HP slashes prices on dv2, dv3, dv6 laptops; aims for college students

With the back-to-school college student market in mind, Hewlett-Packard announced today that it is cutting prices on its popular Pavilion dv2, dv3 and dv6 laptops.

First on the cutting block is the HP Pavilion dv2z, now starting at $599. The dv2z is positioned as an affordable thin-and-light notebook that's less than an inch thin and tips the scales at 3.81 lbs. The dv2z has a 12.1-in. mercury-free LED widescreen display, dual-core AMD CPU, discrete graphics, storage of up to 500GB, optional Blu-ray and lots of ports.

(More HP goodness, after the jump.)

The HP Pavilion dv3t, which starts at $649, is a thin-and-light, 13.3-in. notebook that's about 1.25-in. thick and just under a hefty 5 lbs. It's a multimedia PC, which means it has an integrated optical drive and optional discrete graphics, as well as extended battery life and lots of ports.

Meanwhile, the HP Pavilion dv6t now starts at $649 and is intended as a compromise between multimedia power and portability. The system has a 16-in. LED widescreen display (16:9 aspect ratio) for HD viewing, and has a separate numeric keypad, handy for the mathematically-inclined among us.

Finally, the HP Pavilion dv6z Artist Edition 2 starts at $949 (pictured above) and sports a bright green and blue design "inspired by the sea and sky in Okinawa, Japan." (Better than the Hudson River.) It's positioned for creative types and offers entertainment and productivity applications, including Corel Video Studio X2, Corel Painter Sketchpad, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 and Magix Music Maker 14. It's available beginning June 10 at www.hpdirect.com.