HP Pavilion Dv2 Review
Although HP has been one of the major players in the netbook field, it has, like so many other companies, seen that eventually the netbook and notebook will merge. We’re guessing that this has been the major philosophy behind their new Pavilion Dv2. This cross between a notebook and netbook carries some impressive features like the ability to handle full 1080p HD playback from a Blu-Ray option and with a starting price of $699, it’s not the cheapest option out there, but is a great compromise between performance and size.
DESIGN
The specs and design of the Dv2 sits more in line with that of the standard netbook. But features and specs are closer to an ultra portable. The system comes with a 1.6MHz AMD Athlon Neo 64-bt processor, ATI Radeon HD 3210 GPU with 256MB of dedicated memory. Of course with those specs you can expect nothing less than Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bt. Memory s 3GB DDR2 with the option for 4GB. A standard 160GB Hdd as well as external Blu-ray drive with DL support.
All these come in 12.1 inch HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800) with 802.11B/G WLAN and 4-cell Li-Ion battery. In terms of ports you get 3 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI 1.3 connector, 5-in-1 multi-card reader, microphone in and headphone/audio ougt545 In terms of ports you get 3 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI 1.3 connector, 5-in-1 multi-card reader, microphone in and headphone/audio out ports, VGA out and Kensington lock slot.
PERFORMANCE
The performance on the system is a lot better than expected. HP (like Sony) has stressed that this is not a netbook but rather an ultra portable and not a netbook. We would have disagreed with them had they not included such specs that not only sound good on paper but translate into real performance. Thanks to the included Neo 64-bit processor you get a scaled down version of AMD’s notebook processors that boost 50%-150% the performance of the regular Atom processor.
Not only that but the discrete graphics option (thanks to ATI) means that you will be able to play World of War Craft without any hitch though we would not suggest trying Crysis on this system.
Performance on Vista is great and all the Aero features of the OS work without a hitch. The only time you may notice a little lag is during very heavy graphic intensive games but regular graphical programs like Photoshop, Flash and Premier can all perform very nicely.
CONCLUSION
The Pavilion is supposed to hit streets in March and will cost between $700-1000. That might not sound like a bargain but if you actually put it in the league it belongs in (Voodoo Envy 133 and Macbook Air), this works out to be quite a bargain. No doubt that won’t justify spending your life savings on this system, but we’re sure that if you should decide to carry one home, your Macbook Air and Voodoo Envy 133 fans won’t be laughing at you anymore.
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