HP Pavilion dv4t Review

The 14-inch HP Pavilion dv4t is consumer notebook offering a wide range of multimedia features at a modest starting price of $599. With features that span from built-in Verizon or AT&T WWAN, a Blu-ray media drive, and even an internal TV-tuner this notebook has the ability to be the hub of any home or dorm entertainment system. Take a look at this review and find out what all a “budget-priced” notebook can do.

Our HP dv4-1001xx Specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 processor (2.8GHz/ 1066MHz FSB/ 6MB L2)
• 14.1 WXGA Glossy LED-Backlit LCD (1280x800)
• Nvidia GeForce 9200M-GS w/ 256MB DDR2 dedicated video card
• 4GB DDR2-800 RAM (2x 1GB)
• 320GB 5400RPM hard drive (Toshiba)
• Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVDRW
• WiFi, Ethernet, Modem, and Bluetooth Connectivity
• Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
• 55Wh High Capacity 6-cell Li-ion battery
• Size: 13.15" (W) x 9.45" (D) x 1.34" (H)
• Weight: 5lbs 5.2oz with battery

Since our review unit was a custom-built reviewer's sample from HP our exact configuration isn't available for purchase from HP. However, a similar configuration with an Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 processor costs $1,674.99 ($1,474.99 with instant savings) on the HP website.

Build and Design

The design of the HP dv4 has the same heavily chromed accents just like the dv5 and new HDX models. I think that HP went slightly overboard with the use of shiny surfaces and in some instances you end up being blinded by a number of things. When using the notebook outside on a sunny day, the touchpad, speaker grills, media access keys, or even the palmrest trim could blind you if the sun hits it just right. Another high gloss surface that luckily this model did not include is the Infinity glass panel over the already glossy display. The few models we have had in our offices with that setup make viewing the screen a challenge in all but perfect lighting conditions with the amount of reflections.

Build quality is above average, with durable plastic all around the chassis. The painted surfaces seem to hold up well against minor scratches of day to day use, but they do attract quite a few fingerprints. The plastic that makes up the palmrests is fairly rigid, but will flex under moderately heavy pressure. The display cover is the same way, only flexing a little bit under strong pressure. I don’t think this notebook would have any problem being transported in a backpack with a bundle of heavy textbooks.

Display

The glossy LED-backlit WXGA (1280x800) panel is bright and vibrant, with excellent colors for viewing images or movies. Contrast seems slightly washed out mostly because of blacks showing up as dark grey instead of full black. Viewing angles are average with limited vertical viewing angles that give you a sweet spot of +/- 15 degrees. Horizontal viewing angles are much better with colors staying true even out to very wide angles. Brightness levels are more than adequate for viewing in a bright office setting. Sunlight readability is limited with the glossy surface, but if you find a spot with some shade it should be fine.

With the included Blu-ray drive watching HD is limited to roughly 720P content with the lower 1280x800 screen resolution. On a screen this small you probably wouldn’t even notice the difference. The HDMI output is a better choice for watching movies, capable of outputting the full 1080P resolution of Blu-ray movies, as well as high definition audio.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The full-size keyboard is comfortable to type on, with only light pressure required to fully press each key. The individual key action is smooth with a bit of plastic jiggle as you type. Keyboard spacing is excellent, and no area of the keyboard felt cramped as though HP tried to fit more keys than necessary into the mix. Keyboard support is excellent, with a very rigid surface that doesn’t want to budge even with very heavy pressure. If the keys were painted black you could probably even get away with calling it a business notebook keyboard.

The touchpad is an ALPS made model and feels very responsive with little lag. The entire touchpad surface is made up of a high gloss plastic, and hard to use at first. The surface needs to collect some of your finger's natural oils to allow easy sliding around the surface. If you clean it off with rubbing alcohol every so often, it will be tricky to move your finger around in a smooth motion until more oils collect on the surface. The touchpad buttons are in an easy-to-access spot and are easy to control with your thumb. The buttons provide mild feedback with a short throw that gives an audible click when pressed.

For quick access to movie controls, the dv4 has a touch-sensitive media access panel above the keyboard. It has dedicated buttons for the QuickPlay HP media control area, mute, volume up/down, media controls, and wireless on/off.

Performance and Benchmarks

System performance with the 2.8GHz Intel T9600 Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of system memory, and NVIDIA 9200M GS dedicated graphics is excellent. Day-to-day applications scream, mostly related to the top-of-the-line processor. The NVIDIA 9200M GS graphics card doesn’t help much for playing modern games, but it does help offload processing power when decoding Blu-ray movies. In all but video encoding the processor in our review model would be left unused, and a slower processor could have probably done just fine. To go from the base 2.0GHz T5800 processor to the T9600 is a $550 upgrade that could be better spent on a faster hard drive or even a docking station with money to spare.

Synthetic benchmarks were very good, mostly attributed to the 4GB of RAM and high-end processor.

WPrime is a benchmark similar to Super Pi in that it forces the processor to do intense mathematical calculations, but the difference is this application is multi-threaded and represents dual core processors better. Lower numbers indicate better performance.

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
HP Pavilion dv4t (Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)	26.972s
Dell Studio 15 (Core 2 Duo T5750 @ 2.0GHz)	41.246s
HP Pavilion dv5z (Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 @ 2.1GHz)	39.745s
Dell Vostro 1510 (Core 2 Duo T5670 @ 1.8GHz)	51.875s
Dell Inspiron 1525 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)	43.569s
Dell XPS M1530 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.485s
HP Pavilion dv6500z (Turion 64 X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	40.759s
Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz)	58.233s
Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	38.343s
Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.299s
HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	40.965s
Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.705s
HP Pavilion dv6000z (Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	38.720s

PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance based on processor, hard drive, operating system, RAM, and graphics (higher scores are better):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
HP Pavilion dv4t (2.8GHz Intel T9600, Nvidia 9200M GS 256MB)	5,463 PCMarks
Dell Studio 15 (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100)	3,998 PCMarks
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	3,994 PCMarks
Dell Vostro 1510 (1.8GHz Intel T5670, Intel X3100)	3,568 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	4,149 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	5,412 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	4,616 PCMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100)	3,283 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks

3DMark06 comparison results for graphics performance (higher scores are better):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
HP Pavilion dv4t (2.8GHz Intel T9600, Nvidia 9200M GS 256MB)	1,741 3DMarks
Dell Studio 15 (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100)	493 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	1,599 3DMarks
Dell Vostro 1510 (1.8GHz Intel T5670, Intel X3100)	519 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	545 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv6500z (2.0GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60, NVIDIA 8400m GS)	1,551 3DMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100)	504 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	4,332 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	2,905 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks

All of the 3DMark06 scores for all of the systems listed above were run at 1280 x 800 or 1280 x 768 resolution. We also ran PCMark Vantage on the dv4t and obtained a score of 3,811.

HDTune results:

Speakers and Audio

The onboard speakers leave much to be desired with a tinny sound at moderate volume level. Both bass and midrange were absent, and at high volume levels the speakers distorted quite a bit. Lack of bass and midrange is quite common with many notebooks, leaving headphones as the only good option for enjoying movies or music. If you are close to a home theatre that supports audio out of HDMI you could also route audio through that.

Ports and Features

Port selection on the HP dv4t is excellent, offering a wide range of onboard ports, including VGA, HDMI, eSATA and a connection for external docking station. Audio hookups are great, with two headphone jacks that can easily share a movie with a friend.

• Three USB 2.0 ports
• One eSATA/USB port
• Expansion Port 3 (docking station connector)
• ExpressCard slot
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 5-in-1 multi-card reader
• Two audio out ports
• microphone in
• VGA monitor out
• HDMI out
• Kensington lock slot

Front: IR, two Headphone jacks, and Microphone jack

Rear: Screen hinge

Left: Kensington lock slot, VGA, docking connector, LAN, HDMI, USB/eSATA combo port, Expresscard/54, 5-in-1 multi-card reader

Right: Expansion bay, 2 USB, modem, AC power

The dv4t also offers a media bay that lets the user swap out the optical drive for an additional hard drive. The bay with 250GB drive costs $109.99, and gives much faster transfer rates over a external USB drive since it is connecting through an internal SATA connection.

Heat and Noise

Thermal performance of the HP dv4t’s cooling system was average, with a few hot spots forming even with a cooling fan that was audible from across the room. Upper notebook temperatures were kept in check, leaving the palmrest in the 81-91 degrees Fahrenheit range even under load. Lower temperatures were not as good, with a few parts reaching upwards of 102 degrees Fahrenheit, making for a not-so-comfortable laptop situation if you were using it for any good length of time.

The cooling fan was obnoxiously loud during heavy activity (such as gaming or benchmarking) and easily heard around a small office setting. During normal use the fan didn’t always turn on with such vigor, but it was annoying during the times it tried to really cool itself down.

Battery Life

Battery life is average with the high capacity 6-cell battery. With the “HP Recommended” power profile enabled, wireless on and active, and screen brightness set to 60 percent the system squeaked by with 3 hours and 24 minutes of runtime before it his 5 percent and wanted to shutdown. HP does offer an extended 12-cell battery which should offer even greater battery life, but without any specifications listed that would hint at capacity it is hard to estimate how long that battery would last.

Bloatware

I normally don’t comment much on added manufacturer bloatware on notebooks, but the HP dv4t was an exception. Loaded down with additional IE toolbars, processor intensive antivirus software, and prompts that popped up one after another, it was a pain to use. The first 30 minutes after I opened the box was used uninstalling anything that was not absolutely needed for the system to function correctly.

Conclusion

The HP Pavilion dv4t works well as a media hub for a home theater, as well as a mobile workhorse for lugging to school or traveling. Port selection is fantastic, and with the native docking station connection you can attach even more devices. The “SmartBay” removable storage expansion drive worked well when you wanted more storage instead of an optical drive. While the price on our configuration was quite high because of a few key components like the top-tier processor, a more modest configuration would result in a much more affordable notebook. Overall, you get lots of bang for your buck in a durable chassis that should easily hold up for a number of years.

Pros:

• Expansive port selection
• User-swappable media bay
• Native docking station connection
• LED-backlit screen is quite bright
• Good performance

Cons:

• Very pricey depending on what options you configure the notebook with
• Super reflective notebook that causes lots of glare

 

Great notebook looks very solid, except for the price WOW thats one expensive loaded price. You might as well get a vaio SR

 

Dang this laptop is nice! I think I may either get this one or the Dell Inspiron 13, but I don't know which one would be a better choice.

 

Nice review Kevin - it makes me feel better about my dv4z! I just checked the H-P site and I don't see the 250-Gb HDD - as a substitute for the DVD drive which you mentioned...

 

the 13" one has better options.

 

dv4-1001xx? What does the suffix "xx" mean?

I have seen the dv4 on display here before. If you can justify the performance it may be quite a good substitute for the dv5.

Here in Singapore two models are offered, one with the P8400 and one with the T9400.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/sg/en/ho/WF06a/321957-321957-3329744-64354-64354-3745837.html

It seems like HP is getting popular with their Pavilion laptops after they launched their new naming scheme.

The dv5 is at the first place of the Top 10 for the second month now and the dv4 is at the third.

 

I have the DV4T configured exactly like the one reviewed here and I agree it is an AMAZING laptop for everyday use and multimedia. i'm not a gamer, so i can't comment on how it performs in games.

assuming you don't mind all the chrome, it is very stylish. i especially like the illuminated HP logo on the lid.

 

I really like the ability to take out the optical drive for an HDD, even if it is HP's proprietary solution. More manufacturers need to do this!

 

Return of the modular bay? This looks really promising. Do all of the new HP notebooks come with this feature, or just the dv4? It'd be really sweet if the dv3500t (more power, less weight) had the media/expansion bay.

 

Search for the SmartBay option towards the bottom of the page. Separate area for it.

 

Yea well funny how a 550 buck processor upgrade, blu-ray drive, WWAN, and other goodies drive up the price like crazy

 

That's generally how things go...

 

heh no kidding big up to the LED screen though they are headed in the right direction.

 

this looks very nice....

 

also,Kevin,can you try Crysis on it?I know it sound stupid,but couple of our members say that they run crysis on 9200gs with ~20 FPS

 

Are you serious?! that seems kinda high for the 9200gs. But if it can, that's awesome!

 

Probably on really low settings, and not at native res. I'm still baffled as to why HP made the optional graphics on the dv4t the 9200M. I'd really rather have GMA X4500. HP should be really awesome and offer the 9500M GS as the optional graphics on the dv4. That would be really sweet.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=310059

 

Great review. I highly doubt someone will shell out this kind of money for a dv4t- its not worth configuring it to such an extent considering that its a budget notebook and its not a gaming laptop. Having said that, it may not find too many high end users.
I purchased the same laptop, but not with such a souped up config. I got the following and a free printer for $734 + tax. My dv4t has shipped and is on the way. Should receive it next week. HP takes for ever to build its laptops.
The config is-
- HP Pavilion dv4t Entertainment Notebook
- Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T5800 (2.0GHz)
- 14.1" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
- 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
- FREE Upgrade to 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
- HP Imprint Finish (Mesh) + Microphone + Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
- HP Color Matching Keyboard
- Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card with Bluetooth
- No Integrated WWAN
- No Modem
- SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
- No TV Tuner w/remote control
- 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
- HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

 

hi! this is great ( not only for its price )! i saw in bb a cheaper one, hp pavilion dv3510nr ($1,199.99). would you say it is a better buy than asus x83vm-x1 (899.99) which has the same specs? still confused on what to buy.

tnx so much!

 

Is the sound quality really that bad compared to other notebooks? (like Inspiron 1525 etc) Also is it worse than the dv5t?

 

I haven't heard the dv4t speakers myself, but I can assure you with almost absolute certainty that they're better than the Dell Inspiron 1525 or Studio 1535. Those 2 laptops have the absolute worst speakers on any laptop that I have ever heard in my life. I did try out a dv5 extensively and I was actually pretty happy with the speakers on that, and I would assume the ones in the dv4 are probably the same. All of the HP's that I have used have better sound than most other laptops b/c they have nice Altec Lansing speakers in them. Granted there isn't much bass to any of them, but the only laptop I've ever heard that had good amount of bass was a dv7 with a built-in subwoofer.