The 15.6in Pavilion dv6 bears HP’s characteristic black and chrome livery, and to be honest it looks a bit showy in a laptop of this size. The numeric keypad at the side of the keyboard is uncomfortably squished as well.
But from a technical standpoint the Pavilion dv6 looks good. All the important features are here – USB, eSATA, Bluetooth and so forth – and they’re joined by FireWire and a full-width ExpressCard/54 slot. The Altec Lansing speakers are lacking in low frequencies, but they go pretty loud, with a clarity that’s unusual for notebooks. The only slight disappointment is the screen, which seems a little lacking in vibrancy.
Inside, the dv6 enjoys a 2.26GHz Core i5-430M partnered with an Nvidia GeForce G105M GPU. There’s 3GB of RAM – plenty for typical desktop use – and a nice big 500GB hard disk, with a fast spindle speed of 7,200rpm.
As our benchmarks show, that’s a pretty persuasive formula. With an overall 2D score of 1.53, the Pavilion dv6 is a strong performer for desktop applications. The GPU has a certain amount of 3D power too, delivering 42fps in Crysis at the lowest settings – twice as fast as Intel’s HD Graphics, though there are other laptops with more powerful GPUs.
With its lightweight 4,200mAh battery we didn’t expect the dv6 to last long away from the power socket, but light-use performance was surprisingly strong, with the dv6 racking up a respectable 3hrs 55min of life. Under heavy use, though, it lasted only 57 minutes.
For that reason, road warriors may want to look elsewhere, as will gamers or purist aesthetes. But if you’re seeking a laptop for a mostly desk-bound role, the HP Pavilion dv6 is a powerful, feature-packed system, and when you look at the price it’s obviously a good deal.
Warranty | |
---|---|
Warranty | 1yr collect and return |
Physical specifications | |
Dimensions | 378 x 258 x 42mm (WDH) |
Weight | 2.750kg |
Travelling weight | 3.3kg |
Processor and memory | |
Processor | Intel Core i5-430M |
Motherboard chipset | Intel HM55 Express |
Memory type | DDR3 |
SODIMM sockets free | 0 |
SODIMM sockets total | 2 |
Screen and video | |
Screen size | 15.6in |
Resolution screen horizontal | 1,366 |
Resolution screen vertical | 768 |
Resolution | 1366 x 768 |
Graphics chipset | Nvidia GeForce G105M |
Graphics card RAM | 512MB |
VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 1 |
HDMI outputs | 1 |
S-Video outputs | 0 |
DVI-I outputs | 0 |
DVI-D outputs | 0 |
DisplayPort outputs | 0 |
Drives | |
Capacity | 500GB |
Hard disk usable capacity | 465GB |
Spindle speed | 7,200RPM |
Internal disk interface | SATA/300 |
Hard disk | Hitachi HTS725050A9A364 |
Optical disc technology | DVD writer |
Optical drive | HP GT30L |
Battery capacity | 4,200mAh |
Replacement battery price inc VAT | £0 |
Networking | |
Wired adapter speed | 1,000Mbits/sec |
802.11a support | yes |
802.11b support | yes |
802.11g support | yes |
802.11 draft-n support | yes |
Integrated 3G adapter | no |
Bluetooth support | yes |
Other Features | |
Wireless hardware on/off switch | yes |
Wireless key-combination switch | no |
Modem | no |
ExpressCard34 slots | 0 |
ExpressCard54 slots | 1 |
PC Card slots | 0 |
USB ports (downstream) | 4 |
FireWire ports | 1 |
eSATA ports | 1 |
PS/2 mouse port | no |
9-pin serial ports | 0 |
Parallel ports | 0 |
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 0 |
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 0 |
3.5mm audio jacks | 3 |
SD card reader | yes |
Memory Stick reader | yes |
MMC (multimedia card) reader | yes |
Smart Media reader | no |
Compact Flash reader | no |
xD-card reader | yes |
Pointing device type | Touchpad |
Audio chipset | IDT HD Audio |
Speaker location | Above keyboard |
Hardware volume control? | yes |
Integrated microphone? | yes |
Integrated webcam? | yes |
Camera megapixel rating | 0.3mp |
Fingerprint reader | no |
Smartcard reader | no |
Carry case | no |
Battery and performance tests | |
Battery life, light use | 3hr 55min |
Battery life, heavy use | 57min |
Overall application benchmark score | 1.53 |
Office application benchmark score | 1.42 |
2D graphics application benchmark score | 1.52 |
Encoding application benchmark score | 1.35 |
Multitasking application benchmark score | 1.84 |
3D performance (crysis) low settings | 42fps |
3D performance setting | Low |
Operating system and software | |
Operating system | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
OS family | Windows 7 |
Recovery method | Recovery partition, burn own recovery discs |
Software supplied | Microsoft Works 9 |
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.