HP Pavilion Dv7-6163us

HP Pavilion Dv7-6163us

Dec 08

If you are in the market for an affordable laptop that has a big keyboard and a big screen, one of your options would have to be the HP Pavilion dv7-6163us which costs somewhere around $800. It is a solid desktop replacement that’s media-inclined but you’ll have to live without the bells and whistles of more expensive laptops like the $1,534 Dell XPS 15z.

This laptop measures 1.2 x 16.4 x 10.8 inches (HWD) and it tips the scales at 6.7 pounds. One of the reasons for the extra bulk is due to the large 17.3-inch display which has a native resolution of 1,600 x 900 pixels. It is suitable for watching 720p content but if you want the full HD experience, you should look for another model that has a better display. This screen is surrounded by a glossy black plastic bezel where you’ll find an HD webcam and a microphone.

This black finish can also be found around the chiclet-style keyboard and on the cover. It manages to be quite sleek and elegant thanks to the fact that its finish has the look of brushed metal, instead of cheap plastic. Given the size of the laptop, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it has a 10-key, full-size pad.

If you look at the left edge of the Pavilion dv7-6163us you’ll find an HDMI port and VGA out for connecting the laptop to a PC monitor or an HDTV. Also on the left sit two USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet jack, along headphone + microphone jacks, while on the lower-left front edge reside the SD card reader and the Beats Audio speakers. On the right edge you will find another two USB 2.0 ports plus the Blu-ray combo drive. For enhanced bass, on the underside of the laptop there’s a subwoofer.

This laptop is powered by a second generation Intel Core i7-2630QM Sandy Bridge quad core processor clocked at 2.0 GHz (up to 2.90 GHz with Turbo Boost). It has 6GB of DDR3 RAM and a spacious 750GB hard drive to store your files. It comes with support for 802.11n Wi-Fi and Intel’s Wireless Display Technology.

One of the strong points of the HP Pavilion dv7-6163us would have to be its great battery. It comes with a 9-cell 100Wh lithium-ion unit that can survive for a little over 7 hours in MobileMark 2007, while in normal working conditions you should get about 9-10 hours. This is a lot more than the Dell XPS 15z which can survive the test for 6:22 or the Apple MacBook Pro that during the same test can last for 4:40. However, given the large size, you probably won’t move it around that often.

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