HP Pavilion dv6-2190us 15.6-inch Thin And Light Laptop PC

May 12 2010 - HP's Pavilion dv6-2190us is one of many new affordable higher performance laptops available with the new quad core Core i7 processor. Performance is very strong but the system does run hot and requires a very large power adapter to be carried around frequently due to its limited battery life. It would have been nice to see HP upgrade more aspects of the system from previous versions but it does offer a fair amount of functions for those not wanting to spend much more than $1000 on a laptop.

May 12 2010 - HP has made some major performance increases with their latest revision of the Pavilion dv6. Powering the dv6-2190us is the new Core i7-720QM quad core processor. This combined with the 4GB of DDR3 memory allows the system to plow through processor heavy tasks and multitasking without an issue. Thanks to Intel's dynamic clock system, single threaded applications won't suffer either. The downside to all this performance is that the system runs considerably warmer than previous models with the fan turning on more frequently.

Storage features on the Pavilion dv6-2190us are a step above much of the competition especially considering the $1000 price range. The 500GB hard drive provides plenty of space for applications, data and media files. Unlike many similarly priced systems that use standard 5400rpm spin rate laptop drives, HP uses a 7200rpm drive that provides faster access to programs and data. The dual layer DVD burner is standard fare for playback and recording of CD and DVD media. HP adds the ability to burn labels directly to LightScribe compatible media which can be useful for some users.

While the processor has been upgraded, the display and graphics of the Pavilion dv6-2190us remain unchanged from previous versions. The screen uses the 1366x768 resolution typical of this size and price. Colors are sufficiently good although blacks aren't as deep as some other laptops. The glossy coating also makes it difficult to use outdoors due to reflections and glare. The graphics are driven by the ATI Radeon Mobility HD 4650 processor with 1GB of memory. This allows for playing games at the panel's resolution and watching HD video without a problem. It would have been nice to see it use the newer 5000 series for Direct X 11 support though.

Battery life is one of the biggest issues with the Pavilion dv6-2190us. To keep the costs and size down, HP uses a 6-cell battery pack. In my DVD playback tests, this results in just under two hours of running time. More typical usage will net around two and a half hours of running time while heavy tasks such as gaming will reduce it to more around an hour. Due to the power requirements of the Core i7 processor, the power brick is also very large to supply sufficient power.

Overall, the Pavilion dv6-2109us is a very affordable high performance system for those that don't need extremely long battery times. It would have been nice to see the graphics system upgraded as well but HP was more likely considering keeping costs down without having to completely redesign their laptop.