HP Pavilion DV6-1260SE 15.6-Inch Entertainment Laptop

by HP

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 14.9 x 10.2 x 1.6 inches ; 6.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002BH4QTQ
• Item model number: NV139UA#ABA
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,123 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 28, 2009

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Want a notebook PC that makes it easy to manage numbers? Buy an HP Pavilion dv6 series Entertainment Notebook PC. Use the integrated numeric keypad to work faster in spreadsheets. Watch slide shows and DVDs on a 15.6" diagonal widescreen display. Plus, show off your sense of style with the metallic HP Imprint finish.

 

SPECIFICATIONS:

Processor:
2.30GHz AMD Turion^™ X2 Ultra ZM-85 Dual-Core Mobile Processor

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Operating System:
Genuine Windows Vista^® Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1

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Display:
15.6" Diagonal High-Definition HP LED BrightView Display

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Hard Drive:
500 GB

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Memory (RAM):
4 GB

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Graphics Card:
ATI Mobility Radeon^™ HD 4650 (M96) with up to 2815MB total available graphics memory with 1024MB dedicated

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Wireless:
Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth^® wireless technology

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Battery:
12-cell Lithium-Ion Battery

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Weight & Dimensions (w x d x h):
6.47lbs; 14.9" x 10.15" x 1.33"/1.61"

 

YOUTH DESIGN
Selected from over 20,000 designs entered in the 2008 MTV Engine Room competition, the Sea & Sky design was inspired by the scenery around the artist's home town on the island of Okinawa in Japan. Shades of pure blues and green set within wave-like lines flowing from a burst of sun-yellow at the center contrast cleanly with the white background. The oceanic effect crashes over to the palm rest and flows throughout the system desktop, wall paper, flash demo icon and program menus for a truly-integrated aesthetic experience. A white color-matched keyboard and touchpad plus touch media controls that light up and become visible only when the system is powered on further enhance the clean appearance. Packaging, plus setup and user guides, coordinate with the winning design as well. HP’s mobile products have won coveted International Red Dot, iF and CES Innovation design awards and been recognized by other leading design institutions.

 

ENTERTAINMENT EVERYWHERE
Providing more choices than ever, HP MediaSmart enables access to DVDs, videos, photos, music, Internet⁽¹⁾ TV and radio at the touch of a button. Get access to watch the best video clips from Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and MTV. Built-in demos show you how to add music to your slide shows or videos with drag-and-drop functionality – and much more. An HDMI port enables you to watch films on an HD TV. Muvee Reveal makes creating films complete with effects and transitions a snap! Enjoy full-screen viewing of HD TV and movies with the 16:9 aspect ratio. Extras include dual headphone jacks and an HP Mobile Remote Control. SRS Premium Sound delivers the ultimate audio experience.

FIND YOUR INSPIRATION
For those who believe the products they select should make a statement, who want to both consume and create digital content and will invest in powerful mobile computing capability, the HP Pavilion dv6 series Artist Edition Notebook PC is the perfect machine! The dv6 Artist Edition helps you find your inspiration.

Full-version Digital Content Creation apps are included to help bring your ideas to life.

• Magix Music Maker 14 to create new music easily or modify and remix existing tracks
• Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 providing extensive photo editing capability
• Corel Painter Sketch Pad 1.0 delivering full-featured sketching functionality
• Corel Video Studio X2 enabling video production and sharing

Extended-life HP LiIon battery for longer performance when not connected to AC power. Connect with the HP Webcam. Turn your next instant message into a live video chat with the integrated webcam, omni-directional microphone and an IM solution. Optimized for low-light environments, it's great for capturing short videos to share on your favorite social networking site. Personalized disc labels with LightScribe. Create custom laser-etched disc labels right in the drive with LightScribe and preinstalled Cyberlink DVD Suite. Just burn data on the disc, flip it over and burn the cover image using any scanned image and/or text.

Winning artist Hisako Sakihama helped HP's design team with the process of applying her design to the Imprint finish. She even took a day off from work and traveled by train to work with them from the start! Hisako says the design came simply from looking at the sky and the reflections on the waves around her home town of Okinawa.

 

⁽¹⁾ Internet access required and sold separately.

Product Description

YOUTH DESIGN: Selected from over 20,000 designs entered in the 2008 MTV Engine Room competition, the Sea & Sky design was inspired by the scenery around the artist's home town on the island of Okinawa in Japan. Shades of pure blues and green set within wave-like lines flowing from a burst of sun-yellow at the center contrast cleanly with the white background. The oceanic effect crashes over to the palm rest and flows throughout the system desktop, wall paper, flash demo icon and program menus for a truly-integrated aesthetic experience. A white color-matched keyboard and touchpad plus touch media controls that light up and become visible only when the system is powered on further enhance the clean appearance. Packaging, plus setup and user guides, coordinate with the winning design as welll. ENTERTAINMENT EVERYWHERE: Providing more choices than ever, HP MediaSmart enables access to DVDs, videos, photos, music, Internet TV and radio at the touch of a button. Built-in demos show you how to add music to your slide shows or videos with drag-and-drop functionality ¿ and much more. An HDMI port enables you to watch films on an HD TV. Muvee Reveal makes creating films complete with effects and transitions a snap! Enjoy full-screen viewing of HD TV and movies with the 16:9 aspect ratio. Extras include dual headphone jacks and an HP Mobile Remote Control. SRS Premium Sound delivers the ultimate audio experience. What's in the box: dv6-1260se laptop, 90W AC Adapter, 12-Cell Lithium-Ion battery, Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 with 60 days complimentary live update, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Shockwave Player, Corel Paint Shop Pro X2, Corel VideoStudio X2, Corel Painter Sketch Pad, Magix Music Maker 14, Stardock MyColors, Muvee Reveal, Cyberlink DVD Suite and Adobe Acrobat Reader

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good features and good price, July 2, 2009

By 

Dave (Portland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: HP Pavilion DV6-1260SE 15.6-Inch Entertainment Laptop (Personal Computers)

My wife and I purchased a slightly different version of this laptop for her mother and I have been very impressed with the features and build quality (there are several DV6 models but they are all built on the same chasis). It is well constructed with a metallic toned black or white plastic exterior (this model is white, we have the black). Take a good look at the shell art since it is something that may not appeal to everyone (especially this one which is the "SE" artist edition). My mother-in-law definitely appreciated having something a little more individual than the usual dull grey exterior. Despite the glossy exterior we haven't noticed much in the way of finger prints or any scratches despite the helping hands of our kids who love to "help" grandma with her computer. (Update: I've learned there are some models without art work such as the HP Pavilion DV6-1050US 16.0-Inch Laptop and the HP Pavilion DV6-1030US 16.0-Inch Laptop.)

The specs for this model are set well above what the average home owner needs today which (in my mind) future proofs it nicely. If you are on a tight budget you can get what you need for less (look at the HP Pavilion G60 line). If you have a little bit more to spend and you want some headroom to handle your computing needs for the next few years this is a great choice.

CPU - The dual core Turion is a solid notebook processor. It can handle two threads which means you can have the virus scanner running while you surf the web with no noticeable slowdown. No it's not the most aggressive notebook CPU out there but it's a solid mid-tier processor that runs cool and has a great power envelope. Outside of gaming CPUs are not the performance bottleneck in notebooks so most users should aim for a mid-tier CPU and spend their budget on things that will get them more tangible enjoyment (like a nice display and good graphics).

RAM - of RAM is combined with a 64bit OS to which should provided more than enough memory for pretty much any application you can think of outside of extremely high end gaming.

HDD - 500GB plenty is far more space than you need now but again, I like the future proofing. Some people may not like that it is 5400 RPM (vs. 7200 RPM) but the performance difference for home users is nearly zero and the reliability of 5400 RPM drives makes me prefer them in notebooks which are hard on hard disks (because they move around while in use notebook HDDs suffer far more failures than desktop drives)

Graphics - The integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 is vastly superior to the usual low-end graphics that plague notebooks. You can actually do a little gaming on this notebook which is a truly rare thing.

Display - HP has a reputation for high-end displays and this one delivers. Tuned slightly for indoor use the HP Brightview display is good enough for outdoor use though not as much as a more matte display. Indoors it is brilliant with surprisingly strong blacks (too many notebook displays are all brightness with no depth). I like that the screen provides a decent amount of vertical space without overdoing it. The difference between this and a 14" is surprising. (Note: HP recently starting mixing 15.6" and 16.0" screens in the DV6 model line. You can usually buy a very similar model with either screen size though you may have to custum order).

Sound - Surprisingly good sound for a notebook. The speakers are well positioned and deliver a good range. I've heard better but it was on a $3K notebook.

Battery - For years the retail notebook market has been plagued with cheap six cell and even four cell batteries that could barely deliver 90 minutes of real computing use. To see HP bundle a 12 cell Li-Ion battery in with this notebook is hopefully a sign the industry is recognizing that noteboo users want good battery life. With a 12 cell battery you can realistically plan to go all day without plugging in. This does add slightly to the weight but few users will notice (about 1/10 of a pound).

I don't have any serious "cons" for this computer. The "Touch Media Controls" for things like the volume (as opposed to buttons you push) are a little odd at first but we got used to them quickly and hey, they look cool when they light up.

To wrap it all up: you can always buy more features for more money but if you are looking for a laptop with some higher-end features and upscale build quality this is an excellent choice. HP spent money in the right places and has created a high-end laptop at a mid-tier price.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Laptop., August 13, 2009

By 

DVMonkey "I am The Man!" (Santa Maria, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HP Pavilion DV6-1260SE 15.6-Inch Entertainment Laptop (Personal Computers)

I bought this laptop for the wife as a going back to school gift. So far its been a great laptop. There are two things that I don't care for too much (but not a big issue) The screen resolution is pretty low. It barely meets the minimum for Windows Vista But otherwise the resolution is ok.(720p) The other thing is the battery. I guess it has the extended battery and it sticks out of the bottom about three inches. This does add a nice little incline when sitting on a desk, but trying to find a sleeve or bag to carry it in is proving difficult because of this. Otherwise, the laptop is great. Good sound, Great battery life (extended battery) and the Graphics card is very good. It runs the Sims 3 perfectly, albeit at a low resolution, but with all the eye candy turned on in the game its still looks really good and runs very smoothly. There are plenty of ports and connections along all sides(Including HDMI) and the DvD drive is quiet and fast. I bought a bluetooth mouse for her and it connected and works will with the built in bluetooth of the laptop. The build quality is some of the best i've seen. (Better than the Alienware laptop i have)

I would recommend this laptop to others.
I have no problem rating this laptop as 5 stars.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best notebook available in the price range with very few flaws, September 5, 2009

By 

Zachary Harvey (Jacksonville, Fl) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HP Pavilion DV6-1260SE 15.6-Inch Entertainment Laptop (Personal Computers)

I received this notebook the morning after I ordered it from Amazon. With Amazon prime shipping it only cost $6.99 for overnight Saturday shipping, which is well less than what other companies charge for the same service. As of the time of me writing this review the HP dv6-1260se cost $799.99. I have been researching notebooks for the past two months and I have looked at everything in the 15'' inch multimedia/light gaming laptop family. I looked hard at the Dell Studio XPS 16 but was turned off because I read it had overheating issues; I looked at the Asus G50vt family but was turned off by battery life; I even purchased a Dell Studio 1555 but had to return it because it was overheating. The only model that I found that was as good as this one that I found was the Compal KHLB2 (aka the Force KHBL2 or Sager 2098). That model cost about $1000 and had virtually the exact same specifications as the HP dv6-1260se.

Some of the highlights of this laptop that I have found are,

Processor: Coming recently from my Dell Studio 1555 with an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 I can safely say that for all intents and purposes, the AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-85 is just as good. I haven't noticed any difference while doing normal things like web surfing and typing documents. I was also wary of buying an AMD processor because I had heard that they have overheating problems in notebooks. Doing normal tasks, I can safely say that this isn't true for this model.

Graphics Card: For the $700-800 price range the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 is one of the best cards out there. It can handle every game currently on the market at low settings at worst and most games run fluently at medium to high settings.

Build Quality: Once again, compared to the Dell Studio 1555, this notebook compares more than favorably. The Dell creaked and flexed a lot when it was being moved around and the hinges connecting the screen seemed weak. The HP has very little flex throughout the whole laptop, it does have a little by the optical drive, and the hinges are top-notch.

Keyboard: I absolutely love the keyboard. It is very responsive and, to me, it just fits my hands perfectly. Even with the number pad the keyboard does not feel crapped at all.

Battery: I haven't had time to calibrate the battery properly or test it yet but right now it seems like I will be fine with it. While typing this review, installing updates for Vista, and installing/uninstalling programs and with the screen at 50% brightness I currently have 80% remaining after being on for nearly an hour. I can estimate that, once calibrated, the 12-cell battery will get ~4 hours of battery life, which is fantastic for a notebook with this much power.

Pre-installed software: I usually hate bloatware but the software shipping with the dv6-1260se is actually useful. I have already had fun playing around with the photo editing software and the video and music editing software looks promising. HP also ships it with a few useful tools like the MediaSmart program.

Ports: This laptop has a fantastic selection of ports.

But, even though I like most of the things about this laptop there are a couple things that I don't.

Touchpad: Don't get me wrong, the touchpad is responsive and works great but it is a fingerprint magnet. After a while, though, there are so many fingerprints on it that you don't notice they are there at all. You can also turn off the touchpad with the touch of a button right above it and use an external mouse.

Artist Edition theme: I wanted to try it out when I set up the computer but soon realized that I did not like it. I could not figure out how to change my theme to the regular Vista theme, however, so I had to contact HP. I waited on hold for about 30/45 minutes of the call and it was obvious the operator had no idea what he was doing. After 45 minutes he hung up on me. I eventually figured out how to do it myself but still.

Overall, I am very happy with my purchase so far. With the $50 rebate this laptop cost me $756 with Saturday shipping and I can safely say that is the best deal anyone will find on a laptop this powerful. If anyone has any questions just comment and ask.

-Zach