Full review
The styling of this laptop makes it one slick machine. However, at just around £800, it's not a case of HP favouring style over substance as the Pavilion dv6599ea has a beefy processor and a number of interesting additions including a fingerprint scanner and a row of touch-sensitive media control buttons nestled under the screen.
Strengths
Thanks to some wonderful design elements such as the
subtle futuristic pattern on the lid, the hinge mechanism that slopes out at
you from the bottom of the screen and the glowing touch buttons across the top
of the keyboard, the Pavilion dv6599ea is certainly a looker.
But this machine isn't just stylish, it's powerful, too. The 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor is backed up by a decent 2GB of RAM and helped the laptop work up a score of 4,243 in PCMark05, which is seriously impressive for a machine in its class.
And despite the fact it's primarily designed to be used in the home as a desktop replacement, it managed to keeping running for an hour and 10 minutes in our Battery Eater test.
The laptop has a decent range of ports including three USB sockets and a mini FireWire connection, and there's some neat extras like the fingerprint scanner you can use to stop unauthorised people from logging on to your computer. We also loved the small Windows Media Center remote, which can be stowed away in the PC Card slot when it's not in use.
Movies look excellent on the glossy widescreen display and there's a webcam at the top of the screen that you can use in conjunction with the supplied headphones (complete with inline microphone) for making video calls with Skype or Windows Live Messenger.
Weaknesses
It's hard to find much fault with this laptop. One thing that did bug us was the
buttons on the trackpad. They feel slightly too spongy to the touch -- almost as
if they have too much travel. After a while we got used to them, though.
Another more important issue is the Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS graphics chip. This HP didn't manage to put in a barnstorming 3D performance. In our 3DMark test it clocked up a score of 1,524, which certainly isn't bad for a laptop, but it means you'll have to turn down some of the detail when you want to let off steam in the latest first-person shooters.
Naturally as this machine is designed at a desktop replacement it's relatively large and at 3kg also quite heavy, so you're not going to want to lug it about too often.
Conclusion
This is a classy laptop that we have absolutely no hesitation
in recommending. It has a great design and, although 3D games aren't its forte, its overall performance is still top notch.
In short, for around £800, it's an excellent all-rounder for use in the home.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday