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HP Pavilion DV7-1240US 17.0-Inch Laptop
Amazon.com Price: View Sale Price (as of 2010-09-07 03:02:16 GMT) Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Product Description
Product Details
Video Reviews
Customer Reviews
The laptop is loaded with entertainment features like webcam, bluray, HDMI port, 4 USB ports, TWO headphone jacks and lightscribe! I will admit, the lightscribe was a huge plus. If you don't know, it's a way to laser etch artwork/words onto burned CDs/DVDs instead of using sticker labels or writing on them with permanent markers. I have no complaints with any of this stuff because these are all features I've not had until now and I'm just excited to have them at all. The laptop is blazingly fast compared to my old one (but that's not saying much). It has a neat touch bar above the keyboard that lets you quickly: mute/unmute, control volume, play, pause, forward, rewind, stop, and even turn off the wifi. It's a huge laptop, you may have a hard time finding a bag it will fit in (seriously), but it's not an issue for me. I love having such a large screen and I don't move the laptop around much (I would not have purchased a laptop this large for heavy travel). I also love that it has a full sized keyboard (YAY!) and a separate number keypad off to the right for super speedy number crunching! It has a cute little remote control so you can hook the laptop up to your TV and use it as a sometimes bluray/DVD player, it even stores in the side of the laptop when not in use. I also like that this machine doesn't seem to get hot at all...my old laptop you could fry eggs on that thing for how hot it ran!
The not so great stuff:
It comes with Vista and I don't like it, but it's not the laptop's fault, they all come with Vista now, don't they.
It has a lot of bloatware (a lot of preinstalled software that you probably don't need and just having it there takes up space and hogs memory/resources) and no easy way to remove it without doing a wipe/reinstall
...and it does not come with Vista CDs to do that which complicates things a bit.
I read a lot of reviews talking about the keys being almost unreadable, for everything else that came with this machine for this price...I was willing to paint them on myself if it was really that bad! I'm not sure if HP fixed the problem or if I'm not using the laptop in the same conditions as those with the complaints, but I can see/read them fine (I use the laptop indoors with ambient/indirect sun lighting for the most part). The keys and laptop are a metallic bronze color, so it has a bit of a mirror like finish that I could certainly do without...but it is not nearly as obnoxious/annoying/blinding as the laptops with that chrome/silver mirror finish. That's all with the aesthetics; not the important stuff (not to me anyway).
For the price and being chock full of features, I can't justify taking off a star for any of the very minor flaws. I've had this for almost a month now and I love it. I will update this review once I've had it longer should anything change or need mentioning.
The most appealing feature of this laptop is its superior casing and finish. Its very glossy and stands out with a bright light of the HP logo on the top lid (back of the monitor). The illuminating MediaSmart touch-sensitive functions above the keyboard also make it a uniquely designed laptop. Its color has an eloquent yet stylish appeal.
This laptop is not all cosmetic, however. It comes with enough processing power and memory to take on heavy duty multimedia for your audio and video needs. The sound quality is amazing with the Altec Lansing speakers providing SRS premium sound. It even has a great built in HP web cam with HP software to make taking tasteful pictures and recording professional video a cinch for even an amateur. This model does not have the built in TV Tuner or thumb print security features advertised on similar HP models. It does come with a preloaded version of Vista with SP1 and has Microsoft Office Home and Student trial version packaged for an out-of-the-box experience.
The laptop display is crystal clear with stunning graphic quality on a 17" monitor. Plenty of room with a full functioning keyboard and number pad that will make you feel as though you are using a desktop keyboard. I tried this laptop out for an entire day when I received it and it has proven well worth its price.
I was very satisfied with the Next Day shipping as the laptop arrived on time and had no noticeable defects. There was some adhesive tape stuck to the edge of the laptop, but was easily removed and with no physical damage to the device.
Incredibly this computer packs a lot of punch and is still light weight. It does not overheat even on your lap with a 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo. Beautiful LED lights flood the keyboard against the glossy chrome finish making it a perfect display for use in a dark or dim lit room.
The WiFi card is wonderful with extended range. I was able to pick up my router from the end of my drive way and even at the end of the street. The remote is included for media functionality. You can listen to your music or watch videos without having to touch the keyboard or mouse. The wireless remote fits neatly inside the dedicated slot above the SD-MS/Pro card reader. You've got 4 USB ports (2 on each side) and an place to plug in your HDMI cable to your HD TV. This is wonderful for me to give live presentations on an HD TV at work at conferences.
This is definitely a lot of bang for you buck. I had a Compaq Pressario laptop before this, which I bought on a limited budget at the time. I didn't think the battery would die on me so soon. This HP was definitely worth the extra cash.
I was originally thinking of buying a Dell before I bought the HP DV7, but considering the huge difference in price and much faster delivery this was a sweet deal. The Dell would have taken 4 days longer to ship with a higher shipping cost (on expedited shipping) and with the same specifications (at a $500 price tag difference). I bought this at around 11:40 PM on Tuesday from amazon and had it on my doorstep by 2:00 PM on Thursday.
Two thumbs up!
4GB DDR2-800 Samsung RAM-2 sticks 2GB each it is maxed out
Windows Vista 64bit flies even while testing on VMware with no RAM left to host pretty much, even runs Windows 7 x64 although lacking the extra bluetooth profiles included in Vista.
nVidia GeForce 9600M GT w/ 512MB VRAM running both my Sony Bravia 52V5200 or something like it as well as the main screen. Takes both without a lag, the TV on 1920x1080 and the main one at 1440x900.
Intel 5100AGN Wifi adapter
HDMI out with sound as well which is a great thing to have
eSATA in for hard drives.
Comes with 320 GB hard drive space - 298GB formatted
BD-ROM combo drive w/ DVD-+R/RW, it plays Pineapple Express and Eagle Eye without a hitch but you should still have the charger plugged in just in case.
Very long battery life. I haven't measured during use but it idles at a good 6 hours in both Vista and 7.
Excellent color gamut and clean display
Cons: I got it during CCity liquidation, well my parents did :)
Loaded with too much junk, didn't even bother starting Windows, went directly to reformat and reinstall and it loads within 40 sec.
5400RPM hard drive, still acceptable for me.
One dead pixel in the top center but unnoticable
Bluetooth and Wifi switch both in one touch button, you cant use one or the other.
All these minor problems did not repel me away from this masterpiece. I was a little surprised though to find it has bluetooth as well. It runs Windows 7 build 7000 64bit as good as Vista, similar battery life except 7 provides a few minutes more. It did come loaded with the usual OEM junk but I had my Vista disc, entered my product key from this machine and it activated fine. Installation for both Vista and 7 took no more than 20 minutes overall for it to complete everything from beginning to end. Windows 7 got the WiFi chip and the ethernet out of the box as well. It saw the 9600GT as a regular VGA card. I ran all the driver installs with Admin rights and Vista compatibility and they all work fine except the integrated bluetooth, it is still stuck on the basic profiles. I do not use Lightscribe very much so that does not apply to me. There is a model exact to this one only it has both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Who needs HD-DVD anyways, the original movies are already out on Blu-Ray anyways.
[...]
The outputs are varied and numerous, and include HDMI and eSATA. But I think I'm most excited about the long term possibilities of adding a second internal hard drive to this puppy.
All right.... cons....
No bluetooth... but that doesn't bother me too much (get a usb bluetooth port or there's a place for an internal upgrade if you're into that sort of thing). And I hate this weird shiny bronze color they chose (with a shiny chrome touchpad). A lot of bloatware, but that's to be expected no matter what laptop you buy from these big companies.
Other than the color, there's nothing wrong with it that can't be fixed. And let's face it, you don't use your laptop for the color anyways. Incidentally, I don't mind much the silver letters on the kays. In most lighting if you're looking for something you can find it (or just tilt the screen towards the keyboard a bit), but it's not for people who don't know how to type at all in the dark.
It comes with a free 60 day trial of Norton anti virus (which I don't like). A screen comes up telling you to start your trial NOW, and there is no way to exit from it. I reduced it to the tray, and went on setting up the wireless. The disk light would come on and STAY ON, even for the simplest operations. Clearly something was thrashing it.
In desperation I removed Norton and installed different anti-virus software. Everything straightened out immediately. Maybe if you go ahead and start Norton, you can avoid this trouble. Vista has a reputation for being slow, but with 4M and a 2.1 Turion it's fast enough for me.
Some people complained about the color and the visibility of the keyboard: for me it was not an issue at all and i rather see those complaints as perfectionist whiners, i dont really understand why 1/3 of the reviews talk about this silly matter that is barely noticeable.I was worried when i read those reviews because i bought it from abroad for a friend to carry it for me in Brazil where i am, but after i received it i found out that this was not even an issue. So if you read this review and were worried about the keyboard, trust me this wont be an issue unless you live in a cave...then you wont need a laptop altogether !!!
you can also see the reviews at CNET and they rate this machine as a great one too !!!
Tags: 17.0inch • dv71240us • laptop • pavilion