Review HP Compaq 6735b

The HP 6735b is a variation of the HP 6730b based on the cheaper AMD technology. Therefore this model should be interesting for buyers with smaller budget. First of all it is noteworthy that the HP6735b has the slower CPU, but the better graphics processors, and furthermore it is noisier. The following report covers the details which enable you to decide whether it is worth to spend some more euros on the higher-priced model.

Many thanks to our Polish colleagues from notebookcheck.pl, who ran the tests and provided us with their test report.

Case

The HP Compaq 6735b and the HP Compaq have an identical chassis. So, the test leads to similar results and conclusions.

The closed notebook looks elegant. Upon opening this laptop you'll see the more casual inside. Many different textures and colours give an uneasy experience and do not really meet business standards, a more conservative look, in this aspect.

This model is better in terms of rigidity and weight. It is even with battery rather light. This is especially note-worthy, because the lid is quite massive due to being reinforced with a support structure made of magnesium alloy.

Although the lid is thick, it cannot completely protect the screen. If one presses the back panel in any given place, in the upper right area of the screen, there are distortion on the turned-on screen.

The right part of the case bends a little at the bottom and creaks a bit, so the sturdiness isn’t ideal. A particular flaw of our test sample was that the lid seemed to be crooked. If closed, the lid did neither at the left side nor at the right side adjoin to the base unit, but there was considerable gap, and it was possible to clearly bend the lid up and down.

Furthermore, we had some difficulties plugging USB-jacks to the USB ports on the right side.

: Front side: Microphone, Headphones,

: Left side: Power Socket, Vent Holes, 2x USB, FireWire, ExpressCard

: Right side: CardReader, 2x USB, Optical drive, COM

: Back side: Kensington Lock, LAN, VGA, S-Video

Input devices

The keyboard belongs to the advantages of the HP 6735b. The layout is very good – the cursor keys are a little bit seperated and framed.

A similar keyboard is available in the Asus N50 series, but we liked the one in the HP Compaq notebook even better, because its keys are more rigid and stable. In the Asus notebooks the key resistance is bigger, but, the feedback is alike.

Both HP 6735b and HP 6730b own an identical touchpad. The pad’s width is more than twice its depth, while the overall size is sufficiently user-friendly. Also the according buttons are identical to the ones in the Intel-based model. They are partly made of plastics and rather smooth an work user-friendly.

An annoying detail of the HP 6730b is that it needs a while until it indicates that it is actually booting after one has pressed the power button.

: Keyboard

: Touchpad

Display

According to the specifications, the screen should be the same as in the HP 6730b reviewed earlier. However, it turned out that the test sample of HP 6735b was equipped with a different matte 15.4” WSXGA+ screen. Instead of a panel by Samsung, a Chi Mei Optoelectronics one (CMO1520) was used.


196,6 cd/m²	204,2 cd/m²	189,1 cd/m²
209,2 cd/m²	226,6 cd/m²	202,8 cd/m²
174,2 cd/m²	205,3 cd/m²	159,6 cd/m²

Information

Maximum: 226,6 cd/m²
Average: 196 cd/m²
Illumination: 70 %
Black: 0.5 cd/m²
Contrast: 452:1

Distribution of brightness

: HP Compaq 6735b Outdoor

The screen by CMO seemed to be better than the aforementioned screen by Samsung. The average brightness of the CMO model is 200 cd/m², while it amounts to 180 cd/m² for the HP6730b. Although the later ist still alright, it is clearly lower.

According to our subjective impression, the grey levels are well represented and black is pleasingly deep.

Performance

The AMD Turion Ultra ZM-82 (2.2GHz) processor proved to be ordinary fast in our test. Intel CPUs with 1066 MHZ frontside bus and similar clock frequency outperform this processor in most applications. So, this CPU can only keep up with the less powerful Intel CPUs with slower frontside bus and smaller L2 cache.

Despite the ATI Radeon HD 3200 does not have dedicated memory, the performance of this integrated graphics processor is still comparable with the Mobility Radeon 2400. So, this is an advantage compared to the wide-spread integrated graphics chips by Intel. Nevertheless, the performance is not sufficient for gaming.

3DMark 2001	9561 points
3DMark 03	3310 points
3DMark 05	2763 points
3DMark 06 1280x1024	1290 points

Help

in comparison
Asus Eee PC 1101HA (min)	68
...
Sony Vaio VGN-SZ71WN/C T9300, GeForce 8400M GS	1099
Samsung N510 black N270, GeForce 9400M (G)	1118
HP Compaq 6735b ZM-82, Radeon HD 3200	1290
Asus K50IN T6400, GeForce G 102M	1409
Asus U50VG-XX057C T6500, GeForce G 105M	1447
...
Alienware M17x (max)	15717

PCMark 05

3690 points

Help

in comparison
Acer Aspire One 751 (min)	692
...
Samsung R60-Aura T2330 Deesan T2330, Radeon Xpress X1250	3619
Fujitsu-Siemens S7110 T7200, Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950	3647
HP Compaq 6735b ZM-82, Radeon HD 3200	3690
HP Compaq 6720s T7250, Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) X3100	3715
HP nc6400 T7400, Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950	3716
...
Alienware M17x (max)	9615

Cinebench R10
	Settings	Value
	Shading	1650 Points
	Rendering Multiple CPUs	3234 Points

... in comparison

Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo
	Settings	Value
		169.3 fps

... in comparison

F.E.A.R.
	Resolution	Settings	Value
	1024x768	GPU: max, CPU: max, 0xAA, 0xAF	8 fps
	800x600	GPU medium, CPU medium, 0xAA, 0xAF	36 fps
	640x480	GPU min, CPU min, 0xAA, 0xAF	148 fps

... in comparison

HD Tune: 250 GB - 5400 rpm Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum: 20.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum: 47.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average: 39.7 MB/sec
Access Time: 18.1 ms
Burst Rate: 53.1 MB/sec
CPU Usage: 21.5 %

Emissions

System Noise

After turning the notebook on for the first time, the user may feel really disappointed with the behavior of HP 6735b. During the boot-up procedure the cooling system is thundering, blowing the air out of the case almost like a jet-engine, whereas the noise level amounts to 46.3dB. This is independent on whether the computer is driven by AC power or by battery. So it is better to bring it into quiet environments after the boot process has finished in order to avoid drawing the attention of everybody else to yourself.

Once this nasty noise, which lasts for several seconds, is over the HP 5735b is moderately quiet with usual office load and the noise level is about 33 dB. Although it seems that only a persistent hum of the hard drive is audible, it is enough to put a hand or ear near the vent holes to find out that the fan is blowing without interruption if the "Fan-Always-On"-option is activated in the BIOS. This also holds true with the "Maximum Energy-Saving" profile.

If you select the "High-Performance"-profile the fan runs often and more or less without interruption at even higher speed and causes a noise of 37dB.

With the profiles "Maximum-Energy-Saving" or "Balanced" the fan turns repeatedly off and only the humming of the hard drive is audible with 32.7dB.

Loudness

Idle	32,7 / 33,6 / 46,3 dB
HDD	33,3 dB
DVD	35 / 39,7 dB
Load	37,4 / 46,3 dB

		30 dB silent	40 dB audible	50 dB loud
Key: min: , med: , max: (15 cm distance)

Temperature.

Also this aspect is not one of the HP 6735b's advantages. In fact the temperature increase is similar as in the HP 6730b. Fortunately, the top side of the case does not get too hot in environments with usual room temperature - even not if under load for a longer period of time. But, we measured high temperatures at the bottom side, whereas a maximum of nearly 42°C was reached.


35,5 °C	30,4 °C	25,3 °C
31,1 °C	30,5 °C	25,8 °C
27 °C	28 °C	24,3 °C


23,9 °C	32,9 °C	40,1 °C
25,2 °C	40,2 °C	39,2 °C
27,2 °C	41,6 °C	37,5 °C

Maximum: 35,5 °C
Average: 28.3 °C

Maximum: 41,6 °C
Average: 33.8 °C

Room Temperature 20,5 °C

Loudspeakers

We were pleasantly surprised by the decent sound of the built-in loudspeakers, even more because this is a business notebook. The quality of the sound is comparable with the Altec Lansing speakers in the latest Asus notebooks and might even be a tad clearer. Also in regards of maximum volume they are similar.

Battery Life

We suspected that the battery life of the HP 6735b would be considerably lower than of the HP 6730b, as the former utilizes AMD technology whereas the later is based on the Intel’s platform. In reality it was not that bad. The relative difference is of 9-30% less is note-worthy, but in absolute time, the HP 6730b can only run a couple of minutes up to half an hour longer on battery. Accordingly, the battery life of the HP 6735b is satisfactory.

Furthermore, we were also interesting in how the the HP 6735b performs in this aspect compared to its predecessor model, the HP 6715b: The battery life of the HP 6735b was about 15-30 minutes lower, which is just a little bit worse.

Battery runtime

Idle (without WLAN, min brightness)	4h 05min
Surfing with WLAN	2h 34min
DVD	1h 35min
Load (maximum brightness)	0h 58min

Current consumption

Idle	16 / 31 / 53 Watt
Load	63 / 69 Watt


Key: min: , med: , max:

Verdict

The HP Compaq 6735b, which only costs about 700 Euro, can be recommended, because of its price and because of its matte WXGA screen. The integrated graphics processor reaches the performance level of some dedicated graphics cards and is more powerful than integrated graphics chips from Intel. The model with higher resolution, which we would recommend, costs about 200 euro more. If you have got the choice between a screen by CMO or one by Samsung, you should opt for the first, although the later is not bad too.

In terms of case, connectivity, and input devices the HP 6735b and the HP 6730b are nearly identical. So, the question arises, if it is really worse to spend more on a model with Intel hardware, which has a better calculation power, but a weaker GPU.

If you need to work in quiet environments, the answer is "yes" with limitations. The HP 6735b was considerably noisier than its more expensive counterpart. However, the difference in battery life wasn’t as significant as suspected.