Entered CNET Catalog: 07/13/2007
SKU: 0883585268306
Manufacturer: HP
Manufacturer description
The HP Compaq 6910p sets a new standard for on-the-move productivity with industry-leading battery life and a starting light weight. With enhanced performance features, comprehensive security solutions and compatibility with a range of HP Universal Accessories, it's the absolute business professional.Product summary
The good: Sturdy construction; strong components for the price; choice of glossy or antiglare display; integrated EV-DO or HSDPA wireless; Trusted Platform Module and smart-card slot; great-sounding speakers.
The bad: Average performance; somewhat heavy travel weight thanks to AC adapter; lacks an ExpressCard slot.
The bottom line: Small businesses on tight budgets take note: The HP Compaq 6910p laptop offers enterprise-level features and decent performance at a price that's lower than the competition.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 08/07/2007
HP's latest business laptop, the thin-and-light Compaq 6910p, seems poised to woo corporate users away from their ThinkPads. It offers many of the same features as the Lenovo ThinkPad T61, including Intel's latest Centrino Duo platform, enterprise-level security via a Trusted Platform Module, and optional WWAN--at a significantly lower price. The $1,850 Compaq 6910p also undercuts the similarly configured Dell Latitude D630 by nearly $100, making it a good choice for corporate users who need the latest business-friendly features at an affordable price.
| Price as reviewed/starting price | $1,850/$1,199 |
| Processor | 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 |
| Memory | 2GB of 667MHz |
| Hard drive | 120GB at 5,400rpm |
| Graphics | 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X2300 |
| Chipset | Mobile Intel 965GM Express |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business |
| Dimensions | 13x9.5x1.4 inches |
| Screen size (diagonal) | 14.1 inches |
| System weight/weight with AC adapter | 5.1/6.2 pounds |
| Category | Thin-and-light |
The HP Compaq 6910p features the boxy shape and subdued gray-and-black color scheme found across HP's business laptop line. Its solid construction and sturdy display hinges will no doubt appeal to IT buyers who want their laptops to last for the long haul. Its dimensions are fairly typical for a thin-and-light laptop and virtually identical to those of the Dell Latitude D630. The Compaq 6910p's 5.1-pound weight falls in the middle of the range for the thin-and-light category, making it an eminently portable machine on its own. Unfortunately, its 1.1-pound AC adapter brings its overall weight to a level that, while still manageable, is less than ideal for frequent travel.
The roomy keyboard on the HP Compaq 6910p, though not full size, lets you pound out lengthy documents without cramping your fingers. For navigation, HP offers both a pointing stick and a touch pad, each with its own comfortable, rubberized mouse buttons. To the lower right of the keyboard, there's a tiny fingerprint reader, which frees you from having to remember your Windows and Web passwords. Above the keyboard sits a row of light-touch buttons that should look familiar to anyone acquainted with HP's Pavilion laptops. In addition to a mute button and volume controls, there are buttons to launch HP's configuration tools, turn the wireless radios on and off, and adjust display settings for presentations. While the similar light-touch controls on Pavilion models make an annoying beeping noise that has to be manually shut off, the buttons on the HP Compaq 6910p are blissfully silent.
The well-thought-out design extends to the laptop's 14.1-inch wide-screen display, which you can customize with either HP's BrightView glossy finish or an antiglare finish. While the BrightView promises to make colors pop, it's also prone to distracting reflections; the antiglare finish (which our review unit had) makes it easier to work on spreadsheets and documents for long periods of time without straining your eyes. With a native resolution of 1,280x800, text and icons looked crisp without being too small, and video looked sharp, though the color was somewhat washed out on our display.
| HP Compaq 6910p | Average for thin-and-light category | |
| Video | VGA-out, S-Video | VGA-out, S-Video |
| Audio | Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks | Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks |
| Data | Three USB 2.0 ports, a mini-FireWire, a SD/MMC memory card reader, and a smart-card reader | Three USB 2.0 ports, a mini-FireWire, and a multiformat memory card reader |
| Expansion | PC Card slot | PC Card or ExpressCard slot |
| Networking | Modem, Ethernet, 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth, optional WWAN | Modem, Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth, optional WWAN |
| Optical drive | DVD burner | DVD burner |
The HP Compaq 6910p includes most of the ports and connections we expect on a thin-and-light laptop, plus a few business-friendly extras. Specifically, the laptop piles on corporate-level security measures, including not only a fingerprint reader but also a Trusted Platform Module. The Compaq 6910p also provides every possible networking connection: Gigabit Ethernet, 56Kbps modem, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi, and your choice of WWAN radios (our review unit included a Verizon EV-DO connection). We were pleasantly surprised by the laptop's stereo speakers, which were rich and clear at all but the highest volumes. About the only thing we'd wish to add to the Compaq 6910p is an ExpressCard slot.
On CNET Labs performance benchmarks the HP Compaq 6910p fell toward the back of a pack of similarly configured thin-and-light laptops. Its performance was matched or bested by the $2,399 Lenovo ThinkPad T61, the $1,913 Dell Latitude D630, and the $1,449 Fujitsu LifeBook A6030. One key exception: the Compaq 6910p finished well ahead of the Dell--but still behind the others--on our Multimedia multitasking test. Still, any current Centrino Duo laptop, including the HP Compaq 6910p, will be able to easily handle the Web surfing, document editing, and productivity work that compose the bulk of office tasks. Heavy multitaskers and data crunchers might get a slight power boost from the ThinkPad T61 or the LifeBook A6030, but the HP Compaq 6910p will provide plenty of performance oomph for most users.
On our resource-intensive DVD battery drain tests, the HP Compaq 6910p lasted a fairly average 2 hours, 7 minutes, which was 5 minutes longer than the Fujitsu LifeBook A6030 but 20 minutes shorter than the ThinkPad T61. The Dell Latitude D630's extended-capacity battery outlasted them all, clocking in at 4 hours, 45 minutes. Our DVD battery drain test is especially grueling, so you can expect longer life from casual Web surfing and office use. Power-hungry users can get a little more juice from HP's extended-capacity battery, which costs $129 on the company's site.
Like most business laptops, the HP Compaq 6910p comes with a three-year warranty that includes toll-free, 24-7 phone support and return-to-depot service. An upgrade to three years of onsite service costs $129. The company rounds out its service and support with a solid online help site that integrates a user forum and real-time chat with a tech-support representative.
Find out more about how we test laptops.
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System configurations:
Dell Latitude D630
Windows XP Professional SP2; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 384MB Mobile Intel 965GM Express; 120GB Hitachi 5,400rpm
Fujitsu LifeBook A6030
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 965GM Express; 120GB Fujitsu 5,400rpm
HP Compaq 6910p
Windows Vista Business; 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo T7300; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X2300; 120GB Seagate 5,400rpm
HP Pavilion dv2500t
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 64MB Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS; 160GB Western Digital 5,400rpm
Lenovo ThinkPad T61
Windows Vista Business; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 965GM Express; 100GB Seagate 7,200rpm
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14out of 14 user reviews
Bluescreen Frenzy, terrible machine. Running XP Pro.
Pros: Light & portable
Cons: Blue Screens once or twice a week.
Extremely slow with anything less than 3 GB RAM, performance is still lacking with 3 GB.
Screen regularly fails to turn on after standby (great when you're going to a meeting and have to reboot).
out of 14 user reviews
Best Laptop Ever
Pros: Display, features, stability, memory utilization, ruggedness, weight
Cons: battery life, portability
This HP Compaq 6910p is feature rich. I love the bluetooth, wireless, finger print reader, card readers and more. It is very stable. As an IT consultant this is the first machine I have been able to load and run everyting I could throw at it without having to constantly run MSCONFIG to maximize processing and memory power.
I am only disappointd in the battery life - just ordered an extended battery - and going from home network to docking station at the office. Sometimes I have to play with the setting so my dual displays on the docking station come up properly. Otherwise, I highl;y recommend this product to anyone in need of a business class laptop.
Charlie O'Hearn
http://www.plexuscommunications.com
out of 14 user reviews
EXCELLENT MACHINE
Pros: Readily downgrade, nearly full automatic, to XP Pro. +++++ Runs great, trouble free, good battery life with plus battery available if needed. I have been using the machine regularly for over a month and it is powerful and fast.
Cons: Screen washes out, as most do in sunlight, without power supply attached. Not a big deal.
BTW, I PURCHASED TWO OTHER CONSUMER HP LAPTOPS WITHIN THE LAST 3 MONTHS, BOTH WITH VISTA AND HATED THEM. HP WOULD NOT HELP ME DOWNGRADE TO XP PRO. THIS DOWNGRADE WAS NEARLY AUTOMATIC. :-)
out of 14 user reviews
An atrocious display lets down an otherwise good laptop
Pros: It's a normal, fine laptop, not fancy but nothing missing. They keyboard is of a great size and the keys are comfortable to use.
Cons: The screen is awful. There is little contrast, it's hard to see writing, and you constantly have the feeling you're looking at it from an obscure angle.
out of 14 user reviews
Poor display, highly ineffective wireless
Pros: - not too heavy
- keys are nice to feel
- option between trackpad and those ibm-styled track knobs
- decent graphics card
- SD, MMC & SC card readers
Cons: - ineffective wireless - does not work over longer distances where other laptops work
- dust and dirt magnet
- nothing great to look at
- display is quite poor with unclear screen colors and low brightness
- no power-saving options
- no camera
An even bigger disappointment was the wireless which refused to detect my wirless's signal at "Low".
All in all, just enough to make do, I suppose.
out of 14 user reviews
I love the laptop, but not the maintenance
Pros: great laptop
Cons: the charger
out of 14 user reviews
Great work notebook
Pros: light, fast (even on a slow network), fingerprint reader, good customizable RAM.
Cons: small 14.1 screen
out of 14 user reviews
Excellent for the purpose
Pros: XP Option, Packed with feartues in small size, Good for traveling business
Cons: Battery life, only on readily accessible memory slot. Slight Heat issue
The 6910P Is a great machine for business travel. It's got everything you want/need, in a very compact footprint. Also it comes with the XP Option. Stay away from VISTA, Especially for business.
CONS: I have the 2.2GHz processor and it DOES NOT overheat but does run a bit warm. It's to be expected. If you don't need/want that much processor power, go with a lesser GHz unit and it may not run so warm. Also only one DIMM Slot (Memory slot) is accessible from the bottom. The other is inside the chassis. Makes memory expansion a bit tight. Mine currently has 3 gigs ram and is more than enough.
Good computer!
out of 14 user reviews
I do like the laptop however the service is just as important.
Pros: Nice casing and screen, user friendly key board.
Cons: Terrible customer service, unit runs hot very quickly without much work being done.
Updated on Apr 30, 2011hope you are still enljoying this laptop ... its been a headache for me and my crew from day one
out of 14 user reviews
A great notebook!
Pros: Light, great screen, fast, great placement of buttons, fingerprint reader, ect.
Cons: Every device that I have plugged in (mouse, keyboard....) has had to download a driver, but it worked fine after.
out of 14 user reviews
Non ergonomic, heavy, decent performance
Pros: decent perf, not too expensive
Cons: non ergonimic; heavy
out of 14 user reviews
Better flexibility and perrformance for less than competitors
Pros: Good performance, solid construction, plenty of ports, enterprise level security and management features, comfortable keyboard, adding the optional ultra battery provides best-in-class battery life
Cons: Awkward fingerprint reader placement, average single-battery life, heavy with ultra battery
out of 14 user reviews
Very pleased with both design and performance
Pros: Attractive design; Easy to use; Fast; QUIET!!
Cons: Touch sensitive volume could be designed better
out of 14 user reviews
Great Buy, Excellent Build
Pros: Inexpensive, Great build quality, Good Keyboard Layout, Full Enterprise Security
Cons: Battery life could be a bit better
It also looks a lot better, and doesn't have an odd battery jutting out the front to get its decent battery life.
It is very quiet, even when pushed to full utilization, and is quite fast for such a light laptop.
The keyboard is a joy to use, and I never find myself stumbling to look for a key.
As with the nc6400, its fingerprint reader is placed in a strange spot where your palm will sometimes rest, but otherwise works very well.
The new touch sensitive quick launch keys... take a little bit of getting used to, especially the volume control, but its only a minor flaw.
If you don't mind how your computer looks, works, or feels get the Dell; otherwise go for the T61 or 6910p.
