Nothing on a notebook collects more smudgy fingerprints than its touchpad, so whoever specified a chrome touchpad for the HP Pavilion dv7 (2173cl) is guilty of sacrificing practicality for style. Other choices that went into this Costco configuration, however, make good sense—indeed, they make the 2173cl our favorite of the three Pavilion dv7 variants we've tested recently.
Design
At 10.9 by 16.2 by 1.4 inches (HWD) and weighing 8.4 pounds with and 7.3 pounds without its AC adapter, the dv7 (2173cl) is wide enough for a full-sized keyboard with separate numeric keypad, although the former's Insert and Delete keys and cursor arrows are on the small side compared with their counterparts on the keypad. The keyboard has a smooth, firm typing feel and the touchpad is precise and responsive.
The most impressive part is MediaSmart, a handsome house-brand alternative to Windows Media Center for browsing photos, music, and videos, with features—such as the ability to view CD covers and image folders in either a plain grid or fancy fan or arc—copied from HP's TouchSmart desktop suite. The dv7 doesn't have a touch screen, but comes with a cute miniature remote control for MediaSmart and Windows Media Center that tucks into the system's ExpressCard slot for storage.
The least impressive part of the Pavilion dv7's software library is HP's usual assortment of crapware, including games, online-service offers, and the 60-day versions of Norton Internet Security 2009 and Microsoft Office 2007 Home & Student.
The dv7 (2173cl) has two main differences from its near-twin, the HP Pavilion dv7 (2170us) available at Staples. The first tilts in the 2173cl's favor: a Blu-ray player instead of a plain-vanilla DVD+/-RW drive. Combined with a capable ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 graphics adapter, the BD-ROM drive (which is also a LightScribe-enabled CD and DVD burner) makes the 2173cl a solid high-definition video platform. Above-average Altec Lansing speakers with a downward-firing subwoofer—no thunder rumbler, but definitely fuller and less tinny than your usual notebook audio help enhance the movie-viewing experience.
So does the 17.3-inch screen—a brightly LED-backlit panel with 1,600 by 900 resolution (HD's 16:9 aspect ratio, not the 16:10 of older 17-inch widescreens like the Dell Studio 1737's). Price presumably forbade a full 1080p resolution display, but the dv3's is crisp and colorful enough to satisfy film buffs, with an HDMI port at the ready for those seeking external HDTV playback and a FireWire 400 port for home video editors' digital camcorders. One of the system's four USB 2.0 ports doubles as an eSATA connector if additional storage is your craving.
Performance
The second differentiator between the 2173cl and 2170us is a slightly slower CPU: While it has the same 3MB of Level 2 cache, the Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 processor in this system is only eight-ninths as swift (2.0GHz versus 2.26GHz) as the P7550 in the 2170us.
You can see the result in Windows Media Encoder and Photoshop CS4 benchmarks that took a few seconds longer to complete, though both Intel-based laptops handily bested the AMD Turion X2 Ultra-powered Pavilion dv7 (1451nr). Backed by 4GB of system memory and a roomy half-terabyte hard disk, however, the P7350 is more than powerful enough to make its clock speed a nonissue for everyday productivity applications.
The dv7 (2173cl) is too bulky for briefcase duty, but a college student using it as a dorm-room entertainment center could lug it to the lecture hall in a pinch (it lasted three and a third hours in the MobileMark 2007 battery test). The Editors' Choice HP HDX18t has a bigger screen, higher resolution, and better performance parts. Aside from its higher price, everything else says it's a better desktop replacement for media buffs. Still, the 2173cl a very appealing multimedia-centric desktop replacement, and its Blu-ray drive helps make it a good value at a grand.
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