HP Pavilion DV6 Series 15.6-Inch Laptop Review
November 12th, 2009
HP Pavilion DV6 Series 15.6-Inch Laptop (Windows 7) Review from Garrett Cook. A good machine; would buy again, Purchased at local Office Depot. For the price, seems to have a lot of good features (bright LED backlight, 8-hour battery, memory (also expandable), remote control (useful for pictures / presentations), high speed hard drive (most machines in this price range have 5400-rpm drive; this one is a faster 7200).
One thing (which was pointed out by other reviews) is that the battery _is_ large and sticks out the bottom by almost an inch. I like Dell’s method better of having the battery extend horizontally in front of the keyboard, but on the other hand it does raise the rear of the keyboard a bit which can make typing easier. I thought it might be troublesome to use it while in my lap but fortunately there is just enough space on the right side (which the batt is closer to) to rest the main unit on your legs. An odd thing about it is that they made the extension go even further to the right than to the left, which would have otherwise centered it more.
Another item which may be an issue for some is that the back of the screen has a very bright HP logo when the computer is on. It is not software configurable, but an internet search revealed that there is a cable inside which can be disconnected to cut the light. I may do this or cover it with black tape.
On the power, charge, and HD indicators, when any one LED is lit they kind of bleed over to the others, making it difficult to determine if they are truly lit or not. I do however like the lit indicators for volume & wireless; my old laptop used standard press-buttons and they would frequently get stuck from dust or food crumbs or whatever.
The fan runs relatively quietly, and can also be configured in the BIOS.
As mentioned earlier the screen has good levels of brightness, but reflections can easily be seen. Unfortunately almost all laptops made today did away with the nice, anti-glare screens of the past in favor of these. I also noticed when first using it that the colors appeared very washed out; the brightness or gamma settings seemed way too high. I tried using the Intel GMA software to change the gamma but it was already at its lowest setting, and the brightness and contrast settings did little to improve. Windows 7 though has a color calibration tool that lets you set these independently, I turned it all the way to Min which makes it look normal compared with other computers I’ve seen. I then had to use msconfig to disable the Intel GMA software from starting up and changing my settings each time the system was rebooted, so now the setting is remembered (if you go into the Intel settings again though, it takes over and you have to run the calibration program again).
I usually try and remove all the pre-installed software from store-bought machines, but HP seems to have improved their lineup with some useful tools so I decided to keep most of them.
All in all, a good machine, and would buy again.
To check price or purchase HP Pavilion DV6 Series 15.6-Inch Laptop.
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