What do you do when nearly every major notebook manufacturer has imitated the design of your best-selling consumer laptop? You give it a whole new look and add compelling new features, including an accelerometer to help protect data in case of a tumble. And with Intel's next-generation Centrino 2 processor and chipset and Nvidia's latest graphics card under the hood, the HP Pavilion dv5t (available in the July/August timeframe) backs up its sweet aesthetics with some serious horsepower.
Spiffed-Up Design
A welcome departure from HP’s older Imprint Finish, the Pavilion dv5t is decked out in onyx and chrome and features a subtle grid pattern that extends from the lid to the keyboard deck. HP calls this liquid metallic look the Imprint 2 finish, and it’s certainly striking. It’s almost as if HP poured the bad-guy cop from Terminator 2 into a notebook mold. This finish extends to the sides of the system as well, giving the ports and optical drive a unified appearance. The dv5t is a bit on the heavy side at 6.4 pounds, but with a one-inch thin profile it slips easily into a case or backpack.
Other subtle touches make the dv5t stand out from the crowd. When the system is on, an HP logo shines bright white on the lid. Likewise, you’ll find “magic chrome” touch media controls that light up only when the notebook is running. These controls were relatively responsive on our tests, but sometimes we had to swipe the volume bar too many times to get the desired result. About halfway up the keyboard, the deck switches from the grid pattern to a speaker grille of the same color. While overall this offers an effect of depth, the whole system collects fingerprints pretty quickly—especially on the lid.
On the left side of the dv5t are a VGA port, an expansion port for HP’s dock, Ethernet, HDMI, eSATA, one USB, FireWire, a 54mm ExpressCard slot and a 5-in-1 memory card reader. Along the front are two headphone and one mic jack, and on the right, you’ll find the DVD burner (You can also upgrade the optical drive to a Blu-ray player for $200), two USB ports, a modem jack, and a Kensington lock. You’ll also find a fingerprint reader on the keyboard deck.
The full-size keyboard thankfully forgoes the glossy treatment for a matte finish. Keys were well spaced and offered good feedback. We wish HP would change its trackpad, though. As with the dv6700 series, the trackpad dragged a bit with the moisture from our fingers after only a couple minutes of use. We also noticed that the keyboard got warm after about an hour of use.
Display and Sound
HP goes for the frameless LCD look with the dv5t’s 15.4-inch widescreen. As we’ve seen on such systems as the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510, the notebook has glass that extends to the edges of the bezel for a crisp, clean look. Our system was configured with a 1680 x 1050, 15.4-inch panel with a BrightView Infinity treatment for enhanced movie watching. And while it showed a lot of glare (we could check our teeth using the screen as a mirror, even when the system was on), movies looked fantastic with excellent horizontal and vertical viewing angles.
Sound was also impressive, thanks to the dv5t’s Altec Lansing speakers. Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” sounded as good as it would on a small boom box. In fact, this notebook produced enough volume to fill a kitchen with plenty of sound.
Above the display is a VGA webcam, which followed our movement well and is paired with CyberLink’s YouCam software. The images were a little dark in office lighting, though, even after we used the software to brighten them.
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