Review: HP Pavilion dv2632tx notebook

Over the week since I received my evaluation model of the HP Pavilion dv2632tx notebook computer, I have tried my hardest to test this computer in almost all my everyday tasks, in a variety of environments, as I do with all notebooks.

I’ll cover the different aspects of this notebook in categories.

Design

The design of the Pavilion dv2632tx is, like most of the new consumer HP laptops, lovely. All of the usable surfaces – the lid, the palm rests, screen and keyboard surrounds – are glossy plastic. When you first take the Pavilion home – or as I saw after receiving it from a courier through HP’s media program – you see the intricate and beautiful ‘Radiance’ theme on the black, glossy lid. It’s just a fancy array of circles and swirls... but it really does thrill for the first little bit of using the computer. After that, it looks great, but it’ll just become a fingerprint nightmare.

On the inside, the palm rests are decorated in the same fashion. If you think the pattern is subtle, you’re quite mistaken. It’s there, and the ‘Radiance’ pattern wants to be noticed.

The keyboard, many will be pleased to note, is not glossy, or decorated. It is made of a durable, matte material that feels nice under the fingers and gives the feeling that the keyboard can handle greasy fingers, crumbs, and hard use. Around so much glossy plastic it feels a little out of place, but it doesn’t feel cheap.

Along the palm rests, from the right, you’ll find a fingerprint scanner. This is a great help if you don’t want to remember all of those passwords you use for various websites, clubs, emails and the computer itself. The biometric scanner can keep them all under one umbrella and simply accept your own finger.

The touchpad is glossy, which sometimes can become a little annoying, as are the mouse buttons. You can also switch off the touchpad, via a button above, which is a nice feature if you work with a mouse.

Finally, above the keyboard, there is a row of touch-sensitive buttons, which are a really nice touch. They’re for controlling QuickPlay, HP’s own media manager. QuickPlay is somehow a little bit contradictory to Windows Media Centre, which comes standard with this computer as it is running Windows Vista Home Premium. However, they do work for most other applications. The best of these touch buttons is the volume up/down – to control it, you just swipe your finger up or down. This is quite lovely, and definitely gives this computer a more expensive feel.

Screen

The dv2632tx, I believe, has a great compromise when it comes to the screen. Most people go for a 13.3” laptop if they want a portable machine that still has a widescreen. However, many other people don’t need so much portability so they go for a 15.4” laptop, which affords more screen space and higher resolutions.

The mid-size screen on the Pavilion, at 14.1” is fantastic. It offers the portability of a 13” laptop, with the screen of a 15” notebook. I have very much enjoyed working with a screen of this size, and would preferably buy a laptop with this screen size for myself.

The screen is glossy, as well, which everybody knows will reflect the light quite a bit. And this one does. But with the way colours look on this laptop, you’d never care. The screen is particularly beautiful. Once again, I compare this laptop to the MacBook – and this screen is better.

Performance

Ah, the wonderful dual-core processor. They offer faster performance, quicker response and smaller wait times. Fantastic, one thinks. The dv2632tx does have a dual-core processor, in fact, an Intel Core 2 Duo, which is a good one. However, since it’s only powered at 1.5Ghz, it’s not exactly a screamer. However, although it’s processor speed seems to be fairly low, we need to take into account the fact that the dv2632tx is a Dual Core notebook – so therefore usually 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo will be quicker than say, a 1.8GHz Pentium 4 or Centrino.

The speed of the Pavilion is fine. It’s definitely not slow – this laptop would be perfect for students, home users, mums, or perhaps for some light office work.

Expansion

You can find more detailed ports expansion information on our main review site (http://web.mac.com/tom.bakes/tbtech).

For just a moment I’ll talk about the DVD drive: This is fantastic, as it has LightScribe labelling. So, with a blank disc that supports LightScribe, you can create your memories on DVD with the included Windows DVD Maker, then laser a nice label onto the DVD right there in the disc drive. Ingenious! Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to try out the LightScribe feature, but I have used it on an HP desktop and it works well.

Operating System

The dv2632tx comes standard with Windows Vista Home Premium, an operating system that both suits it and runs very well. In the week that I have tested this notebook, Home Premium has suited the Pavilion to a ‘t’, except for the large annoyance I suffered when I discovered that Home Premium does not support the Samba (SMB) server networking environment. My home Windows servers run on the SMB protocol and for it to be left out in Home Premium is not good in TB Tech’s books.

For home users, contrary to the beliefs of many tech review sources, is better suited to home users than Windows XP Home or Professional, TB Tech finds. On average, it was easier for the average home user to navigate the Vista operating system as a first timer than it was to navigate XP. We did not have any hiccups with Vista over the week of testing, either, and all basic to moderate tasks were easily completed.

Portability

As I previously commented, 14.1” is a very nice size for a notebook – offering easy portability with a good size (wide)screen.

The Pavilion is no exception to this. It is light, at only 2.43kg (official weight for Pavilion dv2500), and it could easily be carried around every day, but you’d want it in a bag. The glossy surface of the lid makes it a bit difficult to carry securely in the hand.

Carrying this to a local cafe, to work, or just around the neighbourhood would an easy task.

Battery

The battery lasted between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 hours on our tests here at TB Tech. On average, with word processor use, spreadsheets open, browsing the internet over WiFi and listening to some music occasionally, we got approximately 2 3/4 hours of battery. Watching a DVD reduced this down to between 2 and 2 1/2 hours.

These numbers are quite respectable, as the screen is quite bright even at lower settings, and multimedia and internet on this device looks and sounds great.

Conclusion

The Pavilion dv2632tx has been a pleasure to use. The interesting and rare perks of the hardware, like the 2 headphone jacks, or the touch-enabled media controls, should be features in more notebooks.

If you are a home user, student, busy mother, or perhaps someone who does a balance of home use with light work use, the Pavilion dv2632tx could certainly be the notebook for you.


You can find the HP Pavilion dv2632tx Entertainment Notebook at many electronics or computer stores. It retails for $1,599.