Review of HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition QE 15.6" Laptop PC, Quad Core

Customer Ratings:

Bought one from HP for more cost, gave to my son. I liked it (got to play with it before giving it to him), and he likes it. Decided to get one for me to replace an older Toshiba (i7-740), which was very good 2 years ago. A gift card from my brother and wife brought the price down to "even better".

Pros: The i7-2670 is definitely faster, and the 4+ hour battery life improved on the Toshi's 2 to 2-1/2 hours. Get the 9-cell battery for an extra half to one hour over the standard 6-cell. The Toshi had a 12-cell, but the newer 2nd Gen Intel processor's technology is much more battery efficient, yet still has a noticeable improvement in processing power. Much less heat than the Toshi. My HP had a couple of items just one step down from what was on my son's, but otherwise identical. I like this dv6tqe very much, running Win7Ultimate, Cyberlink DVD Ultra 11, Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Norton 360. The 8 Gb DDR3 1333 RAM does a good job allowing multiple windows. USB 3.0 ports with external 3.0 hard drive transfers data up to 4 times faster than 2.0 in my real-world Norton backups, broadband, and photo transfers. Fairly easily set up, the fingerprint reader is a convenient extra layer of security.

Cons: The Beats Audio is a joke, the Toshi's Harmon-Kardons are MUCH better. Still, sound is ok for a knockaround laptop, just not very good for music. My son's has a 1080p screen, significantly better than my nice 720p. The 1366x728 (720p) is better than standard, but not as good as 1080. My son's has the 7200 rpm hard drive, mine has the 5400 rpm, so his response time is slightly better. I hear a clicking when it runs, indicating the head is moving, a very minor irritation. Windows Performance Rating is the same at 5.9, caused by the hard drive being the weakest link. But SSDs aren't yet reliable, large, cost effective, or durable enough for my needs, fast as they are. The dark umber shell and wrist "pad" show fingerprints (skin oils). The DVD/BD tray is still hard to open: the button has to be really depressed to make it work. The touch pad can be (seems to vary) VERY sensitive, so I use an external mouse. HP's Support Assistant took getting used to, not fully logical, but has some good information. Like Windows' problem help, all but useless. Bloatware was easy to remove.

As a result, I gave it 4 stars. It's a very good laptop (not for music lovers, middlin' for gamers) for everyday, general power use. Again, I like it for my uses. I've worked with computers since 1983 (a Tandy), and DOS through Windows 7(SP1). Desktops (currently a Dell Studio XPS 435mt with i7-920 and 12 Gb DDR3 1333 RAM) and laptops. Consider myself an advanced novice (maybe just barely intermediate), not a tech, but help many other folks who want computers but have no interest in tech. Amazon's price was right (especially with the gift card), but in order to get a more acceptable (buyer statistics) price, this particular setup skimps a bit on the components. Again, does well for everyday with a touch of power, cost versus benefit.

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I love this laptop. Only issue I have and it was my fault for not reading more carefully is that it is larger than I thought. I should probably have gotten the slightly smaller model since I travel internationally a lot and have to lug it around along with its huge power supply. That being said, on the positive side, the screen is excellent.