Brand, style, convenience and performance are the basic criteria for finding a decent laptop for home and office use. In the market for mobile devices there are a lot of interesting solutions from world famous brands, but few of them are ready to provide a product that combines all the requirements of customers at the same time. The focus of this article is a 15.4-inch budget-friendly representative - the HP Pavilion DV6700. Features, photos and owner reviews will introduce the reader more closely to this wonderful mobile device.
Appearance and equipment
The package bundle of the laptop is no different from other HP mobile representatives - the device itself, charging, battery, driver disks and operating instructions. And taking into account the fact that this gadget represents a budget class, you don’t have to expect gifts from the manufacturer in the form of a mouse, rug or corporate cover.
Notebook HP Pavilion DV6700 is fully made of their high-strength plastic. When you first get acquainted with the device, you may get the impression that its case has a metal finish, but this is just a varnished coating that imitates aluminum. Notebook HP, like the rest of the manufacturer’s products, has a very high-quality assembly - all elements are perfectly matched to each other, there are no creaks and distortions. Confuses only the cover of the device. The plastic on it has a convex shape, and when pressed with a hand on its surface, it bends a few millimeters.
Ease of use
On an HP Pavilion DV6700 laptop, the keyboard is not full-sized. This step of the manufacturer is negatively evaluated by all users, judging by their reviews. As for the quality of the input device, the owners have no complaints about this. The buttons are very easy to press, have a short stroke and a small recoil in the finger.
As for the touchpad, here the manufacturer managed to surprise its fans. The touch pad has a large area, which affects convenience - just one touch you can move the cursor on the diagonal of the 15.4-inch screen. The surface itself is rough, which excludes accidental touches and ghostly clicks. But the touchpad buttons are for everybody. The manufacturer made them stiff. When a key is pressed, the user will hear a characteristic click.
Weak link
The TN + Film matrix with a resolution of 1280x800 dpi in the HP Pavilion DV6700 laptop spoils the overall impression of a mobile device - an ordinary cheap monitor that can satisfy the user only with content on the Internet. As for viewing angles, they are small (only 140 degrees horizontally), respectively, this laptop is unlikely to be suitable as a multimedia center for a large family.
In sunny summer weather, it is better to leave the mobile device at home, as the missing LED backlight of the LCD screen makes itself felt: glare, shadows and many unpleasant artifacts will be seen by the user on the laptop display instead of the necessary information.
System performance
Naturally, all buyers who have looked after a HP Pavilion DV6700 mobile device are most interested in performance characteristics. Technologists of the company introduced several modifications of this laptop to the market. They are all built on the basis of dual-core processors from Intel and AMD. Devices are provided with different amounts of DDR2 RAM (2-4 GB). The laptops use magnetic hard drives with a spindle speed of 5400 rpm and capacities of 250, 500 and 750 gigabytes.
As for gaming capabilities, the mobile device does not even reach the initial game class in terms of performance. The reason for this is a low-performance video adapter (Intel GMA X3100 or GeForce 8400M), which has a memory limit of 256 megabytes.
Interfaces & Connectors
The 15.4-inch solution from the manufacturer has many useful ports that can be useful to the user during operation of the HP Pavilion DV6700 laptop. The photos of the gadget clearly demonstrate the abundance of video outputs (VGA, S-Vidio, HDMI) and interfaces for connecting to the Internet (RJ-45 and RJ-11). Many USB ports allow the user to connect additional devices, and the card reader supports working with many popular media.
Positive in their reviews, users also talk about placing a morally outdated DVD writer on the laptop. Recently, work with optical media is again becoming relevant. As for the sound, the laptop has a corresponding interface for working with a microphone and headphones.
Multimedia
The HP Pavilion DV6700 mobile device is extremely versatile. The laptop has a built-in camera. Although its resolution leaves much to be desired, it is quite enough for communication in the switches. Next to the camera, the manufacturer built two additional microphones equipped with a noise reduction system. Between the screen and the keyboard there is an additional panel that is able to fully control multimedia content (playback, rewind, volume, and the like).
Two stereo speakers, which are located along the edges of the additional control panel, are responsible for high-quality sound reproduction. They work with dignity. In their reviews, many owners note that listening to music and watching movies on this device is a pleasure with such high-quality sound.
Wireless interfaces
In addition to multimedia, the HP Pavilion DV6700 mobile device has very attractive wireless network interfaces. Firstly, the laptop can work in a Wi-Fi network using any known protocol. This cannot but please the owners of old routers, which have to be changed when updating a mobile device. The manufacturer endowed the management of wireless networks with great functionality: a power button, an indicator of activity and data transfer status.
Also, the gadget is equipped with an infrared port, which all manufacturers rejected whiter than ten years ago. This interface is of interest to users primarily for connecting a wireless laptop remote control.
Speaking of amenities, it is worth noting the presence of a fingerprint scanner, which is available in this laptop. It works with any operating system and, judging by the reviews of the owners, does not cause complaints.
Device Maintenance
The spacious case of the laptop has good ventilation, but during operation dust still manages to accumulate inside. Naturally, the user needs to clean at least once a year from the garbage accumulated inside the mobile device. Before disassembling the HP Pavilion DV6700, the owner should know that access to the main components of the laptop (processor, video card and motherboard) is possible only with complete disassembly. It will not be possible to limit the removal of the back cover. You need to unscrew about 100 screws, remove the keyboard, turn off the display and disconnect all the boards.
The media has a lot of instructions for disassembling the laptop, so it’s easy for the owner to complete the recommended algorithm by accessing the motherboard. IT experts recommend that you only be wary of disabling keyboard and display loops: they are easy to damage.
Strangeness in the video adapter
But owners who do not comply with the operating conditions of the laptop may encounter one problem that is relevant specifically for this model. The HP Pavilion DV6700 mobile device turns on and off immediately. Naturally, many advanced users may think about the operating system, but they will be wrong, because the shutdown occurs at the initialization stage of the BIOS, which means that this is a hardware problem.
The problem lies in the soldering of the Geforce 8400M discrete graphics card. For unknown reasons, the company's technologists made a mistake in assembling the laptop. Now, any user who overheats laptop components due to dust inside can disable the video adapter. The problem is solved in the service center - the specialist simply solders the video adapter again. By the way, owners of laptops with an Intel video adapter do not face such a problem.
Meal in front of the display
Many laptop owners are very fond of consuming food directly in front of the screen of their mobile device. There are frequent cases when food or spilled liquid gets on the gadget's keyboard. And here comes the lottery. If the manufacturer has provided a protective gasket between the keyboard panel and the motherboard, nothing will happen to the laptop - the liquid will drain through the ventilation system. But owners of HP products were less fortunate: the keyboard sags over the motherboard, and any debris or liquid immediately gets to the main component of the mobile device.
If the HP Pavilion DV6700 laptop does not turn on after spilling any drink on it, then you can not do without the services of a service center. But first, all owners, without exception, urgently need to disconnect a removable battery, which (possibly) will keep the microcircuit from burning out. Repair of mobile equipment in such cases does not fall under the official guarantee and is carried out at the expense of the owner.
Finally
Notebook HP Pavilion DV6700 is interesting, functional and fairly productive. However, some of its features will certainly raise doubts among potential buyers. Firstly, an infrared port, a fingerprint scanner, an additional control panel and a powerful stereo system. Functionality is not particularly in demand in the budget class, so hardly anyone will agree to overpay for it. We must not forget about the quality of the display - it is outdated and will certainly spoil the impression of watching a movie, even using high-quality sound. But for work in the office, the gadget is best suited - it is productive, convenient, functional and equipped with many interfaces and connectors.