CNET Asia Review

The retro styling of HP Compaq's business-oriented nc8000 notebooks may not appeal to everyone, but the speed, endurance, and sturdiness of these laptops certainly will. The nc8000 series also adds firmware security to keep out the bad guys and keep prying eyes away from your data. If you can get by the less-than-stellar pointer controls, you'll love the keyboard and the overall experience. We think the nc8000 is on a par with our other Editors' Choice, the IBM ThinkPad T41.

Design

	A wide array of connectors line the back of the nc8000.

With a slightly retro, art-deco look and rather ponderous, 325 by 274 by 40 mm (W/D/H) dimensions, the HP Compaq nc8000 desktop replacement may strike some as chunky--but only before they sit down to use one. The impression of stubbiness will quickly morph into an appreciation for this solid-feeling notebook. The deck area supporting the keyboard, which exhibits too much flex on many notebooks, feels firm on the nc8000. In turn, this makes typing on the full-size, nicely laid-out keyboard feel just like you're sitting in front of a desktop PC. But as solid as it feels, the nc8000 still weighs only about 3.4kg with the optical drive and the AC adapter.

Perhaps after spending so much time creating a superior typing experience, HP Compaq's designers ran out of time. Whatever the reason, the unit's pointer controls are a disappointment. The touchpad is slugglish, and the eraser head requires too much pressure; the top pair of selection buttons feels flimsy; and the bottom pair of selection buttons is stiff.

	A modular drive bay graces the nc8000's left side.

On the plus side, the nc8000 ran nearly cool to the touch in our hands, with only a little heat emanating from the middle of the bottom panel during our full-on graphics testing on AC power. The nc8000 also has above-average sound, with the front-edge-mounted speakers producing a surprising amount of volume and lower midrange. It's no boombox, but it's better than average for a notebook, and it's loud enough for tabletop presentations.

The standard array of connectors lines the edges of the nc8000: on the front, audio mute and volume controls; on the right, audio in/out jacks, dual Type II PC Card slots, an SD memory slot, and a modem port; on the left, a modular drive bay; and on the back, Gigabit Ethernet, VGA, parallel, PS/2, serial, AC jack, mini-FireWire, and USB 2.0 ports.

The nc8000 also features HP Protect Tools Embedded Security, a rather lengthy moniker for a security solution that includes firmware, software, and smart-card components. Advanced user verification and file encryption are its two main features.

The nc8000 comes preloaded with Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 for its operating system. The software utility bundle includes HP Compaq's Insight Management Agents, Intelligent Manageability Diagnostics for Windows, a plethora of user documentation, and Adobe's Acrobat Reader for displaying the system documentation.

Performance
The HP nc8000 came in second place in mobile performance in our latest roundup of mainstream systems. Hot on its heels was the Toshiba Tecra M1, which came in just two points lower than the HP nc8000. The IBM ThinkPad T41 was the winner, scoring nine points higher than the HP nc8000. In real-world terms, however, this is a very small difference that wouldn't translate to any noticeable performance gap between the two, since they both scored high. The HP nc8000 definitely has what it takes to run office and content-creation apps at a fast clip.

Battery Life
The HP Compaq nc8000 is a top performer in battery life. Thanks to its 14.4V, 4,400mAh (63WHr) battery, the system lasted much more than five hours, delivering one of the best single battery scores from a mainstream system we've seen. Neither the IBM ThinkPad X31, with its 10.8V, 3,600mAh (39WHr) battery, nor the Toshiba Tecra M1 could stand up to the power of the HP Compaq nc8000's cell. For a mainstream notebook--or any notebook for that matter--this great battery life is something most users will appreciate.

Service And Support
The nc8000 comes with a limited three-year system-pick-up warranty, though there's no promised turnaround time. HP Compaq also offers a wide array of service plan options that includes everything but an offer to hold your hand crossing the street. Some of the options are onsite service, next-day exchange, 4-hour same-day service, and 2-hour service on software issues. Toll-free, 24/7 hardware technical support is standard and free for the duration of the warranty. (Note: The warranty options stated are for the US market only. Please check with your local distributor for more information.)

The paper documentation consists of a short but informative start-up guide, an errataum sheet saying that the USB 2.0 bus doesn't supply bus power as the manual states, and a copy of the warranty. Additional and more thorough documentation is provided on CD. HP Compaq's online support is both copious and diverse, including e-mail to a technical-support agent, downloadable PDF manuals, firmware updates, and FAQs.

To find out more about how this product's warranty really stacks up and what you should look for in terms of service and support, take a look at CNET's hardware warranty explainer.

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HP Compaq Business Notebook nc8000 (Pentium M 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM)

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