Jewelzz

I recently received an HP dv2 review unit to check out, play with and see exactly what it offers. I’ve only had the chance to use the dv2 for a little more than a week, but think I have a good feel for what’s offered and any pros or cons I feel the dv2 has.

The dv2 is approximately 11.5 inches wide, 9.5 inches, and deep x 1.25 inches thick. The thickness tapers off to a little less than an inch in the front when closed. It has a 12.1" diagonal HP BrightView LED display which I consider to be so much more usable than the typical 7″ to 10″ netbook screen. The screen measures 12.1 inches diagonally which is 2 or 3 inches bigger than most netbook screens. You can get the dv2 in express black or, like the unit I received, moonlight white. The dv2 is considered and entertainment laptop and comes loaded with HP MediaSmart, Muvee Reveal, Cyberlink DVD Suite, Adobe® Acrobat Reader, HP Games Powered by Wild Tangent. It also comes with Music Maker 14 which you can install.

The screen and keyboard are comparable to most other small notebooks. Compared to the mini the dv2 is one pound heavier and the monitor is two inches bigger. After getting used to the key locations I don’t see any problem using the dv2 on a regular basis.

As much as I like the HP dv2 there are a few cons. I’m not a huge fan of any laptop or mini trackpad and as nice as the shiny silver tone trackpad on the dv2 looks, I have to use a bit more pressure to get the pointer to move. Luckily HP provided a wireless mouse as well, does that mean HP is aware that pretty isn’t always functional? For the size of the dv2 the fan is pretty noisy. The heat vent isn’t located in the back like most laptops; rather it’s located on the left side towards the front. Since I sit in a not so over-sized chair, the heat deflects off the arms of the chair. No wonder I thought the dv2 ran hotter than most laptops. I just need to find a small "snack" table to use along with the cooling pad.

A few key pros, for me anyway, the dv2 has three, yes three USB ports. Combine that with every other port you could possibly need not to mention they are all conveniently located on the right or left, the 4GB of RAM and the 320GB hard drive and you have yourself a great little laptop
This was my first experience working with Microsoft® Windows Vista, if I could install Microsoft® Windows XP, I would do it in a heartbeat. I’m not a fan of a pop up window appearing every time I want to install, delete or change an application and boot up is one of the slowest experiences with Vista. HP should consider having XP installed or waiting for Windows® 7.

Included with my review unit is an external Lightscribe Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer. Sadly I’m not a Blu-Ray DVD player owner so in order to test the Blu-Ray player out I purchased Grand Torino. Great movie, awesome in Blu-Ray viewed with the ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD Premium Graphics.

Aside from game and program intensive people the HP Pavilion dv2 is powerful with enough speed to satisfy most people. All in all the price of the dv2 is comparable to laptops with similar features.


OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack1)
PROCESSOR: AMD Turion™ Neo X2 Dual-Core Processor for Ultrathin Notebooks L625
PROCESSOR SPEED: 1.60 GHz
PROCESSOR CACHE: 1MB L2 Cache
MEMORY: 4096MB DDR2 System Memory (1 Dimm) • Max supported =4096MB
ACCESSIBLE MEMORY SLOTS: 1
VIDEO GRAPHICS: ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD Premium Graphics 3410 with M82-SE LP with up to 2302MB total graphics memory with 512MB dedicated
HARD DRIVE: 320GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
FINISH AND FEATURES: HP Moonlight Imprint finish & HP Webcam with integrated microphone(15)
MULTIMEDIA DRIVE: External LightScribe Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer
DISPLAY: 12.1” Diagonal WXGA High-Definition(8) HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
NETWORK CARD: Integrated 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
WIRELESS OPTION: Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth
DIGITAL MEDIA: 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
AUDIO: Altec Lansing with SRS Premium Sound
KEYBOARD: 82 key (92% Full size)
POINTING DEVICE: Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad
EXTERNAL NOTEBOOK PORTS: 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0
• 1 Headphone out
• 1 microphone-in
• 1 HDMI
• 1 VGA (15-pin)
• 1 RJ -45 (LAN)
DIMENSIONS:Unpackaged: 11.50"(L)x 9.45"(D)x 0.93"(min)/ 1.29"(max)
• Packaged: 16.5"(W) x 4.3"(D) x13.6"(H)
WEIGHT: Unpackaged: 3.81 lbs(12).
• Packaged: 8.0 lbs
POWER • 65W AC Adapter
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery



Want your very own HP Pavilion dv2? Shop HP

Our thanks to HP, Microsoft and Ivy Worldwide for their cooperation. A special thank you goes out to Halley Bass for taking care of the logistics and communication.

---

Electronic Punk

Great review!

That is a rather tasty looking laptop, I love the look of the keyboard.

As far as UAC goes, I would see if it is still bugging you once you have set up all your applications, otherwise you can easily disable it from the User module in the control panel.

---

Jewelzz

I really like the moonlight white. That along with the shiny silver touchpad make the unit stands out. Most people automatically think I have a Mac and are quite surprised when I tell them it's an HP laptop.

All the guys at work are drooling over my new 'toy'

I'm loving this laptop more and more each day. Hopefully I'll get to Frys in the next few days to purchase some LightScribe DVDs so I can fully review that portion of the unit.

---

Gigabot

Will you be reviewing the HP DV-6 (the one being given away in the contest)?

Jewelzz

I'm aware of disabling all the pop ups just haven't gotten around to finding where the settings might be. Will get to that soon, I hope

---

Jewelzz

Yes along with the mini and the syncables desktop software. Should have a quick prelim up tonight and something more substantial very soon.

---

Electronic Punk

Don't currently have Vista installed anywhere (upgrades!) but if you go to whatever the users control panel item was , you disable reboot and its gone!

---

Jewelzz

Thanks EP, will get to that hopefully soon

---