Move-it Monday: Meet Lola, the HP Laptop {Review}

This week is going to be biz-zy. I could have typed frant-ic, but I’m hoping and praying that’s not the case. Of course, there’s nothing like fun new free technology to make you feel better about the fact that, on the first day of your crazy-busy week, your toddler woke up at 4 AM, and there were babies crying before your (very early) alarm ever went off.

Take a gander at this:

That’s the shiny new HP 2000-2c32nr 15.6″ Laptop that Staples was nice enough to send me to try out. When they contacted me about doing a review, I jumped at the chance because a) it’s a laptop (duh), and b) it had one important feature that my current laptop lacks that I was really looking forward to.

That would be the “SuperMulti DVD burner.” And, yes, I know that it sounds like I just made that up to be fancy, but it’s the actual phrase that HP uses to describe my shiny new laptop’s (I do believe she needs a name, yes?) “optical drive” (aka: DVD player).

My current laptop is a featherweight, and, while I love its portability, I don’t love the fact that its slender frame doesn’t allow for a DVD drive, which means that I can’t bring my BODYPUMP and BODYCOMBAT choreography DVDs with me to the gym like I did when I owned a heftier laptop. Neither can I use to it to play movies for my kids when we find ourselves in one of the 14,567 scenarios that require me to have all 5 of them with me and keep them entertained with minimal damage to our surroundings and everyone else’s eardrums.

{Nice, clear image: check; Good volume: check; Simon Baker’s tousled hair: not gonna lie; I  wouldn’t cry if one of my boy’s hair turns out like this}

But now that I have Lola (because, yes, Lola Laptop, is what I christened her, oh, 2 seconds ago), the fact that the kids and I will be taking a trip to get my van’s inspection done and oil changed doesn’t seem like a big deal. We’ll be taking along one of the Torchlighter’s DVDs I bought Ezra for his birthday (and highly recommend to anyone who wants their children to learn about history and good character while they’re being entertained), and (hopefully) the time in that chemical-ly smelling waiting room with the snack machine full of junk my kids will be desperate to buy just because it comes in tiny, colorful packages will fly by.

And since the kids will be watching movies on it, I’m very grateful for its large screen and sturdy construction. At roughly 5 1/2 pounds, Lola feels just solid and weighty enough to withstand my kids’ abuse use but not so large that I feel like I’m lugging around a 6th child.

Of course, I also wanted to see how it would run through its paces fulfilling my everyday computing needs. I’m not a very technical person, so this won’t be a technical review—just my reaction to how easy/convenient it was to accomplish my daily tasks like blogging, reading blogs, editing pictures, browsing to educational sites for my kids, etc.

And, after doing all of those things on this laptop (including writing this review on it), I’m happy to report that Lola met or exceeded all of my expectations in all areas except one (see below).

The keyboard, while a bit on the noisy side (think a low-level “clackity-clack” as you type), is quick and responsive to the touch. Most importantly, it’s not overly sensitive, which is a problem I’ve encountered with some models and which kind of breaks me out in hives. There’s little I like less than feeling like my laptop’s keyboard is typing things that I didn’t, just because my finger got too near a key.

The mouse is the same—quick to respond when I swipe my finger across it, but not jumpy or erratic.

The battery life is as described (“up to 4 hours”), but I can’t comment yet on how long that will be the case.

The colors on the screen are less saturated than I’m used to but still seem accurate. For example, after I edited the following collage in Picmonkey and hit publish, I viewed it on my other laptop screen and phone and the colors looked completely natural and expected.

{did you notice that sneaky little change I made to the center pic? more on that tomorrow}

Lola comes with Windows 8, which I find is an acquired taste (some people don’t care for it much; some love it), but I was already used to how it worked from my other laptop and found it just as easy to navigate with only a mouse (after having used it with a touch-screen).

After typing this post in Windows Live Writer, I was really happy with the speed for formatting everything but pictures, which is where I hit my only real snag. There was a delay after each picture insertion, but I honestly don’t know if that’s a fluke or just how this computer responds to processing images.

Ultimately, even though I haven’t even fully explored all of Lola’s options, I’m thrilled to have an option for portable entertainment and a larger screen. And I’m really pleased with how she “handles.” I’m a pretty simple girl when it comes to technology, and my requirements for computers require that they accommodate that simplicity by being easy to use.

Lola is.

So, as Staples would say (and my kids, who love pushing this button 459 times a day, would agree), “that was…”

And now I do believe it’s time to get a MOVE ON!

P.S. I think I’ll be taking Lola with me to Dallas this weekend as I present a breakout session on DIY blogging at The Declare Conference. I’m told that there are still some last-minute slots (as in 16 hours left!) available if you’d like to join us! (And, yes, that is one of the main reasons that this week could be described as “frantic”).