HP Pavilion dv7-3085dx has a Intel Core i7 720QM / 1.6 GHz, quad-core processor, with L2 cache of 6 MB, RAM installed is 6 GB DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 8 GB.
The laptop has 500 GB SATA hard disk of 7200 rpm, optical drive is DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM with 8x write speed. The notebook has a 5 in 1 card reader which supports flash cards like Memory Stick Pro, xD-Picture Card, SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick.
The 17.3 inch TFT LCD display gives a resolution of 1600X900 pixels, the graphic card included is NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M of 1024 MB. Interfaces on the notebook include 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire), 1 x Display / video – HDMI, 1 x Docking / port replicator, 2 x Headphones – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Remote control – Infrared, 1 x Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm, 1 x Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45, Modem – Phone line – RJ-11, Storage / Hi-Speed USB – Hi-Speed USB / eSATA, 3 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A, Display / video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15).
The dv7-3085dx comes with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition pre-installed.
The design of this model is the same other products in the dv7 family. We tested the HP Pavilion dv7-3065dx, which was a lower end model and has the same looks. The outer lid has glossy expresso finish which is bound to attract a lot of fingerprints. Even though the notebook is made for gamers, it doesn’t have an informal look, you can use it for office purposes. The laptop has slightly rounded edges and chrome highlights which will go fine in office environments.
With the new Intel Core i7 processor, you get blazing fast speeds; it has the next-gen multicore performance. Initially, notebooks with this processor were expensive but now that the price has become a bit low, we can buy such notebooks without making a big hole in our pockets. HP Pavilion dv7-3085dx is a gamming notebook, it has all the necessary hardware but we have always thought that games are best played on a big HDTV screen.
Though a gamming laptop, it cannot take games with all the settings maximized. HP Pavilion dv7-3085dx will not be able to run games with all the eye-candy. Along with the processor, the notebook has GeForce 230M GPU for games and comes with a big 17.3 inch screen which means that this is a desktop replacement rather than a portable notebook. We also liked that HP gave us Altec Lansing speakers which give rich high quality sound. If you are not much of a games freak, you can use it as a home theatre system.
The hardware inside is really good, especially the processor. HP Envy 15-1050nr has the same specifications, except for the graphic card but costs $700 more. One big drawback on this model is the lack of Blu-ray drive and the screen, though big, cannot take 1080p full HD resolution. The native resolution of this display is 1600×900 pixels.
Sony Vaio FW560F/T belongs to the same category of high end laptop which is cheaper at $999. But we think HP has justified the high price tag of $1,299 with plenty of RAM, fast hard disk, fast graphics card and finally the big daddy – Core i7 processor.
A bigger size lets the notebook keyboard to house a number pad as well. The keys glossy, just like the lid of the notebook. If you are the kind of person like to sit with a bag of chips while using the computer, the keyboard will get dirty quickly due to the glossy keys. On the bright side, they keys were well spaced and we didn’t have any mishits. We weren’t pleased with the trackpad and the mouse buttons; they have poor traction and are prone to smudges. We think you are better off using a separate mouse for this notebook. Above they keyboard there are touch sensitive keys for music control and Wi-Fi on/off toggle button.
We liked the big screen on the laptop; the 17.3 inch display gives a resolution of 1600×900 which is close to full HD. We played a few 720p videos on the machine and they looked really good. A Blu-ray optical drive would have been better considering the price-range of this laptop.
Apart from the big display and the fast processor, we were drooling at the Altec Lansing built-in speaker set with surround sound. The big display and good sound quality makes this a good multimedia system and it would have been better had HP put a Blu-ray drive. It is funny that this machine doesn’t have a Blu-ray drive but the cheaper dv7-3065dx which costs about $729 comes with one.
Other hardware includes the 500 GB, 7200 rpm hard drive and 6 GB DDR3 RAM. You usually get only 4 GB on machines so we thank HP for this. A bigger size gives space for more ports and HP has exploited this by giving us neatly arranged ports on the either sides of the notebook. However, there are no ports on the back and there is no Bluetooth port either.
We finally tested the HP Pavilion dv7-3085dx for speed and found this machine to be the fastest ever in our lab tests. It can take serious multitasking easily, with the fast processor and plenty of RAM and it could take applications like iTunes and Photoshop speedily.
Like mentioned before, the notebook can take games but not in all its glory. Games will run fine as long as you don’t stretch the eye-candy settings to max. At 1600×900 pixel resolution, we got 60fps for Street Fighter 4 and Unreal Tournament got us 55 frames per second at 1440×900 resolution. The frame rate for the latter game was one of the lowest that we have seen in such high end machines.
HP Pavilion dv7-3085dx is powered by a eight-cell battery and the battery lasted for 2 hours and 6 minutes in our challenging videos tests. We are not complaining much here because we know the fast processor, graphic card and huge screen are juice guzzlers. With light use, you can get more out of the battery life.
HP Pavilion dv7-3085dx is warranted against defects for a period of one year. There is 24-7 toll free support over the phone during your warranty period. You can also chat with HP technical representative to solve your problems. Finally there is a FAQ database if you want to troubleshoot yourself.
HP Pavilion dv7-3085dx is a mixed bag; it has a fast processor, 6 gig ram, fast hard drive and big screen but it doesn’t contain a Blu-ray drive, which is bit of a disappointment for a high end machine like this. If you don’t care about the optical drive we will recommend you to buy this notebook. It has gives good multimedia and gamming experience.