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UNSURPASSED STYLE: Expanding on the sophisticated elegance of the current line, the new dv series is defined by fluid, modern lines and metalized finishes with surprising innovations inside and out. The dv7 series Intersect Imprint features an argyle-like pattern for subtle contrast to the liquid appearance of the etallic finish. And touch media controls light up and become visible only when the system is powered on further enhancing the clean appearance. HP¿s mobile products have won coveted International Red Dot, iF and CES Innovation design awards and been recognized by other leading design institutions. MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT: Providing more choices than ever, HP MediaSmart enables access to DVDs, videos, photos, music, karaoke, games, and Internet at the touch of a button. Built-in demos show you how to add music to your slide shows or videos with drag-and-drop functionality ¿ and much more. An HDMI port enables you to watch films on an HD TV. Muvee Reveal makes creating films complete with effects and transitions a snap! Extras include dual headphone jacks and an HP Mobile Remote Control. What's in the box: dv7-2180us laptop, 120W AC Adapter, 8-Cell Lithium-Ion battery, Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 with 60 days complimentary live update, Microsoft Works, HP MediaSmart. Muvee Reveal, Cyberlink DVD Suite, Adobe Acrobat Reader and HP Games Powered by Wild Tangent
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 love it |
| Review Date: July 18, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Kjh, Columbus, OH USA |
I did some price compares and for the price, you won't find another laptop in this class.
I work in the industry and am a power user by any definition. This is noticeably faster than any PC I've ever used and is comparable to some of the low-end servers I work with.
I was a little nervous about the graphics card -- nVidia being my preference -- but the graphics are fast and stunning. Vista sits quietly on this machine, rarely taking up more than 1 or 2% of the cpu at idle.
I've had mine for about a week. I'm upgrading from a Toshiba with a heat sync issue that is constantly running too hot. Because of the heavy graphics card and cpu, I was really nervous about heat dissipation on this laptop, but so far, it runs very cool most of the time. Heavy graphics will cause the thing to heat up a little to the touch, but even without a laptop cooler, it's still manageable. With one, it cools down to nothing.
Pros:
-- it's fast. Even something as simple as loading a web page over wifi is visibly faster than my old Toshiba dual core. Everything from the wifi "N" card to the 6 gb ram, really kicks in.
-- price. Comparable laptops will cost you over $2000 and probably closer to $3000. As someone pointed out, the Alienware version is something like $5K. For the price, there isn't much this one doesn't have.
-- design: the ebony-black look is smooth. The keyboard is firm and decent.
-- video: rocks. I run 1600x900 in 32-bit color and the graphics are fast and clean.
--weight: hey.. it's a 17 inch monster laptop. But for it's size, it's still under 8 lbs. It's very "carry-able".
-- drive bays: this model comes with a built in 500GB drive and an open drive bay. I can't wait to fill that :D
-- nice features: Not sure I'll ever use the remote control (what's the point of a remote on a laptop?) but the touch sensitive volume control, the built in web cam, the "disable" button on the glide pad -- all really nice additions.
Cons: (there aren't many, but)
-- USB ports: it has every port you can dream of from HDMI to a modem. But it only has 2 USB. I'd gladly sacrifice the modem for 2 more USB. The laptop does have blue tooth, though, which offsets this a bit.
-- 5400rpm drive: if it had a 7200rpm, it'd be a near-perfect PC. I will say that I haven't noticed a slowness yet, though.
-- full keyboard: the keyboard has a keypad, which is great! only the keypad puts the rest of the keyboard a bit off-center. I've had it for a week, and I'm just now getting used to it. Not a huge deal, but annoying at first to get used to off-center typing.
In short, I don't know that i've been this taken with a PC for years.And I don't think you'll find anything better without paying at least twice the price.
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Good Value For Your Dollar
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| Review Date: August 6, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Theodore P. Summers, Marietta, GA USA |
I bought this system direct from HP because I was able to use my wife's HP corporate discount which allowed me to get this notebook for $1100.00 USD.
The system runs cooler than I expected and that's a good thing as it shows good ventilation of this unit design. I also noticed that it has a extra open bay for a second hard drive that can be installed. On the other hand I did not like the location of the CMOS battery as it is very easy to remove thus making it very easy to over ride any BIOS password you may enable. That said I wish it came with Vista Ultimate installed by default so you could enable Bitlocker drive encryption for a extra layer of security.
The unit is really designed to be a Desktop replacement, but mobile users should not have any real issues using it as a portable laptop. The mobile Q9000 CPU and 8 cell battery provide good field performance as well as runtime for normal business uses.
Overall however I would have to say that the unit has a nice combination of features and performance to keep most users very happy, no matter if they are getting this notebook for business or entertainment purposes.
The free upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released just might improve the overall performance of the system as well when using windows applications.
If you decide you want to install a second hard drive you will need to purchase the caddy in addition to the SATA hard drive size you wish to install. You can buy the caddy online, the best price I found was $40(USD) dollars. |
At this price this laptop is a steal
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| Review Date: August 19, 2009 |
| Reviewer: J. McDaniel, |
You won't find a laptop comparable to this one for less than $2000.
Some details not given in the specs -
- supports up to 3 displays (laptop display, hdmi, vga)
- has a dock port
- video card uses DDR3 memory
- mousepad power can be turned on and off via a button
- full numeric keyboard!
- the HP recovery partition software asks you if you want to backup your program and user files to a USB hard drive before performing the recovery (SO helpful if you haven't made a recent backup!)
- the default sound settings are horrible and require some tinkering to get the speakers giving their maximum quality of sound. Volumes are down 50% and all the features are turned off by default.
- the 1600 x 900 resolution isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. After the initial few seconds I didn't even notice the difference between it and my old laptop's display.
- Very sturdy design although easily scratchable.
- 5.3 Windows Experience base score (RAM). Other than the RAM everything else is a 5.6 - 5.9.
- BIOS gives the option to simulate multiple processors with the CPU's multiple cores (advanced users only). |
Best value for the price
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| Review Date: August 4, 2009 |
| Reviewer: A. Peffers, |
(Edited to note that the model I purchased is the DV7 2185 model - basically identical.)
I have had this product for four weeks. I bought it for business use with some moderate graphic editing applications.
Pros: It's plenty fast, and will be useful long after the software finally catches up to it's capabilities. I expect this laptop to be adequate for the next five years.
There's not really much to dislike about this item. It's fast, the 17" screen is nice, the four USB ports are more than enough, the 3 hour battery life (on the power saver setting) has already came in handy on more than one occasion, the number pad, the built in scroller into the touchpad, the HDMI output, etc. all make for a very good user experience.
The bad: No dealbreakers, but there are a few things that could have been better.
The battery gets quite warm. I have to position my chill pad off center so the fan blows right on the battery, which is a little awkward.
The 1600 * 900 resolution leaves a little to be desired. I generally run a 24" LCD concurrently, so it isn't a big issue, but when I am without the extra monitor, a resolution of 1680 * 1050 would be much more convenient. Also, with most laptops, the viewing angles aren't the greatest.
The sound of the onboard speakers is very mediocre. For a machine built largely in part to service the gaming market, I thought this would be better.
The delete key is tiny. I know this is normal, but it means that I have to learn to type better.
The touch controls for the volume and mute are often slow to respond.
When I plug a HDMI cable in for my external monitor, it often changes the default sound to the speakers on the monitor. I have to manually go into the sound control of the control panel to change it back, even after I have unplugged the HDMI cable.
All in all, this is an amazing machine, being the first reasonably priced laptop with a Core2Quad processor. Despite it's glitches, I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a laptop in this price range.
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One laptop to rule them all
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| Review Date: September 1, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Damien Alvarado, Seattle, WA |
I am an IT consultant and I get machines assigned to me when I begin work with a new client. I don't always have the right tools installed and having multiple laptops to manage means I typically carry two machines. I wanted a single laptop that I could configure to my desire and then turn any machine assigned to me by a client into a virtual image and run from my one laptop. I selected this HP because it has a quad core processor with virtualization enabled, 6Gb of RAM, and a 500Gb hard drive. Not all processors used in laptops have the virtualization instructions enabled. If you plan on running virtualization you should check the Intel or AMD homepage and make sure the processors installed can handle it.
Some users are worried about Nvidia vs ATI for graphics but I primarily use development tools like Visual Studio, SQL Server Mangement Studio and SQL Developer most of the time and the games I like to play are about 10 years old (Starcraft, Quake). If high end gaming is on your to do list I don't know how well this machine would do since the cores only run at 2Ghz.
I installed Windows 7 on this laptop as soon as I got it and that was a very smooth process. These machines are eligible for the Windows 7 upgrade from HP/Microsoft but I'm and MSDN subscriber so I have access to the bits now. I then reinstalled only the select drivers I needed to enable the touch controls on the top, the scroll ability of the track pad and the video card drivers. Guess what, no more bloatware! Gone is all the trial software that ships with so many PCs now. Everything is running very well now and Windows 7 has been a pleasure to use. I disabled the constant security reminders, so it looks slick but with none of the annoyance of Vista asking me if I'm sure I want to do X, Y, Z. Adding a networked printer to this laptop was a dream but I think that is more a matter of Windows 7 plus the printer in question (HP OfficeJet Pro 8500) than this particular laptop.
I have converted two physical machines into VMs and run them from a USB 2.0 drive. I would like to get the second hard drive installed because I don't want my host OS competing with the guest OS for disk I/O. The 6Gb of RAM and quad cores means I can run the VMs at full strength and flip back effortlessly to my host OS. when I say "full strength" that means I run them configured with dual cores and 2Gb of RAM just like they have in the "real world". When I was testing the VM software on the two laptops in question I had to dial down the RAM used by the guest because it caused my host OS to run out of RAM and thrash on the disk. I only run one VM at a time and have not yet used up all the RAM. This is great considering I use memory intensive programs like SQL Server, Reporting Services, Integration Services, Visual Studio, Firefox, IIS, and VMWare of course. Running server apps on my laptop while navigating between the guest and host OS all while listening to my music without skips or pause brings a smile to my face.
The battery has decent life and there are lots of power options to toggle to extend the battery or crank up the performance. I've seen some complaints about the screen resolution but I appreciate it because I look at text most of the day and having a higher resolution would add more strain to my eyes. One of my laptops is a Lenovo with a 15 inch sreen and a very high resolution and at its native setting it is very tough to read. If you decrease the resolution on the Lenovo everything looks stretched and distorted even though it is bigger and easier to read.
For the type of work I do and the price of this laptop I'm very pleased and would recommend it to other IT professionals that would like "one laptop to rule them all". |
A big punch for a reasonable price
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| Review Date: September 17, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Eric J. Kerkove, Iowa - USA |
I think the specs of this machine really speak for themselves, and when you put them beside the price, your getting the power of a high end laptop, at the price of the more modest options available.
The design, weight, and functionality of this laptop is really top notch and will keep you playing even high end games for years to come. I've been hesitant to buy HP computers in the past, but I just could not pass up the chance to get a machine like this when it was the only one of it's caliber in my price range. I was not disappointed.
My only beef is that the shiny black finish and the metallic touch pad show fingerprints often and clearly. But the beautiful wide screen and comfortable keyboard more than make up for such a minor design flaw.
Really a good machine AND a good deal. |
Awesome deal - really good gaming laptop
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| Review Date: October 2, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Eric, |
I use this laptop mostly for gaming and so far it's proven a solid performer. World of Warcraft runs lag free with the video quality set to ultimate (1x over sample) with the screen resolution set quite high 1900x
Network setup was a breeze. The system connected to my Netgear 802.11G WAP with no difficulty. WPA+TKIP set up was also straight forward. Performance is at the limit of my ISP at 6GBps
The system is fast, and I mean really fast. With 4 cores running at 2.0 Ghz this laptop can haul the mail (computationally speaking). Not a single game I've run on this system ran in anything other than high quality mode.
One real bonus is the HDMI port. I connected the laptop to my Sharp Aquos 52" LCD HDTV and WoW was a blast to play. It looks awesome!
The display is bright and sharp. Very high resolution but you must look at it nearly head on or it gets odd. The LCD finish is very shiny so if glare is a concern you may want to look at this unit in person before buying one.
The eSATA port came in very useful for plugging in an external SATA drive (with appropriate enclosure). Backups are a snap. I also was able to hook up my Belkin gaming keypad and USB headset without issue. Ventrillo works fine (run as admin),
The previous reviewers' comment on the touchpad seems off. I've been using the touchpad with no issues at all. The touch pad has a neat scrollbar area that you can use to scroll the screen and the normal mouse area. If you want to use a external USB mouse you can turn off the touchpad by pressing a button above the pad.
The keyboard has a really soild quality feel to it. Not cheap feeling at all. Touch sensitive controls include Mute and volume. Standard CD type controls and a WiFi off control -you can turn off the wireless by touching the antenna light on the body of the using - nice.
The hard drive is a bit on the slow side at 5400 RPM for a gamer but it's not too bad. Sound quality is good and a equalizer that is included in the audio driver lets you tweak the audio to your hearts content.
In closing; this is a high quality laptop with a rich high-end feature set that would have cost thousands more only a few years ago. A definite "must consider" unit if you in the market for a new laptop
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DO NOT BUY THIS
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| Review Date: September 10, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Name, Kalamazoo, MI United States |
| HP has a known design flaw in many of their touch pads and it is included on this laptop. Instead of using a "frosted" touch pad design they use glossy - the pad quickly becomes covered smudges and causes bizarre conductivity which makes the pointer disappear and reappear on the other side of the screen. HP knows about this design flaw and refuses to fix it or do anything to resolve the situation. |
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