*HP dm4t (1XXX series) Owners Lounge!*

Decided to order the dm4t last week and was able to get this configuration for ~$850 with tax included, using the student discount.

HP Pavilion dm4t customizable Notebook PC
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-430M Dual Core processor (2.26GHz, 3MB L2 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.53GHz
• 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• Intel(R) HD Graphics
• 14.0" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• HP TrueVision Webcam + Fingerprint Reader + Digital Microphone
• Intel Wireless-N Card
• Full-size island-style keyboard
• High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard)
• Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

I will be transitioning from an old dell e1405 that I have had for around 5 years, and can't wait to the dm4t to arrive. I will mainly be using this laptop for graduate school purposes and don't plan to play any games, which is why I opted for the Intel HD Graphics. I'm hoping that this notebook will be significantly faster then my old dell, and certainly expect it to be. I ordered on the 27th of May and currently my status is "order in production" and has been that way since Saturday. I am optimistic that it will ship sometime later this week (please). I appreciate everyone else who ordered giving their thoughts on the notebook and detailing specifics, it was very helpful in my decision to purchase the dm4t.

 

Interesting. I plan on starting grad school next fall, and also have an inspiron e1405 that's served me very well for the last 4 years (bottom left hinge came off, but it's still usable; it's the PC I'm using right now).

I'm very tempted by HP's 2010 lineup (G42t, Envy 14 and DM4) but I'm afraid the motherboard or something will fail within one year, as HP's have a v high failure rate. I've been very happy with Dell's service and build quality, but they're starting to lag in the looks and design dept.

Is there reason to believe that HP may finally have switched to an ODM that doesn't suck? That's the only thing that's making me look at Lenovo and Asus as Dell alternatives right now. And neither of those manufacturers are bringing out PCs with the sleek stuff HP is bringing out.

 

Hey aniym, if you're more comfortable with Dell then you may want to look at their Vostro 3400 series. Not the best looking, but very comparable to the DM4 as far as performance and battery life. Just a thought.

Glad to see this thread has been helpful to you guys. Without this thread, I would not have purchased a dm4, but most likely a toshiba or acer that I found on sale. Thanks everyone, keep the great info coming!

 

What do you guys think about the extended warranty? is it worth the money? and how many years should I get??

 

The HP mobo failure was 90% because of Nvidia. That is why they have completely switched to ATI.

 

"On FedEx vehicle for delivery"

...about time... =)

 

Same here... Can't wait to see what we all think of ours. All of my friends were asking me where my new computer was yesterday, and I had to tell them it wouldn't be in for another day. Disappointing, but exciting since we didn't expect them until the 3rd.

 

Getting it today is still good because the estimated ship date was today.

 

I left for the holiday weekend and came back to see the laptop. In my opinion, it still looks pink/purplish. I asked my girlfriend and a neighbor and they thought the same thing. I think it is a fantastic laptop, but I cannot get over the color. Maybe mine is just a different tint than most, but it really only looks silver when I hold the laptop up and spin it in the light until I find the silver color. I really wish it was just a more neutral color, so I could keep it. I find it odd that when looking at the pics, in the manuals that come with this laptop, the color is silver. I already spoke to HP and they didn’t have much to say on the color other than sorry. They offered me $50 off, but I think I will return it and just wait until I find something even close to this laptop for the price. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. I start school in August and need to find one soon.

 

Interesting indeed. I'd have to agree with you in saying that my dell has treated me quite well over the past 4 years of undergrad, minus a couple of very minor hiccups. I probably wouldn't be in the market for a new laptop if I hadn't graduated this year, but with the extra funds I felt as though it was a good time to take advantage of the new technology (mainly the i-core processors).

The main reason I chose HP was because many of my close friends owned older HP laptops and always spoke very highly of them, and I always liked the cosmetic appearance of their notebooks over dell's. With the dm4t I get great appearance (based on pictures) and upgraded performance for a very good price, in my opinion. I think when I ordered my dell way back when, it actually priced out higher then the dm4t I just bought...good luck in your purchase, whatever it may be!

 

is there a big difference between the regular wireless N card and the Intel wireless N card?


im trying keep the price within my budget

 

The intel one has a better range.

 

Mine arrived today and I have been playing around with it for about 30 minutes.

First impressions:
-In the right light (basically low light) it has a pinkish color to it. I would agree with the description of the color being "champagne." If I move my head around to get different light reflecting off of it, it looks silver. But I don't really care about the color myself.
-My fan is not loud.
-The sound is subpar. Because the speakers are right under your hands when you are typing, it tends to effect the sound a bit.
-The touchpad isn't the greatest. Whenever I go to click on something, the pointer will sometimes move. Probably because I don't keep my finger on the button. This will probably get better when I get used to it.
-I love the keyboard.

I will be back later with a few more thoughts. I got the high capacity 6 cell and it is almost fully charged. Once I run it down, I will be back.

EDIT: I'm running the battery right now. 1 hour in I am down to 77%. I have been playing music at full volume the whole time. I also took some pics of the laptop and uploaded them to my website (check them out here http://photography.andrewin.com/dm4/). I resized, cropped (on some of them) and uploaded them during the time on battery as well.

 

I still don't see any "pink" color, but from drewbudd's pictures, I can tell that the dm4 is one good-looking laptop

 

Pictures look great, thanks drewbudd. I agree with soadquake though, I don't see even a hint of pink or champagne color in any of the photos. Can't wait for mine to arrive...

 

Has anyone had any major issues with the touchpad? I know people are saying it's not that great, but I'm having a horrible problem with mine. Laptop was delivered today and the left half of the touchpad doesn't even work. The right half is mostly fine, but the cursor moves completely sporadically when my finger goes over to the left half, and double-tapping the top left to disable the pad does nothing even though it's enabled in the driver.

I've talked to HP about this, and they don't seem to believe it's a hardware issue. They had me reinstall the driver for the touchpad and had me run the System Recovery tool you get when you hit F11 at the BIOS. I'm extremely frustrated by HP's support, as the System Recovery tool reformats the hard drive, which undid the hour or so I spent removing bloatware, cleaning up the registry, and other things.

Other than the headache that is my touchpad, I'm extremely pleased with the laptop. Build quality is very solid, especially for it's price. Keyboard is VERY nice, although it's going to take me some getting used to as I'm not used to island-style keyboards with space between the keys. I haven't taken any temperature readings, but it overall seems very cool except for where the vents on the left side are, where pretty hot air blows out.

And yeah, it does look a little pink to me but I really don't care and "champagne" is a very good way to describe its color.

 

Tell hp to fix your touchpad or you'll be returning it, they'll have a replacement on it's way right away.

 

Well, just received my new dm4 today and I must say that I am impressed. The trackpad works great for me, the laptop is stunning as far as looks go, and the performance is great! As my first laptop ever, I must admit that I am quite impressed. I have used numerous laptops over the years, from friends and family mostly, and this is definitely one of the best.

The only complaint I have regarding my new dm4, is that in the front right hand corner of the casing is lifted up just a touch. Does anyone else have this problem? It's only a millimeter or so, but it's enough to cause me some concern. At first glance I thought it was because of the dvd drive. The gap is about as spread apart as the gap surrounding the dvd drive, so it made sense to me. But, upon further inspection I found that the gap opens and then almost closes again as it approaches the right front corner of the laptop. It's almost as if the metal shell is perfectly flat, but warped in that one area. It starts about 2 inches from the right front corner of the laptop and stops about a quarter of an inch from the corner. Very odd, and quite annoying.

Since this is my first ever laptop, I'm tempted to send this one back to HP. My wife had issues with her macbook from 4 years ago, but it was plastic. That was a model defect though, so hers wasn't a huge issue. I just hate to send this thing back and wait for a new one... I almost wonder if it's even worth it.

Thoughts on this guys? Would any of you be concerned with this? Does anyone else have this problem too?

My laptop is definitely silver in the right light, and champagne in other lighting. I LOVE the color, and I am a straight dude. I think it's awesome and unique, very cool! My 9 cell battery sticks out about 3/4" or so, much more than abaddon stated his did. Not a big deal though, as the extra battery life is much appreciated.

Overall, it's a great purchase in my mind. I just wonder if I send this back will I still get the bing cashback? I only bought 3GB of memory, so I would insist on an upgrade for free, but I don't want that to void my cashback. Anyone have any thoughts on whether or not that would count as a coupon?

Thanks guys, keep the great comments coming!

 

i just got mine today....it's PINK PINK PINK, there is nothing champagne about it! Going back to the store this weekend.

 

i dont know about you but I only see silver and i just love this thing so far.

 

Maybe HP (or its ODM) is just inconsistent in its manufacturing?

 

Quick Question:
What is the difference between the 6-cell standard battery and the 6-cell HIGH CAPACITY battery? I'd imagine the high capacity battery is supposed to run longer, but I can't find any definite information regarding this. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

The high capacity battery is rated at 62 watt hours, vs the 55 watt hour normal battery. The cells are just slightly (112%) better.

The 9 cell battery is rated at 93 watt hours for comparison.

Mine's supposed to arrive Thursday, I'm hoping it's not too pink.

 

If it's gonna bother you, just replace it.
You should still get bing cashback if you just replace it; if they upgrade it for free, I don't think it'll be voided.

 

Wow, I guess people have different opinions about what pink is..

 

What is the height of the screen? Can someone measure?

 

Great pics, drewbudd. Does anyone who upgraded to the 5450 not have the ATI sticker?

 

There is a movie about Les Paul on Hulu that I just viewed part of. My dm4t came in today and I started it up and so far am very pleased. I put my favorite programs on, I am using microsoft security essentials, firefox, and winamp so far, with more later.
Color wise, I can see that it is absolutely not what I would call pink. It does have a really neat chameleon surface that shows different colors as you look at it.
Loaded about 2 gb of music the backup storage for an ipod shuffle that I lost a couple of years ago, just a start I have probably 500 gb of music so I intend to be selective regarding what I transfer on to this unit. It could use better bass, but the speakers are probably tiny little things doing the best they can. I will use headphones and speakers mostly.
I will try to take some pictures in the sun on the weekend next to some pink items to show the "non-pinkness" of the surface. Hey, I'm joking, it is a really nice aesthetic in my opinion. (My opinion and a dollar and a half will buy a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop.)
I barely hear the fan, as I download the win 7 iso file. I may or may not do the "clean install" First I will get rid of as much "bloat" as possible and see how it runs. I like the finger print security and want to make sure all the features I paid for work so I gotta use it as is for a while.

 

Thanks for the opinion gizmodian. I'm going to call HP now and see what they say regarding turn around time and so on. If it's less than 2 weeks, I think I'll just send it back for peace of mind. I don't want the thing falling apart on me 13 months from now.

By the way abaddon, mine does not have the ATi sticker and I'm using the 5450 video card. I saw that someone else had a sticker in their pictures, and I wondered why I didn't get one. I'm REALLY sending this thing back for my awesome red sticker! d Kidding... I prefer no stickers at all. I know what's inside, and most of the people I'll show this to won't even know what the stickers mean. Glad to know I wasn't the only one not to get a sticker though.

 

I don't really care about the sticker but I did think it was weird that I did not get one.

 

Hi abaddon4180,

Can you let me know how to remove the Unwanted startup programs,
i am new to windows 7.

Also let me know what all programs can be removed.

thanks

sridhar

 

Check out the HP out of the box guide

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-hp-laptop-out-box-guide-2-0-windows-7-a.html

 

just saw this on Gizmodo:

$350 off on a $1049.99 custom build of a DM4t, bringing it to 749.99:

$350 off HP Pavilion dm4 14" Core i5 Laptop | HP dm4t coupon & reviews - LogicBUY

Gizmodo's post has a bunch of HP laptops on sale, so here's the original post:

Gadget Deals of the Day

 

That's an amazing deal! I'm going to try to order mine today if possible

I forgot to mention -- that price is even better than the academic discount on the same configuration.

 

Not as good as the 25% cashback, but still a great deal! Nice find for those who aren't willing to wait for the BCB to return to 25%.

 

And the other benefit is that the discount is instant, unlike BCB.

 

Dang. Right when I put mine on the market they come out with a coupon that lowers the price enough to compete with my price.

 

Quick question before I purchase. Did most people purchase the screen with the WWAN? Please clarify if I need it for any reason. Thank you.

 

That was the default option and I don't think many people, myself included, changed it. Not sure what the difference is, though.

 

could someone please tell me how helpful the extended warrantys are? are they worth getting? the 1 year or the 2 year? Thanks!!

 

Damn, I just ordered mine yesterday >.> Is there anyway to cancel an order?

 

Just call them. They'll cancel it as long as it hasn't been put into production yet.

 

Thanks I shall do that immediately.

 

Thanks abaddon4180 for the info.

 

I do like it a lot but I feel like it is more portable than I need and not as powerful (GPU wise) as I would like.

 

I just placed my order! Estimated build date is June 11. Any estimates on when it will actually arrive (I live on the west coast)?

 

Hopefully my last questions before I bite the bullet and buy it.
1) Any real advantage of spending another $100 for the 520M vs the base 430M? I plan to use the laptop for office work, HD movies, light gaming (I will get the 512mb ATI), and some heavy photoshop and video editting.
2) Intel or no intel for wireless adaptor? A poster mentioned better range earlier.

 

1) I wouldn't. The 520M barely outperforms the 430M

2) For reference, I got the base adapter and I am 50 feet and 6 walls, including one with a metal support beam, away from my router and I pick up signal just fine.

 

i'd like to know too

 

SSD option is up, and its only $320! I paid $400 for my SSD because they didn't have the option when i purchased my dm4.