Intel has unleashed& its third-generation Ivy Bridge processors and even as you& read this, these brand-new chips are now making their way into& mainstream& laptops from major PC vendors. At the moment, only the quad-core& versions are available--the ultra-low-voltage ones preferred in Ultrabooks& are only expected in the coming months.

& A refreshed& version of an existing HP Pavilion model, the latest dv6& comes with an Ivy Bridge quad-core Intel Core i7 processor clocked at& 2.6GHz. Along with 8GB of memory and a discrete Nvidia graphics chip& utilizing the new Kepler& architecture, this laptop has some of the most powerful& hardware you can find on a laptop now. The only thing it is lacking is& an SSD, though this is understandable given its& mainstream positioning.

& This hardware is complemented by a full-HD matte display with good& offaxis viewing. Together with HP's Beats Audio, which is& assisted by a subwoofer, and a Blu-ray drive, this& laptop is an excellent multimedia machine for HD movies and gaming.& However, unlike HP's premium Envy line, this Pavilion notebook shows& its cheaper side with a mainly plastic chassis with touches of& aluminum. The construction can be shoddy, too--a corner of the touchpad& on& our review unit bulged out.

& Overall, the HP Pavilion dv6 seems to be pretty good value. Our review& unit, which is only offered in the US, is one of the& higher-end configurations but has a starting price of & US$900. You can customize your desired configuration at this& link. If you wish to get something similar to our review unit, the bill comes out to around US$1,319. In Singapore, HP quoted us a& S$1,699 (US$1,361) model with a similar Core i7 3610QM processor (at a& slightly slower 2.3GHz clock speed) and only 4GB of RAM.

Design&

Replace the reflective Gorilla Glass encrusted lid of the HP& Envy 14 Spectre with brushed aluminum and you'll get& something close to the version on the HP Pavilion dv6. Both laptops& feature a small HP logo that lights up when the notebooks are turned& on. The dv6 also has some kind of soft-touch material running along its& spine, presumably for a better grip.

& The laptop itself is fairly thick and heavy. At almost 2.6kg, the dv6& isn't exactly the most portable notebook around and while HP mentions& that it has a "tapered design", it doesn't really matter when it& measures 32.5mm at its thickest point.

& On the inside, the first thing you're likely to notice is the large& speaker bar grille above the keyboard signed with a Beats Audio logo.& This is part of the new design on the dv series and, together with a& subwoofer located at the bottom of the laptop, is expected to boost the& laptop's audio performance.

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Specifications	HP Pavilion dv6-7003xx
Starting price/as reviewed	From& US$900/US$1,319
Processor	2.6GHz Core i7 3720QM (quad-core)& processor
Memory	8GB, 1,333MHz DDR3
Hard drive	750GB
Chipset	Intel HM77
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce GT 650M
Operating system	Windows 7 Home Premium
Dimensions (W x D)	378 x 247mm
Height	32.5mm
Screen size (diagonal)	15.6 inches (1,920 x 1,080)
System weight (with AC adapter)	2.57kg
Category	Mainstream

& The backlit chiclet keyboard is identical to the ones found on other& recent HP laptops, though this version has been expanded& to include a number& pad. As usual, HP has reserved the Function keys for important features& such as toggling the Wi-Fi, screen brightness and other multimedia& controls.

& The touchpads on HP's laptops have been one of the better& implementations we have experienced on a Windows laptop and the one on& the dv6 continues this trend with good responsiveness for two-finger& scrolling. Unfortunately, the build quality of the laptop falters& here--the top corner of the touchpad wasn't perfectly level--the right& corner bulged up a bit and we could probably have peeled off the top& layer with some force.

Features

The full-HD display on the HP Pavilion dv6 is a beauty. All too often,& we get mediocre 1,366 x 768-pixel screens on mainstream& notebooks, even with 15.6-inch models and larger--the Acer& Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 is a recent example. However, HP has& outfitted the Pavilion dv6 with a matte screen that's not only capable& of displaying 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, but also has excellent offaxis& viewing.

& On paper, it's not quite Retina& Display-class, but it's certainly as good as you'll get on a& laptop. Reading text, especially Web pages, was a real pleasure on this& screen due to the higher resolution and the lack of glare.

& This excellent display is powered by an equally capable GeForce GT 650M& discrete graphics chip from Nvidia. Based on Nvidia's latest Kepler& graphics chip, the GeForce GT 650M is a slightly higher-clocked version& of the GeForce GT 640M chip found on the Acer M3, which as you may& have read, is able to play modern games such as& Battlefield 3. You can find out how the 650M fared in the performance& section later.

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	HP Pavilion dv6	Average for category (mainstream)
Video&	VGA-out, HDMI	VGA& plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio&	Headphone/microphone& jacks	Stereo& speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data&	Two USB 3.0, Two USB& 2.0, SD card reader	Four USB& 2.0, SD card reader, eSATA
Networking&	Gigabit Ethernet,& 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth	Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi,& Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive &	Blu-ray combo drive	DVD burner
Other features&	Webcam	Webcam

& As we saw on the recent HP& Pavilion dm4, HP has been putting Beats Audio on practically& all its laptops, even mainstream models. While it's no doubt an& improvement over other laptops which lack this audio technology, the& dv6 won't blow you away with its sound quality. We liked that you can& adjust the clarity of movie dialogue using the Beats Audio Control& Panel, but the overall volume fell short of what we were expecting for& a notebook equipped with a subwoofer. Personally, this laptop appeared& to handle music better than movies, which is slightly disappointing& given its full-HD& screen and Blu-ray drive.

& USB 3.0 ports are now native& on Intel's new chipsets for Ivy Bridge and it seems that the& dv6 is making full use of this addition. There are altogether four USB& ports and they split equally between USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 variants. Most& of the ports are located on the left profile, where you'll also find& HDMI and surprisingly, VGA output. With Intel's new integrated& graphics supporting up to three simultaneous displays, we thought we& could test this out, but unfortunately, the HDMI and VGA ports on the& dv6 is so close to each other that we couldn't plug both in at the same& time. Intel's WiDi technology is supported if you have the adapter.

& Other features you can expect to find include an HD Webcam that& captures& up to 720p videos and a fingerprint reader. HP has also preloaded the& appropriate software for these features, such as CyberLink's YouCam and& Skype. Other bundled applications range from maintenance tools to& Internet security utilities and multimedia software to play those& Blu-ray discs. However, you won't find the Adobe creation tools that& seem to be standard issue on HP Envy laptops.

& Overall, there isn't much bloat, though HP could probably pare it down& somewhat by removing the Microsoft Bing toolbar and shortcuts for Web& sites& such as eBay.

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	HP& Pavilion dv6	Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3	HP Envy 15
& Processor& &	2.6GHz, Core i7 processor	1.6GHz, Core i5 processor	2.5GHz, Core i7 processor
& Graphics& &	Nvidia GeForce GT 650M	Nvidia GeForce GT 640M	AMD Radeon HD 7690M
& Video& &	VGA-out, HDMI	HDMI	DisplayPort, HDMI
& Audio& &	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone jack	Stereo& speakers with subwoofer, two headphone jacks, microphone jack
& Data& &	Two& USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, SD card reader	One USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, SD& card reader	Two& USB 3.0, One USB 2.0, SD card reader
& Networking& &	Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi	Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi	Gigabit& Ethernet, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
& Optical drive &	Blu-ray& combo drive	DVD burner	DVD burner
& Price &	US$1,319	S$1,298 (US$1,031)	From S$1,999 (US$1,602)

& We don't really have another Ivy Bridge laptop to compare the HP& Pavilion dv6 with, but the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 provides a& close match in terms of graphics prowess with its GeForce GT 640M chip.& This Acer laptop, however, is an Ultrabook that uses a slower Core i5& processor. Meanwhile, HP's Envy 15 is a good example of a premium Sandy& Bridge-class laptop that could be eclipsed by the new dv6. Besides the& CPU, the Envy's AMD discrete graphics is likely to lose ground against& the newer Nvidia chip. However, you will get a more attractive design& and better build quality on the Envy series.

Performance and battery life

As one of the earliest Ivy Bridge-powered laptops in the market when it& becomes available at the end of the month, the HP Pavilion dv6 blows& the competition away in our system benchmarks. Despite the fact that it& comes with a regular hard drive, the dv6 produced the highest PCMark7& score we have recorded (4,182), easily beating gaming laptops such as& the Samsung& Series 7 Gamer (3,111) and high-end Core i7-equipped& Ultrabooks including the Dell& XPS 13 (3,839). A note of caution: We'll only truly know how& it stands against other Ivy Bridge rivals when more of these laptops& reach our testing lab.

& The integrated Intel graphics& onboard the dv6 is such a significant improvement from the previous& generation that you may even be able& to play Crysis using it. Despite that,& it's not on the same level as the discrete GeForce GT 650M Nvidia& graphics chip on the laptop, which is just a notch below the latest,& gaming-grade GeForce chip.

& Comparing the dv6 against the Acer M3, which& packs a slightly slower GeForce GT 640M, we found that the dv6 was& unsurprisingly the faster chip in benchmarks such as 3DMark11. However,& since it's running at a higher 1,920 x 1,080-pixel resolution (1,366 x& 768-pixel for the Acer), the dv6 could find itself struggling to& produce similar frame rates in more& intensive games such as Battlefield 3.

& We also encountered what appears to be a driver issue in Shogun 2 where& the game would not recognize the Nvidia chip but& revert to the Intel integrated graphics instead, which means it& wouldn't run& our settings.

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&	HP Pavilion dv6 (1,920 x 1,080)	Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3& (1,366 x 768)
3DMark11 (Performance preset)	2,289	1,802
Battlefield 3 (Medium preset)	36.96	46.52
Dirt 3 (High, 4x AA)	52.88	49.58
Total War: Shogun 2 (High preset)	Unable to run	44.10

& Although Intel claims that Ivy Bridge laptops are up to 20 percent more& power-efficient than their Sandy Bridge counterparts, it's hard to tell& with these quad-core processors that aren't exactly designed for& endurance.

& Our review unit came with a large 8,550mAh battery that is so big that& it actually raises the base of the laptop at the rear. In our usual& battery life& test, the dv6 lasted around 5 hours, which would seem pretty good for a& 15 incher. However, we aren't sure how it would fare with a smaller& battery.

Service and support

HP& includes an industry-standard& one-year& parts-and-labor warranty with the system. Support is accessible through& a 24-7 toll-free phone line, a well-maintained online knowledge base& and driver downloads.