HP Pavilion dv4-2165dx review: HP Pavilion dv4-2165dx

Featuring HP's mocha Digital Plaid Imprint finish, the 2165dx looks good for a body that's almost entirely made of plastic. However, everything but the bottom of the case is glossy, so you'll want to keep a cleaning cloth handy to keep its pristine look. HP put a backlit logo on the lower left of the laptop's lid, but otherwise, the laptop's branding is minimal. Opening the lid reveals a shiny black LCD bezel and the display hinges. A bit of perforated brown metal surrounds the keyboard, while the palm rests match the lid. The sides of the laptop are covered in chrome as are the touch pad and accompanying buttons. Overall, it's well-designed and the subtle plaid pattern keeps the laptop from looking like everything else. Lastly, while the system's weight is tolerable at 6 pounds, its travel weight is about a pound more. That may make it too heavy for some frequent travelers. Plus, while the body is somewhat thick at 1.6 inches, the battery pack adds another inch to the thickness at the back of the laptop. Because of its total thickness, it might be a tight squeeze for smaller sleeves and bags. It also puts the keyboard at an angle that may be uncomfortable for some users (though we didn't mind).

A touch-sensitive strip at the top of the keyboard controls the volume and has icons for muting audio and turning on and off the Wi-Fi radio. However, there are no other dedicated media controls. The function keys are labeled for play/pause, stop, forward, and rewind, and HP includes a small remote control that can be stowed in the laptop's ExpressCard slot. The keyboard is reasonably comfortable for a laptop this size, though the keys feel a bit mushy. Its keys are glossy plastic, too, so you'll probably want to give them a quick wipe down when you're cleaning fingerprints off the rest of the laptop. The system's touch pad is short and wide, which is only upsetting if you're used to using a larger one. However, the touch pad's chrome finish is more of an issue as it collects fingerprints and doesn't let fingers glide smoothly. A small button above the touch pad lets you quickly shut it off the pad if you're not using it.

The 14.1-inch wide-screen LCD has a 1,280x800-pixel native resolution, which is standard for a screen this size. The display gets sufficiently bright; movies look good on it; and text and icons are highly readable. When viewing the display off angle, it still looks pretty good--especially compared with the competition--but you'll have to adjust the screen angle to get the contrast just right. The Altec Lansing-branded stereo speakers sound very good and get reasonably loud without distortion. They aren't exactly bass heavy, but music and movies were pleasing to listen to. Lastly, located above the screen is a serviceable Webcam and microphone.

The 2165dx has a solid port and connection assortment for a notebook of its size; there's really no wasted space on either side. The inclusion of an eSATA/USB combo port and an HDMI out port are welcome bonuses. There's also an HP proprietary expansion port (for connecting to an HP docking station); it probably comes at the cost of a USB port, but you can always add more ports by adding an ExpressCard. Two covered-up ports let you know what's missing: a modem and TV tuner. The laptop's networking comes by way of 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi. It lacks integrated Bluetooth, which is about the only real let down here. However, Bluetooth seems to be a feature being dropped from most mainstream notebooks.

Various incarnations of the Pavilion dv4 exist, but 2165dx is a fixed retail configuration that can't be tweaked prior to purchase. If you like the body but want different components, it can be customized and ordered on HP's Web site. We were pleased with the components HP offered in the retail configuration for the money, but should you want to add more memory (it's upgradeable to 8GB) or swap out a hard drive, it can easily be done after purchase.

If you're a multitasker, you'll be happy with the dv4-2165dx's performance. For the money, its Core i3 processor, 4GB of memory, and speedy hard drive prove themselves more than worthy at multitasking on our lab tests. In regular use, the laptop handled streaming audio and video well even as we simultaneously did basic office tasks, some light photo editing, Web browsing, and running e-mail and instant-messaging clients. We had no problems playing back AVCHD high-definition movies at full screen, either. That's not to say you can't overtax the system (we wouldn't try anything more than casual gaming, for example), but it shouldn't have a problem keeping up with most home and office use.

Juice box
HP Pavilion dv4-2165dx	Average watts per hour
Off	0.4
Sleep	0.8
Idle	10.5
Load	46.6
Raw kWh Number	46.1
Annual energy consumption cost	$5.23

Thanks to the included 12-cell battery pack (twice the capacity of its standard battery), the Pavilion dv4-2165dx's battery life was a lengthy 5 hours and 34 minutes on our video playback battery drain test. Our test keeps the 7,200rpm hard drive constantly in use, which is pretty taxing on the battery. You can expect even longer life from casual Web surfing and office use. If you want to lighten the load, and don't mind getting half the battery life, HP sells a six-cell battery for this model for about $100.

HP backs the Pavilion dv4-2165dx with an industry-standard, one-year warranty. Toll-free telephone support is available 24-7 during your warranty period, and the HP support Web site includes real-time chat with a technical support representative. If you want to troubleshoot problems yourself, you can search through the site's thorough FAQ database. While retail shops are happy to sell you an in-store extended warranty, they are often expensive and hard to use, so we don't recommend them.

Find out more about how we test laptops.

System configurations:
Dell Inspiron i1564-6980CRD
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.13GHz Intel Core i3 M330; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 32MB (Dedicated)/1,696MB (Total) Intel GMA HD; 320GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

Dell Studio s15z-2249CPN
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.26GHz Intel Core i5 M430; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 64MB (Dedicated)/1,696MB (Total) Intel GMA HD; 500GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025
Windows 7 Home Professional (64-bit); 2.13GHz Intel Core i3 M330; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce 310M; 500GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

HP Pavilion dv4-2165dx
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.13GHz Intel Core i3 M330; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 64MB (Dedicated)/1,696MB (Total) Intel GMA HD; 500GB Toshiba 7,200rpm

HP Pavilion dv7-3165dx
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.5GHz AMD Turion II Dual-Core M620; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 320MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200; 500GB Seagate 7,200rpm

HP Pavilion dv4-2155dx
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.13GHz Intel Core i3 M330; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 64MB (Dedicated)/1,696MB (Total) Intel GMA HD; 320GB Western Digital 7,200rpm

Asus U50F-RBBAG05
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.13GHz Intel Core i3 M330; 4