HP Pavilion dv4-1435dx Entertainment user reviews (14.1" - Core 2 Duo T6500 - Vista Home Premium 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 320 GB HDD)

Pros Fast, stylish, great for college-students who know a lot about computers. Very portable

Cons Clicking noise of volume gets stuck occasionally, battery life could be better

Summary I bought this laptop back in September of 2009 and I have loved every minute of it. It is easy to use and I really love the style. It came preloaded with a bunch of crap, but it was easy to remove. It has tons of storage and came stock with 4 GB of RAM. The only thing that really sucked was the free upgrade to Windows 7. Worst idea EVER.

Pros Fast, great processor, video, etc.

Cons HP Crapware, but I suppose that helps lower the price and it's easy to remove (Hint: You don't need most of it!)

Summary I'm a teacher and I needed a new laptop. I do a lot of video editing for my classes, my students submit everything electronically and I absolutely punished my last laptop with my requirements.

I didn't initially believe my eyes when I saw the specs and looked at the price. Once I got it home I loved how lightweight and portable it was. I did upgrade the battery to a 12 Cell and I can make it through most of a 7 hour school day using the Power Saver mode for Windows on a single charge.

The video is great, both with the recorded lessons I make and when watching a DVD. The sound quality is top notch as well.

I've always stayed with hp because of how easy they are to upgrade and service, but this laptop absolutely sealed the deal. It was a bargain, a great laptop for college, business, or educational use (Personal too I suppose :))

Pros Honestly, there are few pros and none of them have anything to do with function except maybe the window media center remote control. However, this computer has a nice list of interfaces, a very stylish design and it is a great size for portability.

Cons start up time is horrible. sound quality is not good. The webcam produces poor pictures and video. the touch pad has a chrome finish that can be difficult to use. It is easy to over load the system and freeze the pc. Worst of all is the battery life!

Summary I would like to leave a detailed explanation as I could not find any specific reviews before I made my purchase. I am a student and I purchased this pc to take to Hong Kong with me for a semester. I am an I.T. / MIS major and typically use a desktop for most of my work. This computer was to replace my Acer aspire 3000, which was a great PC that cost less and functioned better, but it had no battery life at all and was out dated. I wanted my laptop to look good as well as to perform and function well. I first bought a Gateway NV5207u on 11/09 for $479 at Best Buy that PC was a little bigger 15.6 but functioned well. I was getting around 3hr, 20min of battery life out of the NV5207u and the webcam was great. Good pictures and video was not too choppy, plus it had a number pad which is great for spreadsheet work. However there was a crack in the webcam plastic cover so I returned the PC. Now, down to the HP dv4-1435dx. I own a 1yr old HP desktop that I am very happy with so I decided I wanted an HP laptop as well. I was under the assumption that HP was a better brand of computer. I chose the dv4-1435dx over a business laptop because of its style in addition to the specs which look good on paper. However, I am very disappointed in my purchase. I paid $549 for this pc expecting that I was getting better quality than the gateway NV5207u. However, that is not the case. It all starts from the beginning. This pc is very slow to load. From the time I press the power button it takes 59sec to load to the password screen, and then for Vista to finish loading the desktop it takes 3min, 22sec from the push of the power button. I expected a more expensive pc to give me better battery life, video, sound and function. Yet, this pc leaves much to be desired. Let?s start with the battery. I need a battery that will last a 3hr class session which this does not even in power saver mode with a calibrated battery. In fact, the most I managed to get from this pc is about 2.5 hrs. While using OneNote and some light to moderate web browsing. Moreover, this computer frequently becomes unresponsive (freezes) during use. Typically, if I am browsing the web, texting (chatting) and playing a YouTube video you can be sure you are going to be in a deep freeze for a while. Also, I need a pc with a fairly decent built in webcam. Skype, Google talk, ect. are how I communicate with friends and family back in the U.S. and this is one of the worst webcams I have ever used. When taking pictures and video the quality is very poor. NOTE: (all drives and settings are up to date). In addition, when watching video through YouTube, Netflix or even a DVD the picture quality is not good and colors "wash" into one another. The sound quality is not good either. The speakers make a crackling noise around 60% volume. In addition to all of this, the touch pad is aesthetically pleasing but not entirely functional. Even after 30 days of use it still tends to be difficult to use. At times it can become sort of tacky, but if you are a mouse person this may not really affect you. The style, size and specs of this computer are great. However, that is all that I have found pleasing from this pc. I have owned this pc for almost 1 month and I am shipping it back tomorrow! I don?t know what I will purchase yet primarily because shipping to Hong Kong is so expensive and most companies won?t do it but I can tell you for the money, I would have been better off keeping or just exchanging the Gateway N5207u.

Pros size and portability are great.
It is an attractive design.
Nice CPU, Ram, HDD size

Cons AUDIO ISSUES FROM DAY ONE!!!! annoying popping and clicking when video/audio is played back over HDMI.
HP refuses to help despite countless(I've counted 86 seperate) similar complaints on the Web including HP's own support site.

Summary This is a great computer if you don't plan on using the HDMI. If you want HDMI to work, look elsewhere.