HP Pavilion dm4 laptops

Hello experts,
I am planning to buy a laptop and am researching for a while. Would appreciate your inputs to some of my questions.
What's the difference between the HP Pavilion's dm4-1165DX and dm4t? I see Costco has some good deals for HP dm4t, but i saw some reviews that the model has been discontinued. Is that true?
Both of them doesn't seem to fare well in terms of graphics, keyboard and speaker.

I am looking for HP, Intel Core I5 Processor, 500GB HD and regulars like built in webcam with good wireless. I will be using it for regular home usage mainly for browsing and occassional movie watching. I am looking at something < $700.

I read that both dv5 and dv6 models seem to suffer from low battery life.
But, I saw dv6-3127 dx getting good reviews in Best Buy.

Any tips/suggestions are welcome and will really help me.

Thanks and Regards,
KP

 

The DM4 is going to win on battery life, the DV6 will have better video capabilities.

The DV6 will also have a larger screen (not sure if that is a good thing or not for you).

HP lists the DM4 under ultra-mobile, and DV6 under high performance. That is probably fair.

EDIT: BTW I get great life out of my DV6 with the 9-cell battery, 6 hours or more I think. Also HP has several versions of each laptop, the ones that end in "T" if I recall correctly are customized, either that or intel. I know the "Z" ones are AMD.

I love and highly recommend the DV6 with two issues. They keyboard is great, except for the layout. The extra row of buttons on the left side are horrible. The touchpad is also not great, worse than the DM4 (buttons are stiffer, though the DM4 I tried was a demo model so maybe just loosened up with time?). My big problem with my DV6 other than that is the size, not sure I want the 15.6" form, but that is hardly the DV6's fault!

 

I own the dm4 1160nr. I love the thing and it should be great for your needs. I believe the only difference from the 1165 is bluetooth and maybe wimax. I would go to best buy and look at the dm4 and dv6 side by side to make your decision.

Personally I find 15.6 inch laptops with 1366x768 way too big in size and resolution. You will see the same thing on a 14 inch screen so its just wasted space.

If you do not play any games the intel HD graphics will be fine for your needs. If you are a light gamer you might want to wait a couple months for Intel's new Sandy Bridge laptops. Not sure about price though.

You really cant go wrong with a DM4 I think. Its light and powerful, but runs cool. You can use it in your lap for hours without it getting hot. The intel wireless is great. I get a full signal now, where my old dv5z only got half. I find the touchpad to be good as long as you use one hand. It feels well built. The only thing to watch out for is initial build quality. Make sure you get one where the touchpad and keyboard are seated properly. Hope this helps.

 

Unless you are sold on Costco you can get the DM4 on HP.com with the 512mb 5470 card for a little more "oomph" than integrated.

 

I think he wanted better battery life...so stick to integrated.. It not that bad.
Heck I'm more impressed with it than my 5650.

Current Intel GMA works really well on 1080p blue ray.

For multimedia, in my opinion, it much easier to use and almost plug and play when connecting to external tv display either by hdmi or widi.
The amd card requires quite a bit more research to work and messing with the cluttered advanced option to get it right.

Most people found me odd, using my igp to watch videos and my amd card to play games with.

 

It is switchable with i3/i5 so can get both the better video for when you need it, and the integrated for battery life.

 

so are i7's...but its rare to see a switchable configuration with HP with an i3/i7.

But the OP asked for browsing and movie watching for around $700.
No hassle configuration.
Small and guilt free power consumption.

A dm4t would fit nicely as they are much more portable than a dv6.

It also is not bad to enable WIDI (Only available on models with Intel wireless network cards). Work and watch on it much more comfortably on your lap.

dm4-1160us

 

Office Depot has the DM4 1160us for $599 after rebate till 12/11.

Current generation i7s do not have a integrated card. Therefore no switchable graphics.

 

Negative ghost rider. No integrated graphics on i7 chips, so not possible to switch to integrated.

 

Actually they do, just not 720 or higher.
mobile i7-610 to 680 (14), has the IGP embedded.

I was about to edit my post when I saw my mistake...my memory of the Intel lines are usually fuzzy
Flipped my i3 and i7, I was debating this with a NBR mod half a year ago. bah

 

No worries, I see in a similar thread my blanket statement was not quite 100% as they seem rare, but do exist- the dual-core i7 has integrated so can do switchable.

 

Thank you all for your replies. Very useful.

-KP

 

The good thing with Costco is that the warranty if for two years instead of one year. Sometimes when I compare the same laptop at HP and Costco the HP site has it lower but if you include the warranty then Costco still has it the cheapest.

 

Costco allows you to build your own DM4t on their site, maybe you can try that?