HP Fansite

HP Pavilion dm4 and dm4 Beats Edition

HP Pavilion dm4 updated with a subwoofer and Beats Edition

HP also announced an updated Pavilion dm4, their 14 inch consumer notebook model. On the outside, it looks almost identical to its predecessor launched 6 months ago, but the new Pavilion dm4 now sports Beats branded speakers (versus Altec Lansing on the previous laptop) and adds a new mini subwoofer unit.

The new Pavilion dm4 is equipped with a selection of Intel Sandy Bridge processors for you to choose from, two DDR3 RAM slots, hard drive configurations that go all the way up to 1 TB, HD webcam and 1366 x 768 resolution 14 inch display. HP is also offering the option to add on THE latest graphics card from AMD, the Radeon 7470M, which is an entry-level GPU but a good sign of things to come… perhaps we will see AMD FirePro equivalents for HP’s 2012 EliteBook business laptops.

Another brand new feature is Beats Edition of the Pavilion dm4, which gives the notebook a spray of black and red, similar to the paint job given to the Envy 14 Beat Edition. The Pavilion dm4 Beats Edition comes with a red backlit keyboard which does look pretty slick.

HP mentions the regular Pavilion dm4 will have a starting price of $630, while the Pavilion dm4 Beats Edition will start at $900, though the latter will obviously be more decked out than the regular dm4 base model to justify the price difference. Both notebooks will be available for order beginning December 18th, which may be cutting a little too close to be a suitable Christmas gift but you may still have enough time to celebrate the start of 2012 with a brand new Pavilion dm4.

Spotted: HP Ultrabook Pavilion ‘Folio’ dm3 in the wild

2012 HP Pavilion dm3 (Photo by Ritchie's Room)

Well, what do you know, the mythical unicorn is about to become real… originally rumored to be released before September, tech blog Ritchie’s Room has information about the upcoming HP ultra-thin ultrabook model shown by HP Australia! The new notebook, the 2012 Pavilion dm3, also codenamed the HP Folio, is said to be making its debut next month in December, at least in Australia… so book those flight tickets if you want to get your hands on one before Christmas!

The 2012 HP Pavilion ‘Folio’ dm3 is a 13.3 inch laptop (yup, 1366 x 768 resolution display, as expected) which is expected to give buyers a choice between two low-voltage Intel Sandy Bridge mobile processors (Core i3 1.4 GHz or Core i5 1.6 GHz flavors), one DDR3 RAM slot (which will give you configuration options of either 4 or 8 GB, this is supposedly user-accessible so you don’t need to pay obscene prices for a simple RAM upgrade when making the purchase) and 128 GB SSD (not sure of its size or whether it’s soldered into the laptop ala the Apple MacBook Air).

The HP Folio has a pretty full-sized keyboard, minus dedicated Home/End/Page Up-Down buttons, that’s backlit and a large buttonless trackpad. However, this ultra-thin notebook skimps on port selection quite a bit; the ports available are a single HDMI port, two USB ports (one 2.0 and one 3.0), SD slot (no word on whether it supports SDXC), Ethernet port and single combo microphone/headphone jack.

The HP Folio is said to measure 1.8 cm thin (about 0.71 inches) and weigh 1.49 kg (3.3 pounds). In comparison, the much hyped Apple MacBook Air (13 inch variant) is 1.7 cm (0.68 inches) at its thickest point and weighs a slightly lighter 1.35 kg (3 pounds). However, it seems HP is hoping to negate these tiny measurement differences by offering excellent build quality; the folks at Ritchie’s Room who handled the HP Folio commented how durable it is.

But based on my many years using a range of HP products, here’s my (speculative) take on build quality: this HP Folio is still a ‘Pavilion’ (consumer model) which means it might survive getting squeezed by books in your backpack and hold up just as well, if not better, than other branded ultrabooks and the unibody MacBook Air… but I doubt it will survive the sheer abuse and multiple beatings that a true business-class HP EliteBook can take. Treat your notebook well!

No word about pricing of the HP Folio or availability outside of Australia, but Ritchie’s Room still has plenty of huge 8 megapixel photos of the 2012 HP Pavilion dm3 ‘Folio’ ready for you to admire.

HP to continue making computers as they are now

Everyone's happy with HP now!

Whew, after much confusion as to what HP was thinking and what would happen to HP Fansite if they did, and a sprinkle of hope when they swapped out CEO’s, the verdict is in this week. According to HP’s new CEO Meg Whitman, they’ve looked at the idea of spinning PSG (HP’s computer division, essentially) off, but have decided against it, saying it was the right thing to do for just about everyone (from customers to employees) if they just kept things as they were right now.

To add a little disco ball for us party-goers who are going out to celebrate not having to buy a Dell or Lenovo as their next machine (or icing on the cake if you will), HP will also be making Windows 8 PC when Microsoft’s revolutionary operating system (versus the Vista to 7 jump) debuts next year, along with the fact they’re gonna be making Windows 8 tablets to keep costs under control (yup, if you’re still hopeful about WebOS, you should really stop now).

Alright HP, now that you guys have ironed things out, how about finally launching them Ultrabooks soon after missing the initial rumored due date? And updated Pavilions and Envy’s sporting Intel’s very latest Sandy Bridge processors (those seen in the recent MacBooks and stuff)? And perhaps updating the rest of the Z-workstation line after just doing the Z210 updates earlier this year? How about an EliteBook refresh for those of us who like stepping on our notebook screens or have been using those reliable old-school models for too long?

But we’re just happy that HP has decided to make this decision, probably one of their smarter moves since making blunders with WebOS and such. Hopefully a sign of better things to come for HP indeed!

Rumor: HP to make Ultrabooks before September

Digitimes, a reliable Asian news source for upcoming products based on outsourcing of companies to Chinese manufacturers, has reported today that HP is planning “two or more” Ultrabooks (Intel’s fancy speak for super-thin notebooks; think the Apple MacBook Air), with these new low-voltage Sandy Bridge processors announced two weeks ago, for a launch ahead of Asus’ 11.6 and 13 inch UX21 Ultrabooks debut in September.

That’s a pretty hasty move right there, and frankly quite unexpected. In that case, folks, you might want to be on the lookout, from now till September, for a Pavilion dv1 or new Pavilion dm3 from HP, that will be under an inch thick. And perhaps you might also want to keep your eyes peeled for an updated Touchsmart tm2 convertible tablet too. Or maybe HP might call them something completely different… Envy 11 and 2011 Envy 13, perhaps?! Big news indeed!

If anything, we might just see these new Ultrabooks (I can see lots of people hoping for an Envy 13 revival already) announced alongside that mythical 7 inch TouchPad webOS tablet, hopefully!

“Hulk smash HP Pavilion”… and it survived, sort of…

Now here’s something you don’t come across everyday: Not two months ago, I had a friend who fell from riding his bike; with some scratches here and there, he was alright but the Pavilion dv7 in his backpack… not so much. However, having tried, tested and shown how extremely durable HP’s EliteBook business models are, it’s interesting to observe and analyze the extent of damage and survivability of consumer-level models from abuse and accidents.

The notebook was an almost brand new (I think it was purchased in January) at the time, one of those metal encased Pavilions that HP introduced last year. From what I was told, the owner fell on his back, so the notebook took a good amount of scraping against your typical asphalt road through a lightly padded backpack (needless to say, the bag was damaged too), while being squashed under 260 lbs (or 118 kg) of weight (the guy used to play football).

The damage? I got to have a look at the damage in-person before it was sent back to HP, and it was mostly on the right side of the Pavilion dv7: the lid and corners was all scratched up, the right side of the lid was quite dented/deformed (but oddly enough, the metal casing did well in sacrificing itself to protect and result in a still-working-completely-fine display) and the two USB ports on the right no longer worked (not sure why, the impact must have bumped something loose on the inside). The rest of the notebook worked fine though; down to the keyboard and optical drive unit (surprising since it’s located on the right side).

Overall external damage was ‘lightly moderate’, in my opinion, and he could have lived without sending the notebook in for repair if not for those two non-functional USB ports. Lucky the owner had bought HP’s accidental damage protection (he had a bad experience with his ancient HP Pavilion dv6000 but after being convinced by me, he got this dv7 with all the additional warranties he could find on the list).

Well, I’m still gonna stick to HP’s business models, with my EliteBook 2530p having gone through being stepped on, accidentally smashed against table corners (several times), dropped onto all sorts of surfaces, partially drowned in water, sat under a ton of heavy luggage on an 8 hour flight and more general madness, yet it’s still alive and kicking… but I thought HP has really done well in improving the build quality of their consumer notebooks; I’m not sure if an older, plastic frame Pavilion model would have survived the same ordeal.

*If you have an experience to share about the durability of your electronics, do share your story via comments or dropping me a line.