HP 8760w - Any reason I shouldn't?

I have a 17" Acer laptop and I find that the battery life is horrible. It's also heavy. I call it my portable computer because it only goes about an hour on batteries and is usually plugged in. It is very portable but a laptop in name only. If you worked with it on your lap your goolies would turn into waffles in short order.

You say that these issues are not important, and I was the same way until I really needed to do some remote work. It's still way easier than moving a desktop but I found a good portable power conditioner was essential when using it in clubs.

Thanks for the replies.....

John. Battery life really isn't important because of the way I use a laptop. I've had this one for 4 years and I think it has run on battery perhaps twice in that time, then only briefly. I basically use it as a portable desktop.

The main reason I'm after a replacement is the screen resolution. I'm getting more and more deadlines to hit with video work and much of the time I'm away from my studio. I can't capture at the resolution I want so that's the most important thing. It'll allow me to work far more often rather than having to plan quite as far in front.

The FW is really secondary because if the worst comes to the worst my current laptop is capable of tracking with my ZED but of course it'd be far easier to use just one.

GS - I've had several Toshiba's (this one is) and I've never had a problem other than their hard drives which fail far more than any other brand I've come across but that's an easy fix. If they had something suitable I'd have it without a doubt but AFAIK they don't.

Large screens with the resolution I want seem hard to come by, FW even harder and express slots almost as bad. It seems it's HP, Dell or nothing - seeing as nothing isn't an option it's the HP or Dell. I haven't had any experience with HP for at least 15 years when I had a desktop. I have had a couple of Dells also a while ago (10 years or so) and wasn't impressed but I do understand that things/brands change.

I looked at a cube but I may as well drag the desktop around if I've got to start carrying a monitor around.

Thanks for the comp on the videos - I guess I could do one on Studio One but seeing as I wouldn't have a clue about using it I doubt it'd be very informative.

If you go with HP, 

Make sure you keep the bottom clear and give it plenty of room to breathe so the Video Chipset doesnt fail on you.

Somewhat of a easy fix if it does, but then its not 100% that it will come back either.  Mine is going on a couple months fine after one of the fixes but its time consuming to do. 

I was really surprised at how many videos are put out on Youtube on it and how to fix.

Any reason I shouldn't?

It's an HP.


I've had, and friends have had, bad experience with HP.
Granted they were big box store machines. Don't know if you get anything better direct from HP.
FWIW.

I see more Dell Laptop users than I do HP Laptop users on various recording forums.  I don't know what Dell offers vs what you need.

Thanks for the input Jim. I've bit the bullet and ordered the HP. I've read lots of good reviews of it (from users as well as 'reviewers') but very little on the Dell hence my decision.

Low latency isn't particularly important regarding the audio side as I'll be monitoring direct from my ZED-R16. For what little soft synth work I do I can do that in my studio as will the mixing stage. If it turns out I can do that on the HP that'll be a bonus but not essential.

I'm getting more and more live recording work. My battered old Toshiba Satellite works perfectly well for that purpose *if* for some reason the HP won't but of course it'd be easier if it does work.

Audio with firewire on laptops seems pretty much a dead end but I never envisaged recording live away from the studio when I bought the ZED which is great on my DAW. Not that it is important to me but it'll run an ASIO buffer of 64 samples with a reported roundtrip latency of 5.8 msecs. It'll run all day like that without problems/drop out etc. As I monitor through the board though it's pretty much irrelevant to me.

My main use for the laptop will be for screen captures for video work which is why I need the higher resolution. I can also do much of that in the studio but it'll be extremely convienent not to mention more efficient for me, if I can carry on with the video side of things while I'm away from the studio, and for video the HP gets rated quite well.

I'll post my findings on how it works when I get it set up. It may be helpful for someone else. I've found very little audio based information for it so any I add may be a bonus for others.

Thanks again to everyone for all the input and comments.

Thanks for the heads up Karl