HP Pavilion DV4-1280US 14.1-Inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium) Review

I love HP. My LCD is from HP, my printer is from HP, etc. Something I'm not, though, is biased. Even though I prefer to buy HP products, I know a bad deal when I see one. And this, my friends, is a good deal.

First of all, don't expect the computer to run like a desktop. Laptop components are steered more towards energy efficiency then performance. I'm not saying the machine is slow, just not as fast as a desktop with similar "qualities". That said, on to the review:

The design of this laptop is slick. Not too crazy, not too lamey, but right... in... the middle. Bronze definitely does not get enough credit.

I love the screen on this thing. It's the perfect size (at least for me); not too big [and heavy], and not too small. Also (and when compared to other laptops), it's pretty bright. If you're not used to using wide screen displays, the screen configuration will feel weird at first, but you'll get over it soon.

I can see a lot of people having trouble with the keyboard. While it's quite clear in a well illuminated area, Without a significant light source, it becomes hard to read. I kid you not, you will be squirming and bending over tying to get in an angle where you can see the keys.

The machine comes with a built in camera and microphone, which is quite nice; the camera especially has higher quality then most webcams you can buy in stores, and HP software makes it fun and easy to add some effects to photos, though you're going to want a more powerful image processor for greater versatility and options.

The control it brings is nifty, but since the laptop does not come with a T.V. Tuner, you'll find little use for it aside from watching movies and listening to music.

HP SmartBay let's you remove the DVD-ROM [with LightScribe!] in order to reduce weight. I find the difference insignificant.

You may want to increase the weight by adding a battery with more cells, though, the battery can last a long time if you're not doing anything pressing, but gaming (or rendering complex media) will drain the battery in a couple of hours.

As far as performance goes, the Laptop plays the Sims 3 faster then any machine I've tried it on, so kudos. I had my doubts about the integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD, and it could play more smoothly, but overall performance is not a problem. This Laptop delivers.

An important note: this laptop comes with an N-WLAN card, which is awesome. N cards are faster then normal WLAN cards, and also work from further away.

I plan to switch to XP nonetheless, but so far so good. Sometimes I think my laptop hates Vista as much as I do, but that just makes me love it more.

Windows Vista comes with Service Pack 1, and it's 64-bit edition, which is necessary for running those 4 GB of RAM. The 320 GB HD, is kickin'!

I have had no problems with this machine, HP delivers again with it's trustworthy Pavilion line of computers. Just make sure you have a light on.

Buy it here now!