When Hewlett-Packard announced that they would begin offering Pavilion laptops with AMD's newest Fusion APUs (code-named "Llano"), hopes rose for an inexpensive desktop replacement that could compete with the performance of Intel's processors. The HP Pavilion dv6-6145dx ($719.99 list at Best Buy) contains the AMD A8 APU, but the performance is lackluster, and the price isn't that much cheaper. While it may not match the raw processing power of an Intel system, the HP dv6-6145dx will still deftly handle your day-to-day needs, and bring a big bump in gaming capability, enough that casual gamers may want to consider this system over a more expensive laptop with a discrete graphics card.
Design
The HP dv6-6145dx has a brushed metal exterior with a dark umber finish across its lid and palm rest. The aluminum construction is sturdy, with no sign of flexing in the chassis?a defect seen in designs with plastic construction. The lid, palm rest, and keyboard deck all share the same, brushed aluminum surface, and feel cool to the touch and hide fingerprints well. The HP dv6-6145dx weighs 6.01 pounds and measures 1.4 by 14.9 by 9.7 inches (HWD), making it a bit too heavy for hauling along on a daily commute, but not so big that it can't travel to and from once in a while. The Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft) ($999.00 list, 4 stars), on the other hand, weighs 5.5 pounds and is only 1 inch thick. The HP dv6-6145dx is thicker, thanks to a raised lip along the back edge of the lid.
The keyboard and number pad are surrounded with the same cool brushed aluminum that covers the lid and palm rest. The black chiclet-style keys have a smooth matte finish, and the typing experience is comfortable, with relatively firm keys and a dedicated number pad. The touchpad and mouse buttons are surrounded with white illuminated trim, which makes it easy to find in low-light situations, but left me wanting a matching backlit keyboard, like the one seen on the Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft). The touchpad supports gesture controls like two-fingered scrolling, zooming and rotation, and the two separate mouse buttons are comfortable, but not as quiet as those of the Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft).
The 15.6-inch widescreen display has the standard 1366-by-768 resolution, the same as the Dell Inspiron i15RN5110-7126DBK ($729.99 list, 4 stars) and Acer Aspire TimelineX 5830TG-6402 ($799.99 direct, 3.5 stars). The 15.6-inch display is wide enough to panel two windows side by side, or simply enjoy a movie; the LED backlit screen should still be fairly visible in all but direct sunlight. The HP dv6-6145dx is also equipped with HP's premium sound, the Dr. Dre-approved Beats Audio. The sound is crisp and consistent at any volume, and for a laptop without any sort of subwoofer, it provides deep rich bass.
Features
The HP dv6-6145dx has a full feature set, with two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a multiformat card reader (SD, MMC), and outputs for VGA and HDMI. A case lock slot lets you lock it down to prevent theft, while an integrated fingerprint scanner lets you securely and conveniently log on and off securely. Dual-headphone jacks let you and another person enjoy audio from music or movies in privacy, without requiring a headphone splitter. Gigabit Ethernet lets you plug in a networking cable, but 802.11n Wi-Fi lets you hop online wirelessly.
A DVD +- RW optical drive lets you watch movies and burn data to discs, but with a spacious 640GB hard drive, there may not be much need. While 640GB is a lot of space?larger than the 500GB drive of the Dell XPS 15z?it's not as fast at 5,400 rpm. On the hard drive you'll find a fair amount of pre-installed software, some useful, some not. Microsoft Office Starter 2010, a 30-day trial to Norton Internet Security, Evernote, and HP's SnapFish (formerly called Picture Mover) makes up the former. Others you may simply want to scrub at the outset, like a Bing toolbar, a number of sample games from WildTangent, and a dedicate link to eBay on the desktop.
HP covers the Pavilion dv6-6145dx with a one-year warranty, but buyers may want to take advantage of Best Buy's two-year protection plans. The basic protection plan extends the warranty for a second year ($149.99), as well as covering battery replacement, power surges, and a no lemon policy which swaps the laptop for a new one if several repairs are needed. A two-year accidental protection plan also covers the laptop for damage from drops and spills ($269.99).
Performance
The dv6-6145dx is equipped with an AMD A8-3500M quad-core processor, part of AMD's new Llano-based Fusion line. Though its stock speed is 1.5GHz, with AMD's Turbo Core technology it can rev up to 2.4GHz. Though one of AMD's most powerful processors and paired with 8GB of memory, the A8-3500M struggles to keep up with competitors from Intel, like the Core i3-2310M found in the Dell Inspiron i15RN5110-7126DBK or the Core i5-2410M found in the Acer Aspire. In PCMark 7 tests, the Pavilion dv6-6145dx scored 1,550 points, falling behind the Dell Inspiron by 350 points and Acer Aspire TimelineX by 700 points. In Cinebench R11.5, our processor speed test, the Pavilion dv6 scored 1.90 points, again falling behind the Dell Inspiron (2.03) and Acer Aspire TimelineX (2.60).
The gap in performance is seen just as clearly in multimedia tests, like Handbrake and Photoshop CS5. The Pavilion dv6 completed our Handbrake video test in 3 minutes 31 seconds, and ran through Photoshop in 7 minute 36 seconds. These times fell well short of those scored by competing laptops, like the Dell XPS 15z (2:02 in Handbrake; 4:33 in CS5), the Dell i15RN5110-7126DBK (2:28 in Handbrake; 5:35 in CS5), and the Acer 5830TG-6402 (1:54 in Handbrake; 4:10 in CS5). These gaps in processing performance won't have a noticeable impact in day-to-day tasks like browsing the Web and creating documents, but you'll definitely run into slowed performance in processor-intensive tasks like editing video or large batches of photos.
In graphics performance, on the other hand, the Pavilion does quite well with its AMD Radeon HD 6620G graphics processor. Though it shares a chip die with the processor?providing the more efficient power consumption of integrated graphics?the Radeon processor is placed in the same class as discrete processors. The HP dv6-6145dx held it's own against the Editors' Choice Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft) and beat out the Nvidia equipped Acer Aspire TimelineX 5830TG-6402. In 3DMark 2006, the HP dv6-6145dx scored 6,156 points at medium resolution and detail settings, and 4,479 at higher settings. By comparison, the Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft), which is equipped with an Nvidia GeForce discrete graphics card, scored 8,610 points at medium settings, and 7,326 at higher settings. The Acer 5830TG-6402, which also has an Nvidia GPU, scored 5,792 points (medium) and 4,804 points (high).
In our gaming tests, however, the dv6-6145dx produced some of the best frame rates (measured in frames per second, or fps) of the desktop replacement category. In Crysis, at medium settings, it scored 37.5 frames per second (fps), ahead of the Intel integrated graphics of the Dell Inspiron (15.9), the AMD-equipped HP Pavilion dv6-6110us ($649.99 list, 3 stars) (28.5 fps), and the Nvidia-powered Acer Aspire TimelineX (32.5 fps). In Lost Planet 2, the HP dv6-6145dx scored 37.1 fps at medium settings, surpassing even the Dell XPS 15z (36.4 fps).
The one area where the dv6-6145dx really fell flat was in MobileMark 2007 battery life tests, scoring 5 hours 35 minutes with its 6-cell 55Wh battery. While this isn't much shorter than the Dell Inspiron (5:51), it was a far cry from the 7:13 of the Dell XPS 15z (with a 64Wh battery) and the 9:57 mark set by the Acer, with its giant 90Wh battery.
The HP Pavilion dv6-6145dx is, without question, a mixed bag of pros and cons. In terms of raw processing power, it's a bit of a disappointment, though you'll only see it if you push your processor hard with multimedia tasks or serious multitasking. On the other hand, the graphics it offers provide the same gaming capability as a more expensive laptop with a discrete GPU. Systems like the Editors' Choice Dell XPS 15z cost nearly $300 more, and those savings certainly make the HP Pavilion dv6-6145dx worth considering.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE
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