some_guy5's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us (NU985UA) PC N...
I recently bought what has become my favorite toy, the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us. When my desktop sputtered and died after being alive for only fifteen months or so I was stuck with a limping, aging laptop. I opted to harvest some parts from the desktop, cut my losses and go to just a laptop. I have lost the DVR capabilities of windows media center(and I could get them back if I want to) but gained so much more. My notebook's capabilities are as follows: · Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6500 • 14.1 inch WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display · 4GB DDR2 RAM · Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD Graphics Card · 320GB Hard Drive · Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1 · Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN • LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVDñR/RW with Double Layer Support · 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery · 1 Year Warranty
I had been keeping my eye out for a while and finally hit that sweet spot of having some money and seeing a laptop I wanted hit the deal websites. Looks and Function With my last laptop being quite large and heavy by today's standards, I was on the lookout for something smaller and cheaper. Thinking that we would use the laptop to watch movies, I went large last time. Now I know that when we do want it for movies, it is on someone's lap, and usually in the car where large and heavy is a nuisance. The Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us is 5.08 pounds and measures 13.15 in (L) x 9.45 in (D) x 1.34 in or 1.57 in (H) depending on whether it is open or not. The case is off-white with a pattern on the lid that could be confused with scratches at a casual glance. Indeed after only having the laptop out for a few hours my wife exclaimed "Oh no! Oh. I thought it was scratched already." The bottom of the case is black plastic. Within the open clamshell the off-white color continues, except for the frame around the screen and a function bar above the keyboard. Below the keyboard is the touchpad. As far as the touchpad, well this is not my first experience with one, but I like it even less than my first one. It has been a bit difficult to use, but what is really annoying is that you accidentally activate it all the time, even when trying not to use it. Thankfully, HP put a button just above it to deactivate it. This would have been a serious drawback otherwise. Along the right side is the DVD tray and two USB inputs, as well as a port for a modem cable and the jack for the power cable. The front of the unit has microphone and headphone jacks as well as indicator lights for power, battery, and hard drive usage. The left side of the unit has a combined USB/eSATA jack, 1 VGA (15-pin), 1 RJ -45 (LAN), 1 notebook expansion port 3, 1 Consumer IR (Remote Receiver), and a 6 in 1 digital media card reader. Screen and Sound The screen is much better than I am used to. Depending on the software, I often feel like I am holding a small HD TV in my lap. The picture is really that nice. I play an occasional game and Oblivion looks really nice. For less intensive use, things like the internet and Word 2003 look nice and crisp. For on the lap use it is very nice for movies, but keep in mind that the DVD drive does not support blue-ray. We like to use the laptop as a portable DVD player on car trips and this is a much better size for the children.
While I am happy with the screen, I am less happy with the sound. In quiet conditions the speakers work just fine for hearing the computer. Even in quiet conditions music and movie sound are inadequate. You can hear what is going on, but a lot of sound is clearly missing. In general you are just better off using headphones for music or movies. Same case when you are not in quiet conditions, like a car, plane, or kids playing loudly. It is a small laptop, so I suspect that the speakers are tiny as well and that is how they sound.
Battery Given that this is my second laptop and my first in six years or so I should have expected a drastic improvement in the battery life. The improvement is so drastic that I cannot say how long the battery lasts other than to say "a long time". I seldom use it unplugged for more than an hour or two but I did recently use it unplugged accidentally for an unknown period of time without even knowing it. That would have never happened on my old Dell since using the battery would have meant an hour or so of use with a dimmed screen. The best experience I can give you is, hours with no problem at all. I will update if I ever put the battery through a true test.
Heat I was hoping for big improvement here but the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us still gets quite hot on my lap. I do feel like they crammed a ton of performance in a small little case and I suppose that creates a lot of heat. The computer seems to deal with the heat just fine, perhaps by transferring it to my lap, but there have been no issues with performance even on heavy use.
My Experience I think I have given the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us a rather serious performance test, or as serious as an amateur knows how. I have used the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us on the internet of course, both for work and play. While playing I can also run a virus scan while surfing, but this degrades the speed too much while working. I have copied, and watched video, and played a video game. The only thing I can say is, if you are doing something intensive you may want to pause your virus scan. Otherwise I have literally no performance issues.
As far as work, I have done a bit of word processing and spreadsheeting but other than that, all I need is a stable internet connection to log in remotely. The Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us is more than up to my work needs.
Bang for the Buck I used a budget tactic for buying the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us. With only one aging laptop in the house I simply watched various deal websites for a laptop and a price combination I wanted. The Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us is at least somewhat high end. After tax I paid close to $600 with $50 of my savings coming from a mail in rebate. My Dell was over $1,600 about 6 years ago. With only that one frame of reference I feel like the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us is a tremendous value. Even with a wireless printer I only spent $650 total. (At Staples if anyone is interested). I know laptops have come down a lot in price over the last few years, but I still feel this represents a huge value for money.
Conclusion I realize now that I have written a full review and not mentioned the integrated web cam and microphone. I suppose this is fair because I have not used them yet. Most likely I will use them very infrequently, but it is nice to have them integrated for these rare occasions. Overall I am very happy with the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us. The touchpad is no good, but you don't have to use it. I have had one problem, but as it turns out it was Windows related. Windows installed an update that ruined me, but after booting in safe mode windows diagnosed the problem and instructed me on how to remove the offending update. After about one month I am very happy with the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us. Incidentally, this computer comes with a free upgrade to Windows 7, when that is released. I do recommend the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4-1430us as a good computer and good value.
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