HP dv2800t Artist Edition Series Notebook Available

HP’s released the dv2800t Artist Edition notebook, which is a dv6800t that features custom artwork by Joao Oliveira, a 20 year old from Portugal His Asian Odyssey design beat out thousands of other designs in a HP and MTV sponsored contest. If you’re looking for something that stands out from the crowd of notebooks, take a look at this one.

I got the chance to meet Joao in Las Vegas at CES 2008. Check out the interview here if you want to learn more about him and his design. While the dv2800t Artist Edition isn’t something I would by for myself, I can defintiely understand its appeal to students.

So what is the Artist Edition?

The HP Pavilion 2800t Artist Edition Series is a personalized HP Pavilion notebook that has that is very similar to the customizable Pavilion 2700t. HP’s customers who opt for the Artist Edition notebook will pay a $65 premium compared to a similar HP notebook without the special graphics.

The artwork is imprinted in the lid and palm rest, which means it will not fade or chip. Some notebook manufacturers print or ’skin’ custom designs onto special edition series notebooks. HP has chosen to go a step further to provide a higher quality product.

A special edition wallpaper featuring the Asian Odyssey theme is included.

The base price of the dv2800t Artist Edition notebook is $1,129 before any discounts or special offers. The base configuration comes with a 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I recommend getting the 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, which is a $125 add-on. If you’re budget allows for it, there’s a 2.5GHz processor with 6MB of L2 cache.

The 128MB NVIDIA GeFoce 8400M GS graphics card is standard in the Artist Edition, but a $70 option on a dv2700t. One option that you can’t get on the Artist Edition is a fingerprint reader. If you really want a fingerprint reader, you’ll have ditch the special edition graphics and go with a standard dv2700t.

The dv2800t Artist Edition comes with 2GB of RAM, which is all you should get. If you want to upgrade, please do so on your own. Memory is much cheaper to buy from online stores like Crucial.com or NewEgg.com. Installation is very simple and takes just a couple of minutes of your time.

A 120GB hard drive is standard on the Artist Edition notebook, but HP is offering a free upgrade to 160GB. A 250GB hard drive is available for $80. You can never have enough storage and this upgrade is a prudent investment if you have a growing music, photo and video library.

A CD and DVD burner comes standard with the dv2800t Artist Edition notebook. HP is currently offering a free upgrade to a LightScribe drive, which allows users to burn images and text onto the surface of CDs and DVDs. Make sure to check the box for this free offer. HP is still offering a HD DVD drive, but we don’t know why since that format has gone belly up.

The Artist Edition notebook also comes with Bluetooth and a WiFi antenna that can handle 802.11n, while the standard edition requires a $40 upgrade for these capabilities.

To learn more or configure an Artist Edition notebook, visit HP. Also, keep an eye on our deals page for coupons you can apply towards this computer. As always, feel free to ask any questions below in comments.