Review HP Pavilion dv6-6030er Notebook

The presented model of the HP Pavilion dv6-6030er laptop is one of the latest models based on AMD Vision, with a Phenom II CPU and a discrete graphics card Radeon HD 6650. Now, most laptops are based on the Vision 2011 platform, with processors based on the Liano core, which includes and computing and graphics core. Although integrated video is very often supplemented with discrete, since the integrated video card will not be enough for most modern games.

HP Pavilion dv6-6030er photo

When designing the appearance of standard-sized laptops, developers are not given many opportunities to make their brainchild in something unique. It should also be borne in mind that the convenience of working with the device is primarily important for buyers, and not its appearance. Moreover, if the external sophistication interferes with the work, then the laptop most likely will not "go". In the presented laptop, the only "highlight" is the backlit brand logo on the laptop lid, but it does not interfere with the work.

Although at the same time, the laptop has its own pronounced personality, which you immediately notice when you pick up the laptop. Also immediately striking is the thin, weak lid, which bends when the laptop is vigorously opened. In contrast to it - a very sturdy lower part of the laptop with a keyboard unit. Although the problem with the lid most likely lies not in it itself, but in the hinges with which it is attached to the body. These are fashionable lately, strong hinges, and therefore, when opening the laptop, you have to hold it with your other hand. It should also be noted that the screen can be opened up to almost 180 degrees. The keypad and laptop lid are made of brushed metal for increased durability and protection from scratches and minor damage.

On the right side face there are two USB ports, a Kensington lock, a power connector, and an HP DVD-RW AD-7711H optical drive.

On the left side edge, in turn, there are two VGA and HDMI video outputs, an RJ-45 network card connector, three linear analog audio outputs, as well as two USB 3.0 ports. It is very pleasant that the relatively not very expensive laptop has USB 3.0 ports.

The bottom edge is flat, with a very convenient location of the ventilation holes, thanks to which, even holding the laptop on your lap, you will not particularly heat it up. But to put it on an uneven or soft surface, and leave it under load is not necessary.

Access to the Wi-Fi adapter, RAM sticks and hard drive is very convenient - you don't even need a screwdriver to get to them, since there are no screws. But nevertheless, the lid will need to be pryed off with something, and therefore there is a danger of breaking the lid altogether.

Keyboard HP Pavilion dv6-6030er

For people who, on duty, need to type a lot, the keyboard is not the best, and the main reason is not even the small keys. The main disadvantages are the small key travel between the pressed / not pressed state, there is also no clear fixation of the pressed position. This entails the following: keys have to be pressed harder when typing fast enough to avoid gaps. The presence of a numeric block is good, but due to its presence, the alphabet field is strongly shifted to the left, which also causes some discomfort when typing. If editing and typing in large quantities will not be the responsibility of a laptop, then you will not feel any particularly noticeable discomfort. The layout is quite common, the only thing that is unusual is the Del key located next to the Print Screen.

Touchpad and positioners HP Pavilion dv6-6030er

In the presented laptop, the touchpad is illuminated along the contour, which looks beautiful. It also has a rough finish and split keys. Also, by clicking on the icon in the upper left corner of the touchpad, the touchpad function can be disabled.

Additional keys and lights HP Pavilion dv6-6030er

The presented laptop has only one additional key, which is responsible for calling the browser. All other functions are assigned to the regular keyboard keys. Moreover, the F1-F12 keys are primarily responsible for the additional functions assigned to them, and secondly, when you press Fn, they are responsible for their immediate functions. In principle, such a move is logical, although at the same time it is unusual. There are not many indications, the LEDs are placed in the keyboard keys, and, as mentioned above, the touchpad border has a backlight.

Screen and sound HP Pavilion dv6-6030er

The laptop is equipped with a completely standard liquid crystal matrix with a diagonal of 15.6 inches and with support for a maximum resolution of 1366 * 768 pixels. The presented matrix really lacks a margin of brightness, even in very moderate lighting, the brightness of the screen almost always remains at the maximum. Also, the colors are not very pronounced, the colors are dull, cold. For video viewing mode, this problem can be partially solved in the video card settings. It should be mentioned that this screen is equipped with LED backlighting, which will have a positive effect on its service life.

The speaker system of this laptop deserves praise with four speakers: two in the front wall and two under the monitor. Loudness is enough even with wind noise. For laptop acoustics - excellent! Enough for games, movies and music. There are also no complaints about the sound quality of the analog output - the sound is high-quality and clear.

Configuration and Packaging HP Pavilion dv6-6030er

The Phenom II N660 processor installed in the presented laptop is a continuation of the Turion line of processors. The operating frequency has been increased to 3 GHz due to the presence of only two cores, which will definitely positively respond in heavy applications that do not support multithreading well. Also, our laptop is equipped with one DDR3-1333 standard RAM, which has a volume of 4 GB. The memory controller operates in a single-channel mode, which is completely unpleasant, since the manufacturer saved quite a bit on such a solution. Although, on the other hand, since 4 GB of RAM is already becoming the minimum, the buyer himself can add one more bar, and thereby provide himself with a two-channel mode of operation and an impressive amount of 8 GB of RAM.

The built-in video card is used to save battery power in undemanding video applications.

When it comes to games or video-demanding applications, then an external video card Radeon HD 6650 with its own video memory of 1 GB comes into play, from the middle price category, with support for DirectX 11, UVD2 and everything else. A hard disk from Samsung with a volume of 320 GB and a rotation speed of 7200 rpm is provided for storing information.

Performance HP Pavilion dv6-6030er

To test the HP Pavilion dv6-6030er, we took the ASUS X42s as its opponents, with an approximately comparable filling: an Intel Core i3 processor and a GeForce 335M graphics card.

In all working tests, the Intel Core i3 processor is faster than the Phenom, but the clear advantage is noticeable only in Photoshop and compilation tests. But in games the situation is quite the opposite, here AMD is preferable, and the more difficult the game, the stronger the advantage is noticeable. This shows the fact that the GeForce 335M is a weaker graphics card than the Radeon HD6650. Although the situation with the UT3 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R games is not entirely unambiguous, which can run into the power of the central processor. Apparently in Unreal Tournament 3 this was a limiting factor, but in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. CoP, nothing like that is noticeable. And for both games, the frame rate is higher than needed for a comfortable game. It follows from this that both processors are quite enough for a comfortable game, and the decisive factor is the presence of a powerful multimedia video card.

Finally, I would also like to mention the fast performance of the hard disk. If for you the speed of work on a laptop depends on the loading of the operating system, opening applications and documents, the Samsung hard drive with a shader rotation speed of 7200 rpm will only please. You should pay attention to this.

Battery life HP Pavilion dv6-6030er

The notebook is equipped with a 55 Wh (10.8 V) Li-Ion 6-cell battery. We carried out the tests in two modes of laptop operation, in the first case: HD video decoding (running the playback of two high-bitrate clips in H.264 format). In the second case: imitation of thoughtful typing or editing of text, when using the maximum energy saving profile and reduced screen brightness to 30% and the included wireless adapter.

In the first case, the battery lasted 2 hours 44 minutes, in the second, which is the maximum battery life of a laptop - 5 hours 8 minutes.

Basically, for a laptop with a 15.6-inch screen and a standard battery, the result is quite good. In principle, you can take your laptop with you during the day and work with it without recharging. A laptop is also enough to watch movies, but you shouldn't hope to play games somewhere in nature for more than an hour and a half.

Heating up HP Pavilion dv6-6030er

In the tests, the room temperature was 26 degrees Celsius. In rest mode, the temperature of the central processor was 52 degrees Celsius, and under load it reached 72 degrees. The GPU temperature in idle mode was 55 degrees, but under load it reached 77 degrees Celsius. The hard drive temperature was 34 and 42 degrees Celsius at rest and load, respectively. The bottom of the laptop under continuous load reaches a temperature of 30-35 degrees, and on the left side there are separate zones with temperatures under 40 degrees Celsius. The working area is also heated under the palm to the left of the touchpad. The heating of the inside of the laptop fits into the norm.

If you configure the operating mode of the discrete video card so that it turns on only when you start games, then the heating of the laptop is very much reduced, and slightly warm air blows from the ventilation holes.

conclusions

Advantages of a laptop:

- nice design and materials of execution;

- good level acoustics;

- powerful hardware that allows you to play demanding games.

Minuses:

- poor quality of the matrix;

- the keyboard is not suitable for long-term work with texts.

The presented laptop can be used on not very distant trips, especially if weight is not a decisive factor.