HP dv2800t Artist Edition Laptop

27/05/2008
By Staff Writers
In Cybershack Reviews

This sweet looking laptop from HP takes individuality to the next level whilst delivering quality specifications for the user.

More than 8500 artists vied for the opportunity to have their artistic vision stamped on this latest computer from HP in the Take Action, Make Art competition. Artists from around the globe had six weeks in which to come up with their design for the casings of a laptop: with Portuguese artist, Joao Oliveira, coming away the ultimate winner with his grafiti inspired designs.

If you’re after attention – this notebook will easily draw some stares when you whip it out at the local cafe or bus ride home. It would be easy to pigeon hole this laptop for its good looks, however the HP dv2800t also brings it home in the specification department.

Weighing in at 2.5 kilos, its light enough for students to carry around on a daily basis and the 14.1 inch screen provides plenty of working space. Colour and screen brightness are good, although as with most laptops, movie viewing is best done from straight on.

The keyboard is one of the nicest laptop keyboards that I have used in a while, with good pressure sensitivity and little bounce. In keeping with the artist design the keyboard is shaded brown rather than your standard graphite hue, and has a certain gloss to it that is not usually present but certainly makes the unit look good when you crack it open for your friends to admire. The built in touchpad is solid and with good pressure.

This notebook comes with a NVIDIA 8400M GS graphics card – so handles the stress of gameplay quite well. It comes with loads of games on board for the novice gamer to sink their teeth into and if your a gaming enthusiast you’ll still be able to load up Half Life2 and tweak the settings to get it going for some great game play…

artist_pc
The HP dv2800t has Altec Lansing speakers on board, which means sound enthusiasts will be rubbing their hands together, right about now, as these speakers deliver way above standard sound for a notebook. High and midrange sound is great – although as with most notebook the bass could do with a boost.
However whack your headphones into this baby and pop on a DVD and you’ll really appreciate the sound. Tthe two headphone jacks are also a plus – meaning you can share your viewing pleasure with a friend with out the annoyance of having to use a splitter cable.

Since we’re talking DVD, I should also mention that the Hpdv2800t has a DVD rom drive providing excellent viewing capabilities and an intergrated HDMI port so you’ll be able to watch Hi Def TV in your down time.

As for grunt, the HPdv2800t has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and you can load up to 4GB of RAM – plenty of processing and memory power to suit your needs.

With peripheral devices so much a part of everyday life – it’s good to know the crew at HP have put their heads together when it comes to ports – there’s everything from 5-1 card readers to S video and VGA connectors for older style TVs and attaching your notebook to a conventional screen. Plus plenty of USB ports to connect your devices, a firewire port (which those of you with video cameras will appreciate), express card, LAN, on board modem, bluetooth and infrared.

The integrated webcam is also a nice touch, especially for those of you with relatives overseas, who will no doubt be video calling your long lost aunts and uncles faster than you can say ‘Merry Christmas’…

laptop_bag

If you really want to complete your look, you can also buy the Artist Edition laptop bag. For just $89 you can grab yourself this courier style satchel that sports the same unique look as your notebook. Featuring a padded slot to hold your notebook snuggly, a front zippered section to hold all your paraphenalia, plus plenty of room inside to stash the latest edition of IdN, the bag is a stylish edition to your notebook.

Pros