HP m6-1205dx AMD Quad-Core A10-4600M/ Radeon HD 7660G discrete-class graphics/ 15.6" LED-backlit high-definition widescreen display/ 6GB Memory/ 750GB Hard Drive/ Gigabit Ethernet/ Windows 8/ Natural Silver

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Price: $628.88 $549.00   

Product Feature

• AMD Quad-core A10-4600m
• 15.6" LED-backlit display
• Radeon HD 7660g Discrete-class graphics
• 6GB Memory
• 750GB Hard Drive

Product Description

This 15.6" HP ENVY m6-1205dx laptop features a fingerprint reader to help keep sensitive information secure. AMD Quad-Core A10-4600M Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon HD 7660G discrete-class graphics 6GB DDR3 SDRAM Multiformat DVD RW/CD-RW drive 15.6" LED-backlit high-definition widescreen display 750GB hard drive Integrated fingerprint reader AMD Radeon HD 7660G discrete-class graphics Built-in HP TrueVision HD webcam 3 USB 3.0 ports and 1 USB 2.0 port Built-in 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n) Microsoft Windows 8 operating system

HP m6-1205dx AMD Quad-Core A10-4600M/ Radeon HD 7660G discrete-class graphics/ 15.6" LED-backlit high-definition widescreen display/ 6GB Memory/ 750GB Hard Drive/ Gigabit Ethernet/ Windows 8/ Natural Silver Review

First off, I got this laptop at BB.

I have searched around for days on end looking for a laptop that is <$700 with good features and performance that can withstand some gaming and photo editing softwares with no problem. For a while I couldn't decide between this laptop and the Toshiba at staples (it has i7 quad core), but what ultimately led me to picking this laptop can be described below.

GENERAL
My first impression of this laptop is that it is very light compared to the traditional laptop/notebook style, however it is not light like you would feel in a sleekbook from HP or an ultrabook for that matter, but there is a difference nonetheless. The hood casing is brushed titanium and so is the inside. The bottom is plastic and is in black. The overall feel and look of the laptop was one of the reason why I fell in love with it (I love the look of brushed metals). The top part of the keyboard is a grill area with a "beats" logo on the far right. The great thing about this laptop is that there are more USB 3.0 here compared to the older USB 2.0 (It has 3 USB 3.0 ports and 1 port of USB 2.0). There's also a DVD-R drive for the occasional burning of DVD or CDs for your pleasure. The bottom of the laptop is very easy to take out if you want to upgrade the memory or the HDD. Also an FYI, it will fit a 9mm or 7mm SSD. The memory is PC3-12800 with a maximum memory of 16GB verified by HP and other memory websites (ex. Kingston and Crucial). There is a webcam if you're into skyping or google video chat, I don't remember the megapixel but the quality is adequate and not that amazing. If you're into security, it has a finger print scanner on the bottom right of the numeric keypad. It's pretty accurate and useful when you want to set up as logging-in feature or designate a password to a specific fingerprint. The screen is clear and pictures show up nice and crips. I didn't have any problem with the contrast or brightness, but that's my opinion.

KEYBOARD
The keyboard has a backlit feature that can be turned on or off with a touch of a button. Typing is very smooth and quick. Each key is easy to press and spaced enough that it provide accurate typing at fast speed. I really like the design and functionality of the keyboard and it's one of my favorite feature about this laptop.

BATTERY LIFE
So it has a 6 cell laptop battery that last me about 3-4 hours depending on what I'm doing. At BB, it states that it'll go up to 5 hours of usage.

PERFORMANCE
As for performance, it is quick and does daily task faster than my old dell laptop with an Intel i3-2.1 GHz processor. Microsoft applications and Photoshop opened up pretty quick and without any lag in between files. I don't do any benchmarks but I do know that even though it is an A10, it's speed and ability to process information might be a little slower than the new Intel IVY architecture--however, I don't need that much power. With AMD's A10 lower power consumption and good video card compared to the other Intel's chip, I find it more than adequate for daily use.

AUDIO
The beats audio is...well, it's just speakers right? If anything, it falls just a little bit above the mediocre laptop audio if I were to rate it. It is a little bit louder than the average laptop and provide pretty good sound when played with the right type of music (like classical, acoustics, and some covers). It has a "bass" subwoofer on the bottom right of the laptop that "suppose" to deliver more bass compared to other laptops (Beats = Bass Bass Bass right?). However, I don't noticed that much of a difference in bass quality even with a good BEATS setting in the laptop. The sound delivery of this laptop is better if you were using headphones (I'm using a VMODA M-80). After you adjust some of the simple settings in the BEATS control panel, you'll be able to get "pretty good" sound from the driver. In fact, I think it sounds a lot better than my phone, computer, friend's computer, and iphone/ipad. After listening music via headphones and giving some time for the sound to sink in, I can say this Beats feature was a plus for me.

MOUSEPAD/TRACKPAD
After using the trackpad for couple of times now, I came to realized that I can't use the traditional trackpad anymore. I really like the texture and "smootheness" and how easy it is to slide your finger without resistance. It's so convenient that the on/off trackpad touch-button is at the upper-left hand corner. The track buttons are also easy to press. When I'm surfing the web and youtubing, I find it is easy to navigate to specific areas on the page with just the trackpad. Two finger scrolling is responsive on this laptop. Zooming in and out is not as smooth but at most it's mediocre.

By going to the start menu and search for "trackpad" --> "Setting" . You can change the different features on the trackpad. Ex. Four fingers swipe down to bring to Desktop. Left or Right to switch between applications. This was turned off when I got the laptop.

POSSIBLE UPGRADE
If you're thinking about upgrading here's are the information again that this laptop comes with.
Memory: 6 GB PC3-12800 at 1600. Max of 16GB (HP homepage and some website like BB/Staples/Etc will not list this)
HDD: 750 GB at 5400RPM

When I got the laptop, I installed a Samsung 840 series 120GB SSD and a Crucial 8GB RAM chip.
I cloned the HDD with Acronis Image program via a bootable disk. After cloning, I checked to make sure my disk was aligned and it did. I also make sure TRIM was also enabled and disable defragmenter. All of these information can be found via google if you're looking to upgrade, but do so with caution.

So what happen after I upgrade? It takes about less than 10 seconds for the computer to boot up so I can start opening programs. It resume from sleep practically in an instant and signing in with a fingerprint take less than 2 seconds. Shutting down takes about 10-15 seconds to completely shut down. Opening photoshop was drastically improved. Opening Word and PPT is practically instant. I haven't installed any games so I can't tell you how it affects gaming, but I supposed it's a little bit better since I got the SSD and the vast amount of memory.

Another thing I want to mention is that after upgrading the SSD, I was able to get at least an additional 30-50 minutes of battery life. It last significantly longer and you can tell right away. This is one of my main reason to upgrade to an SSD because I hate to go to a cafe and have to carry a charger around, let alone trying to find an empty socket in a crowded room.

WHAT WOULD NOT MAKE THIS LAPTOP GREAT:
This laptop comes with a mediocre screen resolution. Certain images and icons aren't crisp and clear. The bezel and the screen itself is super glossy, this combination make it so hard to see what you're doing in bright lit areas--glares are horrible. I have a anti-glare screen from my school laptop which I'm planning to use.

The hinges on most HP laptop, especially the envy line, are horrible and this laptop is no exception. When the laptop is closed, the hinges can be moved up and down if you're holding it with the hinges faced down (this is the result of the lid not being able to close completely). I wish it was sturdier but it's not, and this is one of my main problem with this laptop.

The craftsmanship of this laptop looks great, but after looking at it closely (after having it for couple of days now,) it seems like the opposite. Certain area on my laptop seem to have very small crevices that pops out after a closer inspection. I'm not too picky on the details but I hope it makes up for its durability.

SUMMARY
+appearance / looks
+audio
+budget laptop
+performance and features
+finger print reader / security print
+keyboard (easy to type) with backlit feature
+weight (feels light to carry around)
+upgrades

-low amount of ram that it came with, I feel like it should've come with 8GB instead of 6GB, but if you're going to upgrade like me, it doesn't really matter. Just my two cents.
-Windows 8?
-Hinges
-Glossy screen+bezel
-Mediocre craftsmanship

Hope this review helps!

UPDATE
After a week, I had issues with the finger print scanner not working when I logged in. On HP website, they posted the driver but the simple pass program was an outdated version. I first tried uninstalling and re-installing the driver, that didn't work. I tried uninstalling and re-installing the driver AND simple pass, that didn't work also. I came across a download from HP for simple pass + driver of an HP elite notebook (I don't know why they have it here). After installing that program+driver, it worked fine thereafter.

Then a few days later, I had a problem with the audio jack, it didn't recognize my headphone or any headphone for that matter. The Beats equalizer setting was also messed up. I downloaded the audio driver from HP and re-installing it and that seemed to work. It's just annoying that these simple thing happened without reasons.

After I resolved the two issues, everything is working fine.

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