HP PAVILION DV6000 SERIES

Hewlett Packard isone of the most prominent manufacturers of notebook computers today, and any trip to Best Buy will make that abundantly clear. Well, as of this writing, one of the notebook PCs they have on sale right now at Best Buy is the HP Pavilion DV6000. I picked one up a couple months ago for $800. I was in Best Buy a couple weeks ago and it was on sale for $749. So, this is certainly an affordable notebook PC. So, how does it perform in everyday use? Let's check it out.

First, The Specs

In my eyes, the DV6000 is proof that PCs are affordable as hell today. These specs compare quite favorably to my desktop, all in a sub $800 notebook.

• AMD Turion 64, dual core processor
• 2 GB DDR2 memory
• 15.4″ WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
• 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7200
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
• 1.3 Megapixel Webcam with mic built into screen
• Altec Lansing speakers built in
• 3 USB ports, ExpressCard/54 Slot, Video Out, Integrated Consumer IR, 1 RJ-11, 1 RJ-45
• Windows Vista Home Premium

Now, when you look at this unit on HP's website, you will see there are different spec configurations for this model. The above happens to be what I have in the unit I am typing this review on.

Use in the Real World

Now, I am not and never have been a big benchmark guy. If you are into computer reviews that load you up with benchmark specs, go to another site. What I am interested in is real world use. I bought this notebook to get work done, not win any contests. So, how does it perform in that regard?

One of the things that sold me on this laptop was the screen. The screen is gorgeous. It is wonderfully bright and clear, and provides a respectable 1280×800 resolution in a widescreen format. Yes, there certainly are notebooks with higher resolution. It really comes down to preference. While other units may give you higher resolution, some may find it hard to read on small screens. For me, I thought 1280×800 was a good resolution to use for a 15.4″ screen. My only complaint with the screen is that the glare is really bad when trying to use the unit outside. It gets so bad that it's more like looking in a mirror than into a computer screen. Inside, however, the screen is beautiful.

The fact that this unit uses AMD rather than Intel means that it generates more heat. Intel processors just seem to run cooler in notebook computers. All benchmarks aside (because I don't care), the performance of this notebook is quite good. It actually opens many apps much faster than my desktop PC, which is using an Intel Pentium Core Duo. So, I have no complaints about speed, however, yes, it does generate some heat.

The built-in Altec Lansing speakers will certainly not compare to the larger speakers you would plug in externally, but they do generate a nice sound for the size. For multimedia use, the speakers will get the job done.

The DV6000 comes with a thin, little remote control for use in controlling HP's multimedia player. HP is using a proprietary multimedia player for playing DVDs called QuickPlay. It ties in with the remote control as well as the QuickPlay buttons on top of the notebook. The player is decent, but many times I found myself simply wanting to use Windows Media Player rather than the QuickPlay popping up full screen. Also, the fact that it is tied into the QuickPlay buttons can be a little annoying at times. Several times I have rested my fingers on the top of the notebook and accidently pressed the DVD button and launched Quickplay. No matter what I'm doing, that interrupts the workflow badly.

For digital photography, I find the built-in card reader really convenient. Since my Canon camera uses SD cards, I can just pull the card out and plug it directly into the notebook to pull images onto the computer. This means I don't have to track down the USB cable that came with the camera. Nice and easy.

But, It Uses Vista

Like almost every PC on the market today, this unit comes with Windows Vista. Now, on my desktop, I can rattle off a bunch of annoyances with Windows Vista. Many of us that follow technology all the time have many complaints about Vista, and I still stand by the fact that Vista was NOT ready for market upon it's release. But, judging by the DV6000, Vista does seem to run better on completely proprietary machines. I do have occasional annoyances with Vista on the DV6000.. For example, sometimes it will lose it's screen resolution settings when coming out of sleep mode. This is an issue with Vista and will be fixed. Other than that, though, Vista runs significantly better on this notebook machine than it does on my desktop. No complaints, really.

Like all pre-built computers, it comes with some pre-installed software. It comes with a 60-day trial installation of Office 2007. Since I don't care to fork out several hundred dollars just for a ribbon interface, I opted to install OpenOffice, which gets me 95% there for free. The DV6000 comes with some other pre-installed crap, much of it I ended up removing from the computer.

HP Pavilion dv7

HP's premium-priced Envy range may be catching all the headlines, but now its Pavilion range of affordable consumer laptops has gone under the knife. With an all-new design and some trickle-down technology from its luxurious stablemates, HP's Pavilion dv7 just might be the affordable powerhouse we've been waiting for.

The Pavilion dv7 is entirely unrecognisable from its predecessors. Gone is the ostentatious glossy silver of previous models, replaced by an altogether more understated, stylish finish. That's no bad thing, as the Pavilion now looks a little like a cut-price Envy 17. It has a smoothly contoured chassis, and little touches such as the subtle, textured finish on the lid and wristrest make all the difference.

The hefty 3.05kg chassis doesn't just look good; that slick appearance goes hand in hand with fine build quality. The base is flex-free, with a wide and solid wristrest to lean on, and the lid does a great job of protecting the display within. No matter how hard we prodded and poked it, the lid stayed firm, with no sign of any showthrough on the display itself.

All the physical changes have been accompanied by tweaks under the hood. This, the range-topping dv7, now includes the Beats Audio technology, which made its debut in the Envy range. The multiple speakers dotted around the HP's chassis reach the sort of volumes required to make games and movie soundtracks enjoyable, and there's enough clarity that listening to music's a pleasure rather than the usual tinny chore. They might not have the Bang & Olufsen accreditation of the fancy-pants Asus N53JN, but they're certainly no poorer for it.

The HP's aural finery is accompanied by an equally good display. The glossy 17.3in panel may make do with a native resolution of just 1,600 x 900 pixels – it seems a waste not to have a Full HD screen on a Blu-ray-equipped laptop such as this – but the quality is very good. Colours are rich, and even tricky skintones are handled well. There's plenty of brightness on tap too.

You certainly couldn't describe the hp Pavilion dv7 as slow, either. As with several of the desktop replacements we've seen recently, HP has employed one of Intel's older quad-core Core i7 processors: the 1.6GHz Core i7-720QM. While not up with the latest Core i5 and Core i7 models, it's a choice that gives the HP a respectable 1.49 in our application-based benchmarks and means it's fast enough even for a touch of HD video editing.

The quad-core processor is accompanied by an ATI Radeon HD5650 graphics card, so there's enough power to cope with modern games as well. Faced with our Crysis benchmark at 1,600 x 900 and Medium quality, the HP managed a very respectable average of 34fps.

It's once you turn your attention to less exciting pastimes that the HP flounders a little. This is no fault of the keyboard, though. Its scrabble-tile keys each have a nice crisp feel, and apart from the cramped cursor keys, the layout is pretty much spot on.

Unfortunately, the Pavilion dv7 has inherited its touchpad from the Envy range, and it's not entirely trouble-free. The big problem is that the buttons are integrated into the surface of the touchpad. Drag the cursor with a finger, and when you apply your thumb to either of the stiff buttons you'll often find the cursor hopping left or right in response. Sometimes, inexplicably, it behaves itself, but at its worst it's maddening.

A further annoyance comes from the cooling fans. With that powerful specification just begging you to tax it with gaming and heavy multitasking, it won't be long before the HP's noisy fans whirr into action. The speakers go loud enough to drown them out, but in quiet moments you'll be in no doubt that the HP is working hard to stay cool. Battery life isn't that impressive, with a result of just 3hrs 23mins in our light-usage test, but that isn't altogether surprising given the power on tap and the size of the screen.

So it isn't perfect, and there's some hot competition around too: Samsung's R780 is faster, and the Sony VAIO F-Series is more customisable. When it comes to all-round entertainment, however, the HP Pavilion dv7 has it all: great speakers, a good display and enough power to make the most of them. The trackpad is an annoyance and also enough to deny the dv7 a recommendation, but we'd be willing to cut HP's Pavilion dv7 a little slack.