The good: First laptop to use new AMD Athlon Neo CPU; best-looking budget 12-inch laptop we've seen; 4GB of RAM.

The bad: Netbook-style performance at mainstream-laptop prices; no internal optical drive; unimpressive battery life.

The bottom line: HP's slick-looking 12-inch Pavilion dv2 carves out a niche between entry-level Netbooks and expensive ultraportables.

Read full review of the HP Pavilion dv2 »

By Dan Ackerman, CNET.com , CNET Asia
Apr 16, 2009

When we first saw the 12-inch HP Pavilion dv2 at CES 2009, here's what we noted. At first glance, another glossy HP laptop with an AMD processor may induce yawns, but when we learned this was the first system to use AMD's new Netbook-like Athlon Neo platform, our ears perked up.

AMD sees room for systems with slightly bigger screens than Netbooks, and that cost slightly more. The Neo is intended to be a kind of step-up from Netbook CPUs, such as the Intel Atom and Via Nano, offering a little more processing power for a little more money, and is targeted at slightly larger systems: 12-inch laptops instead of 9- and 10-inch ones.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Do check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design

Taking some design cues from the rest of HP's current Pavilion lineup, the dv2 has a mirrored touchpad, imprinted swirly design on the keyboard tray, and a high-gloss finish. But unlike other Pavilions we've seen recently, this model trades the traditional tapered key keyboard for one with flatter, more closely spaced keys--similar to what you'd see on Apple and Sony laptops, or HP's Mini 1000 Netbook.



That keyboard is comfortable and easy to use, but the narrower overall width (as in the case of Netbook keyboards as well) takes a little getting used to for touch typists. As in other current HP laptops, the touchpad's mirrored surface isn't quite slick enough for our tastes--there's a little too much drag on the finger, forcing us to dial up the pointer speed in the system settings.

The slim Pavilion dv2 is thinner than other low-cost 12-inch laptops we've seen--the Samsung NC20 and Dell Mini 12 (powered by the Via Nano and Intel Atom processors, respectively)--and is only slightly thicker than a high-end ultraportable like the Lenovo IdeaPad U110. The end result is that the HP dv2 looks like a more expensive machine than it is.

Features

The 12.1-inch widescreen LED display offers a 1,280 x 800 native resolution, which is standard for most screens between 12 and 15 inches in size. It displays Web pages and documents better than a Netbook's typical 1,024 x 600 resolution can, and is also well-suited for watching 720p HD video content.



In practice, the 1.6GHz Neo handles many tasks better than the Intel Atom does, and it comes paired with ATI Radeon graphics (it's also restricted to Windows Vista--sorry, no XP option). But, at S$1,299 (US$936.42), there's a big psychological leap to the HP dv2 from a S$799 (US$575.98) 10-inch Netbook or even the 12-inch Samsung NC20 which has Via's new Nano processor. Once you hit that price range, plenty of mainstream laptop choices come into play.

HP's own Pavilion dv4 has a 14-inch screen, but also features a dual-core Turion X2 CPU, while Sony's 14-inch Vaio VGN-CS13G/Q has a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400--both of which handily outperform the HP dv2 and cost only a little more.

While we're not convinced that laptop shoppers are looking for some middle ground between a traditional Netbook and a cheap mainstream dual-core laptop, the HP Pavilion dv2 at least gets to carve out a niche (for the moment) as the overall best inexpensive, 12-inch laptop available.

Tags: Netbook, Laptop Computer, Dual-core, Hewlett-Packard Co., Keyboard

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