The HP Pavilion dv6000 offers an average mix of ports for a laptop its size. There are four-pin FireWire, VGA, S-Video, and three USB 2.0 ports, as well as a microphone jack and--for those who like to share movies and music with friends--two headphone jacks, one of which supports S/PDIF output. Card slots on the dv6000 read the latest ExpressCards, plus Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, and xD formats. Networking options include Ethernet, modem, and 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi; Bluetooth is available as an option. The laptop's double-layer DVD burner includes LightScribe, which lets you burn your own labels onto compatible discs.

We reviewed an early version of the HP Pavilion dv6000 that was built on a 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 processor; however, that processor will not be offered on the system initially (for now, the dv6000 will top out with the 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7200 chip). The rest of our configuration will be available, though: 1GB of fast 667MHz RAM; a 100GB, 5,400rpm hard drive; and an Nvidia GeForce Go 7500 graphics card with 256MB of VRAM. This configuration, with the lower-end 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7200,