The HP Pavilion dv6 is the company's workhorse consumer laptop, with a 15.6-inch LCD panel and a nearly full-size keyboard. When you first see the dv6, it appears thinner than it actually is. The carefully curved back surface of the LCD housing conceals some of the bulk in the rear, which is thicker than the front of the laptop. The curves of the whole shell camouflage the reality that this notebook is almost 1.25 inches thick in locations.

　　Even so, at 5 pounds, 12 ounces without the power brick (and a pound heavier with it), the dv6's weight is quite sensible. At simply under $800 as checked (as of July 18, 2011), the dv6 offers an Intel Core i5-2410M Sandy Bridge dual-core CPU, 6GB of DDR3 memory, and a discrete Radeon HD 6490M graphics chip. General performance seems quite great for a sub-$800 system, as the dv6 made a solid rating of 117 on WorldBench 6 and lasted nearly 5 hours on our battery-life test with the six-cell battery.

　　You do provide up some features to attack that $800 cost. The LCD panel is 1366 by 768 pixels, a native resolution that's rather typical for the all-purpose laptop course. The hard drive is a 640GB Seagate model that spins at 5400 rpm; it won't win efficiency honors, but it provides rather hefty capacity. The recordable-DVD drive is relatively quiet, however its very small manual eject button makes obtaining discs something of a small chore.

　　The keyboard is rather excellent, offering excellent tactile feedback, enough spacing in between the Chiclet-style secrets, and a discrete numerical keypad. The touchpad works well, and won't choose up floating palms (a good idea). It likewise supports multitouch gestures, but I discovered that it can get confused between the scrolling gesture and the magnification gesture while in a Web browser.

　　The dv6 consists of a discrete graphics card, it's no video gaming powerhouse. In Far Cry 2 in DX10 optimal mode, it managed a little 28 frames per 2nd, while in 3DMark 2011 it attained a low credit score of simply 678 on the performance test. You'll require to make sacrifices in the detail levels and possibly the resolution to get playable frame rates if you plan to run current-generation games on the dv6.

　　HP didn't skimp on ports with the dv6. For beginners, it integrateded 4 USB ports, consisting of 2 USB 3.0-capable ports on the left side; the pair of USB 2.0 connectors are on the right, beside the optical drive. Two audio outputs and one input port, plus VGA, HDMI, and ethernet, are all set up in the left side of the shell. If you attach a great deal of cables, the left side might end up being a little chaotic. A front slot for SD Cards is likewise available. Networking is limited to gigabit ethernet and 802.11 n Wi-Fi, as the dv6 lacks Bluetooth or 3G/4G support.

　　Video playback quality is rather strong. WMV high-def clips looked sharp, with nicely saturated colors. DVD upscaling to the native 1366 by 768 resolution was clean, with little noticeable edge improvement or noise. The laptop computer ships with Intel WiDi (wireless display) client software application, but you'll require to purchase the box that connects to your HDTV independently.

　　Audio quality is a bit of a mixed bag. Making it possible for the included Beats Audio processing software application absolutely enhances the sound for DVD films, but music playback isn't specifically exact, with too much mid-bass present. (However, you can adjust equalization in the Beats control panel manually, to fit your taste.) I likewise heard relatively severe distortion originating from the speakers with the volume pumped up throughout music playback. Even though the audio quality seems a little above average in general, you'll wish to utilize earphones for the best playback.

　　The software application and documents included are both beautiful standard, with HP edging into the online-storage market with HP CloudDrive, an OEM implementation of ZumoDrive. As is normal, you get 2GB complimentary, with tiered pricing for extra storage. Also consisted of is Norton Internet Security trialware, along with other HP devices.

　　Overall, the HP Pavilion dv6 provides a pleasing package at $800, with a myriad of ports, an outstanding keyboard, and a good display. If you're ready to pay for more alternatives, the bundle scales up, with features such as a full 1080p panel, Blu-ray, and a higher-end Radeon HD 6770M discrete GPU, however those add-ons will ramp up the cost of the system quickly. At $800, this setup of the dv6 appears to strike a sweet spot.