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.
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.
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.
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Brightness Distribution: 70 %
Contrast: 453:1 (Black: 0.5 cd/m²)
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 2001SE Standard | 9561 points | |
3DMark 03 Standard | 3310 points | |
3DMark 05 Standard | 2763 points | |
3DMark 06 Standard Score | 1290 points | |
Help |
PCMark 05 Standard | 3690 points | |
Help |
Cinebench R10 | |||
Settings | Value | ||
Shading 32Bit | 1650 Points | ||
Rendering Multiple CPUs 32Bit | 3234 Points |
Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo | |||
Resolution | Settings | Value | |
1024x768 | highest, 0xAA, 0xAF | 169.3 fps |
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 |
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.
Noise Level
Idle |
| 32.7 / 33.6 / 46.3 dB(A) |
HDD |
| 33.3 dB(A) |
DVD |
| 35 / 39.7 dB(A) |
Load |
| 37.4 / 46.3 dB(A) |
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30 dB silent 40 dB(A) audible 50 dB(A) loud |
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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.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 35.5 °C / 96 F, compared to the average of 34.2 °C / 94 F, ranging from 21.2 to 62.5 °C for the class Office.
(±) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 41.6 °C / 107 F, compared to the average of 36.7 °C / 98 F
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are cooler than skin temperature with a maximum of 28 °C / 82.4 F and are therefore cool to the touch.
(±) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 27.7 °C / 81.9 F (-0.3 °C / -0.5 F).
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.
Off / Standby | 0 / 0 Watt |
Idle | 16 / 31 / 53 Watt |
Load |
63 / 69 Watt |
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.