Bigger and Shinier

Just a few months back we had the opportunity to review HP's Pavilion dv3000 and we were left quite impressed with both its build and performance. With the recent launch of the Intel Centrino 2 platform and the subsequent plethora of Centrino 2 based notebooks, it's no surprise then, to find that the HP Pavilion dv7 has made its way to our labs. As the model name may hint, the dv7 is a much bigger and updated version of the dv3000, but you'll still find that there are pretty similar design aesthetics that are part of HP's current design lineup.

As a desktop replacement class notebook, the dv7 exudes the same classy and elegant look of the dv3000 and obviously packs Intel Centrino 2 technology to do its magic. It also features a pretty decent amount of entertainment options, from a TV tuner to a capable gaming experience and you can even upgrade to a Blu-ray drive to make full use of the HDMI output (though this option was not found in our review model).

The HP Pavilion dv7 in all its familiar looking glory.

The front of the dv7 sports the IR sensor and the headphone and microphone jacks.

The right side of the dv7 has two USB 2.0 ports, a DVD drive (that's upgradable to a Blu-ray Drive), the TV antenna jack, a modem jack and the power jack.

The left side plays hosts to more ports, and as you can see we have a ExpressCard 54 slot, a 5-in-1 card reader, a FireWire port, one USB 2.0 port, one USB-eSATA combo port, a HDMI port, a LAN port, an Expansion Port 3 (HP's proprietary docking connector), an analog video out and a Kensington lock.