The hotly anticipated HP Pavilion dv4t has shown up on HP's website here, though it is not immediately obvious where to find it on the HP Shopping site. The 14.1" dv4t replaces the venerable dv2000 line of notebooks, with the dv2500 and dv2700 updates along the way for the Santa Rosa platform and Penryn line of processors respectively.
The dv4t shares its style with the dv5z notebook released by HP earlier this month, and features some nice options that were not available in the dv2x00 line. While there is still no higher resolution than the standard 1280 x 800 WXGA available (other competing 14" notebooks like the Dell Inspiron 1420 have 1440x900 WXGA+ screens optional), there is an optional LED backlit panel option for a steep $200, and the completely flat Infinity glass-paneled screen as a $50 add-on. It features, as expected, the Intel Montevina platform, featuring Penryn-based processors ranging from the 2.0GHz P7350 to the 2.8GHz T9600 and the Intel PRO 5100 wireless card. The choices in graphics are the Intel GMA X4500 IGP or the Nvidia 9200M GS dedicated graphics card (+ $100). This is somewhat dissapointing, as the 9200M is expected to provide similar performance to the 8400M GS found in the previous dv2500t and dv2700t, and with Nvidia's recent struggles with both Windows Vista drivers and failure of mobile graphics cards, whether it is advisable to go with an Nvidia card at this time is very questionable. I would have liked to see a more powerful midrange graphics card like the ATI HD 3450 (available in the dv5z and rumoured to be optional in the dv5t as well) instead of the low-end Nvidia part. Rounding out the dv4t are optional Verizon mobile broadband, Bluetooth, a fingerprint reader, an available Bluray ROM drive for $199, a 6 cell battery (higher capacity 6 cell with 20% more battery life is a $29 option), and everyone's favorite Windows Vista operating system in either Home Premium (32 or 64bit), Business (32bit), or Ultimate (64bit) flavours.
Dimensionally, the dv4t remains very similar to the dv2700 that it replaces. The footprint stays nearly identical, with the same width and length increasing by .12". The thinnest point of the notebook goes from 1.05" in the dv2700t to 1.34" in the dv4t; however, the thickest point remains almost unchanged at 1.57" (vs 1.54" in the dv2700t), so it just is a much flatter notebook that doesn't slope down as much as the dv2000 did. Port-wise, the dv4t is much better than its predecessor, with 3 dedicated USB ports, an eSATA port (which doubles as a 4th USB port), and an HDMI port. However, it looses the IEEE 1394 port, though that is worth giving up for the additional USBs you gain, not to mention the eSATA port (for comparison, the dv2700t had 2 USB, one IEE1394, and a VGA).
Overall, the dv4t looks like a very worthy successor to the much loved dv2000 series of notebooks. It starts at $999, and should be shipping in early August.


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