The pretty and portable HP 2710p

My new laptop from HP has been my live machine now for a few days and I have to say I'm liking it a lot.  The one before was the faithful tc4400 which I was also a fan of but I'm really enjoying the smaller and lighter 2710p (£1015 + vat but that is with only 1Gb RAM and I've put 4Gb in).  It is 2.8x29.0x21.2cm and weighs 1.6 kg.  The screen is great, really bright and sharp widescreen (1280x800).  The whole PC is superbly portable and I liked the rubberised backing too - a small thing but its easier to hold than slippy black plastic and it makes it very nice to hold and carry with one hand.

The 2710p has a built in webcam that works really well and a rather silly keyboard light next to it.  It comes with a built in arial for 3G if you have a sim which is very cool.  The ultraslim battery extender (£112 +vat) is amazing - very slim indeed and even with it on, the laptop still looks thin and will still click onto the docking station.  Battery life seems pretty good and I never bother bring power with me to meetings.  The tablet screen feels precise and calibrates well.

Downsides, it is a little underpowered with the Intel® Core™2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage (up to 1.2 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache) processor and the lack of a touch pad is a bit annoying.  It is a shame too that there is no dvi output on it or the docking station.  Also only 2 usb ports.  I also find it hard to open with one hand - which is a small point but the catch is more fiddly than on the tc4400.  However these niggles are not that important to me.  No problems with drivers after a clean install of Vista Ultimate - everything was there on the HP site for Vista and worked fine.

I have very quickly adapted to using it and the ultra portable, designed for working on the move, approach has quickly worked it's way into my tecky heart.