HP is finally joining the ranks of manufacturer’s that will be providing a laptop with a keyboard drain. This is something that other manufacturers, notably Lenovo, have been building into their notebooks for years. How simple is is to provide drain holes designed to allow the flow of liquid back out of you keyboard if you accidentally spill liquid into it.
One thing that has been mentioned on the Lenovo design is to not tilt the laptop until it has completed the draining process. If you tilt the notebook, you will run the chance of shorting out the machine. Just turn it off and wait. You will want to put some absorbing material underneath especially if you are resting on service that could be damaged by liquid, or you could just move it to the sink!
While this design is great, the long term result of the spill can still be stickiness and reduced function because of that. At least you haven’t burned out the system…
The new HP unit’s launch will be coinciding with the release of Windows 7, so expect to see them become available after October 22nd. Prices will start around $799. The models to look for are the 5445b and 6545b.