HP Pavilion dm4-2050us Notebook PC (Silver)

I bought this laptop in the summer of 2010 at Costco and it has been holding up very well.

People compliment its appearance, I enjoy its 14" screen, and I use it all the time.

It's reasonably fast and is able to execute any of the programs I use easilyI spend a lot of time on Photoshop, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Office. I love the memory card readerworks so quickly! I kinda wish it had more USB ports, but that is made up for because it has an HDMI port.

Sometimes it glitches and I end up rebooting to fix the problem, nothing terribly catastrophic so far. My complaints would be the loud factor"waking it up" it makes a LOT of noise, very quiet speakers (no I haven't blown them out), and now I'm not so impressed with the battery lifeI can't go my whole school day (maximum 4 hours of being on the computer) without it needing a charge, even on lowest brightness settings and not running any programs besides Chrome and Word or Powerpoint. I've gotten used to carrying my charger around with me, as much as I don't like the extra item in my backpack.

I can't say I'm impressed or unimpressed with the fingerprint reader or any HP software itself.

Overall, the machine works and I'm content.

She recently started a new job that requires her to have her own lap top. This worked out perfect, for the price she was surprised at how powerful the computer is and it does fit her needs perfectly.

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I have to admit I saw this at Costco and bought it online primarily for the aesthetic qualities. I purchased it about a year and a half ago but only recently started to use it frequently. Finally far too late given that this particular model is a little outdated I can write a review.

The keyboard is comfortable. It's an island keyboard with fairly squared off chicklet keys, and no backlight. The keyboard is high-contrast and easy to read, even just by the light cast from the screen in relatively low light. It's a nice soft-touch keyboard but I have to admit it takes some getting used to. They key travel is not as restricted as some netbooks, but no better than others. What this means is that if you're accustomed to the key punch travel from an 'old style' 100% laptop keyboard or a full-size desktop keyboard, this will seem a little awkward. Sometimes I miss a few keys, have to hit M and left shift a little harder than I expect to for the key press to register.

The screen is bright, crisp and colorful. It's not leap-out-at-you bright and super-saturated colorful like a Samsung or Apple display but this, as with most HPs, is really very bright and crisp anyway. Contrast on the screen is medium; I may see if the Intel HD 3000 software has any ability to increase contrast a smidgen. The viewing angle is good, colors are intact and image is clear up to around 35-40 degrees and starts to wash out around 45 degrees. It's not 180-degree viewing.

I upgraded this one to 6GB RAM, but don't really do anything too intensive. RAM is so cheap, though, that I always tend to 'overkill-upgrade' all my new laptops. If you're spending $500 to $1000 on a laptop, and overkill-RAM is only another $20 to $60... why not? The performance is very snappy on this thing, even old Core i3 is plenty of horsepower to push around PDFs, Word Docs, graphics editing, videos. I haven't attempted any gaming on it yet, but any laptop without a discrete GPU is going to be so-so. In every case, it'll run older 3D games in low res and newer RTS or RPG games in low res but that's just about it. This isn't designed for gaming.

In everyday desktop computing, the thing stays perfectly cool, just about the best I've seen for any laptop. After an entire day of browsing, documents, charging the phone, plugging in the USB thumb drive, etc., the bottom is still BARELY warm. Again, I haven't tried any games, but this thing isn't going to really cook unless you try to watch a movie or play a FPS game on it.

It has the standard DVD-RW combo drive, and maybe the only less-than-solid part of this notebook is that the cosmetic shell of the DVD drive the silver outside edge of the DVD door is a LITTLE loose. There are three USB (I believe USB 2.0) ports, one full-size HDMI, Ethernet, VGA, headphone, mic, and SD card slot a standard, complete compliment of ports. It also has a fingerprint scanner, which I've actually found to work really well. I generally only use it to unlock the notebook but to date, I have never once needed to re-scan a fingerprint. It has worked 100% accurately scanning my index finger over several hundred tries. This is a neat feature in that it encourages you to be a little more secure about your personal information without much inconvenience. Most of the time I do not put a password on personal computers, only work computers.

I have not exercised the battery life. For my purposes I rarely use it for more than a meeting or an hour here or there off the wire.

Finally, the aesthetic. The brushed aluminum shell is very attractive. Feels cool to the touch and very solid. The specs say 1.27" thick but it feels very light and slender at that. It feels nice when you carry it, it fits in my attache. The lid and the keyboard surface have the aluminum surface. On the keyboard surface, there's a thin strip of polished metal around the edges of the keyboard tray and mouse, which is a nice touch. The bezel around the screen is gloss black plastic and the bottom is textured black plastic. The keyboard tray is also black plastic. That's slightly regrettable; although you don't spend a whole lot of time looking at the bottom of your laptop (or, YOU may, but I don't) it's still nice to see when you're folding it up and putting it away, and nice to feel the same smooth, solid material when you hold it. This isn't a new lesson for HP. The brushed aluminum ProBooks from this same generation had a brushed aluminum bottom case as well. Of course it's a cost cutting decision and this isn't a high-end laptop, so it's well within expectation. If you care enough to have metal on the bottom of your laptop and in between the keys, there are plenty of options available. Sony, Apple, Asus, HP, etc. etc.

When I rate any consumer product I always consider "value" to be the final deciding factor. No product is completely, 100% perfect, with every possible feature and convenience. It's always a weighted evaluation of what you get for what you paid. As mentioned, this notebook has some very nice features and a nice form factor, and I believe I got it at a pretty good price, less than Costco or Amazon's current price. Even with a RAM upgrade it's a great deal. Although the 2050us model may be a bit dated by now, I would highly recommend a current dm4 model if you're looking for an attractive, portable, reasonably powerful full laptop with a full-size keyboard and optical drive for day to day browsing, documents, graphics, videos and movies.

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It is very light but durable. 4 gigs is plenty for me. I like the cordless camera download feature. My last HP lasted 6 years before I justed needed an upgrade. It didn't breakdown. Hoping for the same with this laptop. Keyboard keys are not super small making it easy for me to type.

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So far, so good! I will amend this review, but I am pleased with the performance thus far and for the price I think this was a fabulous deal!!! Thanks again Amazon...plus no shipping and no tax plus a 'deal'...can't beat this with a stick as far as I am concerned. Good job Amazon. I am a fan!!!