Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
This laptop really lives up to its description: ultra portability without sacrificing performance. I'm posting this review after a week of ownership. PROS: Awesome aluminum design, bright display, bluetooth, good webcam, 7200rpm HD, fast processor, runs cool, great WiFi range, good battery life, lightweight (4.41 lbs), fingerprint reader, sturdy, WiDi, HP QuickWeb CONS: Touchpad gestures, keyboard stiffness, mediocre audio, dvd eject button * MY PERSONAL NEEDS: My focus while searching for a new laptop was for portable productivity including office and business applications, software development kits (I'm a programmer), and presentations. I was looking for something with decent processing power to handle multiple applications. What I was not looking for was a gaming machine. The graphics card was therefore somewhat irrelevant. This dm4-1160us by HP stood out because it offered a great processor, Bluetooth, a good webcam, and decent battery life in a light and perfectly manageable package. * FIRST IMPRESSIONS UPON OPENING: From the start I knew this was the laptop for me. The aluminum finish, including the design that complements it, is truly a work of art in terms of both aesthetics and practicality. Most modern laptops have a glossy finish that attract fingerprints seemingly even when you're not touching it. This is the complete opposite offering a sleek and professional look without constantly having to wipe it down. During the first few hours of personalization I noticed no hint of heat nor slow down of any kind. It has been quick from the start. Boot up times are average, but perfectly reasonable and even quicker if you take advantage of HP's QuickWeb feature that lets you use some common applications without booting into Windows. The screen is plenty bright and has a very nice and crisp picture. It is better than my Samsung r480 and older Toshiba Satellite, and on par with my older Core 2 Due HP model. If anything the screen on this one is just a bit less reflective than the one on my older HP, which is a good thing. * PERFORMANCE: This is my first experience in personally dealing with Intel's new i3/5/7 series processors, and I have to say it exceeded my expectations. In the past couple years the only machines I built were made for gaming, and AMD processors are perfect for affordable gaming machines. While I still believe that AMD is better than Intel cost/value speaking for gaming, I always stick with Intel when building a machine for true intensive multitasking. Even with running multiple applications including some processor heavy development kits, Adobe CS, and other software simultaneously, the laptop runs without a glitch and without producing any noticeable heat nor noise. The Core i5 is definitely a step up from the Core 2 Duo series, and a significant one from the previous dual core T-series that can still be commonly found on the market today. 4GB of memory has become the standard in the laptop market, and there isn't much to say about that other than it works. However what isn't common is a 7200 RPM hard drive in a laptop (especially one with a good battery life). If you don't do much in terms of file transfers you probably won't really benefit nor notice, but it is definitely a plus for me where I'm constantly transferring files for projects back and forth. The integrated graphics certainly isn't a selling point, but it gets the job done unless you're planning to use it for modern full screen gaming. It will play most games, but you'll have to scale back the settings. If I want to play a graphics intensive game I'm going to do it on a desktop with a larger monitor anyway, so this wasn't a selling point one way or the other. Something I found odd was that the Windows Rating System gave the graphics a higher rating for gaming than it did for Aero (desktop and productivity), but in my experience so far it has managed everything just fine including Adobe, movies, and a couple simple games that I tried out to test the display. I will say that most of the laptops I've owned/used have had integrated graphics, and even so this laptop still feels quite a bit quicker in all aspects. If it were compared to another version of itself with a dedicated card then you would notice a difference, but it is not underpowered by any means. * TOUCHPAD: Many people are commenting about how the touchpad is finicky and hard to use, especially when keeping a finger on the mouse button. I don't personally have the same issues and am able to use the touchpad easily. In fact I purposefully attempted to duplicate the problem myself and was unable to see why there's so much trouble over it. And I rather like the textured feel of it and prevents fingerprinting and makes it easy to keep track of. However I really don't like the gestures. Macs do a way better job of handling the two finger slide scrolling and pinch to zoom features. I didn't even think of this option when buying, but since they are there they are tempting and they don't work quite right. The mouse buttons themselves are a bit harder than average to press down but I prefer the tap method anyway. To comment on some of the other reviews, I don't think it is fair to expect a touchpad to be great while playing games. I've never seen someone successfully play a first person shooter with a touch pad nor would I use it for longer periods of time in CAD or other design software. For simple adjustments in Adobe I find it to work fine, not really better or worse than other laptops. * KEYBOARD: Here is where I am having some trouble. The keyboard layout for me is perfect and I like the gap in between the keys. But just as the touchpad buttons are a bit harder than average to press down, I found that the keyboard keys are a bit stronger than average and take a slightly more aggressive press. If you're a heavy typer you probably won't notice. When I get going pretty good my typing speeds are in the 80-90+ WPM range. I am more of a light typer though and have gotten very used to only pressing down as far/hard as necessary and nothing more. Since I am so accustomed to using laptops with keys that are easy to press, this will take me some more time to get used to. I almost wonder if it is just the one I have and it isn't supposed to be that way. * SOUND: The sound is not bad. There were more than a few reviewers throughout my search that complained about the sound quality in this laptop. I have used many different laptops and I don't think the sound from this laptop is any worse than the average laptop. Laptops don't produce good sound. That is just how it is, especially when they only weight 4.41 pounds. It does state that there are Altec Lansing speakers on the laptop, but that doesn't mean anything. The only laptops I have used that had decent sound are the bigger ones that have more room for bigger speakers. The speakers on this 14" are still good enough to enjoy a show or have some background music going while you work. For those of you who are still looking around, I would note that HP's higher models with "Beats Audio" aren't anything spectacular either. * BATTERY LIFE: Depending on where you look, the battery life on this laptop is rated between 6 and 6.5 hours. With wifi and bluetooth off and just using normal productivity software I think that is a fair assessment, which I think is how they rate it anyways. I haven't had enough time to truly test the battery life in real scenarios, but it seems like I can get a solid 4-6 hours of use while running my presentation software and at least Bluetooth (I use my phone as a remote controller). * CONCLUSION: If you are looking for a productivity laptop that is ultra portable and a great value, get this one. There aren't many features missing unless you're after a built in Wi-Max card or want a Blu-Ray player, and it is definitely feature rich for the price range. The finish both inside and out is brilliant and it is pleasing both through its looks and performance. I would not recommend this laptop if you want a gaming laptop. There are plenty of options from HP and other brands that have dedicated graphics cards with moderate to good battery life. It does not have a dedicated graphics card, wimax, blu-ray, nor numpad, in case you're looking for those features.

Back To Top