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HP Pavilion DM4 Beats Edition (DM4-3002ea) review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £800
inc VAT

A powerful 14in laptop that can handle some light gaming, but there are better 15in models

Specifications

14 in 1,366×768 display, 2.0kg, 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2450m, 6.00GB RAM, 750GB disk, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

http://www.currys.co.uk

HP’s partnership with Beats Audio has already spawned a special edition version of its high-end Envy laptop, but until now there were no mid-range models with Beats branding. Enter the DM4, a 14in laptop small enough to take on the move, decked out in Beats black and red.

HP Pavilion DM4 Beats Edition (DM4-3002ea)

The menacing colour scheme looks even better in the dark, when the keyboard tray is illuminated by red LEDs. The keyboard itself is very comfortable to type on, thanks to the full-size well-spaced keys. HP still insists on repurposing the function keys for its own multimedia shortcuts, but this can be turned off in the BIOS.

The touchpad, previously a pitfall for many HP laptops, is a little on the small side but still perfectly usable. A double-tap to the top left corner will disable it if you prefer to use a mouse, and the two separate buttons below it are easier to use than the single bar we often see on HP laptops.

HP Pavilion DM4 Beats Edition (DM4-3002ea)

The 14in screen’s 1,366×768 resolution is just about large enough to work on two documents side by side, but it’s better suited to full-screen web browsing and watching 720p video. There’s a reasonable amount of tilt and viewing angles are wide, although the glossy screen finish made working under office lighting or in direct sunlight a pain. However, it helps colours appear vibrant and the high contrast ratio made pictures look sharp and detailed.

Considering the Beats branding, we were expecting slightly better sound quality from the DM4 than on other mid-range laptops – the downward-firing stereo speakers were reasonably crisp and the tiny integrated subwoofer helped with bass, but realistically you wouldn’t want to use them for much more than watching YouTube videos.

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Basic Specifications

Rating ****
Processor Intel Core i5-2450m
Processor clock speed 2.5GHz
Memory 6.00GB
Memory slots 2
Memory slots free 0
Maximum memory 8GB
Size 32x338x225mm
Weight 2.0kg
Sound IDT HD Audio
Pointing device touchpad

Display

Viewable size 14 in
Native resolution 1,366×768
Graphics Processor AMD Radeon HD 7470M
Graphics/video ports VGA, HDMI
Graphics Memory 1,024MB

Storage

Total storage capacity 750GB
Optical drive type DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Ports and Expansion

USB ports 3
Bluetooth yes
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support 802.11n
PC Card slots none
Supported memory cards SDHC, MMC
Other ports minijack headset port, 2x USB 3.0

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option restore partition
Software included Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition
Optional extras none

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £800
Details www.hp.co.uk
Supplier http://www.currys.co.uk

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