- Feb 4, 2009
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HP DV6-6135DX Review
Specs:
CPU: AMD A8-3500m Processor @ 1.5ghz w/Turbo Core up to 2.4Ghz
Memory: 6GB 667mhz
Graphics: AMD Radeon 6620G integrated graphics
Graphics 2: AMD Radeon 6750m dedicated graphics
Hard Drive: 640gb 5400rpm HDD
Screen: 15.6" 1366x768
Optical Drive: Blu-ray
Purchase Price: $519 / Newegg http
/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158073&Tpk=dv6-6135d
Windows 7
Real World Battery Life: 4.5 hours
My Rating: Out of the box, 8/10. After some tweaking, 9.5/10
First Impressions:
I took it out of the box and it was really sleek looking, much more impressive than what I hadseen in pictures on the internet. I opened it up and the first thing I saw was the HP crazy configure+register screen and I knew right then there would be a ton of bloatware.
I was right, but it's not too hard to get rid of. All in all you start with about 550gb free out of the 640gb HDD. There is a recovery partition and plently of software that runs alongside windows, does the same thing, but just takes up more room than just using windows. Oh well, I kinda expected that.
I had worried a bit about the processor but it turned out great. Everything is lightning fast, save extraction and installation, but it's still pretty good.
Here starts the sectional reviews.
Physical Laptop:
It looks really nice, and I've only had one issue and noticed a few minor flaws but it's pretty good. The top left corner of the keyboard section pops out. It doesn't affect typing, but it's visibly noticable, and when you type it pops back in. You can temporarily fix this by using your finger nail and pushing the keyboard forward so the latch goes under the chassis more, but it'll eventually happen again. It's not really a big deal.
The other thing I noticed was that the bottom half of the laptop isn't actually flat. It curves downward, like it's too heavy for itself, but the laptop itself isn't very heavy at all. It just looks kinda weird but it's not really that noticeable.
The keyboard takes a bit to get used to but now that I'm used to it it's really nice. The trackpad at first wasn't great, but it seems to be pretty good now. Multitouch is meh, but I think that's more windows than the actual computer. The LED around the trackpad is pretty cool.
The screen resoltion is a little small, but in games it's perfect. It's a bit small for some websites, etc, but it's not as bad as people say. The screen is very nice. The viewing angles are meh, but the screen gets very bright and is nice and crisp.
The Beats Audio speakers are okay, they sound decent but nothing special, not really noticeably different from most other laptops. The Beats Audio Program, however, is excellent. Plugging in some nice external speakers, you get a really nice sound with a lot of control.
There's also a button above the keyboard that opens your default internet browser. That's all. I don't really see the point of it, I never use it, but maybe someone would like that.
The fingerprint reader is actually pretty sweet. I use it for my windows logon and some websites too. The only problem is is that sometimes when you wake the computer up, the fingerprint software fails to initialize or something, and when you scan your fingerprint, it will just blink at you and nothing will happen. Overall, I like it though.
The CPU:
The cpu, in my opinion, is fantastic. Programs open up super quick, the only thing that is a bit slower is installing programs and extracting them, but by slower, I mean on average 4 or 5 seconds slower than my Phenom II X4 @3.5ghz.
It uses much less power than most Intel cpu's too, which means better battery life. Even more so when undervolting. The CPU undervolts like a dream, I can get an average of a .35v undervolt and still have it stable. Even while overclocking you can undervolt and still have it stable. The CPU is great for overclocking also. I run mine at 2.6ghz at my max temp has been 77 degrees C. I've seen a 3ghz stable overclock with some cooling mods. Again, overall a fantastic CPU.
Memory:
The memory, in short, is a problem. I've had many bluescreens because of the memory in my laptop. Not only is it super slow (667mhz, what?) it's two different brands of for each stick. It's 6gb but windows reads 5.4gb. Memory upgrades are cheap and I will be doing one soon, and will make an amendment to this review when I do.
Graphics:
The graphics in the laptop are amazing. The 6620g integrated graphics will play many mainstream demanding games on its own, like Fallout 3 and medium settings, and Call of Duty Black Ops at medium-high settings. The dedicated 6750m will play everything but the most demanding (The Witcher 2, Metro 2033 etc) On highest settings. Crossfiring the two GPUs will further increase performance. I can play Crysis on some High/some Very high at native resolution and 2x AA. This, in my opinion, is phenomenal.
Hard Drive:
Not much to say about this. A 7200rpm HDD would be fast than the 5400rpm in this. I'll probably upgrade eventually. It has 640gb advertised but the total size in windows is about 600gb, recovery partition included. You start off with probably about 550gb free.
Battery Life:
For what it is, the battery life is amazing. I get probably 5 hours with web browsing and text editing. If Idle, with the lowest brightness, at 99% with the laptop being on and idle for about 5 minutes, windows says 7 hours and 21 minutes, and Mioplanet Battery Meter shows 7 hours and 54 minutes. Gaming with onboard graphics will get me about 3 hours of battery and with the dedicated card I get about 1:30 to 2 hours.
The battery is a 6-cell 55wh battery. HP sells a 9cell 93wh battery for this laptop for $100. If for any reason you need to replace the battery, you could probably get about 8 hours of use and 10+ hours of idle. That's amazing.
All in all, with a little tweaking and some cheap upgrades, this laptop is awesome. I bought it refurbished off Newegg for only $550. You won't find a laptop with any features like this and performance like this for anywhere near that price. If you know a decent amount about computers, I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to game on the go, be productive for long periods of time, and doesn't want to burn their wallet.
If anyone notices anything missing from this review, let me know, and I'll add it. I plan on getting some pictures up pretty soon so check back for updates.
Specs:
CPU: AMD A8-3500m Processor @ 1.5ghz w/Turbo Core up to 2.4Ghz
Memory: 6GB 667mhz
Graphics: AMD Radeon 6620G integrated graphics
Graphics 2: AMD Radeon 6750m dedicated graphics
Hard Drive: 640gb 5400rpm HDD
Screen: 15.6" 1366x768
Optical Drive: Blu-ray
Purchase Price: $519 / Newegg http
/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158073&Tpk=dv6-6135dWindows 7
Real World Battery Life: 4.5 hours
My Rating: Out of the box, 8/10. After some tweaking, 9.5/10
First Impressions:
I took it out of the box and it was really sleek looking, much more impressive than what I hadseen in pictures on the internet. I opened it up and the first thing I saw was the HP crazy configure+register screen and I knew right then there would be a ton of bloatware.
I was right, but it's not too hard to get rid of. All in all you start with about 550gb free out of the 640gb HDD. There is a recovery partition and plently of software that runs alongside windows, does the same thing, but just takes up more room than just using windows. Oh well, I kinda expected that.
I had worried a bit about the processor but it turned out great. Everything is lightning fast, save extraction and installation, but it's still pretty good.
Here starts the sectional reviews.
Physical Laptop:
It looks really nice, and I've only had one issue and noticed a few minor flaws but it's pretty good. The top left corner of the keyboard section pops out. It doesn't affect typing, but it's visibly noticable, and when you type it pops back in. You can temporarily fix this by using your finger nail and pushing the keyboard forward so the latch goes under the chassis more, but it'll eventually happen again. It's not really a big deal.
The other thing I noticed was that the bottom half of the laptop isn't actually flat. It curves downward, like it's too heavy for itself, but the laptop itself isn't very heavy at all. It just looks kinda weird but it's not really that noticeable.
The keyboard takes a bit to get used to but now that I'm used to it it's really nice. The trackpad at first wasn't great, but it seems to be pretty good now. Multitouch is meh, but I think that's more windows than the actual computer. The LED around the trackpad is pretty cool.
The screen resoltion is a little small, but in games it's perfect. It's a bit small for some websites, etc, but it's not as bad as people say. The screen is very nice. The viewing angles are meh, but the screen gets very bright and is nice and crisp.
The Beats Audio speakers are okay, they sound decent but nothing special, not really noticeably different from most other laptops. The Beats Audio Program, however, is excellent. Plugging in some nice external speakers, you get a really nice sound with a lot of control.
There's also a button above the keyboard that opens your default internet browser. That's all. I don't really see the point of it, I never use it, but maybe someone would like that.
The fingerprint reader is actually pretty sweet. I use it for my windows logon and some websites too. The only problem is is that sometimes when you wake the computer up, the fingerprint software fails to initialize or something, and when you scan your fingerprint, it will just blink at you and nothing will happen. Overall, I like it though.
The CPU:
The cpu, in my opinion, is fantastic. Programs open up super quick, the only thing that is a bit slower is installing programs and extracting them, but by slower, I mean on average 4 or 5 seconds slower than my Phenom II X4 @3.5ghz.
It uses much less power than most Intel cpu's too, which means better battery life. Even more so when undervolting. The CPU undervolts like a dream, I can get an average of a .35v undervolt and still have it stable. Even while overclocking you can undervolt and still have it stable. The CPU is great for overclocking also. I run mine at 2.6ghz at my max temp has been 77 degrees C. I've seen a 3ghz stable overclock with some cooling mods. Again, overall a fantastic CPU.
Memory:
The memory, in short, is a problem. I've had many bluescreens because of the memory in my laptop. Not only is it super slow (667mhz, what?) it's two different brands of for each stick. It's 6gb but windows reads 5.4gb. Memory upgrades are cheap and I will be doing one soon, and will make an amendment to this review when I do.
Graphics:
The graphics in the laptop are amazing. The 6620g integrated graphics will play many mainstream demanding games on its own, like Fallout 3 and medium settings, and Call of Duty Black Ops at medium-high settings. The dedicated 6750m will play everything but the most demanding (The Witcher 2, Metro 2033 etc) On highest settings. Crossfiring the two GPUs will further increase performance. I can play Crysis on some High/some Very high at native resolution and 2x AA. This, in my opinion, is phenomenal.
Hard Drive:
Not much to say about this. A 7200rpm HDD would be fast than the 5400rpm in this. I'll probably upgrade eventually. It has 640gb advertised but the total size in windows is about 600gb, recovery partition included. You start off with probably about 550gb free.
Battery Life:
For what it is, the battery life is amazing. I get probably 5 hours with web browsing and text editing. If Idle, with the lowest brightness, at 99% with the laptop being on and idle for about 5 minutes, windows says 7 hours and 21 minutes, and Mioplanet Battery Meter shows 7 hours and 54 minutes. Gaming with onboard graphics will get me about 3 hours of battery and with the dedicated card I get about 1:30 to 2 hours.
The battery is a 6-cell 55wh battery. HP sells a 9cell 93wh battery for this laptop for $100. If for any reason you need to replace the battery, you could probably get about 8 hours of use and 10+ hours of idle. That's amazing.
All in all, with a little tweaking and some cheap upgrades, this laptop is awesome. I bought it refurbished off Newegg for only $550. You won't find a laptop with any features like this and performance like this for anywhere near that price. If you know a decent amount about computers, I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to game on the go, be productive for long periods of time, and doesn't want to burn their wallet.
If anyone notices anything missing from this review, let me know, and I'll add it. I plan on getting some pictures up pretty soon so check back for updates.
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