*HP dv6t Select Edition (3XXX series) Owners Lounge*

mostly guesstimation, experience, other core i3/i5/i7 reviews, and research

 

Made my order on June 1, with a build date of June 11, and have desperately been awaiting a ship confirmation. A few have said they received a ship confirmation, so I'm wondering if anyone has received the order and perhaps has an initial review.

I'm also curious as to why no one opted for the touchscreen??

My Specs

• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-430M Dual Core processor (2.26GHz, 3MB L2 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.53GHz
• 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics
• 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
• TouchScreen with HP TouchSmart's intuitive multi-touch applications
• Lightscribe Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
• High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
• Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

 

I had no need for the touchscreen and the upgrade cost.

My tracker says my notebook is still sitting in Shanghai. Ugh.

 

HP Pavilion dv6t
# Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
# Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-350M Dual Core processor (2.26GHz, 3MB L2 Cache)
# 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
# FREE Upgrade to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
# 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics
# 15.6" diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366x768)
# No TouchScreen
# SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
# Intel Wireless-N Card
# Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
# High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)

Total: $735 is it good built?

This is after taxed and cashback. Will this card good enough to play games like MW2?

 

Mine has been sitting in alaska for 3 days

 

If you look in the general HP forum, there's a guy who posted a review about a system built with the fastest (and warmest) processor, who still found it pretty chilly most of the time. You can dig it up and read his analysis.

 

the touch screen increases the laptops thickness, and weight. not to mention it cost 150 extra. I've never used a laptop and said "gee i wish i could touch the screen instead of using the trackpad..." so it would've been a waste of money and another chance for something to go wrong.

In other news: My laptop arrived in new jersey!!!!! just a ride over the hudson and it should be at my local delivery facility . so ill have it today or 2morrow

 

Prior to this laptop i had a HP tx2000z tablet pc with a touchscreen and an active digitizer. First thing you notice it just how bad the viewing angles are (not to mentioned the standard screen has average viewing angles), you see colour shifts almost at any angle not to mentioned the added glare from the second layer. There was also a grainiess problems however that should be fixed as newer models came out.

the responsiveness of the touch was prettty good but i found it much hard to use on daily basis than a touchpad or mouse. Just dont expect iphone levels of responsiveness.

Have purchased the laptop for $1.3K AUD and having the touchscreen break (as i tripped over the laptop) made my spend 5 hours removeing the screen peice by peice. So basically its now just a normal CCFl screen. looks ALOT better, viewing angle problems are gone.

Not saying touchscreens are bad, they carry a huge amount of wow factor, but using it on a daily basis was quite annoying.

 

I order around noon on May 27th. My notebook is supposed to ship tomorrow.

Have the build times been accurate for you guys? How many days does FedEx estimate shipping to take on the tracking form once it does leave the factory?

 

the build time was ahead of schedule for me by about 2 or 3 day. delivery time depends on how far u are from china lol. I'm in NY (as the name suggest) so it literaly has to go around the world. i cant complain though, everything is technically either ahead or on schedule. just FYI HP usually gives some cushion for their build times so it should've shipped already

 

My notebook is in AK now.

 

I paid for the 2 business day shipping, and I'm pissed. It's taken WAY longer than that to actually get here.

It shipped on June 4th, and expected to get here on June 9th according to Fedex.

I want a damn $40 shipping refund.

 

That sucks. My dm4t shipped on the 26th and I got it on the 28th with the standard shipping

 

It's possible they won't do anything, but we'll see. According to Fedex tracking, it was past Fedex cutoff time on Friday the 4th, to get picked up, so actually didn't leave until the 5th, which is why my ship date got pushed back 1 day. Technically, Monday and today is 2 business days, and I'll receive it tomorrow..

But it's not my fault, or Fedex, that HP didn't get it shipped out on time, and I think I'm entitled to a refund.

 

Interestingly enough, neither the new dv6t's or the dv7t's can be configured with an SSD drive anymore.

I'm pretty sure this is my holdup.

 

Laptop arrives today. I hope it's everything that I expected. Being my first laptop, I've got a lot of buyer's remorse and "did I do the right thing".

Time will tell...

 

Yeah I noticed that. The DM4t can still be configured with an SSD though.

 

I gotmy laptop just now!!!! gona put the unboxing vid up soon. ill link to it later

 

Just got mine today as well. I'm making my restore discs right now, and will be doing a clean install of Windows 7 after that. Thing is pretty fast, although I may have regrets not going with the i5-540m.. I went with the i5-430m, and while it seems fast enough for what I want it to do, I'm always second guessing myself.

 

nice.

I'm bouncing back and forth between this and the envy14.

can't make up my mind.


probably will end up getting the envy14 though (unless a similar config between these two computers costs way way more on the envy)

 

Mine arrived today too...prolly won't get to open until much later. We had a new son arrive on Friday so things are a little hectic. Got mine with i5 top, 5650, 320gb, backlit keys, 4gb DDR...gonna ug this to 8, bray rom, and the basic jazz. Sold my g73 to get this and a camera... Hope the computer fairs well.

Does hp make a matching sleeve for this model?

 

As of now hp does not make a matching sleeve. and did u say son? or did u mean sony? lol

on a side note im on my laptop now and half the keyboard doesn't seem to light up properly. im not sure if thats how it is or if i got a defective keyboard....

 

Pics and video, please!

 

HP Pavilion DV6t Select Edition Unboxing

I'll add some pics in the morning. the lighting in my room my house isn't very good for photos

 

Thanks for the video man. Looks great.

 

Nice man. Looks exactly like mine! Imagine that!

I already had my first scare... I did a clean install of Win7 tonight, and for some reason when I went to shut it down, it stayed on and I didn't know it. Was in my laptop bag, for quite a while, just on, and cooking basically.

Pulled it out and it was literally too hot to handle on the left hand side where all the heat comes from. But I'll say one thing, this thing cooled down super quick. Pretty impressed HP at your cooling.

 

did u get the backlit keyboard? how does it look? does it light up evenly?

 

I got the back-lit keyboard and its lit pretty evenly. The overall quality is impressive to me coming from HP.

 

ah i see trhanks no i gotta go complain to HP now *sigh* now i find out that i can use my blu-ray disk drive as a back massager i thought the thing was about explode on me while i was installing microsoft office from a disk. I'm hoping that the disk was unbalanced. im playing a CD as a test right now but but i know CD's spin at considerably slower speeds than DVDs or blu-rays

 

Is the packaging in the video typical of a notebook ordered from HP direct? I assumed it would be the typical retail packaging placed within another box. Anyone had issues with damage?

 

Anyone got any battery life figures yet?

 

Man, that notebook looks so sleek. I'm getting mine tomorrow. Can't wait!

 

well since its just a regular notebook im guessing that the best its going to get as far as packaging goes. my notebook was fine. i thoroughly inspected it after the video and i've yet to find even a scratch. the packaging was a little banged up but nothing unexpected.

 

I'll see if I can't get some tonight.

I know that it lasted a couple hours at least, with the 5650 on, and full screen brightness. This is from the 6 cell battery.

I say full screen brightness, and 5650 on, because I was doing a clean install and so the drivers hadn't been installed yet to allow "power saving" mode where it dims the screen and switches to the Intel card.

That's a really rough estimate though, but 2-3 hours isn't bad I don't think.

 

I got 1:14 on full performance mode. that includes full screen brightness, fully clocked cpu, wlan and bluetooth on, and using the discrete gpu. to get the figures i did some internet surfing and benchmarking. i think thats pretty good for a 6 cell even if its high capacity. i can probably squeeze a good 4 hours out of this thing if i run in power saving mode even with wireless on.

 

My i7 720QM eats battery like there is no tomorrow when under load, even more if I fire up a game. Make sure you got some sort of cooling mat if you are going to use this on your lap, this thing gets real hot. My battery came new out of the box with 5% battery wear level

Although if power saver is selected and just web surfing etc, the battery lasts very well and heat is not to bad either.

The metal finish is very nice touch. My units LCD is made by Samsung. Memory is clocked at 1333MHz in dual channel mode, also made by Samsung and can be tweaked to timings of 9-7-7-20

There are no tools to undervolt the CPU yet (may never will be from the info I have read on the web). We all want this to make it run cooler and the battery to last longer.

Everest cache and memory benchmark rate the i7 very well, up there with the desktop i7 and sometimes beating it.
However when I run the same tests on a i3 version of the notebook, the scores were very poor.

 

Just added, benchmark of my DV6 with i7 720QM using Everest:
The memory latency is very nice

 

so wanna just say screw the envy14 and grab the dv6t:se because I'm impatient.


but...that damn 1366x768.


eh. are there any good coupons going on right now for the dv6t:se? 'cause so far the only one I seem to be able to use on it is the $50 off one.

 

Any pics of the computer for those who received their laptop already?

Also...how is the webcam quality? This is the first hp that im getting, and have never used their webcams before...Can anyone post a test video?

 

How far does the screen go back?

So if I get an i7 CPU, it never runs at its base clock speed? I need to be plugged in for that to work? Or only for the turbo boast to work, I need to be plugged in?

Can you take pictures of the 9 Cell (over-sized) Lithium Ion Battery attached to the laptop, so I can see the angle?

Or should I just go with the High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery?

I am looking to get Windows 7 Professional, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM, 6GB DDR3 System Memory, 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650, and Full-size island-style backlit keyboard with HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader. I think I need the i7 over the i5, as I will need to run virtualization on this laptop.

Thanks!

 

You won't be able to use BCB with coupon.

 

I don't really care about BCB.


more of an instant-rebate kinda guy personally.


still if all there is right now is that $50 stackable one and BCB then *shrugs* I'll wait for the envy14 to show up and be configurable.

 

I am a bit disappointed with the DV6Tse
The speakers are not what HP used to have. They lack bass completely, and the max volume is not satisfactory for me.
The last HP I had (and still in use by household) is the DV1000 from 2005, and has really well made speakers (Harmon Kardon), and they rock. Currently I am using Dell 1420 (with the intention to replace it with HP) and compared to the DV6Tse, the dell speakers rock as well.

I honestly did not expect Altec Lansings to be this bad.

Maybe I will return the HP and get Envy, but with BCB 25% I really got a great deal. Decisions, decisions...

 

I've used this thing for less than a week but I love it. I haven't really pushed it to the max, or done much work with it, but it is totally perfect for what I want to use it for.

I did get an over sized 9 cell battery with mine, and will try and plug it in and get some pictures with it soon. I need to get it charged up anyway.

 

cool.

how high does the oversized battery raise it?

 

The DV6tse laptop seems to be the perfect one for me.

Just a few quick questions:

1) Do the keys on the far left side of the laptop get in the way when typing?

2) Would you recommend the laptop?

 

The keys do not get in the way because your hands sit on the home row (ya.. geeky typing class knowledge just came out), and that's a good 2 inches away from the keys on the far left.

I'd absolutely recommend this laptop. I have the SE version, and it's slick. Looks great, is powerful, and at the prices you can get them, you can't go wrong.

 

how's the 1366x768 treating ya?

that's the one thing that puts me off from the SE (and makes me wanna go after the envy14 instead which is the same damn thing...just with a better screen and..maybe one or two other things that I don't really care/know about)

 

My thoughts on the screen are this. When one goes into a store to buy a tv they can tell the differences in picture because they are right next to each other. Now, purchase the slightly inferior one, get that tv home and it looks great. The 1366 is what, 720p, on a 15 inch screen? Maybe it's my eyes, but I cannot tell much of a difference between them.
I do know that the 1366 screens are a step above the 1280 I am on now. I have zero issues with the screen im on now.

 

yeah. I think in reality there's not much difference if the screens are at native resolution with respect to how good it looks. It's when you go below native resolution that things start to get fuzzy.


I should of clarified my biggest concern between screen sizes is workspace. *shrugs* then again I may just be spoiled by my G1 and it's 1680x1050 on a 15inch screen

Hell the computer I had before was 1440x900 on a damn 17 incher

*realizes something*

ya know. my dad's Latitude E5500 is a 15.4inch and is 1280x800. and it doesn't look that bad.

I for some reason thought his was a 14incher. ...eh. I guess 1366x768 really ain't that bad.



damn. now I gotta think about saying "screw waiting for the envy" some more. Still kinda curious to see what the envy14 comes with though.