HP Pavilion dm4-3000ea Beats Edition laptop specifications

HP Pavilion dm4-3000ea Beats Edition laptop specifications

 

There’s no doubt that during this Time Era the world is about beats and buzz. The brand fronted by beatmaster general Dr Dre and record producer extraordinaire Jimmy Iovine has done wonders to revitalise the concept of quality audio in the digital age, which is to be commended, even if its products aren’t the very hi-est of fi.

 

 

As we all people Know the red cable headphones Actually made by Monster, are very popular in the streets these days and its audio processing technology is making its way into all sorts of gadgets, from HTC’s One series smartphones, to this rather stylish laptop from HP.

 

Design

At 2kg and 32mm depth, it’s really too chunky to be an ultrabook, but it has a fetching look nonetheless, decked out in matt black rubberised plastic with red trim and packing a good array of inputs and some quality speakers. That big red “b” will count for a lot with Beats fans too we expect.

 

Specs and features

Inside, it packs in 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an Intel Core i5-2450M processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and AMD Radeon HD 7470M graphics. Not a bad round-up for the price in other words, And offers an alternative, both aesthetically and economically to the glass-topped, £1,200 HP Envy Spectre.

The 14-inch display is bright and crisp, delivering an okay resolution of 1366×768 pixels, but colours are perhaps not as full-blooded as we might have hoped, and movies can sometimes look a little bit flat as a result.

The keyboard is made of the same tactile plastic as the casing and feels good to use. The trackpad wasn’t always as sensitive as it could be though, with the mouse occasionally jumping around quite alarmingly. Still, it supports multi-touch gestures and there’s a handy features to double tap the top left hand corner to disable it.

 

Audio

The version of this machine we looked at comes with a pair of Beats by Dr Dre Solo Headphones with ControlTalk. Beats Audio controls allow you to adjust the level of processing both for listening and recording, separately.

The benefits of Beats Audio are largely a matter of taste. It tends to boost the low end of the sound, and doesn’t necessarily do a whole lot for clarity or transparency in the mid- or high-end.

But it does seem to be able to up the volume without distortion, and if your taste is towards the dance end of the spectrum, it’ll certainly give you more than you’d expect from most laptop speakers. If you’re more of a classical or acoustic jazz head however, the benefits are less obvious.

So why HP chose to position the speakers on the underside of the casing where they’re almost certain to be muffled, is a mystery. It sounds okay on a desk — but what happens if you want to listen in bed, or rest it on your lap without having to spread your legs? You can imagine the results: a bit muffled.

 

Performance

This isn’t really a gaming machine. Just loading games took longer than expected, and while playing Portal on default settings, it only managed to deliver frame rates around the 100fpm mark (Samsung’s Series 9 for instance, delivered closer to 140). It delivered a PCMark performance benchmark rating of 1,702, which puts it behind the HP Envy Spectre, Samsung Series 5 and Asus Zenbook. That said, it converted our standard 11-minute movie for iTunes in a blistering two mins and 38 secs. In short: fast, but not with 3D gaming.

The battery held up well enough, delivering a little over four hours — fine, but not exceptional.

 

Conclusion

The HP Pavilion dm4 is certainly styled for its target market — basically the sort of people who rejoice in the public display of Beats Audio headphones — and it’s a decent workhorse of a device. Don’t get one if you plan on doing some intense gaming, but it will get most jobs done without complaint, and without spending a whole lot. Oh, and it sounds good too.

Specifications

• CPU : Intel Core i5-2450M (2.5GHz 3MB L3 cache)

• Operating system : Windows 7 Home Premium 64

• Memory : 4GB DDR3 (2x2GB), supports up to 8GB DDR3

• Display : 14in HD LED-backlit BrightView (1366×768)

• Hard drive : 500GB SATA (5400rpm)

• Optical drive : SuperMulti DVD±R/RW with double layer support

• Graphics : AMD Radeon HD 7470M (1GB DDR5 dedicated)

• Audio/visual : Internal speakers and audio playback with BeatsAudio; HP Triple Bass Reflex Subwoofer, HP TrueVision HD Webcamwith Integrated Digital Microphone (low-light)

• Wireless : Intel 802.11 b/g/n; Bluetooth with WiDi

• Ports : 1x VGA, 1x HDMI, 1x headphone-out/mic combo, 3x USB (1xUSB2.0, 2x USB 3.0), 1x RJ45 (10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN)

• Size : 33.8 x 22.5 x 3.2cm