HP Pavilion DV6 Review

By Vincent Chang

A great full-HD display is the highlight of this very capable mainstream laptop. The build quality, however, could be better.

The good	Excellent, full-HD matte display; significant performance increase over previous generation; good selection of ports.
The bad	Heavy and bulky; build quality could be better.

Intel has unleashed its third-generation Ivy Bridge processors and even as you read this, these brand-new chips are now making their way into mainstream laptops from major PC vendors. At the moment, only the quad-core versions are available--the ultra-low-voltage ones preferred in Ultrabooksare only expected in the coming months.

A refreshed version of an existing HP Pavilion model, the latest dv6 comes with an Ivy Bridge quad-core Intel Core i7 processor clocked at 2.6GHz. Along with 8GB of memory and a discrete Nvidia graphics chip utilizing the new Kepler architecture, this laptop has some of the most powerful hardware you can find on a laptop now. The only thing it is lacking is an SSD, though this is understandable given its mainstream positioning.

This hardware is complemented by a full-HD matte display with good offaxis viewing. Together with HP's Beats Audio, which is assisted by a subwoofer, and a Blu-ray drive, this laptop is an excellent multimedia machine for HD movies and gaming. However, unlike HP's premium Envy line, this Pavilion notebook shows its cheaper side with a mainly plastic chassis with touches of aluminum. The construction can be shoddy, too--a corner of the touchpad on our review unit bulged out.

Overall, the HP Pavilion dv6 seems to be pretty good value. Our review unit, which is only offered in the US, is one of the higher-end configurations but has a starting price of US$900. You can customize your desired configuration at this link. If you wish to get something similar to our review unit, the bill comes out to around US$1,319. In Singapore, HP quoted us a S$1,699 (US$1,361) model with a similar Core i7 3610QM processor (at a slightly slower 2.3GHz clock speed) and only 4GB of RAM.

Design

Replace the reflective Gorilla Glass encrusted lid of the HP Envy 14 Spectre with brushed aluminum and you'll get something close to the version on the HP Pavilion dv6. Both laptops feature a small HP logo that lights up when the notebooks are turned on. The dv6 also has some kind of soft-touch material running along its spine, presumably for a better grip.

The laptop itself is fairly thick and heavy. At almost 2.6kg, the dv6 isn't exactly the most portable notebook around and while HP mentions that it has a "tapered design", it doesn't really matter when it measures 32.5mm at its thickest point.

On the inside, the first thing you're likely to notice is the large speaker bar grille above the keyboard signed with a Beats Audio logo. This is part of the new design on the dv series and, together with a subwoofer located at the bottom of the laptop, is expected to boost the laptop's audio performance.

Specifications	HP Pavilion dv6-7003xx
Starting price/as reviewed	From US$900/US$1,319
Processor	2.6GHz Core i7 3720QM (quad-core) processor
Memory	8GB, 1,333MHz DDR3
Hard drive	750GB
Chipset	Intel HM77
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce GT 650M
Operating system	Windows 7 Home Premium
Dimensions (W x D)	378 x 247mm
Height	32.5mm
Screen size (diagonal)	15.6 inches (1,920 x 1,080)
System weight (with AC adapter)	2.57kg
Category	Mainstream

The backlit chiclet keyboard is identical to the ones found on other recent HP laptops, though this version has been expanded to include a number pad. As usual, HP has reserved the Function keys for important features such as toggling the Wi-Fi, screen brightness and other multimedia controls.

The touchpads on HP's laptops have been one of the better implementations we have experienced on a Windows laptop and the one on the dv6 continues this trend with good responsiveness for two-finger scrolling. Unfortunately, the build quality of the laptop falters here--the top corner of the touchpad wasn't perfectly level--the right corner bulged up a bit and we could probably have peeled off the top layer with some force.

Features

The full-HD display on the HP Pavilion dv6 is a beauty. All too often, we get mediocre 1,366 x 768-pixel screens on mainstream notebooks, even with 15.6-inch models and larger--the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 is a recent example. However, HP has outfitted the Pavilion dv6 with a matte screen that's not only capable of displaying 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, but also has excellent offaxis viewing.

On paper, it's not quite Retina Display-class, but it's certainly as good as you'll get on a laptop. Reading text, especially Web pages, was a real pleasure on this screen due to the higher resolution and the lack of glare.

This excellent display is powered by an equally capable GeForce GT 650M discrete graphics chip from Nvidia. Based on Nvidia's latest Kepler graphics chip, the GeForce GT 650M is a slightly higher-clocked version of the GeForce GT 640M chip found on the Acer M3, which as you may have read, is able to play modern games such as Battlefield 3. You can find out how the 650M fared in the performance section later.

	HP Pavilion dv6	Average for category (mainstream)
Video	VGA-out, HDMI	VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	Two USB 3.0, Two USB 2.0, SD card reader	Four USB 2.0, SD card reader, eSATA
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth	Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive	Blu-ray combo drive	DVD burner
Other features	Webcam	Webcam

As we saw on the recent HP Pavilion dm4, HP has been putting Beats Audio on practically all its laptops, even mainstream models. While it's no doubt an improvement over other laptops which lack this audio technology, the dv6 won't blow you away with its sound quality. We liked that you can adjust the clarity of movie dialogue using the Beats Audio Control Panel, but the overall volume fell short of what we were expecting for a notebook equipped with a subwoofer. Personally, this laptop appeared to handle music better than movies, which is slightly disappointing given its full-HD screen and Blu-ray drive.

USB 3.0 ports are now native on Intel's new chipsets for Ivy Bridge and it seems that the dv6 is making full use of this addition. There are altogether four USB ports and they split equally between USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 variants. Most of the ports are located on the left profile, where you'll also find HDMI and surprisingly, VGA output. With Intel's new integrated graphics supporting up to three simultaneous displays, we thought we could test this out, but unfortunately, the HDMI and VGA ports on the dv6 is so close to each other that we couldn't plug both in at the same time. Intel's WiDi technology is supported if you have the adapter.

Other features you can expect to find include an HD Webcam that captures up to 720p videos and a fingerprint reader. HP has also preloaded the appropriate software for these features, such as CyberLink's YouCam and Skype. Other bundled applications range from maintenance tools to Internet security utilities and multimedia software to play those Blu-ray discs. However, you won't find the Adobe creation tools that seem to be standard issue on HP Envy laptops.

Overall, there isn't much bloat, though HP could probably pare it down somewhat by removing the Microsoft Bing toolbar and shortcuts for Web sites such as eBay.

	HP Pavilion dv6	Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3	HP Envy 15
Processor	2.6GHz, Core i7 processor	1.6GHz, Core i5 processor	2.5GHz, Core i7 processor
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce GT 650M	Nvidia GeForce GT 640M	AMD Radeon HD 7690M
Video	VGA-out, HDMI	HDMI	DisplayPort, HDMI
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone jack	Stereo speakers with subwoofer, two headphone jacks, microphone jack
Data	Two USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, SD card reader	One USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, SD card reader	Two USB 3.0, One USB 2.0, SD card reader
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi	Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi	Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
Optical drive	Blu-ray combo drive	DVD burner	DVD burner
Price	US$1,319	S$1,298 (US$1,031)	From S$1,999 (US$1,602)

We don't really have another Ivy Bridge laptop to compare the HP Pavilion dv6 with, but the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 provides a close match in terms of graphics prowess with its GeForce GT 640M chip. This Acer laptop, however, is an Ultrabook that uses a slower Core i5 processor. Meanwhile, HP's Envy 15 is a good example of a premium Sandy Bridge-class laptop that could be eclipsed by the new dv6. Besides the CPU, the Envy's AMD discrete graphics is likely to lose ground against the newer Nvidia chip. However, you will get a more attractive design and better build quality on the Envy series.

Performance and battery life

As one of the earliest Ivy Bridge-powered laptops in the market when it becomes available at the end of the month, the HP Pavilion dv6 blows the competition away in our system benchmarks. Despite the fact that it comes with a regular hard drive, the dv6 produced the highest PCMark7 score we have recorded (4,182), easily beating gaming laptops such as the Samsung Series 7 Gamer (3,111) and high-end Core i7-equipped Ultrabooks including the Dell XPS 13 (3,839). A note of caution: We'll only truly know how it stands against other Ivy Bridge rivals when more of these laptops reach our testing lab.

The integrated Intel graphics onboard the dv6 is such a significant improvement from the previous generation that you may even be able to play Crysis using it. Despite that, it's not on the same level as the discrete GeForce GT 650M Nvidia graphics chip on the laptop, which is just a notch below the latest, gaming-grade GeForce chip.

Comparing the dv6 against the Acer M3, which packs a slightly slower GeForce GT 640M, we found that the dv6 was unsurprisingly the faster chip in benchmarks such as 3DMark11. However, since it's running at a higher 1,920 x 1,080-pixel resolution (1,366 x 768-pixel for the Acer), the dv6 could find itself struggling to produce similar frame rates in more intensive games such as Battlefield 3.

We also encountered what appears to be a driver issue in Shogun 2 where the game would not recognize the Nvidia chip but revert to the Intel integrated graphics instead, which means it wouldn't run our settings.

	HP Pavilion dv6 (1,920 x 1,080)	Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 (1,366 x 768)
3DMark11 (Performance preset)	2,289	1,802
Battlefield 3 (Medium preset)	36.96	46.52
Dirt 3 (High, 4x AA)	52.88	49.58
Total War: Shogun 2 (High preset)	Unable to run	44.10

Although Intel claims that Ivy Bridge laptops are up to 20 percent more power-efficient than their Sandy Bridge counterparts, it's hard to tell with these quad-core processors that aren't exactly designed for endurance.

Our review unit came with a large 8,550mAh battery that is so big that it actually raises the base of the laptop at the rear. In our usual battery life test, the dv6 lasted around 5 hours, which would seem pretty good for a 15 incher. However, we aren't sure how it would fare with a smaller battery.

Service and support

HP includes an industry-standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty with the system. Support is accessible through a 24-7 toll-free phone line, a well-maintained online knowledge base and driver downloads.

Source: Asia,cnet