HP’s Pavilion laptop is a truly affordable laptop aimed at consumers looking for a laptop that is able to handle serious multimedia tasks as well as gaming. Configurations for the dv5z start at $579.99, so we were doubtful that a sub $1000 laptop could handle such tasks, but we went ahead and gave the dv5z a spin to see if it could actually be an affordable laptop that doesn’t sacrifice too much performance wise. We ended up being pleasantly surprised.

Design / Build Quality
The overall design of the HP Pavilian dv5z is sleek yet professional. It’s combination of onyx/chrome glossy styling makes it look like an entertainment notebook with professional chops. The laptop’s lid is covered in a light “imprint mesh” that is subtle yet refined. The HP logo on the laptop’s cover also sports a neat trick – it lights up just like Apple’s logo does on a Macbook – and it definitely adds a bit of flare to the laptop. Above the keyboard, the dv5z sports a bunch of neat touch sensitive controls that let you control the volume, music play back as well as enabling wifi and bluetooth. These touch sensitive controls work well and are very responsive. The keyboard is also very comfortable to use and provides very nice tactile feedback.

Weighing just 5.8lbs, the dv5z is one of the lighter 15.4″ laptops out there, albeit not as light as an ultraportable, it should be light enough to travel with, without too much strain. All the important ports and features are here – including HDMI 1.3, dual link DVI, DisplayPort, 4 USB, eSata, ethernet, an Express Card slot, and a memory card reader that supports most popular formats. A built-in low light web cam is also included.
Overall, the build quality of the laptop feels strong and sturdy with barely any flex. Unfortunately the laptop can run very hot, particularly in the back right section, when the optical drive is running.

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Display
The glossy Brightview widescreen display is sharp and pretty bright with vivid colors, just like most of HPs other consumer laptops. The display is also glossy like most laptops nowadays, but I experienced minimal glare when using it. Unfortunately the display’s resolution is only 1280×800 which is on the low side for a 15.4″ screen, that also means that you can’t quite take advantage of Blu-Ray’s full 1080p output. Instead it’s more of a 720P experience. The inclusion of an HDMI 1.3 port does however mean that you can connect the dv5z to your HDTV to further take advantage of its Blu-ray drive.

Blu-Ray Playback / Audio
Blu-Ray Playback on the HP Pavilian dv5z is spectacular. Discs load quickly and movies play back smoothly without a hitch. The excellent HD performance is driven by ATI Avivo HD technology which brings the HD processing from the processor to the graphics chipset. Our only gripe is that the included HP Quickplay software, which is used to playback Blu-Ray discs, tends to playback audio too quietly. Outside of the app, the integrated Altec Lansing stereo speakers can get adequately loud and they do produce a great audio experience with 5.1 surround sound. Unfortunately within the app our ears were straining to hear some scenes of Iron Man, the movie. Fortunately, two headphone jacks are included, which is definitely a nice touch. We wish that more laptops would sport dual headphone jacks. A super slim remote control with dedicated multimedia controls is also included. The remote control can be stashed in the card slot.

Performance
The HP Pavilian dv5z that we tested came running on AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile ZM-82 2.20GHZ processor, 2GB of ram (memory can be expanded up to 8gb), a 250GB 5,400 RPM hard drive, Draft 802.11n, and it’s running Vista Home Premium. Overall performance for the dv5z is very good, especially for such an inexpensive laptop. I tried running two tabs open on Internet Explorer, while playing music in Windows Media Player, I also jumped back and forth between Excel, Adobe Reader and Microsoft Works, and I didn’t experience any lags. The Windows Experience score for the laptop is 3.8. PCMark05 came up with a solid score of 3396.

Gaming
Sure, you can get a pretty fast laptop with a Core 2 Duo processor nowadays for under $1000. But this is where perhaps the biggest selling point of the dv5z comes in – its graphics prowess. The dv5z sports the on-board ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics chip. That makes the dv5z no replacement for a $3000 gaming rig, or even a $2000 one, but it does provide enough power to play most of today’s popular games at reasonable frame rates – at a budget price that normally wouldn’t allow you to play those games at all, since most sub $1000 laptops provide dismal graphic performance. As a matter of fact, the ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics chip combined with the power of the AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core makes the laptop powerful enough to handle most demanding DirectX 10 games. The ATI Radeon HD 3200 is also what helps drive the excellent Blu-Ray experience on the laptop.

The dv5z also takes advantage of the AMD Fusion for Gaming Utility which temporarily shuts down background processes and increases processor performance using AMD boost – in other words, it lets your processor and graphics chipset focus all its energy at the important task at hand – your gaming. Our test dv5z unit came with a copy of Iron Man, the game. The game is definitely not on the level of Crysis but it’s graphics requirements are on-par with your average consumer video game that still needs a somewhat powerful video card to operate ok. Iron Man installed and played without a hitch. However we did have to download a patch from Sega’s web site in order to get it to run with the dv5z’s DVD drives. Apparently the game shipped with some compatibility issues for certain DVD drives. But not to digress, playing Iron Man on the dv5z is a pleasant experience. We experienced no stutters or hiccups, even when playing at a 1280×800 resolution. For reference, the recommended (not the minimum) game requirements for Iron Man are a 3.4ghz processor, 1.5gb of ram, and a Radeon X1800/7800 GT card. The dv5z got a score of 1559 3DMarks when we benchmarked it using 3DMark06. You’ll be hard pressed to find similarly priced laptop with a 3DMark06 score that comes near that.

Battery life
The dv5z’s battery lasted 2 hours and 5 minutes under high performance settings with the display set to its brightest setting. That isn’t exactly a poor battery life, considering many mainstream laptops have a similarly short battery life on high performance settings, however the battery life here still is somewhat disappointing.

Conclusion
The HP Pavilion dv5z Has all the right features and good performance to boot. Is it the fastest performer on the block – no. But It is a great multitasker and manages to provide good gaming performance on a budget. If you can splurge, spend the extra $150 and configure it with a Blu-Ray drive which performs very well on the dv5z, albeit not on the ideal resolution. We recommend the HP Pavilion dv5z for those looking for a well rounded, pretty slick but practical computer that can balance office tasks and multimedia tasks on a budget. Configurations for the HP Pavilion dv5z laptop begins at $579.99, which makes it not that much more expensive than a Netbook but it is so much more powerful. The base config sports a AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core 1.9GHz processor. The dv5z is also available in a bronze design for an extra $25. Other neat configurable options include a fingerprint reader, a TV tuner, a Lightscribe burner, a higher res display, and a higher end 256MB or 512MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics card.

The Good:
Great gaming performance for under a grand, neat touch screen controls, excellent Blu-Ray playback, packs most popular ports, good multitasker, very good display, great design and build quality

Bad:
1280×800 resolution is low for a 15.4″ laptop and doesn’t let you enjoy Blu-Ray’s full potential, not the fastest laptop under $1000, battery life could be better