care attitude. I hoped somebody from HP would read my original update on support problems and improve it, but it appears they have decided to make things worse. At this rate, I am pretty sure HP will start loosing its position.
My original points on this laptop hold. Not a robust business travel item, only for home and fun - especially games and movies, casual usage.
