Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion DV4-1433US 14.1-Inch Laptop

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Overall, I like this computer. This is my 4th laptop and I gave it a recommendable "4," however it has one MAJOR drawback.

Strengths:
1.) Great price for the features you are getting (speed, size hard drive etc.)
2.) BIG positive - runs so much cooler! I'm sure all laptops have improved with changing technology, but I feel no heat coming out of this machine (which means it runs faster). I have my other laptop sitting next to it (about 1 1/2 years old) and it is so hot it could melt something.
3.) I got the white version and it just looks cool IMHO.
4.) Built-in webcam is a lot of fun (and practical too, I guess).
5.) Volume controls are so clear and accessible (my other laptops were difficult for my child to find, subjecting me to loud screaming car racing programs on too many occasions! They required the use of function keys + another that he couldn't remember or find quickly enough). This has the volume and muting options by itself right above the keys.

Drawbacks:
1.) BIG issue - You can see in the photographs on this page that the touch pad is positioned in the center of the machine, which you would think would make sense. However, the dang thing keeps sensing heat from my thumb pad/palm and jumping cursors all over the place (and I type so fast that I don't realize this until I've messed up my whole document!). I wondered why this didn't happen with my Gateway from last year so I compared. The Gateway laptop has the touch pad centered below the space bar and the letters on the keyboard so that... BRILLIANT... the touchpad is lined up nicely in between the hands as they rest on the home keys and type away. I have no idea why HP wouldn't try things out first and discover this on their own. Because of this, I have spent extra money on a cumbersome external keyboard and mouse (which sort of defeats the purpose of having a portable contained laptop).

In fact, as I type this review, I can't tell you how many times I had to redo what I typed because it jumped around to different areas of the message. If you plan on typing a lot, you could hit the easy-to-find turn off the touch pad button, but that can be incredibly annoying if you have to keep switching back and forth.

Also part of the whole touchpad feature... although it is sensitive when you don't want it to be (i.e., sensing your palm's heat), it is not sensitive enough when you want it to be (i.e., using the touchpad to click - you often have to tap your finger 3 or 4 times).

Something to remember if you buy this (and you work off a network)...
There is a network button that doesn't look like a button at all. Once I couldn't get my internet to work for a whole day and kept trying different things. I finally decided to touch this little red antennae picture light on the panel to the right of the volume controls. As I clicked it, it turned to blue and everything went hunky dory again. Apparently it is a quick-disconnect network button (for security I guess, but a pain in the butt if you're not aware of it).

This computer also comes with a remote, which looks and sounds cool, but I have yet to figure out a use for it. I think you need to subscribe to a television type service and then it can become your main television. It also could be used for running dvds, etc., but it seems unnecessary to me.

I got this other product to work with it and I love it! --Bamboo (Small) Pen Tablet with Pen Only Use this as your main mouse then it all works great.

I purchased this Laptop on August 26th and it arrived on August 28th; very speedy free shipping
from Amazon I must say.

This laptop is everything I thought it would be; it is extremely fast and while it is too soon
to evaluate it I am satisfied with it.

It came with Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit installed and is eligible for Windows7 upgrade
The Intel Core Duo 2.1 GHz processor and the 4GB Memory make it very quick;
this notebook also has a relatively large 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive

It is worth much more than the $649.99 price I paid for it on Amazon shipping included


I have had little or no problems with Hewlett-Packard since I started using HP product ,Laptops,
Desktops, Printer and Scanner many years ago.


All in all good value for money

I purchased this laptop 1 month ago through Amazon and I have been very happy with it. It comes with the Windows 7 upgrade which is just a few days away on Oct 22. 4GB ram which can upgrade to 8GB, along with the 320 GB hard drive 7200 rpm makes it very responsive. Also for wireless connectivity to the web, it has the latest wireless "N" but backwards compatible to "G" and "B" also. Battery life has been good, keyboard has a nice feel to it too. Movies and music excellent played through this laptop and also has a remote control for controlling your media from a distance. HDMI out for displaying onto your tv is a nice feature also. I highly recommend this laptop.

While I am not tech savvy, I appreciate this laptop as easy to use and fast. I primarily wanted this unit for use traveling watching DVD's on airplanes and being able to surf the net away from home. I had bought a 17" Tosiba with this in mind, but it is as big as a house, and is truly a replacement for a desktop computer. I called Amazon computer tech for advice, and she strongly recommended this unit. I asked about battery life and she told me it was rated for 6 hours. Great! The only thing is that the battery only lasts two hours, so I bought a second battery as a spare and IT only lasts two hours too.

This is a nice little laptop. The size fits the perfect form factor of just enough screen size and easy portability. The screen is very vivid and sharp. The included remote is nice, especially when used with the HDMI port for watching streaming video or DVDs on a HD TV. It's nice to have the capability to hook it up to a TV set and catch missed shows online. I haven't yet figured out if there is a little secret compartment to store the remote. Something tells me there isn't and I'm too nervous to try and pry open the little door on the left side, where I think it might go. The included software bundle is a mixed bag. Although there is the usual list of space hogging trial ware (Office 07 trial, Norton 360 60-day trial, etc), there is also very useful software, most notably Cyberlink DVD suite. These are fully functional programs, including Cyberlink PowerDirector. It felt good to have actual useful software remaining after uninstalling all the trial ware. I hoped for a little speedier performance from the T6500 CPU, but it seems adequate. Although it won't break any benchmark records, it's snappy enough to keep up with Vista Home Premium. I hope for even better performance gains when I receive and upgrade to my free Windows 7 CD's. That's one of the reasons why I opted for a Vista PC just before the Windows 7 release. PC makers (especially HP), are shipping without restoration disks these days. As I suspected, Amazon had a sweet deal on this laptop just before the Win 7 release. So I got a Win 7 capable laptop and a free upgrade to order actual Win 7 media instead of simply relying on a hidden restore partition or the task of burning my own restore disks. The integrated Intel video is by far the weakest link. Don't get this if you're into intense PC gaming or hard-core video editing. You will definitely be disappointed. However, for normal users like myself (web browsing, office apps, casual photo/video editing, and occasional light-resource intensive games), you will be more than happy with this laptop. And the design isn't bad either. I love the high-gloss finish, although it's a major fingerprint magnet. Although the touch-sensitive buttons are a cool touch (no pun intended), they can be a bit of a nuisance when you're trying to wipe smudges and inadvertently launch or adjust something. The six-cell battery has average life. Overall, not a bad laptop for the cash. Has more features than some laptops costing $100 or so more.

***11/15/09 Update***

Okay, I am really perturbed about the bundled "software". I have a really big problem with the concept of giving the false impression that there is usable software until someone actually attempts to use it and discovers it is little more than severely crippled trialware. The program that invoked my ire is Cyberlink PowerDirector. I do a lot of video editing and the fact that a fully functional version of PowerDirector was supposedly bundled with the laptop played a large part of my decision. Well, I just tried to edit some footage. In addition to a lot of content being disabled in "my version" (as they call it when constantly bugging me to upgrade), the program will not edit HD (AVCHD in particular) footage. So basically, unless you have the most basic of video editing needs (which can probably be solved by Windows Movie Maker anyhow), this is all but useless. If you're looking at an HP laptop for PowerDirector, just be advised that the version they bundle is little more than a non-expiring but severely crippled trial version.

In preparation for going off to college, and because I'd been wanting a laptop for a long time, I devoted a lot of time to researching so I wasn't wasting my money on a poor machine. I went to various company websites, talked to different representatives and multitudes of people familiar with the field of computer technology, and I learned about the components that make a laptop a good or not so good machine. Here's the summed up version about my experience:

Things I wanted:
1. Computer that had power: could do basic functions plus run games and videos extensively if I wanted to, and some other programs (animation and music composition).
2. Computer that was portable: I really liked the 14 inch size.
3. Computer that had good battery power: long lasting and durable.

This Computer:
1. Computer has power: I run this thing a lot, many hours a day. And the only time it did anything out of the ordinary, the problem ended up being with a Windows update, which is completely unconnected to the computer's performance itself. I was easily able to correct the issue, and I have had no problems since.

2. Computer is portable.

3. Battery life: I must agree with one of the previous reviewers that the battery performance is not desirable. You can change your power options so your computer uses less energy when not plugged in and try to use less power-intensive programs, but in the end you'll still have relatively low battery life. Calibrating it regularly will help to maintain the life you do have. (Mine is still about 2.5 hours.)

What you need to realize about this laptop is you're paying for an entertainment PC, and it's going to use a lot of battery power. It's your call what's more important to you, but this particular computer will probably not get more than 3 hours of battery life.

Final Comments:
One of the previous reviewers had complaints about the touch pad. I haven't experienced any difficulties with mine, but I don't type with my hands resting on the computer, so maybe that's the difference. I also turn off the touchpad click feature and just use the buttons, so I don't experience issues with unwanted or frustrating clicking. It all depends on how you use the machine.

Another point to note about this laptop is that the webcam is a little grainy. Something to consider if this feature is important to you, which is wasn't for me.

Overall, this computer ended up being exactly what I was looking for. I'm very pleased with it.

First of all i would like to let every one know that i have absolutely loved this laptop. I own this laptop for a week and i have used most of its features. I have researched on the best price and reviews on this laptop for about couple of months. After that i have decided to buy this on Amazon. Obviously i have got some good deal on this laptop. I also did a research on similar screen size laptops on Toshiba, Lenova. But HP seemed to have got better deals and configuration. Without further delay i wanted to quickly list our the Pros and Cons on this laptop

Pros: Nice bright screen, aptly placed controls, Screen size, Sound quality (great), Nice battery life
Cons: Touch pad (it needs to be tapped little harder), Missing S-Video port

I was able to get this up and running in about 15 minutes (including configuring Vista etc.,). I have absolutely loved the sound, brightness. I did use the DVD driver, HDMI, USB and all works as expected. The speed while booting and shutdown is decent. Since i was using XP before it took couple of days for me to get used to Vista wavelength of settings. But its all good now. Keyboard is perfect and cant ask for more convenience. We absolutely love this laptop and it is wayyyyyyyyyy better than my previous Sony VAIO laptop. Finally i don't say the batter is so great but it is pretty good. I'm getting a battery life of 3 hours as of today (my Sony VAIO lasted for a mere 20 minutes after 1 year of usage). One tip is to leave the Power saving settings done by HP already, unless you really want to change.

The two negatives for this laptop are, touch pad and missing S-Video port. The touch pad is really sensitive (like many other reviewers specified here). I was very careful in testing that sensitivity as soon as i received this laptop. I have observed that if you are typing very close to the touch pad, it senses the movement and the mouse suddenly displaced from the current position. Once i recognized that, this problem is resolved. The real negatvie (or problem) i see with touch pad is, you need to tap little harder when you do a double click. It is not so sensitive for the taps. I'm not sure if this gets worse with more usage. The other negative point is the missing S-Video port. Since we have the HDMI port, this doesn't really matter. I've just listed here so other readers will know.

I definitely recommend this product. And yes, as always Amazon did a great job in shipping.

I was very please with the computer until it had a break down on hard disk yet I must admit that I was pleased with the customer service that HP offered.

I am very pleased with the style and performance of my new lap top. I highly recommend this HP product.

I bought this laptop primarily for school purposes. It's clear, light and portable, and nice for the price amazon is offering.

I read a couple of the previous reviews about problems with the touchpad. When I first got the laptop, yeah it was a bit annoying. But I got use to it the day after. No worries.

Overall a really awesome laptop.
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Literally breaks a day after the warranty ends. I do not plan on purchasing any more HP products.