While we absolutely love the U350’s design, it must be noted that, against other CULV thin-and-lights out there, it wasn’t exactly a barn-burner. In fact, in our multimedia multitasking, Photoshop, and iTunes tests, it came in last. That’s because many of these laptops had either Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Solo regular or ultralow-voltage processors, while the IdeaPad U350 has a single-core Pentium U2700 ultralow-voltage processor (ULV). The Pentium U2700 is still far better than the Atom processor that runs in nearly all Netbooks Aspire 3000 battery, and is perfectly good for basic office applications, Web browsing, video streaming, and casual games, and seemed to run Vista with no problems. We just wouldn’t advise any large-scale multitasking work using it.
The M305 does include a very decent pair of harmon/kardon speakers. Even though they are smaller, they are by no means useless and offer a decent audio experience. Bass sucked, and some high notes were distorted a bit, but otherwise they offered a nice experience whilst I ran the DVD test.
On CNET Labs application benchmarks, the NW125 kept pace with other systems that feature the same configuration: Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor, 4GB of memory, a 5,400rpm hard drive,FPCBP155 Battery , and integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics. It provides more than enough muscle for general mainstream use, including heavy multitasking, and should be able to handle any nongaming task you throw at it.
Now what I’ve always loved about HP(HP Pavilion XZ Series battery)’s notebooks is the inclusion of a touchpad disable button just above the touchpad itself. This little toggle is really a great inclusion, and is much better than a Function and F-key combo toggle. The one on my notebook, however, is stuck in a little bit, and I have to push it with my fingernail. I checked this against the ones in stores and they were all a bit recessed like mine, though not quite as difficult.
The ASUS W7J was set to run at full performance by setting the power scheme set to ‘Home/Office Desk’ with the AC plugged in, meaning that the CPU will not underclock while running the tests. For the battery performance test, the power scheme was set to ‘Portable/Laptop’. This activates Intel’s Enhanced Speedstep technology, which lowers CPU speed when not needed, thus increasing Latitude D600 battery life. Screen brightness and audio were both set to 50%, Bluetooth was disabled and Wi-Fi were turned on. Each test was repeated 3 times to ensure accuracy. Before each test was run, the laptop was rebooted and its hard drive defragmented.
With all these features, our high-end model was priced around a very modest $1499, but you can tweak the configuration for an even better deal. The dv5000z is a very good value for a multimedia/general purpose laptop, considering the Toshiba(Toshiba Satellite A70-S2362 battery) Qosmio G25 costs almost $600 more. Top notch multimedia features, powerful performance and a reasonable price make the Pavilion dv5000z a no brainer recommendation for the mainstream home user. We proudly honor it.
There’s one thing that would stop me from unconditionally recommending this laptop… and that is the abysmal mouse/trackpad. It just wasn’t responsive enough, and I found myself more often than not fighting it just to get it to go where I wanted. The mouse buttons were very stiff and non-responsive, and while you could solve the whole problem by plugging in a USB mouse, that negates the notion of a truly “mobile” computer, which is unfortunate, considering everything else this laptop has going for it.