 "Good deal, a couple of drawbacks" | 2009-11-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: ANBN1AK9FYSEK |
Purchased the DV6-1350US.
Pros:
Price seems to change weekly on Amazon, but if you can get it at the lower price, it is a good deal.
Design, features, speed are all good.
Windows 7, so far so good.
Battery life good with extended battery.
Cons:
Extended battery sticks out of the bottom and makes it a little more bulky.
No firewire port (for this model).
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 "Nice Product" | 2009-11-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: AAHN7T2N0JE8K |
This is a recent purchase for me. So far it's been great. I like the crisp look of the screen, the feel of the keyboard, how nicely the mousepad works, etc. Ergonomics are important for a laptop and this one doesn't disappoint. The overall weight seems to be light without feeling fragile. I love the numeric keypad as this is what I'm used to having with a desktop computer. The arrow keys are positioned right where I want them, however, the page up and page down , home, end keys are located at the top of the numeric keypad which I don't really like. Guess you can't have it all in a laptop. I haven't tested out the battery yet, so I cannot comment on it. The processing/speed of it seems great.
All in all a good machine. Based on past purchases of HP machines, it should be reliable. Very easy to use and Windows 7 seems much improved over Vista or XP.
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| "HP DV6 with Windows 7" | 2009-11-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1ZWO8HWWCVDV4 |
I purchased model DV6-1354US with 500gb hard drive and 6 cell battery. I use this laptop for editing photos with Adobe Photoshop CS4, as well as editing audio with Adobe Audition 2.0.
I have a five year old HP laptop running XP and it is still going strong. Despite outsourced Indian phone support, I was able to communicate support issues effectively. I am confident in future hardware performance and support from HP.
Transition from XP to Windows 7 was intuitive. The new taskbar is my favorite improvement. Followed by much better graphic interface and widgets. Some of my XP software causes Windows 7 to turn off Aero mode. I feel that windows has caught up with Apple in terms of graphics and workflow.
As far as laptop is concerned, Dave from Portland has a great review comparing the different models available on Amazon. The DV6-1354US is sufficient for me to use Adobe Photoshop and Audition, as well as multitask.
I will never go to a laptop again without a numeric keypad, this was an unexpected plus. I do miss the old HP media controls above the keyboard. They are replaced now by a volume and wireless control. I like that they are no longer buttons but touch sensitive surfaces above the keyboard.
The DV6 is quieter and cooler than my old HP. The power cord is beefier, which was always a problem with my old HP. Although I would prefer a magnetic power cord like Apple offers. Compared to other manufacturers, I would have to say that HP has the best price for great, reliable hardware.
Everything is a wonderful improvement except for the sound. Frequently, friends would ask where the music was coming from when I used my old DV1000. I felt that the sound was very rich for such a small system. I find the DV6 to have a much shallower, smaller sound that finds trouble filling a bedroom. For this reason, I drop the DV6 to four stars.
Also, the DV6 doesn't come with recovery disks. You need 3 DVD+R or -R (not RW) disks to create your own.
Overall, I really enjoy this computer, and probably will continue to enjoy it for another 5 to 7 years until RAM is in petabytes and laptops cook dinners. If I had to do it again I would still choose it over an Acer, Asus, Dell, Mac, or Sony. |
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| "Very good so far" | 2009-11-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: ATHT7RRT6Y7E |
I got the DV6-1360US because I wanted a decent graphic gard to play game. We have been using it for a few days. Overall I am very satisfied. I did not give it a 5 star because I am concerned that it got quit hot when playing games.
The setup was straight forward. The only problem I had was with setting up the wireless connection. I initially set it up with a lined connection. Setting up the wireless connection was easy, but it won't allow me to access the internet ("unidentified network, no access to internet"). I fixed it by rebooting.
Pros:
1. Amazon price is fantastic! I have been searching for a good laptop for weeks. This is the best one!
2. A decent video card. My son played WIC with it. He was overjoyed to see the frame rate jumps to 30, 40, 50 and more!
3. It has more functions that I expected, given the price. I wasn't expecting a card reader and web cam. After I got the laptop, I got a little greedy: would be nice to have a TV tuner, too, for the same price!
4. Abundant capacity.
Cons:
1. The video card can get VERY hot when playing WIC game. This is expected since it is a graphics intensive game. But I am a little worried, especially long term. I am thinking about getting a cooling pad. The temperature problem happens only when playing intense games. The temperature went back to normal for normal use. I have been trying to find info on how the graphics card is configured without much luck. So all I can do now it to have faith in HP that they did this correctly and it fires up the video card only when needed. |
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| "Good deal" | 2009-11-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: ANBN1AK9FYSEK |
I thought this laptop was a good deal for the price I purchased it at, [...] including rebate. Although there seems to be some price changes lately which would make things different.
The laptop is good. It's got everything I need. Windows 7 seems to work well.
My only complaint would be the design of the battery. Personally I would have preferred if the extended battery stuck out of the back of the laptop, instead of the bottom. This would have made it easier to carry around and place in my briefcase.
But certainly not a deal breaker. |
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| "A good machine; would buy again" | 2009-10-31 |
| - Reviewed By gcooka |
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. |
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