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HP Pavilion DV2500T is My first laptop…and it’s going to be hard to beat when I buy my next one. Love the integrated wireless. No problems so far. I highly recommend this model. I got it at Best Buy for under $900 on sale!!!

With its wavy-pinstripe imprint and glossy-black accents, the dv2500t carries forward the designer HP Pavilion look. Polished to an almost pearlescent sheen, the touchpad looks more like a minor work of art than a pointing device. Improvements include a move up to the Intel Santa Rosa processor family and some tweaks to the ports to introduce more high-definition capabilities. But the screen is still more reflective than most, and there’s almost no point in choosing the standard six-cell battery, since its life is so short.

Underneath the glam, the dv2500t is well equipped, albeit with one fewer USB port (a total of two) than its predecessor, the dv2000t, supplied. HP has replaced the third USB port with an HDMI connection for watching high-definition output on a similarly equipped TV.

Our $1439 (as of 9/12/07) review unit was a pretty good deal, offering a few more features than comparably priced all-purpose competitors had. It came with a fingerprint reader and Webcam (each $25 extra), the top-of-the-line 160GB hard drive, and an 8X dual-layer DVD burner with laser label-etching capability. A preinstalled copy of Microsoft Works 8 is standard.

The dv2500t is great for kicking back with your favorite CDs and DVDs. HP’s instant-on QuickPlay button launches music, movies, slide shows, and videos without requiring you to turn on the notebook. The backlit, pressure-sensitive panel at the top of the keyboard lets you adjust volume and tracks with an easy tap of the finger. The stereo sound doesn’t match that of a Toshiba Qosmio or a similar high-end multimedia notebook, but it’s still pretty good.

The notebook’s 5.5-pound weight makes it an appealing travel companion. To stay in touch on the road, HP offers integrated Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth ($45 for both and included in our test unit’s price). Integrated mobile broadband was not an option at the time we tested, but a $189 Verizon ExpressCard (not included in our price) was. HP currently offers a Pavilion dv2500t Broadband Wireless series, which starts at $1200 and has integrated WWAN connectivity.

Pavilion screens are bright and sharp–and annoyingly reflective under some office lights. The dv2500t’s 14.1-inch screen is the perfect size for getting most types of mainstream work done; just remember to tilt it away from the overhead fluorescents.

Performance was a mixed bag, with good speed but less-satisfying battery life. Equipped with a top-of-the-line 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU and 2GB of memory, the dv2500t earned a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 79, four points ahead of two other similarly configured notebooks and five points ahead of the average mark of 74 for all of the all-purpose notebooks we’ve tested. It played 3D games at a competitive average of 42 frames per second.

Battery life was disappointing, with the standard six-cell lasting just 2.5 hours, almost an hour shorter than average. A Pavilion dv2000t we reviewed last year ran more than 7 hours with an optional 12-cell battery. Though our testing methods have changed since then, it’s a fairly safe bet that the battery upgrade is still well worth the extra $49, providing the added benefit of raising the wedge-shaped keyboard to an even more comfortable typing angle.

All in all, Pavilion fans and converts alike should be happy with the dv2500t, as long as they opt for the better battery.

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I’ve had my dv2000t for half a year now. The laptop come with with many pre-install software. The spec was great and I haven’t had any problem with this machine yet except the touchpad. The touchpad was terrible, it was so difficult to use. Overall, this is a great laptop. I would recommend this laptop to anyone who needs something reliable and portable.

With its beautiful design, the Pavilion dv2000t notebook will most certainly attract attention.

Goodbye, boring black and silver. Hello, high fashion. A glam exterior encases the HP Pavilion dv2000t, a sophisticated entertainment notebook that replaces the dv1000.

With the Pavilion dv2000t, HP breaks new notebook-design ground with Nissha film imprinting, an advanced molding technique that incorporates attractive patterns into an object’s surface. The unit’s high-gloss metallic and piano-black finish contains a subtle wave design, just as some cell-phone casings and luxury-car interiors do. (HP has also installed this new design on the Pavilion dv2000z, as well as on a handful of other new consumer and business notebook models.)

The reasonable $1739 (as of 9/8/06) price of our test configuration included one of the first 14.1-inch high-definition notebook wide screens. The Altec-Lansing stereo speakers are first-rate, as well, and plenty loud enough for you to enjoy MP3s and action movies without headphones. The two stereo headphone jacks are nice extras; one is S/PDIF-capable, enabling connection to your surround-sound audio system for pure digital audio.

Multimedia is one touch away via HP’s QuickPlay 2.1, a wide-screen menu that launches movies, music, personal videos, and photo slide shows without booting Windows. A new pressure-sensitive membrane bar that runs along the top of the keyboard lets you start QuickPlay and control volume at the touch or swipe of a finger–very snazzy.

Would you rather sit back and relax? With HP’s palm-size remote ($15 extra), you can scroll through documents and control media from up to 10 feet away via an infrared receiver on the front of the notebook. You store the remote in the ExpressCard slot when you’re not using it. For making face-to-face contact during instant messaging, you can add an integrated 1.3-megapixel Webcam to your configuration ($40, and included in the price of our review system).

Our Windows XP Home review unit (XP Professional is also offered) came with both Wi-Fi and optional Bluetooth wireless communications; a top-of-the-line 120GB, 5400-rpm hard drive; and Microsoft Works 8. The included SuperMulti DVD±RW/R drive comes with LightScribe, which enables the drive to laser-etch grayscale labels on discs. Pavilions come with extra entertainment software, too, including the Muvee AutoProducer consumer movie-creation software and the Sonic MyDVD CD and DVD creator. About the only thing our test machine lacked was a dedicated video card, which you’ll want for gaming or other highly graphical applications; a 128MB nVidia GeForce Go 7200 board costs $25 more than the standard integrated video.

The port selection is modest but should satisfy most home users; included are three USB ports, a FireWire port, and a three-in-one media slot that takes SD, xD-Picture Card, and Memory Stick. The extrafirm keyboard is great, and features a touchpad lock. The typing slope is comfy, as well, thanks to the 12-cell battery, which adds three-quarters of an inch to the height of the back of the notebook.

The dv2000t, equipped with a 2.16-GHz Core Duo T2600 processor and 2GB of DDR2-533 SDRAM, turned in a solid WorldBench 5 score of 110, not quite as impressive as the mark of 120 earned by the similarly equipped Micro Express HEL8021. Our unit’s 12-cell battery ($39 extra) lasted 7.1 hours in our tests and doesn’t add too much extra weight to the fairly light 6.1-pound unit. (We didn’t test the standard six-cell battery, which is rated at 4.2 hours.)

To turn the dv2000t into a truly terrific desktop replacement, you’ll want the $250 xb3000 Notebook Expansion Base, which includes a port replicator, a screen stand, a premium speaker setup, a hard-drive bay, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. To increase the system’s 120GB internal storage (as in our test machine) to desktop PC class, you can get the $450 Base with a 300GB hard-drive kit.

A couple of ease-of-use quibbles: I had to turn the pointer speed all the way up to revive the cursor, which seemed to drag due to the touchpad’s thick glossy finish. And as cool as I found the volume-control membrane, even carefully executed swipes turned sound all the way up or down, requiring additional adjustment taps. In this case, at least, the old-fashioned volume wheel still has the edge.

But those are minor issues. The dv2000t is an excellent home and small-business notebook for the money, and its stunning wave-design casing will turn heads wherever you

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