The HP Pavilion DV9702EA is latest laptop offering from HP, and all in all it's not a bad piece of kit. With it being a HP you know before you buy it you're getting a brand that's well respected in the tech community, and while it's classed as an entertainment laptop it's not so powerless that it can't be used for the sneaky game here and there too.
It seems that HP decided to let this laptop down by using its budget AMD Turion processor rather than the more powerful Athlon processor which would only have cost that little bit extra. But as it is, it’s like Sonic The Hedgehog running through water, he can run so much faster but is slowed down by another factor.
This is the case for this laptop, with it coming with 2GB of RAM, a 120GB Hard Drive and a NVIDIA® GeForceâ„¢ 8400M GS with 256 MB of dedicated memory, this laptop can plough through every business application on the market, can fight the good fight when it comes down to tackling multimedia applications, it just won’t be that great when it comes to rendering and compositing videos.
A nice feature that has been added on this laptop is its Lightscribe DVD Writer which allows you to burn images onto the disc directly so you can make professional looking CD/DVD’s at the click of a button.
But as said before, with this processor don’t be expecting to run any of the next gen PC games, however if your feel like some gaming fun then this laptop will withstand some classics and a few of the ‘undemanding’ games out there.
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5 thoughts on “The HP Pavilion DV9702EA Laptop – The Entertainer but is it a Fighter?”
hhey
im going to buy this laptop quite soon
one of the main reasons why im buying this is because im still at school and about to start my GCSE’s so i thought that this would be the one for me. but abouther important aspect for me is… does it play counter-strike: source ?
its my favourite game :)
email me as soon as you can
thank you
Hi Kieron,
This should play counter-strike: source like a dream, you may even get this laptop to run this at it best settings.
In case your wondering what the specs are for counter-strike: source here they are:
Minimum: 1.2 GHz Processor, 256MB RAM, DirectX 7 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection
Recommended: 2.4 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX 9 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection
The only thing that will let this down is the processor as said in the review so it might just stop CS running at its best but it will work, so thats a bonus. Happy gaming
Hello,
Can somebody please tell me how to activate the built in web cam on my otherwise perfect laptop.
I’m a novice on these things so any help / advice would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Robert,
It should already be installed if you go to My Computer and it should be under imaging devices. Otherwise if you have MSN Messenger go to Actions and Audio/Video Setup.
If the web cam shows there then its working, let me know how it goes.
The laptop comes with Cyberlink YouCam you can use that to record vids, take pics and add effects to the image whatever app you use the cam with (eg. MSN)
I have found that this laptop is fairly good for gaming and runs almost anything without a problem but the touch buttons got on my nerves before i got used to them