Strengths: The graphics are fantastic and the screen has perfect clarity and color. It also runs super quiet. + Bluetooth

Weaknesses: At 160 GB, the HDD is small ... No webcam

Summary: The screen is big, bright and clear. The 3GB of RAM keep this machine running smoothly. The nVidia graphics card with 512 MB of separate memory makes the picture quality astounding. The touch buttons up top are perfect, not too sensitive, and not to the point where you have to stab them with your finger to work. Also does not come with a lot of preloaded junk.I would have liked a larger HD and a webcam.Otherwise a great performing machine.

Strengths: Screen = Large Widescreen 15.4 in; Battery life = Long; Remote control for watching movies; Smart touch-sensitive multimedia controls; Good speakers; Dual audio outputs; Bluetooth and infrared connectivity; Multi-card reader; PRICE = REALLY LOW!

Weaknesses: HDD = Small 160 GB; OS = Occupies too much memory Win Vista; USB Ports = 3; Win Vista does not come on a reloadable CD/DVD; No webcam.

Summary: After surveying more than 10 medium-sized compact laptops, I have come to the conclusion that this is the best available at this time (June 2008) in its class. Sony?s were a definite No-No because of their cost factor. Gateway, Acer and ASUS were on the other side of the cost spectrum which worried me! I have used 3 DELL laptops till now (and they have all been pretty good), so I wanted to try something else. Toshiba and HP were left to fight it out! My minimum requirements were: 1.At least 250 GB HDD. 2.At least 2 GB of RAM. 3.At least 15.4 inch screen. 4.At least 1.6 GHz dual processor, preferably AMD. 5.Infrared/bluetooth connectivity. 6.DVD burner The DV6810US met all the requirements except the HDD one. At 160 GB, the HDD is SMALL! Especially with Windows Vista hogging so much disk space, you can feel the need for additional space. I still decided to go for this one because I have a spare 500 GB external HDD. I use the external HDD to store my multimedia files. The laptop HDD will be primarily used for loading software and temporary storage. Do keep in mind that the external HDD will take up one of your USB ports! Although, I was looking for anything that had 2 GB or more RAM, I m glad that I bought 3 GB. I strongly recommend at least 3 GB with Vista. Again, although Vista looks smart and has some cool features, it eats any amount of memory you give it! So more the better. The 15.4 in widescreen with the cool remote and touch-sensitive multimedia controls is one of the best things a multimedia buff will enjoy on this laptop. Watching movies, viewing pictures and playing music is as easy as 1-2-3. Now although, there are 17 in laptop screens out there (and all that real-estate can be pretty useful to artists who edit photos and movies), the factors to consider are cost, weight and portability. DV9810US gives all the same features of a DV6810US on a 17 in screen, and the cost-difference in Apr 08 was only $150. I would have gone for it in a heartbeat had it not been for the weight and portability aspect. A 17 inch laptop will barely fit on the tray-table of an economy seat in an airplane!!! It also consumes that much more battery! And if you don?t need 17 inch worth of real-estate on your screen 100% of the time, I would rather buy a 20 inch flat-screen for around $200 and sit it on a table at home! The DV6810US is powered by 2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core processor. Though this is on of the faster processors in the market, Vista seems to slow it down (Only if Microsoft could have gotten out a better OS!) I often connect my cell-phone to my laptop using infrared. This was a decisive factor when choosing between this one and Toshiba A205, A215 and P305 models. All of these are slightly superior to DV6810US on some other factors but lack infrared connectivity. The Toshibas also lost because of the LabelFlash technology they used in their DVD burners. My study showed that HP?s LightScribe was a better technology because of the availability of media and performance. Most other laptops in its class feature a webcam, while this one does not. Again, I already had a good Logitech webcam, so I dint care a lot for the in-built one. Although, it will take-up another of your USB ports, it gives your more portability without having to move the entire laptop. The weaknesses like only 3 USB ports (against 4 in some other models) and lack of webcam are pretty small, and are heavily outweighed by its strengths. The other OS related problems are inherent to Vista, and I believe would come with all laptops. The other laptops I considered in my study were? HP DV9810US HP DV9820US HP DV9830US HP DV9720US HP DV9730US HP DV9740US Toshiba Sat A215-S5848 Toshiba Sat A205-S5863 Toshiba Sat A215-S6804 HP dv6748us Toshiba Sat A205-S5859 Toshiba Sat A215-S5849 HP DV9812US Toshiba Sat P305-DS8818 HP DV6810US HP DV6833US HP DV6751US HP DV6830US

Strengths: 3 gb RAM. SD reader. Remote Control.

Weaknesses: 160 gb Hard drive.

Summary: This is a great laptop. I would recommend the laptop to anyone who wishes to surf the internet, watch tv, and listen to internet radio. The computer comes with a remote control which you can use from 10 feet away. This is a cool feature. You can watch a dvd and fast forward and pause away from the laptop via remote. The only downfall is HP only put a 160 gb harddrive in this laptop.