HP Pavilion dv7 Laptop Review
With its 17 inches high resolution screen, Blu-ray drive and in-built TV tuner, the HP Pavilion dv7 is perfect for you if you are going to put it to rigorous multimedia usage. It offers strong performance and sleek design, providing high end experience to the users who are ready to spend more for the best.
Futuristic design
The HP Pavilion dv7 is among the three new notebooks released under the dv series and ushers a fresh Pavilion designing. The old imprint patterns have been replaced the onyx lid which has subtle grid pattern, extending to the keyboard deck. Weighing only 8.4 pounds, the laptop is easy to be carried around in your laptop bag. There is a smooth touch sensitive panel above the speaker strip over the keyboard and QuickPlay launch key and power button are distinct control visible almost all the time. Other controls include fast forward, rewind, stop, play/pause, mute, volume and WiFi. The keys on the keyboard deck are very comfortable to type on with a bouncy feeling. As far as the measurements of the laptop are concerned, it is 5.6 x 11.6 x 1.5 inches, which is a convenient size to operate on and also carry around.
Ports and storage
Apart from Blu-ray drive, the notebook has 3 USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI ports and a eSATA/USB 2.0 port. There are also modem jacks, Ethernet, IR, one mic and two headphone ports and also an expansion port. There is also an ExpressCard/54 slot and 5in1 memory card reader. The webcam of the laptop has been paired with CyberLink YouCam software that provides unique special effects like fun filters, animations, frames and avatars. It has a fluid video and lifelike loud sound. Although the unit comes with dual 200 GB hard drive running at a speed of 7200 rpm, they are not available to the general public. The users can purchase dual 160GB hard drives that also run at a speed of 7200 rpm.
Performance and battery life
The dv7 takes around two minutes to boot up which is because of the boatload of the bloatware that includes AIM, Norton Antivirus 2008, Microsoft Office 2007 and Yahoo Toolbar. Thus, the two minutes are worth the waiting for. The latest Intel Processor and 3GB RAM of the dv7 allows effortless multitasking which is a major pro for the choosy users.
The Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 CPU of the laptop gives out strong performance and its PCMark05 score of 6307 is around 1500 points more than average for a desktop replacement category. The 8-cell battery of the dv7 lasts around 2.47 hours of continuous internet surfing.
Conclusion
The HP Pavilion dv7 laptop is a smart way to go for the shoppers who expect speed, good looking design and lots of features. It has trounced many other popular laptops in the market in both performance and design. If you want to have greater access to multimedia, then this big-screen machine will make you very happy with its speedy performance.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Thanks, I was actually thinking about purchasing a new laptop. I’ve been a reader since mid 2008 and I always loved your writing style and the issues you talked about.
Good job, yet another great article.
December 15th, 2009 at 6:09 am
This is very stylish and also offers powerful graphics, great sound, and superb wireless performance.Your tips too good for a buyer..
March 3rd, 2010 at 6:42 am
Hello, Eric.
Thank you for your informative and helpful Web site and blog (and I really like the StudioPress theme for WordPress).
I feel morally obligated, however, to warn people: NEVER buy an HP notebook! HP will not support it, especially when it needs repairs, and you will soon realize how cheaply made (with cheap parts and assembled by barely paid workers in China. (Note that Dell and IBM and Lenovo are also guilty of exploiting these workers, who would literally be slaves except they are paid the equivalent of a few cents (US) a day.)
On 01 August 2008, I was given a new HP Pavilion DV5-1003nr “Entertainment” Notebook PC. The notebook was assembled with a defective Quanta motherboard and a defective 2.0-GHz AMD Turion X2 dual-core processor.
It also has the “optional” Blu-ray drive, and I have never viewed a Blu-ray DVD with it — nor do I need the IrDA remote control that came with the notebook, because IF I did decide to watch a DVD on the HP Pavilion DV5-1003nr, using the remote control would be absurd because I would have to sit close to the notebook’s 15.4-inch screen.
The bottom of the case generated so much heat that contact (even through thick denim jeans) cause second-degree burns in less than two seconds.
HP’s level-one technical support (e-mail and telephone) ignored me — completely — until I sent a message to HP CEO Mark Hurd.
With the exception of one HP employee (who works from Houston, TX, and will soon retire after 35 years with HP), HP’s employees have proven to be worse than indifferent or unhelpful: I have been traumatized by the screaming/shout, outbursts of manic belligerence, profanity, verbal attacks and personal insults (many of which refer to my mother), and have had one employee in Palo Alto (my second case manager) refuse to honor HP’s 90-day warranty on repairs — with much rude shouting — and slam the phone down so hard (when he hung up on me) that my ear hurt for several hours.
I am writing this reply in early March 2010 and I am still battling with HP — and, after the third repair, I finally persuaded HP to replace the Quanta motherboard, but the technician removed the defective CPU from the original, defective motherboard and installed it on the new motherboard. (Typically, and with CPU usage at 100%, Core 0 operates at 33% capacity and Core 1 operates at 0% capacity.)
I have always been polite and “bite my lip” so I do not say anything rash that I will regret. I have never asked for a new/replacement computer, only that HP repair the notebook (discontinued in late 2009) and end a nightmare that started in August 2008: I merely want the notebook to work, but HP seems determined not to help me and I am not sure why I am subjected to such cruel abuse every time I contact HP (although I cannot believe all HP customers endure such vitriolic verbal attacks).
The HD LCD display, ‘faux silver’ (plastic) keyboard, touch pad, and entire “working” area generate so much glare that I cannot see the characters on the keys (two or three of which fall off and refuse to stay on each time the notebook is “repaired”).
Eric, you do not mention the brand or type of video card in the HP Pavilion DV7 that you reviewed, but I am assuming that it is an integrated Nvidia CPU.
(HP typically bundles non-discreet Nvidia GPUs on notebooks with Intel processors and non-discreet ATI/AMD Radeon HD video cards with AMD64-based notebooks, and the latter makes sense because AMD acquired ATI several years ago, although AMD has miserably failed to fulfill any of its promises about open-source video card drivers for Linux…and apparently plans to do nothing.)
If I had any enemies, I would not wish for my worst one to be stuck with a “lemon” HP computer and endure such sadistic behavior.
If you perform a Web search on the terms ‘HP’ and ’s*cks’ (or the expletive of your choice), the number of “hits” (results) will overwhelm you — and, yet, HP sold more notebook and laptop computers in the US in 2009 than any other OEM (despite HP’s infamy for low-quality components, a lack of support, and well-publicized cases of deception and indifference to customers.
I am not trying to “trash” HP, but I want to warn individual users, in particularly (unless you can afford an attorney and have detailed and accurate documentation). Because the profit margins on computers is so low, HP does not care about fulfilling its legal and ethical obligations to support and service the “disposable and consumer-line) products despite the fact that a warranty is a legally binding contract.
‘Caveat emptor’!
Cordially,
David