HP Omnibook XE3 (Pentium III 1.06GHz, 512 MB RAM, 30GB Hard Drive)

Rating:
Summary: Infrared is Nice! Bluetooth is Better!
Review: Since I owned a number of IR (infrared) capable printers -- a HP 990 Cse, a HP 1315 Photo Smart, and a portable HP 350 cbi -- to which I print (via IR) from my Palm V and Sony Clie 760c (utilizing Docs to Print which is available from ISComplete.com), I had originally purchased this HP XE3 laptop so that I could also print wirelessly -- via IR -- to all of the above devices.

Since all of the aforementioned printers are already wired (via USB cables) to other desktop computers (in my home and office), having the ability to print from my laptop -- without having to reroute the printer's existing connections -- has been very helpful.

(The XE3, strangely, was delivered with the IR port deactivated. But I was able to turn it on after finding the instructions within the computer's "HP Library.")

I have since purchased a HP 995 Bluetooth printer, and a 3Com Bluetooth PC card which allows my laptop to communicate to it.

Whereas before, with IR, I needed to be within a dozen-or-so inches and be line-of-sight with the printer; the Bluetooth connection, by comparison, allows me to be within 30 feet of the printer with line-of-sight not required!

Needless to say, using Bluetooth technology to print from one's laptop is vastly superior to IR technology. (For my Palm, however, since placing the Palm close to the printer is not as cumbersome, IR works just fine.)

The XE3, having 512 MB of RAM and 30 GB of hard disc space, is more than adquate for my needs, (even as I now discover digital music and photography, both of which are great). The CD-RW is convenient for recording music and for making discs of downloaded software patches. And the DVD player is wonderful for watching movies.

This is a great computer. I still use my XE3 to print via IR to my older non-Bluetooth printers. But if I had it to do all over again -- I would buy more Bluetooth printers!