HP dv5t Review

The HP Pavilion dv5t is a 15.4-inch screen laptop powered by Intel’s Core 2 Duo mobile processor.  The dv5t is currently the most popular selling HP laptop, and for good reason as you will find out in this review.

A 15.4″ screen is the most popular form factor among buyers of PC laptops.  This is because a 15.4″ screen offers ample viewing space for those times you’re at your desk doing work yet the laptop’s weight is still low enough, at around 6lbs, that it’s quite easy to carry around in a backpack on campus.  For those shopping for this 15.4″ screen size laptop, the dv5t is one of the more compelling multimedia class notebooks out there.  The price for a budget configuration dv5t starts at a mere $550 at the time of this writing.   However, if you desire a more powerful laptop with dedicated Nvidia 9600 graphics, a fast 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor and speedy 7200RPM hard drive then you can configure the dv5t as such and pay the higher price.  No matter how you configure the Pavilion dv5t you still get the same great looks and quality build that will be discussed further in this review.

Specs for HP dv5t Review Unit:

• Color: Onyx black lid
• OS: Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5800 (2.0GHz)
• Screen: 15.4″ diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
• Memory: 3GB DDR2 System Memory
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• Hard Drive: 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• Webcam
• Wireless: Wireless-G Card
• Optical Drive: SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Battery: High capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• Cost after use of $250 discount coupon: $579.99

Note that at the time of purchase there was a special $250 off HP coupon code for any Pavilion notebook customized over $899.  The final price of $579.99 for this configuration is exceedingly good, you can still find similar deals from HP and it especially pays to wait for a good coupon code.

Design and Looks

The Pavilion dv5t can be configured with either an Onyx black color lid or a Bronze color lid.  The laptop under review has the Onyx black lid, which is very attractive and provides a sleek look.  The lid has a subtle mesh inlaid design and a glossy finish which is appealing to look at but a fingerprint magnet (HP mercifully provides a fiber cloth to clean the lid).  The keyboard area has a silver metallic finish and is also slightly glossy in nature, though not to the extent that it will pick up fingerprints.  The display area of the dv5t is again black and glossy like the lid.

HP dv5t Front side:

HP dv5t Back side:

HP dv5t Left side:

HP dv5t Right side:

The overall shape of the notebook is curvy and appealing, there are no sharp edges to be found.  There is a tasteful HP logo on the lid that lights up when the computer is on, it’s much more attractive than a cheap stick on badge logo.  The light indicators and touch sensitive buttons also add to the overall look with the use of very attractive blue, orange and white lights as indicators.

Construction Quality

A very important aspect of a laptop that you’ll be carrying around on campus is how durable it is.  A laptop you’ll be pulling in and out of a backpack and likely dropping to the floor in that backpack needs to be built of quality materials to last over four years.  The Pavilion dv5t is made of high-strength plastic that should certainly hold up to this task.  When pushing in on the case of the dv5t it’s hard to discover any flexing or weak areas.  The base and lid of the notebook are particularly strong, which is important as they’ll sustain the most weight pressure from books piled into a backpack.

The paint finish of the notebook seems like it will hold up its looks over time.  After two months of usage and some bumps during that time the Pavilion dv5t I have has sustained no scratches.  It’s hard to predict how a laptop will look in three years time, but so far there has been no keyboard wear, palm rest wear or noticeable paint scratches suffered.

Processor and Performance

A very important part of a PC is of course how fast and responsive it is, nothing is more annoying than a slow user experience for surfing the web or installing and using programs.  In this era of multi-tasking, many students are used to having several applications and browser windows open at once.  The good news is that the Intel Core 2 Duo processor is designed specifically to handle several programs at once.  Even with the base level Intel T5800 2.0 GHz processor this review unit has you can expect good performance when running an anti-virus, chat software, email program, a word processing app, several browser windows or tabs all at once.

In fairness this performance does rely somewhat on uninstalling various bloatware programs HP installs.  I was disappointed at the sheer number of garbage trial software applications HP placed on a new dv5t machine, it took nearly an hour for me to go through and uninstall things like Wild Tangent games, Norton anti-virus (I use Avast anti-virus software), MS Office Trial and several other “free” software apps that took up disk space and begged you to pay for a full edition.

This review unit has 3GB of memory installed which is a recommended amount for Vista.  At the time of purchase HP was offering a free upgrade to 3GB of RAM, a generous offer that you’ll frequently find HP has.  I don’t think it’s worth upgrading to 4GB of memory, with Windows Vista 32-bit a laptop cannot even use that much memory even if you were to have it.

While I configured the Pavilion dv5t with a basic 160GB 5400RPM hard drive there are various options.  If you want a speedy hard drive for a faster bootup and then splurge on a more expensive 7200RPM hard drive.  If you want massive amounts of storage on a single internal drive, then go for the high density 320GB hard drive.  For most people a 5400RPM spinning hard drive will offer ample performance.  A 160GB drive should be enough to store all the files you need immediately accessible, and then just get a cheap external storage device for storing all those media files you use rarely and just need backed up.

If you’re into serious PC gaming then having a dedicated graphics card will be worth the cost upgrade.  While Intel has done a decent job of improving the graphics performance of its Integrated graphics chipset in the latest generation, it’s still far from adequate for running the latest games like Crysis or GTA IV.  The Nvidia 9600GM graphics available with the dv5t will definitely turn in impressive performance with demanding games like Crysis and Call of Duty 4.  If you want the dv5t to serve as an entertainment gaming machine along with one for doing school work, then go for the dedicated graphics upgrade.  If all you’re interested in doing is work and web related stuff, definitely skip the Nvidia graphics as it costs more and will also drain your battery faster.

For those interested in benchmarks, here are a few scores that the dv5t under review scored:

• PCMark05: 4,079 PCMarks
• 3DMark06: 942 3DMarks

Input and Output Ports

Another important consideration for a laptop is what ports it offers you for expansion and attaching accessories.  Since the HP dv5t is a fair size laptop there is room to fit in all of the ports you’ll likely need as a student.  In total, here is what you get with the dv5t:

• VGA monitor out port (left side)
• Docking station connector (left side)
• Ethernet LAN port (left side)
• HDMI video out port (left side)
• 1 eSata / USB combo port (left side)
• IEEE 1394 mini-FireWire port (left side)
• ExpressCard/54 slot (left side)
• Media Card Reader for SD, MS/Pro, MMC, XD cards (left side)
• 3 USB 2.0 Ports (one on left side two on right side)
• 2 headphone jacks (front side)
• 1 Microphone jack (front side)
• Power jack (right side)

Overall this is a fantastic number of useful ports.  Most of them are located on the left you’ll notice.  Having HDMI available for connecting to an HDTV is a great option, especially if you splurged on an upgrade to Blu-Ray.  The eSata port is awesome for providing a fast interface to external storage, the fact that HP decided to combine a USB port into the eSata port bringing the total number of USB ports to four is a big bonus.

Keyboard and Other Inputs

The Pavilion dv5t keyboard is interesting in that it has a mildly glossy and metallic finish.  At first I was concerned this would drive me crazy with picking up fingerprints and providing a slippery feel.  I will admit that the feel of the keys is a little more slippery than I’d like, but as this is a full-sized keyboard it won’t result in actually missing a keystroke or cause your finger to slip off of a key.  The feel of the keys just took a few minutes of getting used to for me.  The overall travel of the keys is decent, but the feedback is a little softer than I’d like.  There is no flex or sag to the keyboard, once again indicating quality construction.

The touchpad also has a glossy finish.  I can’t say I love the feel of it, I found that my finger would sometimes encounter some resistance and did not glide over the surface like it really should on a touchpad.  At least the size of the touchpad is generous, giving the user ample room to navigate a cursor with one finger stroke across the screen.  The vertical scroll zones on the touchpad make it easy to quickly scroll up and down on a web page.  There is a touchpad on/off button right above the touchpad itself, this is very useful when you want you’re just typing and want to turn off the touchpad to avoid brushing it and moving the cursor.

Many of the buttons on the Pavilion dv5t are touch sensitive, meaning you just brush your finger along things like the volume control area to increase or decrease sound volume.  Having touch sensitive controls lends to a clean and modern look, but sometimes it’s a little harder to get the fine level of control you would from a regular old push button.  I’m a fan of the look of touch sensitive media buttons, especially with the lighting effects HP integrates, but in terms of usability I’d prefer just to have an old fashioned button.  Call me old fashioned!

Screen Quality

HP is now offering high-resolution displays on the dv5t series, meaning you can get a WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050 resolution) screen.  This higher resolution is great if you like better picture detail and want to fit more on your screen.  However, the higher resolution does equate to smaller text and icons, so if you are visually challenged it’s a bad idea to go with the higher resolution.  The standard WXGA resolution HP offers is the most standard for notebooks and should be fine for most — if you’re not sure on this selection option just go with the cheaper and more standard WXGA option like I did.

The colors on the WXGA screen are vibrant and really pop.  The brightness level at max is just perfect, I wouldn’t want it any brighter to be honest.  The contrast levels are good with the blacks being nice and deep and the whites a true white you would expect.  The viewing angles are decent, as is typical with notebook LCD screens the vertical viewing angles are not as good as horizontal.  Also, the glossy screen provides quite a bit of reflection so if you have strong lighting behind you the screen will act like a mirror.  Some may find that very annoying, but I wouldn’t give it up for the advantage of more vibrant colors that a glossy screen offers

Battery Life Performance

Once again, your mileage may vary a lot based on the particular configuration of the dv5t you select.  If you opt for the fastest processor and Nvidia 9600m graphics then you’ll definitely see lower battery life performance than with the integrated graphics and Intel T5800 configuration that I have.  HP also offers different battery sizes, I got the 6-cell high-capacity battery.  Using the Vista power saver mode I was able to achieve 3.5 hours of battery life while using Microsoft Word to type a report.  My screen brightness was set to mid-level and wireless was on.  If you wanted to try and eek out 4 hours of battery life using the lowest screen brightness setting and turning off wireless you could probably achieve it.

Wireless

HP offers a few wireless options.  The base 802.11 option is a standard 802.11 a/b/g card from Broadcom.  You can upgrade to Intel 5100AGN or 5300AGN wireless if you want the faster 802.11n wireless capabilities.  For most people the base level Broadcom wireless card will be just fine, unless you have a home network with an 802.11n router and do a lot of file moving across that network you’re not going to get a noticeable performance boost from having the Intel card.

Bluetooth is available as a built-in option, this is nice to have if you want to use a Bluetooth wireless mouse instead of the touchpad for cursor control.  It’s also useful for pairing your notebook with a SmartPhone.

Warranty and Support

HP offers a standard 1-year warranty on its notebooks.  These days the HP tech support you get is from overseas.  In my experience with HP support the service reps have always been easy enough to communicate with and very pleasant.  I had to return an HP laptop a year ago due to some graphics card malfunctions it was having and the process was rather smooth and support was on the whole helpful.  This will obviously vary by the rep you get and also based on what your problem may be.

If you want to completely protect yourself you can get a 3-year accident proof warranty, this will cost you but it will also cover you in the invent of accidents such as spilling liquids onto your laptop and frying it.  That kind of protection is better called insurance than a warranty and if you’re a careful enough person or simply avoid having drinks by your laptop you can skip the extra cost.

I recommend using a credit card such as American Express or Master Card to make the purchase of a laptop because with these cards they’ll automatically add a year to the warranty.

Conclusion

The HP dv5t laptop is popular for a reason, it’s price to feature ratio is one of the best out there for laptops and the 15.4-inch screen form factor fits the bill for most people’s needs.  If you’re going to be walking around campus a lot, then you may want to consider the slightly smaller and lighter 14-inch screen Pavilion dv4t.  However, if your laptop will mostly be sitting on a desk in your dorm then a 15.4-inch screen is the sweet spot.  If you want to use the Pavilion dv5t as an all-in-one entertainment machine by getting Blu-Ray, TV tuner and dedicated graphics built-in then it can certainly replace your TV and DVD/Blu-Ray player.  In summary, there’s no hesitation in recommending the Pavilion dv5t as a student notebook if you think it fits your needs profile.

Pros

• Excellent price to performance ratio
• Attractive looks and option for lid design (Onyx black or Bronze)
• Extremely configurable online at HP.com, can be configured as a budget play or higher end gaming capable machine
• Well built laptop with a sturdy feel
• Great port selection

Cons

• Too much pre-loaded bloatware software that slows the machine down and must be uninstalled
• Touch sensitive buttons are attractive, but sometimes a little hard to use
• A lot of glossy surfaces make the dv5t a cleaning challenge

Pricing and Where to buy

The HP Pavilion dv5t notebook is available configure to order at HP.com and varies in price depending on the promotions and marketing going on during any given week.  Right now the starting price is at $579.  Don’t forget the student discount that HP offers.