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(More customer reviews)I bought this laptop 2 years ago to use for my Graduate School and as my main home/entertainment/gaming computer. It came with the following specs:
* Intel P8600 2.4GHz Processor,
* 4 GB of Ram,
* 320 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive,
* ATI Radeon HD 3650 Graphics,
* Widescreen 1280x800 anti-glare display,
* LightScribe DVD+/-RW
The body of the laptop is made of aluminum and hard plastic with a very rigid magnesium alloy inner frame. This thing is built like a tank and looks like it can stop a bullet. It is absolutely unbendable and practically unscratchable. At the same time it is not too heavy - a little over 6 lb. It also looks very cool - very like a Macbook Pro. There are no reflective or glossy parts anywhere, so it is easy to keep the laptop clean.
I installed Windows 7 Pro x64, MS Office Pro 2010, Firefox 4, Adobe CS5, Becker CPA Review Software, Avast Antivirus, and several other productivity programs. The system is very stable - I have never had any problem.
I usually keep a dozen Firefox tabs and Office documents open, Windows Media Player playing music, and also work with Adobe or Becker. No sweat. The application performance is very good thanks to the fast processor and speedy 7k HDD. Adobe Suit of course is a resource hog but still works reasonably fast on this computer.
I also installed Crysis, Left 4 Dead, SC2, Bishock, and several other games. All the games (except Crysis) run smoothly on medium settings at the native screen resolution. Crysis is playable on low settings only. Older games like Warcraft 3 run on the highest settings. The laptop does not get too hot and the fan is quiet.
The battery easily lasts 4 hrs when browsing Internet and working with the Office and/or Becker with Wi-Fi on and the screen on medium brightness. So, I think that performance of ATI Radeon HD 3650 is a good compromise between the power and mobility.
The screen is perfect for office/school work and gaming. It is bright, non-reflective and has good contrast. The resolution of 1280x800 is also very suitable for these tasks. The higher resolution would make text appear too small and would not let newer games to be playable in the native resolution. However, as an avid photographer, I would like to have more resolution to work with my pictures.
There is a high resolution (2mp) Web camera and a very good built-in microphone. So, Skype is pleasure to use. The built-in speakers are good and clear, though I usually use external speakers or headphones.
The illuminated keyboard (there is a very cool built-in light) is very comfortable and quiet - one of the best I have ever used. I like the touchpad too - it is very responsive with the soft and quiet buttons. There is an amazingly accurate pointstick - IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad style - with its own dedicated buttons. There are several touch-sensitive media buttons above the keyboard: Info, WiFi Toggle, Presentation Mode, Sound Volume and Mute. Very sleek. The fingerprint reader adds security.There are lots of connectivity options here:
* Docking port on the bottom - extremely convenient, I use it every day to connect the laptop to a docking station.
* A/B/G/N Wireless LAN which works flawlessly with my campus network,
* 10/100/1000 NIC port - use it to connect to a DSL modem at home
* Bluetooth 2.0 EDR - often use it to connect the computer to my cell phone,
* 56k modem - used once when I took the laptop to Ukraine,
* 4x USB 2.0 ports,
* Very fast ESATA port - use it for back-ups with my external HDD,
* 1394 Firewire port - never used it,
* 1x Headphone out + 1x Microphone in
* HDMI port - connect it to my big HDTV
* VGA out - used it several times to connect the laptop to a projector during presentations
* SD/MS/Pro-MMC Card Reader - use it a lot to transfer pictures from my DSLR
* Express card slot + Smart Card slot - never used them
All the ports are located very conveniently with the Power Socket and the VGA on the back, 2 USB and Network on the far left edge, and the rest in the middle of the sides. So, the cables that are most likely to be connected (and the thickest ones) are on the back and do not get in the way. But I use the docking port on the bottom (unique to business laptops) to connect all wires to the dock (and move them all back at the same time) and then connect/disconnect the laptop with a single push on a button. Priceless!
Long story short - I am very satisfied.
Click Here to see more reviews about: HP EliteBook 8530p - Core 2 Duo T9600 / 2.8 GHz - RAM 4 GB - HDD 250 GB - DVDRW (R DL) / DVD-RAM - Mobility Radeon HD 3650 HyperMemory up to 512MB - Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, 802.11 a/b/g/n (draft) - TPM - fingerprint reader, SmartCard reader - Vista Business - 15.4" Widescreen TFT 1680 x 1050 ( WSXGA+ ) - Microsoft Office Ready
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