Back in the mid 1980s, IBM, Toshiba, NEC and a few other makers of IBM-compatible PCs began selling portable computers with a hinged display that people could carry with them from place to place in their bags.
That was when we became familiar with the term “laptop”.
A laptop computer was much larger than an A4-size writing pad. It was quite heavy, too.
The term notebook was coined later around the time a U.S. brand called Zeos started being advertised in computer magazines. Notebooks were supposed to be portable computers that had been reduced in size to fit into a briefcase.
At that time, despite their large size, laptops had quite teeny-weeny screens. In addition, they were all monochrome LCDs. (Remember that those were the days when the user interface was text-based).
We were all quite happy we could use a laptop as a glorified typewriter replacement — all that was required was MS or PC DOS and WordPerfect and a box of 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch floppy diskettes.
Courtesy of Hewlett-Packard (HP) Indonesia, I had three weeks to enjoy a brand new HP HDX16, a premium notebook that could keep you captivated for months.
I reported in this column a couple of weeks ago that HP now pays really serious attention to the style element of its notebooks in an effort to make them stand out in the crowd. The HDX16 is as impressive in the list of its technical specs as in its beauty. It has many of the upper-caste components, making its US$2,199 price tag fairly reasonable.
Here is a list of the critical components: Intel Centrino 2 platform with a Core 2 Duo T9400 processor running at 2.53 GHz; 4 GB of DDR2 memory; 320 GHz hard disk spinning at 5400 revolutions per minute (RPM); a 16-inch BrightView Infinity widescreen LCD; a Blu-Ray ROM; Wi-Fi a/g/n and Bluetooth; lots of lighted touch buttons; and a pair of Altec Lansing speakers with HP Triple Bass subwoofer.
The processor has 6 MB of L2 cache memory. Of course, to match the hardware, HP, not surprisingly, has chosen Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium.
With such top-notch components under the hood, it is not surprising that this notebook performs with flying colors. Although, given its focus on digital entertainment, it may not be the best machine for games or heavy-duty movie editing, but it is certainly close enough.
The specs on the box also list that the notebook has an integrated DVB-T/analog TV tuner. I could not test the DVB-T, but the analog tuner using the included antenna produced reasonable display quality.
There is a cable connector for TV cable reception, too, which raises display sharpness and color quality significantly. HP also throws in two remote controls — one for the notebook and the other for the Media control.
The keyboard is extremely close to my ideal: Each of the caps is covered with a chrome-like layer. HP has chosen the right material to ice the keycaps so that they do not get smudged as quickly as the “piano-like” keycaps. The separate numeric keypad on the right has keys that are narrower than the main keyboard, but they are still as usable.
Of course there is an integrated Webcam, too.
HP uses NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with a 512 MB dedicated memory for the graphics subsystem. By default, the characters on the screen are comfortably large (even for me).
If HP had wanted to equip it with the latest technologies, it would have to include a 7200 RPM hard disk and DDR3 memory instead of the 5400 RPM and DDR2. However, as it is now, this notebook is already among the top-end units.
HP has also added a very thoughtful feature to the standard touchpad: Right above the panel there is a button to deactivate the pointing device. You must know how frustrating it is to have the pointer jumping all over the place as you inadvertently touch the pad. I think this toggle button should be made standard on every touchpad.
Strangely, despite its size and long list of features, the HDX16 is not as heavy as you might have guessed. HP managed to pack everything in a notebook weighing only 3.2 kilograms.
The HDX16 has a bigger sibling, the HDX18, which has an 18-inch display, and a whopping $2,999 price tag. Unfortunately, I did not have the detailed specs, and I do not know whether it will be available here, either.
A rather serious complaint that I have is that the chromed touchpad panel itself is not slippery enough to let the fingertips glide smoothly over it.
A glossy finish is very smudge-friendly, as you already know. The good thing is that the graphic artwork printed on the notebook’s body and cover, as well as its gray color, tones down the marks left by oily hands.
It’s too bad though that HP put the audio port on the front side; an area where the plugs are vulnerable to accidental elbow action.
Still, this is one of the notebooks that managed to make me feel sad as I said goodbye to it and put it back in its box for the courier to pick up.
source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/12/01/hdx-a-notebook-computer-or-a-portable-tv.html
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