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Intro

Well, 3 years ago I bought a Dell Inspiron E1505 which was and still is an incredible laptop. This semester at college, I have a Intro to Game Level Design Class. I thought my laptop could handle it with its mighty Core 2 Duo. I know my video card sucked, but with games the C2D usually pulled alot of weight so I was sure even if I couldn't run the game we were using (Unreal Tournament 3) I could still use the editor. I install the game and boom - the editor wont even work. I later found that it was indeed my video card. So I figured, hell I'll upgrade it. Well, come to find out the Dell doesn't even have a video card....its a crappy intel chipset on the motherboard. I didn't have any other computers for game work, so I figured, time for an upgrade. I didn't want to part ways with my Dell, but I figured if I was smart and did more research for my first laptop, I wouldn't be in this predicament (I literally did no research....I went to Dell and figured I wanted the middle setup. Yes, very stupid on my part.) So I did alot more research this time, and I found that I could get a HP Pavillion dv7t with a nice actual video card and a core 2 duo for the price I found was great, around $1500 (all the others were either too expensive or didn't offer as much). So, I went for the HP Pavillion dv7t. Sorry Dell, but with HP I have a choice for a video card, not a crappy intel chipset.


Specs:

2.66 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile
3GB DDR2 RAM
500GB SATA hard drive
1GB ATI Radeon 4650 Mobillity HD
17.3 Inch Widescreen
Built in webcam
Lightscribe DVD / DVD RW 8X
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 with free upgrade to Windows 7


What's in the Box:

The laptop, extra battery I ordered (why not they were half off), OS recovery CD, Applications CD, AC Power Adapter

Design

This thing is like a work of art. I ordered it with the same color keyboard and I like it better than the silver. I ordered it in the expresso black color and its very, very sharp. I love the silver accent in the middle. The mousepad is very cool too, I love how its shiny chrome colored. I also chose this laptop for the media buttons and they kick ass. Very easy to use, and they work flawlessly. It's also very nice that there is a full numeric keypad. Overall, I love the design.

Screen:

Very awesome. Its huge compared to the Dell and the colors and everything are top notch. No complaints so far. Not too much light leakage. Some, but I expected it considering its not unusual for laptops to have that.

Keyboard

The keyboard is very very nice. Soft, easy to use and a full numeric keypad. Takes some getting used to considering everything is a little different from the Dell.

Touchpad

I love the touchpad. Its chrome basically. Its very shiny and the scroll feature on the side works SO much better than the Dells.

Features:

Multimedia Keys

The multimedia keys rock. I constantly listen to music in my collection from WMP so I use these alot and they are easy to use, and have work flawlessly so far.

Wifi –

Wifi works very good. No complaints.

Speakers

It has a nice little subwoofer in bottom and the speakers sound so much better than the Dells. The sound quality is very nice. Maybe not nice enough to watch a DVD without headphones, but still pretty darn great.

Size and Weight

Its definately not small, but I don't mind. Yes, I got more to carry around but its fine because I know that its a powerhouse and I like having a powerhouse that can run where ever.


Heat and Noise

It gets a little warm like all laptops, but its to be expected and I'm fine with it. The fan is quiet, which is nice.

Battery Life

Not too bad. It lasted me about 3 hours with web surfing and minor game-playing which is pretty good.


Software

A bunch of trial software and unnecessary programs came with it so that sucks but oh well.




Pros: Great screen, looks great, plays games great!
Cons: If anything, the mouse buttons take a little to press, but I will get used to it.

Conclusion: $1500 well spent!

Great stuff. Would you upload some sort of benchmark to go along with the review? Thanks.

cheers ...

Sure. I haven't done any benchmarking, but I read the sticky about reviews, so I'm downloading PCmark right now. I am expecting good numbers. Maybe not huge numbers, but I can play Unreal Tournament 3 on it without too much trouble. The fan has to do some extra cooling and it lags a little tiny bit sometimes but its not problematic from what I have played so far.

We've got even better write ups on benchmarks if you go to our benchmark section.

Using the drop downs under Synthetic Benchmarks and Gaming Benchmarks, it will explain a bit more where to find the benchmarks and how to run them.

Indexed!

I know its a little late, but I am still new to benchmarking....but, i do know about the vista experience score and I saw it was a benchmark, so i figured I would put it up and get that out of the way.

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread230036.html

you can actually add benchmarks to your review. all you have to do is go to EDIT on your review, and then to ADVANCED EDIT... and MANAGE BENCHMARKS.