6 Responses to “HP Pavilion DV7-3060US 17.3-Inch Espresso Laptop – Up to 4.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)”

1. K. Anwar says:

   May 30, 2010 at 4:41 pm

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   Wow what can I say about this laptop? I placed my order on 11/7, product was shipped 11/9 and delivered 11/11! The shipping was listed as free super saver shipping but since Amazon had a free 2-day shipping promotion going on shortly after I bought it, I reflect they may have involuntarily upgraded it to that.

   Anyways back to my review. Since I’ve only had this computer less than a week, I cannot be too critical or list every single pro/con. But I will attempt to list that which I have experienced (Typing the review on the laptop now!)

   1) Computer came securely packaged and arrived on time, much earlier than probable. Package had the computer, battery, user manual, quick-start guide, power adapter + cord, and an HP remote (made for use with HP MediaSmart technology)

   2) Initial set up is a breeze for a novice user. I’m not a novice by any means, so it really was a snap to get this computer up and running. Just make sure to plug it in and then let the computer run all the necessary updates and whatnot. Expect to set aside a minimum of 2 hours to get all this done.

   3) I have been by Windows XP since…about my 7th or 8th grade year (2nd year sophomore in institution, now), so suffice it to say I didn’t want to use Windows 7. Because this is a 64bit computer, and it has 4gigs of RAM and a 2.4GHz processor, I must say that Windows 7 is surprisingly quick and a very refreshing exchange after the last disaster of Windows Outlook. The transparency effects arent too flashy like in Outlook, and everything runs very clean, quick, and well-organized. It does take a bit of time to get used to all the new options, but that force only be me since I did NOT upgrade to Outlook, so I’m really learning for the first time the new layout of Windows.

   4) As far as performance and graphics, I have not done any task which is terribly processor or graphics card intensive for me to have any opinion on that. I have installed Unreal Tournament 2004 and Rome: Whole War. Both games are pretty graphics heavy and have run very very charming so far. The settings are involuntarily calibrated in the game and it is nice to see the game set everything to HIGH quality. Proves this computer really has the punch to deal with games, even in a laptop form. The 17.3″ screen is very vivid and bright while gaming, allowing the user to experience the best high-quality and high-def computing experience available.

   5) A MAJOR top I want to make is the size of the computer and the search for a laptop case. I read alot about this computer before I bought it, and I did my best to try and shop online for a case to fit a screen this huge. Unfortunately, not many case manufacturers have items made for a 17.3″ screen, so my advice is to NOT shop online and have it be a hit-and-miss for result the right size. I initially bought an (overpriced) backpack from Best Buy for damn near $80, and very quickly realized the incredible markup and full price they charge. Very soon after I returned it since both Staples and a local computer specialty store (GT Computers) had much cheaper and better quality items. I do want to make a note that some cases say 16″, but they CAN fit this computer if they are spacious enough. My personal choice was to buy a laptop backpack rather than a case since this computer weighs in at a hefty 8lbs and is not the simplest thing in the world to carry around. Long tale small is the advice to go to a store, rather than rely on a website, when it comes to buying a laptop case that really fits.

   6) Accessories + junk: The computer comes with an Altec Lansing Premium Sound System with Built-in Subwoofer. While this sounds excellent on paper, its not the best sound in the world in actuality. Perhaps I’m a bit biased since I have a 2.1 system with 40W subwoofer at my desktop, but for a pair of laptop speakers for the average user, they are really excellent. I was in a loud cafeteria setting, and my friend pulled out his USB powered speakers to hear a video he was playing…just for comparison purposes I turned my speakers up maxed and they not only drowned out HIS speakers (these were seperate, dedicated, USB powered speakers) but they also drowned out some of the cafeteria noise. An audiophile or someone who is really tech-savy will be able to tell the difference between low quality and high quality, but any other user or someone just looking for a casual computing experience will appreciate this laptop. Another fun accessory is the built-in HP MediaSmart remote control. It is slim, stylish, fits easily into the computer, and its alot of fun to show off to friends by rotary my composition on/off or skipping tracks and changing the volume from across the room. This computer really is aimed to be an entertainment PC, and hooked up correctly with an HDMI cable and a decent sound system, one may possibly stream movies or videos from the internet, watch them on the tv, and control it all from the comfort of your couch! Very nice touch, and very fun to have.

   7) Battery life: The product name boasts an “Up to 4.5 hour battery life” and I’m not sure how right this claim is, since I don’t get anywhere NEAR 4 hours, but more on the low end of 3. All my settings are set to low, including screen brightness…everything is designed to save power. Don’t get me incorrect even if: for a laptop with a screen this huge, and with the processing power it packs, the battery has stunning performance. But, don’t expect to get more than 3 hours, possibly 3.5 hours if you do -nothing- but word process and web surf. Windows 7 doesn’t show the battery time remaining when you hover over the system tray icon like Windows Outlook and XP do, but to circumvent that I downloaded a free program called BatteryBar, and it gives detailed data on the battery’s time left to charge, full charge capacity (measured in megawatt-hours, or mWh), as well as the charge/discharge rate, full lifetime, and battery wear (Mine is at 3.4% of 73,440 mWh, meaning I can use about 97% of the battery’s full capacity. Its current capacity is 70,963 mWh, and this is just due to normal degredation that happens as soon as the battery if manufactured.) On that note, it is really best to USE the battery rather than not to, since any way it is going to degrade. You cannot stop the natrual degredation process, so its better to just use it up. The HP user guides recommend discharging the battery down to 5% before fully recharging, to help the battery retain its charge/discharge cycles.

   Anyhow, I reflect that is more than enough information from someone who has only had this computer 5 days. I’m sure I will write a revision to this review in the prospect, if I notice any major changes, or choose to upgrade the information for more potential buyers. Thanks for reading, and I hope it helps in your choice! My verdict? Get this computer if your are someone looking to watch lots of movies, view pictures or slideshows, and do alot of composition/video based stuff (surveillance Youtube, movies, etc). I’m not a gamer but in looking for a laptop I wanted something that HAS the performance, if I need it, whether I choose to use it or not. If you are a institution student (like I am), its a fantastic laptop with fantastic battery life, but be prepared to carry around a bit of added weight, just due to the sheer size of this thing.

   Overall fantastic laptop and I wouldn’t exchange it for the world. Thanks for reading!

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2. JD Adams says:

   May 30, 2010 at 5:16 pm

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   This is an honest review from the perspective of a 50+ year-ancient guy who is very picky and cheap, overeducated and damn proud of his underachievments. Let’s face it: most of what ancient folks do is CEREBRAL; I’m not a marathon runner or a dumbass nosepicking kid on a skateboard. I reflect for a living, and for those who can appreciate the difference, I offer the following nuggets of wisdom.

   This new HP Pavilion DV7-3063CL replaced my 20-year ancient IBM Aptiva desktop that ran my own custom version of Win98SE. (I re-wrote and compiled parts of the OS to suit my needs, as well as used code from Windows ME to by the book support large DASD’s. Reverse engineering ROCKS.) I have used 56K dialup and a nice ancient NEC 15″ flatscreen that worked fantastic for nearly 20 years. I bought this thing on a whim for Christmas, now that I’m divorced and finally have some superfluous money. I’ve always wanted a decent laptop and now I have it! Here are my honest impressions of this thing.

   I’m cheap, so I bought discounted at Costco. What caught my eye immediately was the stainless steel around the edge, the HDMI port, the touchpad and the brick-sturdy feel. It’s not ultra-light, nor does the screen flip open easily. The screen hinge is tight and has remained that way since I bought it. This is excellent: I don’t want the damned thing flopping around while I type. The artsy-fartsy design on the front sucks but it’s not obnoxious any. It’s HUGE, heavy and it takes up a lot of real estate. This isn’t a laptop: it’s a portable desktop computer, which suits me just fine.

   Windows 7 isn’t as much of a PIA as I thought it force be. The function keys really save time. The DVD player controls up next to the screen are outstanding and very useful. The keyboard is silent and mushy which bothers me, as I prefer my ancient classic IBM 5150 board that makes lots of soothing clickety-clackety noise. Getting used to a laptop keyboard takes lots of PATIENCE. Separate numberpad is nice. Ability to turn off touchpad is fantastic because my huge paws often get in the way. GOBS of ports on this thing, more than you’ll ever need. It feels SOLID and well made. The HD is lightning quick and silent. The screen is a stunner and simple to read –fantastic for us ancient guys who can’t see their feet anymore.

   This machine is often reviewed as mediocre in performance hard. Bullcookies. It’s unbelievably quick by anyone’s standards, and I’ve run Windows 7 performance index hard that proves it. The AMD dual-core processer, 4-gig DDR2 reminiscence and 500GB 7200-SATA drive work well together; I shut the swapfile nonsense off completely, de-crapified the HD and made numerous tweaks including the deletion of dozens of scheduled tasks, and this machine now flat-out HAULS ASS.

   Surveillance instant-play movies from Netflix on an HDTV is a breeze by a $.50 cent HDMI cable. I learned the DVD drive supports DVD-RAM disks, although writing is extremely slow. Win7 also can use DVD -/+RW disks like a floppy for reading/writing. Fantastic for backing up data, but again, SLOW. There is also a 2nd drive bay to install another hard drive for full-system (cloned) backups. You can turn off the foofy screen effects through Control Panel so that it looks like older versions of Windows and speed things up, but I find that computer speed is greasy-quick no matter if the silly effects are on or off, thanks to the quick dedicated video card. The SDHC card slot works fantastic and is quick; I use Class 6 cards to back data up, and it’s much simpler than by DVD’s by a longshot.

   The terrible news: tons of bloatware and crap slow boot times and suck up RAM. The excellent news: it can be blown away easily by “PC Decrapifier” (Like the name! Freeware and it WORKS,) adornment back scheduled tasks and disabling prefetching/paging. All I left in was MS Works. All that “Windows Live” crapola, Photoshop X2 nonsense and the rest got blown away immediately. Same goes for the demoware, beggerware and especially the upgradeware games –GONE, and whatever you do –be SURE to blow the Norton Antivirus demoware away ASAP; it causes nothing but problems. Nuke anything that loads up at boot time, esp. those damned “updaters” that sit in reminiscence and market a waste of time harvest. I shed 20GB by just dumping bloatware, installers and tweaking a few other things. This machine now cold-boots from power button to password prompt in 15-seconds flat. Yes, **15 SECONDS!** This is brilliant performance for a machine like this, and it easily blows away $3000 “power user” machines that a few co-workers own. Most can’t judge how quick this thing is.

   Bottom line: lightning-quick with just a few tweaks, gorgeous huge screen, Win7, oodles of storage space and RAM and very sexy lines at a fantastic price. Battery life is not overstated; I easily get 4+ hours on a charge with the screen brightness turned down. This is a fantastic replacement for a desktop system, and I can recommend it to the over-50 crowd that just wants something quick, durable and cheap.

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3. Beauno says:

   May 30, 2010 at 5:34 pm

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   I had bought a zd8000 series 17 inch laptop 5 years ago. And not had a single problem with it.
   
   So I went back to HP for this model. The zd8000 is a p4 and cannot chomp high def video.

   This computer, dv7 3060us can chomp/edit the high def video. You’ll be able to hook up that 500 $ canon
   
   high def camcorder to it and flow easily. Which is what I was looking for. By magic edit movie pro 15
   
   when I added 3D titles, it started to struggle and the cpu went to 100 %.
   
   Hehehe, this is to be probable. Fixed titles are no sweat. I’m having no probs with high def playback.

   Came sealed in the box, which is a +++ Nothing cheeky.
   
   I seen someone complain about the chrome touchpad in another review, judge me, its a non issue.
   
   I see someone else complain about fingerprints, judge me, its also a non issue.

   This computer is high tech looking, and when I equate it to my ancient zd8000 it sits lower
   
   but is wider. My wrists are very pleased with this lower position, excellent work HP.
   
   Super wide comfortable keypad ….

   I’m also by this laptop to do multi tracking with composition, and so far, no hiccups for that.
   
   Working like a dream for multi tracking.

   Windows 7 on this will boot up in about a minute, which is very nice also.

   For the money, its a fantastic laptop, excellent update for me.
   

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4. J. Lass says:

   May 30, 2010 at 6:20 pm

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   My parents (in their 70s) bought the DV7 w ith AMD TurionII last month, and they like it. Very simple and intuitive, nice sreen size, not heavy–it’s perfect for them.

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5. College girl says:

   May 30, 2010 at 6:27 pm

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   It is a clean computer, pretty enough and quick enough but do not expect wonders. I like this computer and would buy it again but after all the reviews I read here and with the 4GB ram and dual core processor I was expecting a small bit more. I am not reasonably sure if it is the Windows 7 that is not performing as probable but for me the start up time is over 2 minutes (not 10 seconds as others noted, possibly it is from sleep only). The battery life was the most disappointing, which is never more than 3 hours from the very first time I tried it. The other thing is the DVD drive that worries me. Again, from the commencement it is giving squeaking noises and often times several seconds (up to half a minute) of a DVD is skipping. It does that even with groundbreaking new DVDs not just with on loan used ones. This consequences many times in de-synchronizing the speech from the video. Reasonably annoying but after pausing the video for a few times it usually finds the synchrony again. This issue makes me wonder how long my DVD drive will last if it is already performing arts like that after 2 weeks of use.

   The first paragraph was my previous review from a few weeks ago. Now I upgraded my 3 star rating to 4 stars. My Norton Antivirus trial that came with the computer expired and I installed Sophos instead. That saves about half a minute in start up time. I also started exclusively by the HP mediasmart DVD player that came preinstalled with the computer and when I use that the DVD drive is not performing arts out. So the skipping I noticed was probably the result of some software incompatibility. While this resolves the issue of a possible hardware problem I was worried of it does not make too pleased. The HP DVD player is crap. Most movies will never show in full screen and it has minimal options to exchange that. Other free players are just a lot more versatile, and I would prefer to use those if that would not result in the above mentioned issues. The battery life is still a disappointment so I stay with 4 stars instead of 5, but, the more I use this computer the more I like it. Lucky I bought it when it was $730.

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6. silent reflux sympthoms says:

   June 28, 2010 at 7:38 am

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   Oh I say get this. Have you read My Small Pencil’s baby blog http://www.silentreflux.net ? He was a screaming nightmare for most of the first year.He is 9 and still on reflux meds!.That back arching takes me way back

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