HP Pavilion dv6985se Review

HP comes out with special editions laptops once in a while which are bit different from its standard offerings. HP Pavilion dv6985se is one such laptop which was recently introduced by HP. It has a different color scheme along with a 12-cell battery, making it special. HP Pavilion line has been there is market for a long now time and has created a bond with the consumers for its attractive looks and great price to performance ratio.

HP Pavilion dv6985se specifications :

• Dimensions : 14.1″ x 10.1″ x 1.7″
• Weight : 6.8 lbs
• Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 / 2GHz
• RAM : 4GB DDR2 SDRAM
• Display : 15.4″ TFT active matrix with 1280 x 800 resolution
• Hard Disk : 250GB SATA-II
• Optical Storage : DVD Writer
• Graphics : Intel GMA X3100
• Speakers : Altec Lansing
• Battery : 12-cell Lithium-ion
• OS : Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
• Approx. price : $899

The HP Pavilion 6985se laptop has the same shape and design as of other HP Pavilion laptops. The difference is though, in the color scheme used for the laptop. HP has ditched the traditional black and silver color scheme and gone with a copper and silver color scheme which looks equally good if not better. The touchpad also has a different shade than the rest of the body. The faint imprint is still present on the body and the lid which looks classy. Overall the looks have definitely improved from older Pavilion notebooks. The laptop is bulky due to the additional weight of the 12-cell battery.

The display is a 15.4 incher with a standard resolution of 1280 x 800. The screen is glossy as always which produces reflections in bright light. But at the same time it produces sharp and bright images and is great for watching movies. The resolution though has stuck to 1280 x 800 which has been a legacy for most of the pavilion line. A 1.3 MP webcam is placed at the top of the display, which takes decent pics and lets you conduct video chats.

The touchpad and keyboard have not got any refinement and are similar to their predecessors. Touchpad is smooth but not good enough to save money for a dedicated mouse. It has a dedicated vertical scroll zone, though you can add a vertical one also through the Synaptics Pointing Device settings. The touchpad can be turned off through the button placed just above the touchpad, a nice addition as the touchpad can sometimes hinder with accidental clicks while typing.

The keyboard has silver keys that look much better than the black ones sported by older Pavilion series laptops. It has an almost full size keyboard you would find on most 15″ laptops. Typing is easy and comfortable on the keyboard with few typos. However, as this is the similar keyboard found on the older Pavilion notebooks which are known for wobbly keys after a few months of use, so beware of that.

Above the keyboard sit pretty the touch media buttons. These touch buttons are the best things about the Pavilion series due to their ease of use and high functionality. You can control any media player functions such as Play, Pause, Forward, Rewind, Stop etc functions by a single touch. The volume slider lets you control volume by sliding your finger across it in a particular direction depending on whether you want to increase or decrease the volume. There are also keys to launch HP’s QuickPlay manager and DVD player.

There is no surprise package in the ports section of the laptop. It has the usual USB ports, Ethernet port, mini-Firewire port. HP Expansion Port which lets you connect to a HP docking station takes up quite a bit of space. Then there are the VGA and the S-Video ports. The card reader supporting a number of formats make up the list of ports to be found on the laptop.There are only 3 USB 2.0 ports compared to 4 generally found on 15″ notebooks.

The laptop has a Lightscribe DVD Writer, a slot-in would have been much better. Lightscribe can help you imprint you favorite design on the optical media but good look hunting for these discs. The Altec Lansing speakers on the notebook do more than a respectable job. Although they lack bass, but they produce good sound even at loud volumes. Treble is predominantly strong in the sound produced but you can reduce it with the help of Realtek HD Audio Manager.

Talking about the configuration, the laptop is intended for home use which neither require very fast processing or intensive graphics. The processor isn’t the fastest we have seen in this price range and the onboard graphics are just good enough to play HD movies. The 4GB RAM ensures that you can enjoy multi-tasking without worrying about memory footprint of the applications. 250GB hard disk space is good to start with for storing HD movies, games and other stuff. The laptop is fast and zippy while surfing web or reading documents. But when it comes to processor or graphics intensive tasks lacks power. The 12-cell high capacity battery promises long backup time and you can stay away from the power outlet for over 5.5 hours. The laptop comes with a standard one-year warranty on parts and labour.

Pros :

• Nice color scheme
• Great battery life
• Touch sensitive media buttons
• Good display
• High amount of RAM and storage space

Cons :

• Bulky
• Average configuration
• Bad speakers
• Slightly expensive

Final Thoughts

The HP Pavilion dv6985se, a special edition laptop by HP does not have anything special to offer. It has an average configuration meant for home use though it is generous on memory and hard disk front. It has a new color scheme which is a refreshing change from the older Pavilion laptops. Also HP has decided to include the higher capacity 12-cell battery by default which leads to much longer battery backup time. But these two are the only positives that this laptop has over other Pavilion laptops. The battery adds significant weight making it hard to carry around. Overall, I would advise you to skip it and look for something better if you can’t find a great deal on this one.

Rating : 2.5/5