HP tror enkelte batterier for bærbare, produsert mellom august 2007 og mai 2008, er farlige. De kan overopphetes og begynne å brenne, skriver selskapet.

Les også: Brannrisiko for Fujitsu-bærbare

Nå kaller de tilbake disse batteriene, og gir deg et gratis erstatningsbatteri.

- Vi gir en proaktiv advarsel i denne saken og er klare for å erstatte alle verifiserte batteripakker, skriver selskapet.

Utvidet liste
Det er de bærbare modellene HP Pavillion, Compaq Presario og HP Compwaq som skal være berørt.

Tilbakekallingen gjelder imidlertid ikke bare batterier som følger med de berørte bærbare maskinene, men også batterier som er solgt som tilbehør.

Selskapet har et eget program for å tilbakekalle batterier like Hp Omnibook XE3 battery, Hp 346970-001 battery, Hp HSTNN-DB02 battery, Hp HSTNN-UB02 battery, Hp DP390A battery, Compaq PP2100 battery, Compaq Presario R3000 battery(Compaq r3000 battery), Compaq Presario X6000 battery, Hp 367759-001 battery, Hp 319411-001 battery, og har nå utvidet listen over hvilke modeller som er berørt av feilen.

Seriekode
De som eier en HP Pavilion dv2000, dv2500, dv2700, dv6000, dv6500, dv6700, dv9000, dv9500, dv9700, dx6000, dx6500, dx6700, G6000, G7000 - eller en Compaq Presario A900, C700, F500, F700, V3000, V3500, V3700, V6000, V6500, V6700 – eller en HP Compaq 6510b, 6515b, 5710b, 6710s, 6715b, 6715s, 6720s, bør nå sjekke batteriene sine.

Seriekoden du bruker for å sjekke om ditt batteri er berørt, finner du på HPs nettside. Folk verden rundt kan ha slike batterier, ifølge selskapet.

Les også: Apple tilbakekaller Iphone-ladere

HP, ved produkt- og markedssjef Arnold Dekker, bekrefter at bærbare med farlige batterier også kan ha blitt solgt her til lands.

- Det kan absolutt hende. Derfor oppfordrer vi alle våre kunder til å sjekke om deres maskiner er med i batteriutskiftingsprogrammet, sier han.

HP har inngått en avtale med Boston-Power, og lanserer nå et nytt batteri for sine bærbare maskiner.

Med det nye batteriet, som er basert på Sonata Lithium-ion-teknologi, kan du lade opp maskinen over tusen ganger før batterikapasiteten begynner å gå nedover.

Batteriene skal også bli nærmest fulladet (90 prosent) på rundt 90 minutter.

Greenpeace har tidligere gått hardt ut mot HP, men selskapet mener nå at de har blitt grønnere.

LES OGSÅ: Greenpeace hardt ut mot HP

Ettersom batteriene such as HP HSTNN-LB11 Battery, HP HSTNN-DB06 Battery, HP HSTNN-DB11 Battery, HP HSTNN-OB06 Battery, HP HSTNN-UB11 Battery, HP 398876-001 Battery, HP Pavilion dv4 Battery, HP Pavilion dv5 Battery, HP Pavilion G70 Battery, HP Pavilion G60 Battery, Hp F4098A battery tåler flere ladninger, kan man beholde dem lenger og dermed være snillere mot naturen, mener HP.

- Denne avtalen er et stort skritt fremover for å gjøre Sonata-teknologien mer populær, sier administrerende direktør Christina Lampe-Onnerud i Boston-Power.

Produktet er tilgjengelig som ekstrautstyr i Europa fra og med i morgen, 1. september, og skal i første omgang støtte HP EliteBook 6930p og HP Compaqs 6730b, 6530b og 6735b Notebook.

SYDNEY -(MarketWatch)- A self-combusting iPhone 4 that became red hot on an Australian commercial aircraft and had to be extinguished by a flight attendant has sparked a public investigation, safety authorities confirmed Tuesday.

Small Australian carrier Regional Express said in a statement that the incident on a service flying to Sydney from northern New South Wales state has been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, or ATSB, and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, CASA, for investigation and directions.

The incident isn't unique. Rare occurrences of overheating in isolated Apple Inc. /quotes/zigman/68270/quotes/nls/aapl AAPL +1.50% products have been reported before, but such experiences haven't been confined to that company's products or to smart phones. In a well-documented case, Dell in 2006 recalled millions of lithium batteries such as Dell BATDW00L Battery, Dell 1X793 Battery, Dell BAT1194 Battery, Dell Precision M20 Battery, dell F5635 battery, dell YF976 battery, dell C5974 battery, dell U4873 battery, Dell Inspiron XPS M170 Battery, Dell Inspiron XPS M1710 Battery after they caused its laptops to catch fire and Hewlett-Packard had similar problems with batteries in some of its laptops in 2009.

A spokesman for CASA confirmed the incident has been referred to the regulator and to the ATSB for investigation. "There's nothing for us to do at this stage, beyond looking at the outcome of the ATSB's investigation," the CASA spokesman said.

"We look forward to working with the officials investigating this incident," said a spokeswoman for Apple in Australia.

The ATSB said on its website that its investigation of the incident, which it said involved fumes, smoke and fire, is active and continuing.

Regional Express said that a passengers' s phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow shortly after the plane landed in Sydney.

"In accordance with company standard safety procedures, the flight attendant carried out recovery actions immediately and the red glow was extinguished successfully," the airline said, adding that nobody was hurt.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Dell Inc. /quotes/zigman/27952/quotes/nls/dell DELL +0.18% on Friday plans to unveil in China its latest aluminum-clad thin notebook for the holidays with a design reminiscent of Apple Inc.'s /quotes/zigman/68270/quotes/nls/aapl AAPL +1.50% laptops that have been popular with consumers.

The new laptop, dubbed the XPS 14z, is a follow-up to the company's 15-inch notebooks and includes a screen that measures 14 inches diagonally while packed into a 13-inch form factor. The computer is less than an inch thick and has about seven hours of battery like dell Vostro 1510 battery, dell T112C battery, dell Vostro 1310 battery, dell Vostro 1520 battery, dell Vostro 2510 battery, dell Inspiron 1501 battery, dell Vostro 1000 battery, dell T116C battery, dell Y022C battery, dell Latitude E6400 battery life with normal use.

What's likely to capture customers' attention, however, is similarities with Apple's MacBook Pro line of laptops, which share similar metallic coloring with high-end screens, backlit chiclet keyboards and a large track pad.

But Dell says it's not trying to follow Apple's lead or create a so-called "ultrabook" being pushed by chip giant Intel Corp. /quotes/zigman/20392/quotes/nls/intc INTC +0.50% . Instead, Dell is seeking to offer what it says is the "world's thinnest fully featured laptop," first targeting the fast-growing Chinese PC market and appealing to high-end customers.

"This is a high-performance machine that can do things ultrabook-type products would struggle to do," said Ed Boyd, vice president of Dell's experience and design group. "When you compare this to other products in the market, there's nothing in the size envelope we're delivering with these performance capabilities."

The latest device comes with high-end computing and graphics processors from Intel and Nvidia Corp. /quotes/zigman/80597/quotes/nls/nvda NVDA -0.14% , and includes an optical drive, something not seen in many other thin laptops.

The company hasn't announced pricing plans, but the lowest configuration of the XPS 14z will likely be priced above $999. It will be available first in China--which is starting its Golden week holiday and which Dell says is the largest market for 14-inch laptops--and then roll out to the rest of the world in time for the holidays.

Dell's new laptop, the core of its holiday strategy, comes as the company has renewed its efforts to gain traction with customers willing to purchase higher-priced computers. The company's focus already has begun to pay off, with sales volumes of its XPS laptop brand doubling in the past year.

In Dell's most recently reported second quarter, which ended July 29, the company said sales of its consumer laptops and desktops grew 4% as the division pulled an operating profit of $73 million, compared to an operating loss of $21 million the same time a year ago.

To further goose sales, the company also has released a new ad campaign and a mobile app that helps customers purchase computers and accessories on Google Inc. /quotes/zigman/93888/quotes/nls/goog GOOG -0.45% Android-based smartphones.

Dell still faces challenges, however. Numerous tech executives have said consumer sales look weak heading into the holiday shopping season as economic concerns remain. Worries also have emerged about slowing public sector and enterprise spending, as well as tablets cutting into traditional PC sales.

Dell said the environment would normally push sales prices lower to entice consumers, but it hopes to attract shoppers interested in higher-end models that are usually sold for a premium.

"If you put a great product together that delivers on customers' needs but costs more, a lot of them are willing to pay for that," said Sam Burd, vice president of Dell's consumer and small- and medium- business product group.

It’s easy to forget that most people who buy new laptops buy inexpensive ones. Pay attention the next time you visit the house of a technically un-inclined friend — or even visit a coffee shop — and you’ll see plenty of Dell Inspirons, HP Pavilions and Lenovo IdeaPads. They’re not as hip or cool as a MacBook Pro, nor do they carry the geek cred of a rugged ThinkPad. But they are cheap, and they are quick, so they sell.

Enter the Inspiron 14z. The name itself is interesting, a mashup for Dell’s entry-level brand and the “z” designation, which is reserved only for the company’s thinnest and lightest designs. As far as we can remember, the Inspirion 14z is the first laptop to be badged with both bits of marketing lingo.

The result is a laptop with battery such as dell Precision M6400 battery, dell HW905 battery, dell XPS M2010 battery, dell Latitude E5400 battery, dell Latitude E5500 battery, dell Latitude XT battery, dell Inspiron 1410 battery, dell Vostro A860 battery, dell Vostro 1014 battery, dell Inspiron 5000 battery that aims to be the everyman’s thin-and-light. You can buy one for as little as $549 on Dell’s website and still enjoy a chassis that’s under an inch thick. Though that is the base model, it still comes equipped with an Intel Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM.

Our review unit arrived with modest upgrades, including a Core i5-2430M processor and two extra gigabytes of RAM, bringing the total to six. Graphics power is provided by Intel HD 3000 graphics, the only option on the 14z. These upgrades bump the price up to $649, but that is still extremely reasonable. Let’s see if this is a budget hero.

Despite the affordable price, the Inspiron 14z comes clad in a metallic finish that covers both the display lid and most of the interior. The metal, along with our unit’s Espresso Black paint, provides a refined, understated aesthetic. Those looking for a more exciting exterior can buy the laptop in Fire Red instead. Both coats are only semi-gloss, so fingerprints aren’t a serious issue no matter your choice.

Look closely at this laptop and you’ll find a lot of unexpected details. The chrome trim around the keyboard is just enough to add some class, but not so bold that it becomes tacky. Around the display, you’ll find a bezel that is matte instead of glossy, which reduces the perception of display reflections. The hinges are stiff and every surface feels resistant to minor bumps and bruises. Like the HP g6, the Inspiron 14z is an example of a budget laptop that manages to offer build quality on par with laptops costing hundreds more.

Not everything about the design is perfect, however. Dell’s engineers — or perhaps the marketing team — apparently thought the laptop’s ports marred its smooth design. To fix this, they added flaps over all the connectivity options. Opening them is difficult and the plastic used to attach them feels flimsy.

Once you remove the annoying covers you’ll find two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, HDMI, DisplayPort, a combo headphone/microphone jack and the obligatory card reader. This is a solid, though not exceptional, array of connectivity for a consumer laptop.

You don’t have to use the Inspiron 14z long to fall in love with its keyboard. It isn’t the best we’ve ever touched, but it provides reasonable key travel and comfortable, rounded keys with large gaps between them. The layout makes excellent use of available space and provides plenty of palmrest space, as well. Typing on this laptop is just as easy as typing on a larger 15.6” machine.

Our only complaint centers on keyboard flex. While the chassis of this laptop is robust, a fair amount of squish can be produced by pressing with moderate pressure on the center of the keyboard. We didn’t find it distracting, but some potential buyers might disagree.

Below the excellent keyboard is a not-so-excellent touchpad that appears to have been designed by Dell on opposite day. It’s as small as the keyboard is large, the buttons offer next to no travel, and there’s no texture or detail added to give it a premium feel. Don’t misunderstand us — it’s perfectly usable. You just won’t enjoy the experience.

Our review unit arrived with a 1366×768 display. Dell has a reputation for offering high resolution options, but the 14z doesn’t have an option for packing in more pixels. Gloss is the order of the day and makes using this laptop in bright rooms difficult. The backlight isn’t strong enough to overcome strong reflections.

Glossy displays aren’t without their perks, however. When playing movies and games this laptop performed well, offering a good visual punch. Test images revealed that black level performance is only average, but the gradient banding test image was fairly smooth. It’s unlikely you’ll have any complaints so long as you stay away from serious image editing and movies with numerous dark scenes.

Audio quality doesn’t impress. There is enough volume for movies, podcasts and other relatively simple audio sources, but complex music quickly overwhelms the laptop’s speakers, resulting in mild distortion. Some bass sounds disappear entirely. If you value your audio experience, you’d best pack a pair of headphones.

Though thin, the 14z isn’t ridiculously slim, and this seems to have a positive impact on its fan. Normally it is quiet, making no sound that would be notable above the ambient noise of a typical apartment. Stressing it ramps up the fan significantly, but still keeps the volume within tolerable limits.

Heat generation is more than tolerable at low load. The bottom of the laptop is no warmer than the high 80s, while the keyboard and palmrest hover just above room temperature. Stressing the processor produced almost no rise in temperature. The hottest portion of the laptop, the bottom near the left-side exhaust vent, rose to just over 89 degrees.

What this translates to is a laptop that is generally great for lap use. Don’t underestimate the value of this. Many laptops fail to remain cool enough during heavy load to be comfortable for use on anything besides a desk or some other flat surface.

What is going on with Dell? For more than a decade, it has been trying to break into almost every major electronics market, but it has less than nothing to show for it. With the PC market rapidly changing, Dell is now in danger of falling far behind.

A quick visit to Dell’s Web site and you may feel like you’ve been transported back in time. Though virtually every PC maker has long begun selling smartphones and tablets, the only items you’ll find on Dell.com are desktops, laptops, and supplies. That’s it. (There is actually one page that still has the name “Tablet” on it, but it looks like the company may have just missed a spot.) Despite being one of the top three PC makers in the world, Dell has continually struggled to break into emerging markets.

In December, Dell stopped selling its last tablet. And yesterday, PC World discovered that the company has finally discontinued sales of its Venue and Venue Pro Windows Phones. This is especially sad news because a little more than a year ago, Dell spent millions to move 25,000 of its employees from BlackBerry to the Venue Pro. Now those 25,000 employees are eight months from needing to renew their phone contracts, but it doesn’t look with battery like dell J399N battery, dell Inspiron 1440 battery, dell Inspiron 1750 battery, dell Inspiron 17 battery, dell Inspiron 14 battery, Dell RM791 Battery, Dell Studio 1735 Battery, Dell Studio 17 Battery, Dell Studio 1737 Battery, Dell MT342 Battery Dell will have any phones of its own to give to its employees this time around. The company claims that rumors of it exiting the smartphone business are “not true,” but can you really say you’re in the smartphone business if you are not selling any devices? Hmm.

I could list off the problems with the Venue Pro and Streak tablets, but one look at them and you can probably tell that these were not hit devices. There is little that’s horribly wrong with either, but like many of Dell’s non-PC efforts, they featured puzzling hardware decisions, weren’t branded well, lacked proper promotion, and their market timing was not ideal. Dell attempted to release a 5-inch phone/tablet at a time when all devices had 3.7-inch screens. Yet, if it had waited a year (and created better looking, more comfortable hardware) things may have been different. Dell created plenty of flop devices before Android and Windows Phone came about too. Do you remember some of the Dell Windows Phones or MP3 players? Sadly, I do.

All of Dell’s core competencies making PCs have failed it in other markets. The company rose to fame in the 1990s and early 2000s by letting big companies and everyday people completely customize their PCs and build them to order, at cheap prices. During that era, PCs were seen as mostly a collection of commodities shoved into a box. Everything was a PC and it all ran Windows, unless, of course, it happened to be a Mac. Dell had a fast, organized structure, didn’t spend much money at all on R&D (1.5 percent of its budget), and millions of people liked its reliable warranties and branding advertisements, like the famous “Dude, you’re getting a Dell!” It also targeted businesses quite effectively. Dell was a well-oiled machine for PCs and laptops.

I even recall a television interview with CEO Michael Dell, where he was asked what Dell might do if the very nature of computers completely changed. He didn’t have a great answer, but even I thought the question was silly way back then. In 2003, CNET asked him why Dell spent so little on R&D. His answer:

“We’ve made products easier to use and service. We’ve innovated in time-to-market. Who had the first color notebook powered by batteries? It’s Dell. There’s this misnomer that companies that spend more on R&D are somehow better and more successful, but there isn’t a lot of data to support that.”

“If you look at innovation, it doesn’t just occur in the lab. Comdex is the place you go to show things that nobody knows what to do with, because they haven’t found a market yet. We don’t develop things nobody knows what to do with. We develop things people want to buy and buy in volume. Innovation can occur in supply chain and logistics, manufacturing and distribution, and sales and service. We’ve made computing products far more affordable. If you look at the cost of computers 20 years ago versus now, we’ve caused the whole industry to get more efficient.”

Indeed, Dell did innovate its supply chain to benefit consumers. Unfortunately, it’s supply chain wasn’t ready for Apple, nor was its structure.

When the iPod came out, Dell found itself in a new world. The iPod featured innovative new software, hardware, and control mechanisms and created an MP3 player market out of almost nothing. Dell attempted to compete with the iPod beginning in 2003 with its Digital Jukebox and Pocket DJ devices, but failed to capture more than 3 percent of the market by 2006, when it decided to call it quits.

With the iPod, Apple changed the game by simplifying it. Unlike PCs, nobody wanted to build their own MP3 player, part by part — they wanted an iPod. Apple invested in software and hardware, tightly pairing its devices with its own software, and before long, an innovative digital storefront called iTunes. Dell’s offerings could not compete in almost any meaningful way and were seen as derivative attempts to copy the iPod. This has essentially been Dell’s problem ever since.

In time, Apple began creating new types of supply chain arrangements so that it could offer new gadgets at even lower prices. It did this by taking big risks on its own new products and spending billions to buy up key components at low prices. Without comparable products or enough spending, creativity, or vision to know where things were headed, Dell has been watching the world change around it for more than half a decade. The iPod Touch came around, then the iPhone, then the iPad, but Dell has never had competent enough products to compete with these offerings. It’s offerings in other markets like HDTVs have also failed to make a mark.

Worse, its once dominant supply chain, which helped it undercut the competition in the 1990s seems to have fallen on its face. None of its non-PC devices have been able to keep up with Apple’s pricing without skimping in some way. And thanks to Apple’s success, consumers have become conscious of build quality as well. If a product doesn’t look as good as Apple’s, or look almost as good but cost drastically less, it faces an uphill battle.

Apple has completely transformed the attitude of consumers toward gadgets and the tactics and approaches device makers use to mass manufacture new creations. Unfortunately, these new attitudes have yet to benefit almost any company other than Apple. Dell continues to excel at selling PCs, but hasn’t been able to create a single hit smartphone or tablet. With PCs and tablets quickly merging, how will it get out of this mess?

Dell hopes part of the answer lies in the cloud. Dell wants to rake in cash by offering a full, end-to-end suite of services for large corporate clients. In a perfect world, computer sales may even become a secondary goal. But few things are perfect. Dell faces stiff competition from other PC makers and an army of companies, including Microsoft and Google, who all want a chunk of the business cloud.

Like other PC makers, Dell is also pinning its hopes on the company that put it in business to begin with: Microsoft. The company is already planning Windows 8 laptops, desktops, and tablets. It hasn’t announced anything specific yet, but its likely that it may have products ready for the presumed October launch of Windows 8. But this is far from an assured success. It remains to be seen exactly how much clout Windows still has in the market, which is quickly filling with new operating systems, like Android and iOS.

It may also depend on how consumers perceive Windows 8 devices. If they perceive them as the next PCs, then Dell’s brand name may hold some weight, but if they see them in the same way as almost all other consumer electronics have begun being viewed, then Dell may have a rough road ahead.

By being a good alternative to iOS that’s available to all manufacturers, Google’s Android OS already gave Dell one big shot at repeating its PC success, but Dell failed to capitalize. It’s hard to say if a re-imagined Windows will help it.

Dell’s best days may be over. Big companies rarely disappear or die overnight, but tech companies that can’t keep up with the times often become things of the past. If Dell can’t find a way to succeed in a market driven by Apple, then it’s going to find itself falling down the same road RIM is on and Nokia is desperately trying to escape from. Dell needs to show off some kickass devices or its days may be numbered.

Today's desktop computers provide a wide range of peripheral ports for use with external devices. Older computers and some lower priced computers may lack certain interface ports. If you happen to have a device but not the right type of peripheral connector on your desktop PC, check out this list of some of the best I/O add-on cards for desktop PCs with either the PCI-Express or PCI expansion slots.

If you are going to be adding FireWire and USB ports to a desktop system, why not add both? This PCI-Express x1 card from ByteCC is very affordable and provides three USB 2.0 ports and two FireWire 400 ports to a desktop PC with battery such as dell Inspiron 5150 battery, dell Inspiron 1150 battery, Dell 312-0660 Battery, Dell XPS M1530 Battery, Dell TK330 Battery, Dell RU030 Battery, Dell XT828 Battery, Dell 310-5351 Battery, Dell G5226 Battery, Dell C5340 Battery. Also included with the card is a FireWire 400 6-pin to FireWire 400 4-pin adapter in case your device or cable uses the 4-pin instead of 6-pin connectors. Prices are very reasonable around $40.

If you have to add USB ports to a desktop computer system, why not add in an adapter card with the latest and greater USB format, SuperSpeed or USB 3.0. It provides up to 10x the speed of USB 2.0 with compatible SuperSpeed USB devices. Of course, the ports are fully backward compatible if you have existing USB 2.0 and 1.0 devices. Priced around $50.

FireWire is not as relevant as it used to be as more and more digital camcorders move to flash memory and away from tape. If you need FireWire, you are probably using it for large scale video work. In this case, the StarTech 3 Port 1394 card is extremely useful. It actually features two FireWire 800 and One FireWire 400 giving it support for all the current FireWire interface types. Priced around $60 to $70.

Every desktop on the market now uses Serial ATA for the internal drive interfaces. While eSATA ports are more common now, many still do not include this high speed external drive interface. This is a must have if you want the absolute fastest external storage that is comparable to an internal drive. The SIIG eSATA II i/e card provides full support for one eSATA device as well as an internal SATA port if you happen to need another for an internal drive. Priced around $60.

If you happen to have an older PC that does not have any PCI-Express slots, PCI cards are your only route for adding peripheral ports. The best card for those that need both FireWire and USB 2.0 ports is the SIIG FireWire 800+ Hi-Speed USB Combo. The card supports a total of two FireWire 800 connectors, one older FireWire 400 port plus five USB 2.0 (two external, three internal) ports. That's more than enough ports for many desktop systems for external peripherals.

Older computers that rely on the IDE or ATA drive interface are extremely limited for storage upgrades these days. All of the hard drive development has moved to SATA and finding high capacity IDE drives is extremely difficult. Due to the constraints of the PCI bus, only the original SATA 1.0 spec with its 150GB/s speed are support. If you need to add SATA to an older PC, the StarTech 1 port eSATA + 1 port SATA is a great card. It provides the ability to use both an internal SATA drive and use newer eSATA external drives. Priced around $30.

HP's ZR24w is a very affordable 24-inch display for those looking to do some professional graphics work. For a base price of $425, the display does a great job with a bright display with a very wide color gamut. Unlike consumer screens the anti-glare coating makes it work in a wider range of environments. About the only real issue is the lack of an HDMI input connector that is common to many consumer laptops and desktop graphics cards.

The HP ZR24w is the company's new middle sized performance computer display. The 24-inch panel uses a new S-IPS panel technology that provides it with a very wide color gamut and wider viewing angles. Rather than using the more common 16:9 with battery like Dell RD859 Battery, Dell PR002 Battery, Dell UD260 Battery, Dell PD942 Battery, Dell Latitude 131L Battery, Dell 8F871 Battery, Dell 2G218 Battery, Dell Winbook N4 Battery, Dell F0590A01 Battery, Dell 7T670 Battery aspect ratios, the panel uses the more traditional 16:10 aspect ratio for wide screen computer displays. This translates into a 1920x1200 native resolution that gives it a slight edge on most consumer oriented 24-inch displays.

While most consumer grade displays use a glossy coating to provide extremely vibrant colors, the ZR24w uses an anti-glare coating. This coating does a good job of balancing color and preventing glare or reflections. This is very important for anyone that is working with a high level of color accuracy for their work.

As with many monitors now, the ZR24w is extremely bright right out of the box. The colors are very vibrant with this level of brightness but it does cause the blacks to get a bit washed out and gray. The best balance of color and black levels was noticed when the brightness was shifted down to the 70 setting instead of 90.

In terms of color, the ZR24w does a very good job right out of the box but anyone who is doing serious graphics work will want to use a color calibration tool. In my testing with one, it shifted the colors to have more red levels and less green. This may not mean much to a consumer but it is important for any graphics professional to consider.

The biggest downside to the ZR24w is the connectors. It comes with three inputs via DisplayPort, DVI and VGA. One major interface that is missing is HDMI. This is a very common interface now for laptops and even desktops. It is certainly more prevalent than DisplayPort and it would be nice to see this included.

HP notes that the ZR24w is very green with a 85-precent efficient power adapter and 25% consumer waste. In my testing, the monitor consumers roughly 70 watts from the wall at full brightness and only 2 watts in sleep mode. The casing of the LCD panel while having a nice feel to it does feel a bit lightweight where it could have durability issues if it needs to be frequently moved. Unlike the panel's case, the stand is very sturdy with a full range of adjustments.

Invariable, the ZR24w is going to be compared to the Dell UltraSharp U2410 display. While they share similar performance in terms of color, brightness and size, the Dell does offer a few more video connector inputs including HDMI. component and composite video as well as a multi-card reader. What the HP has over the Dell though is price at just $425 and this will be an important factor for many consumers.

Dell's Adamo Admire is about a highly attractive ultrathin laptop with a reasonable $999 price tag. Many who might consider a MacBook Air but don't want to spend as much would likely choose the Adamo simply based on its style and cost. Performance is good even if the battery life isn't quite up to the ultraportable market these days. Items such as the solid state drive and high quality diplay are a nice touch and atypical of this price range.

Dell's Adamo Admire is their affordable version of their high profile ultrathin laptop. At just seven tenths of an inch thick, it has a very slim profile but some strong features for a $999 price tag. Performance is actually quite good for such a thin laptop with battery like Dell BATDW00L Battery, Dell 1X793 Battery, Dell BAT1194 Battery, Dell Precision M20 Battery, dell F5635 battery, dell YF976 battery, dell C5974 battery, dell U4873 battery, Dell Inspiron XPS M170 Battery, Dell Inspiron XPS M1710 Battery thanks to the Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor. It does only come with 2GB of DDR3 memory that puts it at a slight disadvantage to memory intensive applications or heavy multitasking but many who buy ultraportables generally don't mind much.

Rather than use a traditional hard drive, the Dell Adamo Admire uses a solid state drive. This does limit the amount of storage to just 128GB of data which is well below what hard drives can achieve but it does offer snappier performance when loading applications and data. The drive is also more compact than traditional hard drives allowing it to have the slimmer profile. Like most ultrathin laptops, there is no optical drive included. Users can opt to purchase an optional external USB DVD burner drive is available albeit at a pricey $120.

The 13.4-inch display on the Dell Adamo Admire is one of the better on the market. The picture was very colorful and bright and had very wide viewing angles. It does use a glossy coating that is extremely popular right now that can produce a fair amount of glare and reflections under certain lighting conditions. The integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics processor doesn't allow the system to be used for any sort of 3D gaming but provides sufficient performance for handing HD video streaming on the laptop. The display resolution does limit it to watching 720p video and hooking it up to a HDTV is a bit more challenging as it only comes with a DisplayPort connector. Dell does offer a $20 adapter cable for use with HDMI monitors.

While there are a lot of ultraportables on the market now with extremely long battery life, the Adamo does suffer a bit in this area. In my streaming video playback test, the Adamo Admire was able to run roughly three and a half hours. This is well below the consumer ultra-low voltage models but the Adamo does offer more performance. More typical usage will probably yield around five hours of use. Those hoping to extend the running time by swapping batteries will be disappointed by the internal non-replaceable battery.

Dell's Mini 10v is their low cost version of their Mini 10 netbook and in many ways is a better choice. Little is sacrificed in terms of performance or design. Sure, it may have less hard drive space and switch up a few components, but it is still the same look just with a plastic exterior and fewer high end options. The biggest problem is the very small battery that will provide a very limited running time, but for $299 it does offer a fair amount.

Dell's Mini 10v is a less expensive version of the Mini 10 . While the system has the same look with battery such as dell Vostro 1510 battery, dell T112C battery, dell Vostro 1310 battery, dell Vostro 1520 battery, dell Vostro 2510 battery, dell Inspiron 1501 battery, dell Vostro 1000 battery, dell T116C battery, dell Y022C battery, dell Latitude E6400 battery as the Mini 10, the Mini 10v uses a plastic shell exterior instead the magnesium alloy. The other big change to the exterior is the removal of the HDMI video connector to a more common VGA. The most notable sacrifice in the Mini 10v is the reduction of the hard drive from the more typical 160GB down to a 120GB. It is possible to get the 10v equipped with a 160GB drive but it bumps the $299 price tag up to $349.

One nice change to the Mini 10v over the previous Mini 9 and Mini 12 designs is the keyboard. Dell has expanded the keyboard to use the full width of the netbook chassis that gives the keys a 92-percent size. They also have included the function key row unlike the Mini 9. This gives the keyboard a better overall feel but the lack of key spacing can make it more difficult to use than those that isolate the keys. They also changed the trackpad design to integrate the buttons onto either side of the pad. This is very awkward to use as it can often cause the cursor to move if you don't press just right on the pad.

The 10.1-inch screen of the Mini 10v is nice and bright. The real issue is the glossy coating that Dell uses. In low light conditions it is just fine. Take it outside or use it with a bright light behind the user and the glare on the screen can make it nearly impossible to use.

In keeping the costs down, Dell only ships the Mini 10v with a 3-cell battery pack. During testing with video playback, the system was just short of reaching two and a half hours of use. This is fairly short and will leave users needed to recharge frequently. Thankfully, Dell's power adapter is one of the smaller and lightest on the market making it much more convenient to carry with the netbook.