HP is in a perennial fight to be king of the laptop hill, both globally and in the United States. A recent Gartner report showed HP's market share topping Acer's by 2 percent, making it the worldwide leader in laptop sales for the fourth quarter of 2008. Much of that success is driven by its retail partners, which sell HP-branded laptops by the dozen. The HP Pavilion dv6t (1030us) is a media-center laptop fit for a family, a college student, or a novice user who understands the value of a dollar. In addition to having a gorgeous 16-inch widescreen and an abundance of media-centric features, this laptop is available at Staples for $800 ($750 after $50 mail-in rebate). You'll have to uninstall some of that junk software, though, if you want to spend less time watching the rotating hourglass and more time with your digital hobbies.
Hewlett-Packard Company
http://www.hp.com
- Price as Tested: $800.00 Direct
- Type: General Purpose, Media, Value
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
- Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo T6400
- Processor Speed: 2 GHz
- RAM: 4 GB
- Weight: 6 lb
- Screen Size: 16 inches
- Screen Size Type: widescreen
- Graphics Card: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
- Storage Capacity: 320 GB
- Networking Options: 802.11n
- Primary Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW (Plus Minus)
