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I read some amazing reviews of this laptop. The only one I found that had anything negative to say was S.K.'s review here on Amazon. And he's absolutely right. I also returned the laptop to HP (who offered me a $70 credit to keep it, take note). There are 3 basic design issues which, for me, make this laptop unusable.1. Keyboard. The keys themselves are a bronze color and the key symbol is black. It makes it virtually impossible to see what the keys are. An unbelievably stupid design decision. Having read S.K.'s review, I thought that maybe the keyboard is back lit, thus making it easy to see which keys are which. The keyboard isn't back lit. Even with good over head light, the keyboard is very difficult to read. I know I tried.
2. Screen glare. Gone are the days, it seems, when laptops came with a readable, easy on the eye, matt finish LCD screen. This laptop, like so many I looked at, has a highly reflective plastic coating which completely covers the screen. Yes, it will protect the screen but the reflections it picks up from everything else to the sides and behind you are incredibly distracting. If I'd wanted a mirror, I'd have bought a mirror.
3. Screen tilt. The screen does not lay completely flat like other laptops I've had in the past. This one goes back to about a 120 degree angle. I sometimes use an external screen with a laptop so need something which can lay flat and not get in the way of the external screen while I use the laptop keyboard in front of it.
Issues #2 and #3 I could maybe have lived with, but the keyboard issue was a deal breaker for me. A great pity because this laptop has a great spec for a great price. HP, what were you thinking?
I bought a Toshiba A305-S6916 instead. It has an almost identical spec to the DV5-1250us. It too suffers with issues #2 and #3, but it was a little cheaper. The small saving will be used up buying an anti-glare filter for the screen. Not much I can do about the tilt. Oh well.
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I had to just give up my 17" screen HP laptop, which over the course of three years, melted down it's own screen, had a bad hard drive and also system board issues. Now I have a DV5 which I cannot get the tracking pad to stop hopping all over my screen, going haywire. The worst tracking pad in the industry. It makes it virtually impossible for me to write an email or a document since the system jumps around the screen and performs functions which I have not commanded, I cannot eve cut and paste or copy and paste without it taking me about 10 minutes to do so after catching the pointer. It is unbelievable. I have to work with this system with an exterior mouse. Which means the level of mobility for my laptop is limited since I have to use an external mouse. Even the controls to disable the pad do not work. Until HP gets their driver and their tracking pad under control, I would reconsider this purchase, unless you like playing hide and seek with the mouse pointer and playing "where will I end up in at any moment on my screen?" I hope that they are working on it.Honest reviews on HP Pavilion DV5-1250US 15.4-Inch Laptop
This is a terrific computer, but has an extremely strange flaw. The keyboard is illegible. You have to strain your eyes to see the letters and characters printed in light grey on a grey background. With all the fuss made in the description about the design and form factor, it is mind blowing that can they make such a ridiculous error in design.At first I thought, no biggie... I'll get used to it. I like the graphics card with 512 megs dedicated, the 2 AMD Turion 64 bit processors, the 4 gig RAM, the 400 meg drive. Unfortunatley I have now come to the realization that this is a deal breaker for me and will return the product. Too bad.
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