The good: Sturdy construction; strong components for the price; choice of glossy or antiglare display; integrated HSDPA wireless option; Trusted Platform Module and SmartCard slot; great-sounding speakers.

The bad: Average performance; somewhat heavy travel weight, thanks to AC adapter; lacks 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.

Read full review of the HP Compaq 6910p »

By Michelle Thatcher
Aug 24, 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 HSDPA--at a significantly lower price. The Compaq 6910p also undercuts the similarly configured Dell Latitude D630, making it a good choice for corporate users who need the latest business-friendly features at an affordable price.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Please check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design
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 2.3kg 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 0.5kg 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 touchpad, 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.

Features
The well-thought-out design extends to the laptop's 14.1-inch widescreen 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 1,280 x 800, text and icons looked crisp without being too small, and video looked sharp, though the color was somewhat washed out on our display.

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 SmartCard slot and an internal 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 HSDPA radios. 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.

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