Sale HP Pavilion dv7-4280us 17.3-Inch Entertainment Notebook PC

HP Pavilion dv7-4280us 17.3-Inch Entertainment Notebook PC (Silver)
I've been using this computer for about 3 weeks now, and am quite happy with its performance and battery life.HP Pavilion dv7-4280us . It has switchable graphics and automatically (unless disabled) switches between built-in graphics when battery powered and dedicated graphics (ATI HD6550) when wall cube powered. I don't use this computer for gaming, but the HD6550 is a fairly respectable card. Battery life is listed at 7.75 hours. I was originally seeing around 6 hours in my typical usage scenario (see note re change below). I am also pleased with its thermal management. When working hard it gets warm - but not hot. Air exhaust is on the left, toward the back of the case, which is an acceptable location. Since it is billed as an "entertainment" laptop, there is a goodly amount of HP software installed for managing audio, video, photos, etc. I thought I would remove most of this, but found it to be relatively inoffensive and even useful at times. The hard drive is a generous 750 GB, so I wasn't too concerned about needing to free up space. I did disable the built-in backup management software in favor of adding a second 750 GB hard drive (this required purchasing an HP4000 series drive caddy and cable). I made the new drive (7200 RPM) the primary drive and relegated the slower 5400 RPM drive that came with the 4280 to backup. Having two hard drives did, of course, reduce battery life somewhat, but I still get around 5.5 hours - not bad at all. I can now do backups in-situ via partition imaging, plus daily backups to an external USB drive. Regarding that - the HP4280 has a powered eSATA port (combo USB and eSATA), which I use with a Seagate GoFlex Pro 750 GB drive with eSATA interface - and it is fast (GoFlex pro uses 7200 RPM drive which matches the one I swapped in and made my boot drive). HP Pavilion dv7-4280us There is also a fingerprint scanner which can be used to log in (password entry is still available as alternative). You have to spend a few minutes registering your fingerprint (plus one alternative print) - but after that, you can log in by just swiping your finger over the scanner. It took some getting used to, but I now log in this way almost exclusively. One little trick I found - place your finger over the scanner, then hesitate for just a bit (about 1/4 to 1/2 second) before swiping and it will read much more reliably. At least that's the case for me - maybe I "trained" it that way. ;-) HP Pavilion dv7-4280us More Products : HP Pavilion dm4-1160us 14-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 6.25 Hours of Battery Life (Argento) Compaq Presario CQ62-410US 15.6-Inch Notebook Acer Aspire TimelineX AS3820T-6480 13.3-Inch HD Laptop (Black Brushed Aluminum) Dell Inspiron 14R 1181MRB 14-Inch Laptop (Mars Black) HP g6-1a50us Notebook PC - Silver HP Envy 14-1260SE Beats Edition Notebook (Black) HP Pavilion dv6-3250us 15.6-Inch Entertainment Notebook PC (Silver) HP Pavilion dv7-4280us 17.3-Inch Entertainment Notebook PC (Silver) Apple MacBook Pro MC725LL/A 17-Inch Laptop ASUS N53SV-XV1 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Silver Aluminum)