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HP Pavilion dv7-6051ea review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £814
inc VAT

An excellent design, great speakers and plenty of performance, but MSI's GE620 is better value if performance is your top priority

Specifications

17.3 in 1,600×900 display, 3.4kg, 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M, 6.00GB RAM, 750GB disk, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

http://www.morecomputers.com

With its brushed metal-effect chassis and smooth curves, the dv7 is one of the best looking mid-range laptops HP has produced in a long time, but it has function as well as form. The five Beats Audio speakers, Blu-ray player and 17.3in screen could make it the ideal choice for multimedia playback.

HP dv7-6051ea

It doesn’t have a full HD resolution, but the 1,600×900 display is big enough to make the Windows desktop feel very spacious. Contrast was reasonable, as long as we sat directly in front of the screen; with plenty of screen tilt, it’s frustrating that viewing angles are so poor. Colours weren’t particularly vibrant, even with the glossy screen coating, but the backlight was at least bright enough to help reduce screen glare from overhead lighting.

The much-lauded speakers were impressive for a laptop. They’re loud, making enough noise to fill a medium-sized room, but the small subwoofer couldn’t provide much bass. They was no distortion even at full volume, so you could easily watch catch-up TV without having to reach for your headphones or connect external speakers.

HP dv7-6051ea keyboard

We appreciated HP’s decision to revamp the touchpad; previous laptops had an awful touch-sensitive pad that rarely worked, but the dedicated buttons used here are a huge improvement. The touchpad felt very responsive, and even lights up with the press of a shortcut key. The QWERTY keyboard has also been improved slightly, but the function keys still activate multimedia shortcuts by default which can be annoying. It was incredibly easy to type on thanks to the large, isolated keys that let us get up to full speed in no time.

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Basic Specifications

Rating ****
Processor Intel Core i5-2410M
Processor clock speed 2.3GHz
Memory 6.00GB
Memory slots 2
Memory slots free 0
Maximum memory 8GB
Size 416x275x32mm
Weight 3.4kg
Sound IDT HD Audio
Pointing device touchpad

Display

Viewable size 17.3 in
Native resolution 1,600×900
Graphics Processor AMD Radeon HD 6490M
Graphics/video ports VGA, HDMI
Graphics Memory 1,024MB

Storage

Total storage capacity 750GB
Optical drive type DVD+/-RW +/-DL BD-ROM

Ports and Expansion

USB ports 4
Bluetooth yes
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support 802.11b/g/n
PC Card slots none
Supported memory cards SD, MMC
Other ports 2x minijack audio output, minijack microphone input, 2x USB3

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option restore partition
Software included Microsoft Office 2010 Starter, CyberLink DVD Suite 7
Optional extras £44

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £814
Details www.hp.co.uk
Supplier http://www.morecomputers.com

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