Customer Reviews

HP dv6-6c10us (15.6-Inch Screen) Laptop

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was going to purchase this HP DV6-6c10us laptop from Amazon but found a deal at Staples that I could not pass up. Purchased it for my daughter and she loves it. Uses it mostly for work that she brings home from her job along with Internet, email and music. I also hooked the laptop to her 61 inch HDTV with an HDMI cable. She now streams HD shows and music videos to her HDTV by way of the internet. Outstanding resolution.

Microsoft Office Starter also came loaded on this computer. Word and Excel Starter are a nice addition if you don't need the full version of Office. All you need for home use.

Disabled or uninstalled all of the items that we didn't want or need without a glitch. Took about 15 minutes.

The laptop recognized all of the equipment that she had for her old laptop and installed it without a glitch.

After everything was hooked up and operating, including her printer, she decided that she wanted to use it as a wireless printer instead of a wired printer. No problem just pulled her printer software package, that came with the printer, out of a drawer installed the wireless printer drivers and presto, wireless printing. If you no longer have the printer software that came with the printer you can usually download the software from the printer manufacturers website.

Some older equipment such as printers and etc. may not work with Windows 7 desktop and laptop computers. Microsoft makes this quite clear. Many equipment and software manufacturers did not build drivers for their older products so Microsoft could not add drivers for this older equipment to Windows 7. This also happened with Vista. It is not the responsibility of Microsoft to build the drivers for equipment. In the case of printer drivers it is the responsibility of the printer manufacturer to develop and build drivers, then pass the drivers on to Microsoft.

Relating to the previous review of the DV6-6c10us and lack of wireless printing. Almost all fairly new printers will be recognized by computers running Windows 7 when hooked up by way of a USB cable. However, the drivers used for this hook up are not the same drivers required for wireless hook up. You normaly have to install the software that came with the printer to get the proper wireless connection. For that matter to get all of the functions of your printer to work properly you should load the software from disk or other media that came with your printer.

I am going to post a legitimate review about the actual product here. A few of the other reviews on this product were pretty much ranting and pointless. I am an IT technician, and I will sum it up as short as possible, but to the point. I bought this for my own personal use, not for work. All in all, this PC has great speed, good hibernation in and out of lid closes (hasn't locked up once yet), and fingerprint reader is actually very useful. Beats audio is marketing mostly, sounds a little better though. This PC is gorgeous aesthetically, and touchpad is useable for once. It has advanced functions (two finger zoom/scroll, etc.). Also, for those of you that don't like the touchpad light that surrounds the touchpad, (fn) function & spacebar toggles it on and off. Double tap the top left corner of the touchpad to turn it off and use a wireless mouse. Other than that, quad-core processor, 2 USB 3.0 ports and 2 USB 2.0 ports, pretty good graphics card, fingerprint reader with shortcut software included (you can setup different website shortcuts and/or system functions to access with recognition of different fingers; ie: shutdown with your pinky, or go to your 3 favorite websites with just one swipe of your index finger). It has 6 gigs of ram (expandable to 16 GB), 640 gig HDD, memory card reader, beats audio, and bluetooth, you really can't go wrong for the price. Remember, all PCs have bloatware these days pretty much, most PC support problems are dealt with through globally outsourced firms. This does suck, but it keeps their costs down for us to buy them. I suggest removing all the programs you don't want or need from add/remove programs in the control panel right away when you get it (within the 14 day store return policy), and give this computer a lot of use within that period to make sure it's for you. If you are not tech savvy, pay extra and purchase the store's extended warranty program. DO NOT PURCHASE THIS OR ANY COMPUTER 5 HOURS FROM YOUR HOUSE like one of the other reviewers did. Way too risky when spending 5 benjamins. Anyways, I hope you buy and enjoy this product. I do NOT work for HP by the way...lol. I will say that I did not buy this at Amazon unfortunately because I found it 120 bucks cheaper at a local chain store that starts with an (S******) and has a red brand theme. I would expose the store, but Amazon might not post this review. Last I looked, that deal was still going on. Hope this helps some people.

OK first things first & in the interest of full disclosure...

I didn't buy this laptop from Amazon. I in fact bought it from my local Staples when they had an amazing deal too good to pass up. I was in fact on the verge of ordering a different laptop from Amazon when I came across the deal I found on this machine. Thankfully Amazon allows us to review products we own so others can make informed decisions so I'll give my assessment of this laptop here.

I've spent a couple of weeks getting used to this laptop & putting it through it's paces so that I can offer a more thorough assessment.

Full review of HP Pavilion dv6-6C10US 15.6" Laptop:

I spent a few weeks researching new laptops & I thought I'd settled on a few choices from online. I went into my local Staples & discovered this steal of a deal & couldn't be happier I did. I was actually in the market for a much more costly alternative (Apple) until I found this laptop.

A few of it's standout features;

1) A nice quad core processor & built in AMD discrete graphics make it capable of handling most anything you throw at it. I use Adobe CS5 for my personal design business & in my tests this laptop handled even a heavy Photoshop render (multiple effects & layers) with ease.

2) The build quality is outstanding. I'm a big fan of the brushed metal shell. It feels good in the hand & stays cool to the touch. No cheap textured plastic here except for the bottom which is to be expected. It also repels fingerprints so it looks clean. Nice job on this attention to detail HP.

3) Expandability beyond the out of the box configuration. This was my major gripe with the Macbooks I was considering. They look great & run great but offer virtually no future upgrade potential. This laptop allows upgrading of the hdd & memory with a simple removal of it's access door on the bottom. I also love that I can increase the memory up to 16gb if I need to. I use some memory intensive software so this will inevitably come in handy.

A few other extras worth mentioning; 2 USB 3.0 ports (rapidly becoming the industry standard), the fingerprint reader that allows quick access to apps, built in bluetooth (nice), & Beats Audio (that I'll admit I thought was a gimmick but I'm pleasantly surprised with it's sound quality).

There are a few drawbacks I must mention too;

1) Battery life is not too good. Of course I've only used it for a few days so this could be a premature judgement on my part. Your mileage may vary.

2) Bonus software that I'll never use. Yep it's got some bloatware. Not too much & it's easily un-installed or deleted. I do wish this practice would end by PC vendors but it keeps costs down for the consumer so that's the breaks. But really 52 games that I'll never play pre installed? And the majority are limited use demos? Come on HP just leave that mess off or include a disc in the box with optional bonus apps & games on it. Let the customer decide.

3) The touchpad is tricky to operate. It seems real sensitive & can be wildly inaccurate. But that could also be user error. Again your mileage may vary.

A few other minor gripes of note; no lighted keyboard (hey we all have a wish list), a rather small eject button on the optical disc drive, & the cheap plastic bezel around the screen itself. It's a fingerprint magnet that looks out of place considering the rest of the machines build quality.

A word about support;

Apple gets alot of credit for their support as they should. Their agents are professional & thorough whether on the phone or in the store. You do get what you pay for here. HP in my experience hasn't been that bad either. They are no Apple, nobody is in that respect, but they provide a decent warranty that should handle any problems with the build quality, installed software, or all too often user error (see above review from Anti-Genius). Frankly, I am of the opinion that for the savings in up front price over a comparable Macbook, which is in the hundreds of dollars & possibly more than a cool grand, this HP laptop will serve the users needs quite well.

All in all I'd easily give this laptop a 4.5/4.75 rating. I give it 5 stars because it's more than a 4 in my opinion. Don't fall for Apples marketing & pay the ultra premium price for less value. Get a laptop like this one (highly recommended) or the equivalent & have access to the entire Windows program & apps library (very few Windows programs run effectively on Macs using their Bootcamp utility, I've tried dozens of productivity apps) & keep more of your hard earned money in your pocket.

Bought a new HP Pavillion from Costco. Live 5 hours from Costco where I brought the laptop. Got home, it would not work, after 4.5 hours on the phone with tech support they agreed that it would not work and I told them it would be very difficult to take back to Costco and would they pick this one up and replace it with a new one. They said "no." Then wanted to know if I had had my problem solved and how they had done with their "support." Even the guy who was on the line with me for the 4.5 hours tried to get them to pick this defective laptop up and send me a new one and they refused. Their customer service is horrible. I will not buy another HP.

They fool us. They create these kindergarten little "Assistant" applications that have absolutely no useful content and pop up every time you boot your PC. What you really need is a company that will act like they are one of Microsoft's biggest customers, and tell Microsoft that their operating system has critical deficiencies, and that they need to fix it, instead of telling their customers that their PC user's agreement that they had to accept to use the machine, specifically exempts HP from supporting the machine "for any specific purpose", or supporting "any external devices" including their own! In other words... You're screwed! I've been trying to get my laptop to install a printer as a network printer. If I plug it directly into the laptop, it automatically searches, finds, and installs the driver and prints like a dream. But I bought a wireless laptop because I don't want to drag a printer around with it everywhere in the house! Windows 7's network printer wizard will search for the driver too, but can't find it! And I asked HP where the driver went that installed when I plugged the printer in directly, and I was told that they "do not support external devices", and that I should contact the printer manufacturer. The printer manufacturer has handed all of their legacy drivers over to Microsoft and only supports their newest products, so the issue, which IS a Windows 7 issue, should be covered as a Windows 7 issue. Since HP purchases Microsoft operating systems as an OEM (Origional Equipment Manufacturer), HP agrees to support the operating system. However, the only support they provide is telling you how to reinstall your operating system if it has become corrupted. Any other issues with the operating system that require someone to show you how to work around an operating system bug, will elicit an instruction, from the HP representative, to contact Microsoft or PAY HP to place a technician on the phone with you! They know that Microsoft will refer you back to the OEM (HP in this case) or purchase technical assistance as well.

Then there's that Kindergarten help and assistance "software" they put on the machine that is completely useless to anyone familiar with using a PC. I used to be able to search it to find out how to disable it, but now my search only returns the following:

1. Opening and moving Tablet PC Input Panel [This almost sounds a little relevant, but regards the touch screen of a tablet and this ain't one!]

2. How to Power your HP Notebook PC from an Automobile or Airplane

3. Turn User Account Control on or off

4. Purchase an HP Notebook PC Battery

5. Getting started with Internet Explorer 9

6. Purchase an HP Notebook PC AC Adapter

7. Make the keyboard easier to use

8. Understanding HP Notebook PC Batteries

9. Show or hide the menu bar in Windows Media Player

10. Enabling the Wireless Adapter

11. Add or delete desktop icons

12. HP Battery Check: frequently asked questions

13. Internet Explorer 9 keyboard shortcuts

14. Troubleshooting Short Battery Life

15. Type without using the keyboard (On-Screen Keyboard)

16. When and How to Calibrate the Battery

17. What's new with the Windows desktop?

18. HP Power and Battery Learning Center

19. Make items on the screen appear bigger (Magnifier)

20. Removing and Replacing the Battery

21. What's new with the Windows 7 taskbar?

etc.

So if the above list is pretty much all you're looking for in PC support, then this is the product for you! But if you're actually fairly skilled in using computers... Good friggin' LUCK!