Customer Reviews

HP Pavilion DV4-2161NR 14.1-Inch Laptop (Digital Plaid)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I had have this computer for a month now, so here goes nothing:

Pros:
- Excellent design
- 4GB Ram, enough for most tasks
- 500GB hard drive, for me that's enough for now
- Small size and little weight (even lighter when DVD is removed, which is an excellent feature in itself)
- Windows 7 (better than Vista, we'll see about XP)
- EXCELLENT PRICE

Cons:
- Battery life is about 2 hours, bound to decrease within 6 months, not on par with most other laptops this size.
- Touchpad really has a mind of its own on ocassion.
- Glossy design is beautiful, but it's also a fingerprint magnet
- Opening it is a cumbersome task, not really bad, but a little.
- Windows 7 "64bit" - Some old programs I use refuse to work in such environment.

All in all a solid laptop, with excellent features (and minor inconveniences), but please, HP, this is my third HP laptop and the batteries have never been your forte. (yet I keep buying HP) DO SOMETHING!

UPDATE: The battery won't last for more than an hour and a half, so I took two stars off my review for this major inconvenience. Sorry to say this, but I no longer recommend this purchase.

I've owned my computer for almost a week now, and I'm absolutely loving it. For the money I almost bought an Hp with a T6600 processor and 320GB hard drive etc etc. I bought this for the same price as the other hp and got MORE memory and a better processor. Why wouldn't you want an upgrade of 180 GB hard drive for free? If your a student and like to have lots of music, videos and play light gaming and still have tons of room for your homework and projects, this is a great computer.

I also love how its 14" monitor, so I can take it anywhere and fit it into any bag. It has a very sleek and glossy exterior. A little bit of work to keep clean, but that's no reason not to buy a computer. The speakers are great for a laptop. I was actually surprised how clear sounds and music was. As with most HP laptops, you get the lightscribe burner, which is great, but it also comes with a disc replacement thing so if you don't care to use a disc drive, you can remove it and save some weight. But really it doesn't weigh that much.

The only downfall I have with this computer is the slightly low battery life. I think a little bit of that might be my fault cause I just plugged in and played rather than letting the battery charge fully first before I started playing with it.

Great laptop for the price.

This is a good system to own if you can deal with a few minor annoyances.

Windows 7 works well. Most things are in different places than XP but it's easy to find them.

This system has a basic graphics card. The Windows Experience numbers warn that the Aero interface will be sluggish sometimes, and I definitely feel that's true.

The hard drive impressively large, although not all the 500GB is usable. It is split up into three partitions. One is the system restore partition (since Windows install discs are not included), and one is the quickstart partition (a fast starting non-Windows environment that lets you surf the web and browse your media collection), so the hard drive really has only around 320 mb free when you get it. That's lots for your pictures, videos, music, etc. It's also quite speedy.

4GB RAM standard, which should be more than enough, except that about 1.5 GB are used for the integrated graphics so you only have around 2.5 GB for programs. In the future, when RAM prices come down, I'll be upgrading to 8GB of RAM.

The only ads on the machine are trials of Norton Internet Security 2010 1-User, and Microsoft Office Standard 2007 FULL VERSION, prominent links to HP's accessories store (buy from Amazon instead), an ad for an online backup service, and an icon for one of Amazon's competitors (a Bay Area auction site). Not bad.

I have no problems with overheating here. The touch panel for adjusting volume is very very useful.

I did mountains of research before committing to a replacement for my dead Sony (second dead Vaio = end of brand loyalty), and I chose this HP for its performance, value, and seeming sturdiness. The new i3 processor is fantastic and there is plenty of RAM to handle multitasking. I haven't even had to pace myself with my computing whims -- I'm downloading, word processing, virus-scanning, and listening to music without worrying about overloading the system. What I like most about this laptop is the big bright display, which for me was important in the switch from 15.4 to 14.1 -- nothing else in this price range compares. Finally, the machine is built well compared to others in this price range (I'm looking in your direction Asus and Acer).

Some reviewers have mentioned overheating, and I was apprehensive about this -- and after buying I was constantly monitoring the temp to see if a return was in my immediate future. But really it's not so bad, better than my last Sony, and I do believe that having the i3 processor (still blazing fast, mind you) minimizes this problem in this configuration. But if heat is your number one concern, sacrifice more computing power and go for one of the new super-mobile types with the dainty processors. They will stay cooler of course.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with this purchase and would recommend this HP laptop to my friends, family, and to all of you!

I switched from a Mac to this PC, and I'm very glad I did. Windows 7 is pretty great. There's a decent amount of junk software preloaded, but also some useful software (media organizers/ players, etc), and useless but fun games.

Other than that, what's not to like, especially now that it's $50 less than the $700 I paid for it? It's 14", so it's transportable. Has a DVD drive, a ton of memory, is really fast. Multiple programs run easily. Battery lasts about three hours, but can last longer with wireless/ speakers turned off.

In contrast to some negative reviews, I have had zero problems with the computer overheating. The only reasons I can think to not purchase it are if you wanted either Bluetooth or Bluray capabilities directly installed, as it doesn't have either.

EDIT
Everything I said previously was true, but I have altered my rating to take into account the poor lifetime of the laptop. The battery power fell to zero seconds within 12 months, and the cord powering the monitor became defective within 18 months, allowing only certain specific viewing angles, and causing general frustration.

I've had the HP DV4-2161NR for a few weeks now. Super fast, no problem running multiple programs at once. The screen size is perfect, not too big and not too small, and the weight is perfect as well. The only problem I have with this laptop is the mouse pad area. I guess as with any laptop, the mouse seems to have a mind of it's own a lot. Sometimes the mouse won't even move at all when you are moving your finger on the pad. It jumps around and randomly selects things when you didn't want it to. I've noticed the same problem with my friends HP laptops as well. This is the only problem I have had with the computer so far though. I would still recommend this computer to anybody who wants a good quality HP product.

I'm still a satisfied Toshiba customer. However, after carefully researching specs and reviews of other choices, the HP Pavilion was the best buy. HP Pavilion DV4-2161NR 14.1-Inch Laptop (Black) Faster RAM (DDR3), huge Hard Drive (500 GIG), and a 2.13 Processor. The cost was a little more than I planned, but the trade off for satisfaction will be worth it. The only issues has been the 64 bit OS. Although not the fault of the computer, I haven't been successful in getting Microsoft 2003 Office suite to load. My only concern was when Norton's was doing some maintenance the hard drive was quite noisy. Other than that it runs quiet. I haven't tested the burning features. Although my experience on cam-coders is limited, camera quality appears above average. Sound is impressive and the ability to adjust the sound by touching a lighted control is a great feature. You can turn off the wireless with a simple touch also. Battery life is only fair. Over all this is a outstanding laptop with desk top features.

Carey
Show-me-State

Excellent product. I installed several softwares (IBM Websphere BPM suite) supposed not to be light and it runs pretty
fast without a big effort. It has a nice chess drawing in the lid, easy to clean. The screen is good. I wish it could be a
little brighter, but it is ok.
The start up time is really short.
It is so light, that I don't even think about removing the DVD player and using the plastic mock adapter (included)
The graphics are good, nothing to complain about it.
If you want a light and powerfull laptop for business or entertainment it seems to be perfect.
In the BIOS setup program you can disable the fan to be ON all time. It can be ON only when required.
The only cons I see is about the battery life and the touchpad that is not too sensitive (minor thing).
I recommend this product

The HP dv4-2161nr is a good notebook for the value.

- The good: fast processor, generous HD space and memory, good keyboard and display. Amazon buying experience was great.

- The bad:
Touch pad is a little sticky, should be made of another material.
Some unnecessary HP software, but you can remove them.

- The worst:
I was unlucky because it came defective. Battery was not charging. After some talking with HP online support, I had to send it for repair. HP replaced a circuit board and the battery, but I think the battery was good and the circuit board of the notebook was not working.
Both online support and authorized service center were good and fast. I got it repaired in one week.
However, I'm worried with future problems. If HP let a basic defect like this to pass, what other issues may arise?
Another issue is that the warranty start date is not the purchase date. It's 3 months before. I asked HP to change the date, but got no answer.

Anyway, if it was not for those issues, I would give it 4 stars.

I recently purchased this Notebook and I have to say I have no major complaints as yet. Everything works as it should and the size is perfect for me. I'm about to travel out of the country with it next week and to me that will be the real test. I had an old HP laptop before that was so heavy carrying it around was more of a burden than my luggage!
I would say that it is a little heavier than I expected but again it's nothing compared to my last one so I'm fine with the weight. The only thing I am not sure about is the Microsoft Office Programs that come with it. Everytime I open Word 2007 it keeps asking me for some code that is supposed to be located on the side of the box that the program came in... I check the box that the Notebook came in... there ain't no such box or code in there... So far I can just close the prompt box and use the program but it is annoying.
Other than that, it works great and I'm loving it!
I'f you're like me and jsut need something portable and practical, this Notebook is a good fit.