If the HP dm4 becomes a reality, this is what it should be

Since it would be slightly larger than a dm3, it should contain an optical drive. Working part time as an HP rep in the stores I can attest with first hand knowledge that for a good number of people not having a built in optical drive is a deal breaker. Even IF people often never touch the thing, they often like having it in a self contained package.



Keep the basic looks the same, people absolutely love the looks of the machine, and it would be a joke how many people would choose this over others had it only had the built in optical drive.


*****IMPORTANT*****

Make sure the added optical drive does NOT greatly increase the thickness of the machine. The difference between the toshiba thin and light and their 13" with a built in drive is pretty stark.



the mbp is thinner than the dm3 WITH a drive, so adding a drive should not increase the thickness of the machine by a large amount on the larger 14" form factor.



Upgrade the graphics from the hd 3200 to the hd 4200 on the amd models - vidia 210 or later on the intels, or at least an option for that.


Touchpad - fix it. It need not be a best in class touchpad, but it does need to be a solid one, and responsive. If that costs more to add in, then raise the price by the tiny amount slightly above cost. Too many complaints, and too many people complain about the mirror finish. If you want to keep that aspect, change it from a silver mirror finish to a glossy onyx mirror finish. It would still look amazing, and hold up better with use after fingers have been using it.

Space could be saved by removing a usb port and converting one of the usb ports into one of those combo usb/esata ports (though with usb 3.0 on the way maybe that will be moot).

Allow an OPTION to put the radiance display on the envy 13 on the dm3/dm4 (possibly a no go due to wanting to differentiate between the envy line and the dm3)



That is it for now. These are really minor tweaks, the machine is beautiful, and seems to be doing decently in my store. The biggest single drawback that puts people off is a lack of internal optical drive. If there was a 14" variant that gave that SAME form factor and thinness with a drive, the competition would be on their knees for lack of sales... until they copied the same design and undercut hps pricing for similar machine builds.

But then nothing lasts forever.

 

tybert - Your suggestions make alot of sense, which of course means that HP will do something just the opposite (and stupid) with whatever their new 14" system is. I really like my dv4t but it's irritating that HP continues to use a cheap/non-spring loaded SD card reader. And, I really like their solid keyboards - but what about back-lighting? And, sorry AMD, they need to forget about those energy-hog AMD processors. My dv2 with a Neo runs like cr*p and has near-awful battery life. Just my two cents ...

 

Well, I believe the reason for a non-spring loaded SD card reader is because it accommodates more types of flash memory in addition to the SD card. Therefore, it isn't technically possible to make it spring loaded due to the different physical sizes of different media. The dedicated SD card slots, such as that found in the HP Mini, are indeed spring loaded.

As for retaining thinness with an optical drive, they'd have to use a less standard slim size drive such as that found in the Lenovo U450, which sounds like what the dm4 should be according to your wishes granted with a different look.


Edit: Wait, I'm an idiot. The card reader in mine is a 5-in-1 and is indeed spring loaded. I totally forgot since I just leave an SD card in there all the time since it sits flush against the side. I guess HP is just too cheap to compeltely redesign the dv4t... It seems like the layout has been relatively unchanged since the the first dv2000, granted with a different shell.

 

On the amd, they will still offer both amd and intel so people still have a choice if they prefer more power and or battery life.

I am using the base dm3 from best buy now with the base level amd and it works great for my needs, with enough power as well. I had a netbook, and it would get sluggish and make me wait for it to catch up on heavier web pages or after many mages were open, that is not the case on the dm3, as it should be.

Plus the dm3 just looks amazing. But it won't look as amazing if they kill it by putting a drive in a 14" variant AND make it as thick as a dv4. It would defeat the entire purpose of thin and light. But the idea that it cannot be accomplished with a drive is not true, as the 13" mbp shows.


Now the dm3 is already thicker on balance than the mbp 13"

And YES that is a higher dollar machine, but the engineering is not outside the realm of possibility. If they actually DID make a dm4 that had a drive, they could put a 100 dollar premium, same specs, for the privilege of the drive. Or whatever number makes sense.


The point of all this is NOT to gut their margins, I can't stand pc makers forced into a race to the bottom by desperate competition. The point is to create a product that would switch a massive number of people wanting a less expensive thin and light but turned off by not having a built in drive. And a dm4 is the perfect opportunity to give them that.


I wish I had contact info for the hp design team for notebooks. I want to know what they think about that, or if they are against the idea of a drive in ANY of their thin and lights due to:

-production cost
-added thickness
-overlap and out featuring the envy series (this would seem the biggest potential negative... pity if true as there is a sea of people that are not going to touch a 2000 dollar computer due to cost, even apple has 1-1.3k priced options, makes no sense, but oh well)
-unknown?


I guess we'll just have to wait and see. But again, if the dm3 as it is had a drive built in, orders of magnitude more people would have picked it up over alternatives already. The design is a winner, and while the competition is stuck with lesser standard fare, why not capitalize on a pc sweet spot of size and performance, for enough extra cost to maintain and increase margin in a time of rampant netbook purchases.

 

dv3s and dv4s are getting an arrandale refresh. I am not sure if there will be a dm4 but if there is it won't be out till at least 2nd-3rd quarter.

 

I think that is a good thing, that means the dm4 design/production may not be completely set in stone yet. Which means there is more time for me to be optimistic before potential disappointment (no drive on any of their thin and lights while remaining thin and light).