The HP Pavilion dv4t is a 14.1-inch notebook targeted towards those that need to be on the go some of the time, but also need a notebook with a large enough screen to provide for comfortable viewing while at a desk.  In other words, the dv4t size is perfectly suited as a student laptop.

The dv4t comes equipped with the latest powerful Intel Centrino 2 (Core 2 Duo Montevina) processor and can also be configured with dedicated graphics in the form of the Nvidia 9200M graphics card.  As you would expect from HP the dv4t can be configured with a wide range options, varying from a budget level PC at $649 or tricked out with all the bells and whistles at a price of around $1,500.

My HP Pavilion dv4t notebook has the following specifications:

HP Pavilion dv4t Entertainment Notebook

• Intel Core2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.4 GHz)
• Upgrade to Genuine Windows Vista Business with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
• 14.1″ diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Infinity Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
• 3GB DDR2 System Memory
• Webcam + Fingerprint Reader
• Graphics: 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS
• Hard Drive: 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• Wireless: Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN and Bluetooth
• Battery: High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• Optical Drive: SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support

The total price after discounts, including a $500 off coupon code active at the time of purchase, came to $949.  This is a very good price for such a nicely configured dv4t, it’s certainly worth keeping your eye on HP offers and coupon codes.

Design

The design of the dv4t is fantastic.  It’s very sleek and modern looking.  Everything about the design appears extremely integrated and it’s obvious the design team put thought into every little detail.  While many manufacturers are offering colored lids and snazzy inlaid design patterns, nobody is offering anything quite as nice HP at this price point.  For instance, the sides of the dv4t have a liquid metal look to complement the rest of the notebooks case color.  Often times manufacturers just forget about the side areas where the ports and optical drive are and make it a standard black color.

While silver and black aren’t revolutionary colors for a notebook, the way HP uses a glossy metallic finish on the dv4t makes it eye catching.  All of the surfaces have a glossy and reflective look that is appealing when viewed from just about any angle.  Though a glossy finish usually equates to fingerprint magnet, the silver areas actually do not suffer this trait as much as I thought.  The black colored lid does however pick up any greasy finger prints, HP provided a microfiber cloth in the box to combat this issue.

Notice how from a distance the lid looks all black

But close up you can see a mesh pattern inlaid design

There are no sharp edges on the dv4t, it’s as sleek as a sports car with rounded edges.  There are various accents that also contribute to the good looks, such as an HP logo on the lid that lights up and inlaid design pattern called Mesh.

Size and Weight

The size and weight of a laptop are very important components if you’re a student looking to tote it around campus.  The dv4t has a thickness ranging from 1.34″ to 1.57″.  It’s not super sleek and thin, but that’s not too bad and certainly not as thick as a bulky textbook.  The total width of the dv4t comes to 13.15″ while the depth is 9.45″, just a bit larger than a standard 8 x 11 piece of paper.  Weighing the dv4t on the kitchen scales with its high-capacity 6-cell battery in showed a weight of 5.63 lbs.  Adding the power cord and adapter to the mix added an extra 1lb, so the total travel weight is around 6.6lbs.  Slightly heavy for a 14″ notebook.

Build Quality

The Pavilion dv4t is a consumer laptop and as you would expect mostly constructed of plastic.  The plastic is rigid and durable, you won’t find any flex on the notebook, top or bottom.  The thick and durable plastic construction does make the laptop heavy, but better that than a flimsy feel.

The paint finish of the laptop also seems fairly durable and resistant to scuffs and scratches.

Screen

One of the most important aspects of a laptop is indeed the screen, the dv4t comes with three different screen options:

• 14.1″ diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
• 14.1″ diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Infinity Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
• 14.1″ diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP LED Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)

All the screen options have the same resolution.  It would have been nice to see a higher resolution available such as WXGA+ so you could fit more information on the 14.1″ screen, but WXGA is fairly standard resolution and the option most people find comfortable viewing.

I got the HP BrightView Infinity Widescreen display non-LED version.  The LED option was a $100 upgrade, while nice to have because it is thinner and more power efficient than a standard CCFL backlit display, I didn’t think it was worth the cost.  The “Infinity” finish means there’s a clear plastic overlay on the screen that makes it look frameless, it’s a very slick look that is worth the $50 upgrade if you’re a sucker for refined design touches.  The BrightView simply indicates a glossy finish on the screen that provides brighter and bolder colors.

HP dv4t Infinity view screen

The screen is more than bright enough and colors appear really gorgeous.  The contrast and clarity are excellent.  Running the Astra32 program indicates this as being an LG made display.

Performance

With a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor and dedicated Nvidia 9200M graphics the dv4t is no slouch.  There is definitely more than enough power here to do typical web surfing and word processing.  Having the Nvidia card also helps with faster performance overall, even with things like long web pages you’ll get a boost with rendering performance.

You can also do some light gaming with the Nvidia 9200m, nothing serious mind you, but enough to get by on low to medium settings for games such as FEAR or Call of Duty.  There will be zero problems playing sports games such as Madden ‘09 or Fifa ‘09.

Below are some benchmark scores for those that like to see some numbers attached to performance analysis:

PCMark05: 4,013

3DMark06: 1,535

Windows Performance Index: 3.5

PC Wizard: 489.33

Audio Speakers

HP includes Altec Lansing branded speakers on the dv4.  The audio is pretty good as far as notebooks go, though mid and high sounds are reproduced much better than low bass sounds.  This is typical of laptops since they rarely have a built-in subwoofer to accommodate decent bass.

HP includes two headphone ports on the front side.  Listening to audio through headphones is a better choice if you want a higher quality audio experience.

Heat and Fan Noise

The Pavilion dv4t does get hotter than I would have expected.  Granted, this configuration has a very fast processor and dedicated Nvidia graphics, which contribute to heat buildup, but the bottom side becomes uncomfortably after you do any intensive processor work or leave the laptop on for a long period of time.  When simply idling the Core temperature rested at 33 degrees Celsius (91 Fahrenheit) and the graphics card at 44C (111F).  After running a benchmark application on the dv4t the processor temperature went up to 40 degrees Celsius (103 Fahrenheit) and the graphics card went to 51C (103F).

Processor heat under normal usage:

Processor heat after running benchmark:

When things get hot the fan really kicks in hard to try and cool things down.  The fan blows hot air out of the back of the notebook, and at its highest setting it is annoyingly loud.  Even when the fan is spinning at its medium setting it will be rather loud, enough to easily be heard throughout a quiet classroom.  Strangely, I found that whenever you put the dv4t into sleep mode and wake it up the fan will constantly run at its loud medium setting, even if the laptop is cool.  However, bootup or bring it back from hibernate and the fan will only spin at a low setting.  There’s obviously something odd in the bios settings that control the fan.

Overall, the amount of heat and fan noise the dv4t generates is disappointing.

Keyboard, Touchpad and Media Buttons

The HP dv4t keyboard is unique in that the keys blend right in with the case and they also have a somewhat glossy look.  The good news is that the keyboard does not pick up fingerprints, despite the gloss.  The key travel and smoothness is very nice and there is no spongy feeling or flex to the keyboard.

The touchpad is nice and wide, the only complaint here is the fact it has a shiny metallic gloss and unfortunately picks up fingerprints.  I also find that it is not as easy to glide the finger across the touchpad as your standard textured touchpad.  On the right hand side of the touchpad is a vertical scroll zone.  The mouse buttons do not have much travel or feedback from them.  The other really annoying thing is that the buttons only register taps on the inside part, if you hit toward the outside edge of the mouse buttons it will often fail to register a click.

At the top of the keyboard is a nice array of touch sensitive multimedia buttons.  These buttons allow you to launch the QuickPlay application used for playing various types of media, mute the sound, adjust the volume, skip forward / back and play or stop media.  The buttons are all brightly lit and respond to touch — most of the time at least.  Sometimes I found it was a little tough to register a push on one of the media buttons if the dv4t was busy doing other things in the background.  Overall the touch button implementation is very nice though.

Input and Output Ports

The Pavilion dv4t has a great selection of ports, especially for its size.  Everything you could really ask for in this form factor is included.  The HDMI port is especially nice to have as it can output high definition video and audio to a larger screen TV.  Having the Nvidia card on board makes video output from HDMI a better experience.

Front view:

Two headphone ports and microphone port on the front

Right side:

Optical drive, two USB ports, power jack

Back view:

No ports here, just the hinge

Left side:

Monitor out port, docking station connector, Ethernet, HDMI, eSATA/USB combo port, SD/MS/MMC/XD card reader slot, ExpressCard 54 slot.

Notice that on the right side the modem is blocked off, it’s actually a $10 upgrade to have that included.  For most peoples needs a modem is

Battery Life

The HP dv4t has three battery options: a regular 6-cell, high capacity 6-cell and 12-cell battery.  I chose the high capacity 6-cell battery.  It does not stick out like the 12-cell battery would and offers 16% more battery life than the standard 6-cell.

With the screen on mid-level brightness, the system idling and power settings set to “Power Saver” in Vista the dv4t achieved 2 hours and 48 minutes of battery life before hitting 6% charge remaining and going into hibernate.  That’s an optimistic amount of battery life to get as I wasn’t even doing anything on the laptop during this time.  In general you can expect around 2 hours and 15 minutes of battery on the 6-cell high capacity battery.  Not all that great, but remember I have the dedicated graphics and fastest processor option.  If you get integrated graphics and a slower processor you can certainly expect better battery life.

Conclusion

The design of the dv4t and very good price to performance ratio are what really have me sold on this notebook and liking it.  It’s not the lightest 14″ laptop out there and battery life could be better, I also found heat build up was a bit problematic with the dedicated graphics.  If you got integrated graphics and a slower processor I’m sure the heat and battery life issues would not be such a problem, so keep that in mind, even though there will always be an inner voice urging you to trick your laptop out with the highest possible configuration.

The selection of ports is excellent, the screen superb and overall build quality excellent for a consumer targeted laptop.

Overall rating: 8/10

Pros

• Very good price for what you get
• Superb sleek looking design
• Great build quality
• Excellent selection of ports such as HDMI and eSATA

Cons

• Runs quite hot with dedicated graphics and fast processor
• Lid picks up fingerprints so you need a cloth to wipe that off
• So-so battery life with dedicated graphics

Pricing and Where to buy

The HP Pavilion dv4t notebook is available configure to order at HP.com and varies in price depending on the promotions and marketing going on during any given week.  Right now the starting price is at $649, which is really great.  Don’t forget the student discount that HP offers.  And if you liked this review and it was helpful to you, we’d really appreciate you using this sponsored link to click through and buy this HP notebook so that HP knows you were here and found the review helpful