HP no doubt has all the necessary software pieces in place to enable Blu-ray playback without a glitch, although we weren't able to test it as the review unit was only supplied with a DVD drive. Just because it can play Blu-ray, however, doesn't mean you can expect it to stretch to other HD formats as well, due to the complexities of DXVA.
More stylish than most netbooks
As the dv2 has a bigger screen resolution than most netbooks, we could run the full PCMark05 test, resulting in an overall score of 2257. Its CPU and Memory scores were significantly better than most netbooks we've seen - around one and half times better when it comes to CPU performance. While it has the edge over the netbooks, though, it's still significantly slower than an Intel Core 2 equipped laptop.
Running our standard netbook GIMP Gaussian blur test it showed a slight improvement at 3.8 seconds compared to around 5 seconds for most netbooks.
Switching to battery life, however, the test results were far less impressive. In our standard netbook test, which involves playing a standard definition H.264 video on a loop until the battery gives up, it only managed to hold out for 96 minutes. Our standard laptop test of running PCMark05 on a loop was even more short lived - just 81 minutes. Both these are extreme tests, so you could probably expect around three hours of more moderate use, but they're nonetheless disappointing.
Disappointing battery life for a laptop
While the dv2 has more processing power than most netbooks, it's worth noting that it can run pretty hot when stressed. It doesn't take much before the fan kicks in and you wouldn't want it on your laptop for too long when it's doing some serious number crunching.
Verdict
For its £599 price tag, the dv2 offers a decent compromise between performance and affordability. It's also much more stylish than many machines at this price. It doesn't have the raw performance of a fully-fledged laptop, but it packs more punch than most netbooks and comes with a larger screen and keyboard to boot, although its battery life is lacking. ®
More Thin'n'Light Laptop Reviews...
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Toshiba Portégé R600 |
Apple MacBook Air |
Asus Eee PC 1008HA Seashell |
HP Pavillion dv2 AMD Neo notebook
COMMENTS
Looks like I wont be replacing my Vaio SZ2XP/C with this thing
Same weight, better performance, better battery life
Does come at a pretty stiff price
DV2 is great !!!
I ordered a DV2 the day it came out and I love it. I travel a great deal and the DV2 is perfect - I had a netbook but it was just too underpowered even though the size was great. I also have a core duo 14" notebook. I like the power and speed but not the weight or size for travel. The DV2 is a great compromise. Not the most powerful but powerful enough and not the smallest or lightest but small and light enough.
As far as heat from the DV2 is concerned, I just returned from Phoenix,USA ( American Southwest ). In the two days I was there the temperature was 105F and 103F respectively. To put it another way - THE WHOLE WORLD was as hot as the exhaust from the DV2. People live, work and love in that heat. I use my DV2 on my lap all of the time in airports and hotel lobbies with no problem.
Battery life is good enough for me but I concede it may not be enough for some. Most airports have charging stations now so about the only place I run on battery power anymore is on the plane. I don't play movies but in just ordinary use I would agree with the Register review that the battery would last about 3 hours or so. I have used it over 2 hours with no problem. Turning off the WiFi helps.
One last note, I have used HP extensively for 30 years. Overall their quality is the best.
Useless
I'll never understand the thinking behind such poor designs. A downsized, performance reduced, ultraportable that can't do the one thing an ultraportable needs to, run for at least a couple hours per charge still after you've owned it a year.
I completely disagree with the suggestion in the review that if one test causes 81 minutes, we can wildly assume 3 hours otherwise. What use is there that isn't running the screen, Vista itself constantly hammers a hard drive with prefetching and auto-defrag let alone the bloated files it really is running, and you can't even browse the 'net these days without needing to view a few pages with flash content because people forgot how to design a website properly.
Simply playing an SD movie on this you probably can't even watch one of typical length due to insufficient battery capacity. I mean after you've had it a few months, battery capacity when brand new is a bit beside the point as it is brand new only once.
HP is all Style and no Quality
My HP Pavillion 9655ea had many overheating and hardware issues from day one, it died just two months out of warranty. Considering that I paid £650 for this Stylish Laptop and had go and get a new machine for almost the same amount within just 14 months, I Wouldn't touch HPs even with a barge-pole.
Pirates coz thats what HP are.
