I purchased a new 49G+ this week from HP's web site. I wanted to comment to the forum that the feel of the keyboard of this new s/n 534 is much improved over my older s/n 428. The 534 keys require much less effort to push and are much quieter than compared to the 428 which required more effort to push and produced a somewhat loud and irratating "thumping" sound.
The only other noticeable difference is that the yellow ink used for the alpha keys on the 534 appears to me to be brighter than on the 428. I believe that this is also an improvement for my tired eyes.
Let's hope that with what appears to be an improved key design coupled with the return of keytime in recent ROM updates that the 49G+'s keyboard issues have been eliminated. Time will tell.
Regards,
John
The 33s has had improvements made to its keyboard too, so it seems that HP is addressing the design flaws that were present in 49G+ and the 33s. Too bad they didn't get these issues resolved before they released these machines. A lot of bad blood has been generated.
Yes, 2005 was a good year for improvements to the 49G+, 33s and 12cp. Maybe we will see more in 2006.
Regards,
John
What? HP improve things? you must be joking! :-)
Seriously, I think they have improved things quite a bit, but there are still many things to do even better. And, no excuses for how they got into that mess to begin with.
But, what would you do if you found yourself in a very bad rut? Give up? Go home. Or, incrementally climb back out of the hole?
Reminds me of the guy who was very upset that HP dared be giving training sessions on how to use their financial calculators when he was still having problems with his 49g+ keyboard.
Without understanding, of course, that the person overseeing the training sessions could not possibly help with the problem.
The 64,000 dollar question is, have they learned from their mistakes? If they ever introduce any new models (43S?) I wonder if the initial offerings will be plagued by bad keyboards and displays. I also wonder if they will abandon styling gimmicks like the chevron keyboard of the 33s and the horrible color scheme.