HP Pavilion DV7-1211ea review

Wrestle the DV7 from its packaging and it's clear that building this laptop has been a labour of love. The glossy black lid is shot through with a subtle grey mesh effect and the HP logo at its bottom corner is backlit with a cool white glow.

The interior looks just as lovely, with the keyboard and surround finished in a stylish mixture of matte and glossy silver. It sounds horrid, but unlike many of its peers the lavish attention to detail manages to coalesce into an eye-catching whole.

We've not just fallen head over heels for the HP's looks, however; it's as pleasant to use as it is gorgeous to look at. The sizable 3.38kg chassis leaves enough room for a full-sized keyboard and numeric keypad and, what's more, both are of superb quality.

Each key boasts plenty of travel and a light, positive action, while the silky finish gives a luxurious feel under the fingers. It's helped no end by the generously proportioned wristrest and the chassis' rounded edges, which make for a comfortable typing position.

The screen is good, although it isn't quite as impressive as others this month. Where the Samsung squeezes in an impressive 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, the HP's 17in panel boasts a more modest 1,440 x 900 resolution. Despite the lack of pixels, however, there's no lack of quality. Colours are accurate and the high brightness and glossy finish help give decent contrast.

Thanks to the 2.13GHz Intel P7450 processor and 4GB of DDR2 memory, the HP rocketed through our benchmarks with a fine 1.09 overall. There's gaming ability, too - the HP ran our least demanding Crysis test at an average of 20fps.

Even battery life is well above average. In our light-use test, the DV7 managed a fraction short of five hours away from the mains, while heavy use saw that drop to around two hours.

But for all its talents the HP stumbles at the final hurdle. It has no Blu-ray drive, no fancy graphics chipset and no draft-n Wi-Fi either. Although it's ergonomically superb, we'd simply expect a more generous specification for this price.

Author: Sasha Muller