HP Pavilion dv7-6000sa review

The dv7 is the latest HP laptop to have the Beats Audio branding, which promises superior audio from the four speakers and small ‘subwoofer’. Our test tracks sounded very clear and we were impressed with the volume, but bass was still lacking. Even so, the separate woofer added some lower frequencies that are completely absent from other laptops.

The dedicated AMD Radeon 6470M graphics card is a good match to the display; it handles HD video easily and is also capable of some modest gaming. In our Dirt 3 test, it managed an almost-playable 23.6fps, so as long as you disable anti-aliasing, most games should be smooth at medium detail settings.

The AMD Phenom II N660 processor has two cores running at 3GHz. Unlike some Intel chips, it doesn’t have automatic overclocking to give it a boost in demanding tasks. Paired with 4GB of RAM, it managed only 36 overall: noticeably slower than the equivalent Intel-powered laptop. Even so, it should handle most everyday tasks without complaint. Battery life is reasonable, at just shy of four hours, and there’s a large 750GB hard disk.

We really liked the updated dv7, and this model is ideal if you have a £500 budget and want something with a large screen and some gaming potential. As long as you’re not planning on running demanding applications – such as editing lots of HD video – the relatively slow 2D performance won’t be an issue.