New HP Pavilion notebooks go for style, go with AMD

By Sharon Fisher | Published January 6, 2009, 2:12 PM

HP has had a reputation for delivering sturdy, competent, but unexciting hardware without a lot of pizzazz in the marketing department. As folks used to say, if HP was selling sushi, they'd market it as "cold, dead fish."

Well, somewhere along the line, Hewlett-Packard appears to have swallowed a marketing person, because the press releases for their new line of Pavilion notebooks -- including a competitor to Apple's slimmer-than-slim "Air" -- all gush about how stylish they are.

Stylish? HP?

The dv2 and dv3 are each marketed as "entertainment" notebooks. The dv2 is less than one inch thick and starts at 3.8 pounds, with a 12.1-inch screen and "a nearly full-size keyboard," which might be worth paying attention to if you're ham-handed. It has hard drive options of up to 500 GB and runs on AMD's all-new Athlon Neo Processor (which AMD may have wanted to announce in a few days, though HP had other plans).

HP Pavilion dv2

An HP webcam and microphone are built in. Options include built-in WWAN (think WiMAX) and an external optical disc drive with Blu-ray capability.

Just to show how stylish it is, it comes in two colors called "Espresso" and "Moonlight." That's "black" and "silver" to the rest of us. It will be available in April starting at $699.

HP Pavilion dv3

The slightly larger dv3 has a 13.3-inch screen and weighs 4.35 pounds. Its processor is the AMD Turion Ultra X2, and it includes a built-in optical drive and high definition graphics and video and an integrated media card reader. Options include a flash drive for faster bootup, and a backlit keyboard for working in low light. It sounds like it's intended for executives who spend lots of time on planes who want to watch movies when they're not working. It is available for ordering today starting at $799.

Two other notebooks are sort of new though HP actually put them on the price list in mid-December. The dv6 and updated dv7 each have 16:9 aspect ratios and are optimized for HD content, meaning they're great for watching movies on. The dv6 has a 16-inch display -- the first Pavilion to do so -- and the dv7 has a 17.3-inch display and improved graphics processor. The dv6 starts at $869 and the dv7 starts at $899.

Update banner (stretched)12:30 pm MST January 6, 2009 - Bob O'Donnell, vice president of clients and displays for International Data Corp., noted that the dv2 is great for users who've been wanting to get into the ultra-portable space without having to spend as much as they would for a MacBook Air.

"They've typically been $1200, $1300," he said. "It's coming to a lower price point -- not quite as thin, but pretty darn close." Due to the economy, people are being drawn toward lower-cost notebook systems, and they still want thin, he said. "Low-cost thin is the right combination."

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I think the bigger problem here is they went with AMD period!

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I bought an HP laptop almost 2 years ago, and as "frankwick" pointed out, HP loads their PCs with every kind of junk software known to man. Some take over the screen and require the ol' "three-finger-salute" to escape. Even taking the considerable time to uninstall everything doesn't quite do the job. Some sneaky little "phone home" crap program will show up in the tray sooner or later.

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Gee, one would think the erudite techno-wizards on this site would welcome the oh so kompleekated job of installing their own system and configuring it the way they most desire.

BFD.
Format and install.

Like anyone wants Vista Home anyway!

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The problem is that the LEGAL disks which ship with the OEM PCs have all the crapware baked in. The only way to get a clean OS install is to buy a retail copy or download a cracked version.

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In line with what "frankwick" said, its just not an HP thing, it's an Industry wide thing. They need that software bundled to pay the bills, but I do think that for like the IT / Expert user, they should offer a PC Blank for like $100 less then it's standard retail. That would give us the real choice of what OS to install and really make it a Custom PC.

Plus, all the proprietary Hardware that these manufacturers use, not on a Laptop but the Desktops... Ever open a new Dell, really nothing is upgradeable or replaceable unless you get it from Dell!

Manufactures could save a lot of money and headaches by using STANDARD (Key Word there) Parts (Motherboard, Video Cards, Etc.) and most time, have far less support calls.

I remember HP and a few others years ago decided to save a penny or two, so they bought Motherboard with a "Cheaper Capacitor". Yea, good work until all the Caps started to explode and the only hint the PC owner had was that the PC would just reboot. HP said they would replace any Motherboard affected "Until they were out of supply".

HP, DELL, GATEWAY and all others, STANDARDS!!!

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I really like HP, but they sure know how to load a good PC up with crapware. You can double system performance by simply removing the junk they pre-install. For example, Vista has a very good wireless manager. Why does HP need to install their own WiFi manager on top of it? The latest Hp I bought even came with pre-installed printer drivers!!! WHY?!?!?

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