HP’s Pavilion range was never going to offer the same ‘wow factor’
as its premium Envy line and we couldn’t pick out its previous dm4 Pavilion in
a line up. But HP’s dm4-3000ea Pavilion Beats Edition is far from anonymou.Thanks to the ubiquity of Beats Audio
technology - especially its headphones -
HP has
decided to give its nondescript dm4 Pavilion a chassis overhaul and specs
update. That upgrade does bump up the price to £849, so it’s not brilliant
value for money, but the Beats
redesign is a success for various reasons. It looks supermodern without being
too cool for school, enjoys a solid feel for a 14-inch multimedia portable and
- most importantly - it sounds absolutely fantastic.
“Beats Audio is a
collaboration with Hip Hop artists and HP engineers to produce superior audio.
HP does this using superior sound components and beefier subs in its PC
hardware. HP also makes sure the audio components are built in specific places
in the laptop to convert the best possible sound quality”
Punching above its weight
Despite
its slinky dimensions (338 x 225 x 32 mm), the dm4- 3000ea is fairly heavy. A
weight of 2kg for such a small chassis is surprising, but every component -
including the great backlit keyboard - feels robust and well-made (although
it’s not the solid mag-alloy chassis that HP puts in its Envy laptops; just
serviceable plastic here).
The
board marries the same soft red and matte black hues that adorns the case. The
Beats logo also sits front and centre, which could annoy, but the font design is so nice it
actually really works.
It
can be hard to type on dinkier laptops’ keyboards, but the dm4-3000ea Pavilion
Beats Edition is the exception to the rule. It felt much better than the first dm4
Pavilion board and has isolated chiclet keys with a solid bounce. HP has also
binned the miniature navigation keys, making it fine to use for long periods
for multi-tasking and browsing online. Our only bone of contention was the
unresponsive touch tech on trackpad which is still a novelty.
The
14-inch display is powered by 1366 x 768 D LED-backlit BrightView screen, which
works perfectly well in most brightness conditions. It’s not over-glossy and
coped admirably with the darker hues of The Dark Knight. We also had no problems streaming
high-definition video content. Clearly, the HP’s dm4-3000ea Pavilion Beats
Edition won’t have an problems performing most multimedia tasks.
HP also gets bonus points for adding one
of the better in-built webcams
available. Thanks to the Truevision low-light tech, it managed to pick us out
accurately enough in murky lighting.
The rest of the specs under the hood are
decent enough to make sure HP’s dm4-3000ea Pavilion Beats Edition didn’t suffer
any staccato playback - even on number crunching apps.
HP has bundled a 2.5 GHz Intel Core
i5-2450M processor, a 500GB SATA hard drive and 4GB of memory with space for
two more sticks if you fancy an upgrade. That should
be enough oomph to boot the OS from cold in no time at all... but,
irritatingly, HP has added the usual bloatware gubbins to slow everything down.
That said, some of the pre-loaded software, like Norton and Windows Office
Starter Edition is actually useful.
Performance in our lab tests produced
steady if unspectacular results, especially when you consider the power
available from that Intel Core i5 chip.
A score of5629 in our processor benchmarks means that
it’s more than adept at multitasking, but it does seem low when compared with
laptops such as the Packard Bell TSll (page 21) which achieved better lab
tests.
Graphics were equally unspectacular, and
we also got a mid-range score of5622 in our 3D Mark tests. This is enough for
light gaming, thanks to 1GB of dedicated graphics on its AMD Radeon HD 7470M GPU.
Just don’t expect to get anything out of Battlefield
3
or Modern Warfare 3,
though.
The 174-minute battery life using
Battery Eater Pro’s Readers’ Test was pretty good - especially when you bear in
mind that it has a cell
battery.
So, the question remains, how do you get
enjoy audio fidelity on such a small laptop? The simple answer is to plug in
decent headphones and bypass the traditionally tinny laptop speakers. If you’re
not a fan of headphones, a more permanent solution is to upgrade to superior audio
components, including a well-positioned triple bass subwoofer output has a very clean throw without breaking up at
high decibels.
While the Beats audio results are rich
on multimedia play and some of the better laptop audio out, you still can’t
been hooking up a decent set of speakers.
That said, for audio on the go, the
dm4-3000ea Pavilion Beats Edition comes highly recommended and HP even throws in a
pair of Dr Dre’s Solo headphones as part of the package. Overall the HP DM4 is
a capable portable laptop, for those who want style while they’re on the move.
Admittedly, it’s not packed with power,
and there are lighter machines for the money, but the Beats credentials give it
cool credibility that will attract students and younger users.
Anyone
who does invest will be rewarded with a solid performer capable of work and
play on the move, but those with demanding needs will want to look at portables
backed up by a bit more grunt.
“Programs that are pre-installed
onto new machines by manufacturers, in order to boost profit. The result tends
to be a poor initial performance, as the myriad of programs fight for your
attention when your new PC boots”
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