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HP Pavilion dm1 4000au Beats Refresh

wpid-hp-pavilion-dm1beats650

There hasn’t been a lot of movement in the netbooks as of late, but this one caught my attention while I was looking around one of the Octagon shops. The HP Pavilion dm1 4000au like its predecessor carries with it the AMD fusion technology in the form of the E450 clocked at 1.65Ghz dual core. It has a 500Gb hard disk and a Win7 Starter packaged along with it, the other specifications are pretty much standard but there are a few key differences between this one and its earlier siblings.

First off is the inclusion of beats audio technology which really does sound full and better than most of your general laptop speaker output. I haven’t had a chance to hear for myself what the ones on this unit are capable of but I have heard a beats audio laptop and it does justice to music.

The dedicated trackpad buttons are a very welcome addition, deviating from its silver model’s integrated soft keys. It also has a switch that turns the trackpad on and off in the upper-left of the pad.

When I was playing with the unit on display, it was sitting close to the original dm1 and there is a noticeable size difference wherein the refresh gets more depth but with the same screen. It probably has to do with additional hardware but it doesn’t take too much away from the aesthetic especially since the finish is completely black.

Available for 10 pesos shy of 23k and can be enrolled in a 12 month installment, I would have to say that this would be one of the top choices if you were looking to buy a netbook at this point in time. I did find the unit only on Octagon so there might be a bit of scarcity with this unit at the moment.

About the author

Mark O.

Mark is an architect and artist who endeavors to design most anything that requires a little bit of thought into it.

Although writing is not considered a primary focus, a little too much time can yield many thoughts that are just begging to be written down.

Armed with a trusty array of content creation devices and surrounded with a continuous flux of technology and life, herein lies those that are fortunate enough to have been given presence through a little bit of movement and a whole lot of iterations.

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  • I bought an HP Pavilion DM1-4000AU at Octagon in SM Bacoor last November 7th. The finish on the netbook, though not glossy attracts a fair share of fingerprints. Keyboard is missing the num lock and scroll lock keys but other than it’s awesome.The touch pad needs some getting used to. The AMD E450 Dual core processor together with the AMD Radeon HD 6320 graphics is capable of light gaming. I’ve played Portal 2 on it with medium settings.HP claims it can play 1080p videos but 1080p videos are laggy, so stick with 720p on this netbook.The 11.6 inch screen and its borders are glossy, so huge fingerprint magnet and A LOT of glare is present. Screen resolution is good, but the viewing angles are not. Webcam is okay, it takes quite some time when starting up. Beats audio is great. It’s louder than other more expensive laptops.(plus the little beats audio logos are cool!) Battery life is great. I can squeeze out 5 hours while watching movies. It comes with windows 7 starter so it has limitations like not being able to personalize your desktop and such. A lot of HP bloat ware is installed so may have to do some uninstalling. 1 HDMI port, 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 ethernet port, 1 mic and 1 headphone jacks, SD/MMC card slot, 1 VGA port. It is a great buy for 22,990 Pesos
    4 out of 5 stars.

    • That’s great insight coming from an actual owner. Thank you for that in depth account sir. I’m sure HP is proud to have come up with a device that gets high praise from the users.

  • I’m planning to buy this one probably this month (can’t decide yet). Just reading some more reviews (perhaps a more detailed description and experience on it’s specs) before I purchase it. Do we have the HP Envy here in the Philippines already? Thanks!

    • I see Envy units at the megamall accent micro branch so it is probably in here and should be competing for your budget XD have fun shopping!

    • If I understood your message correctly you’re asking if you can buy it with Win7HP on it out of the box then that probably is not an option. What you could do is buy a Home Premium installation and install it over the starter, although this machine may have already had a refresh (often characterized by numbers above 4000 on its name) and it may come with Win7HP already.
      My brother’s dm1 has a 64-bit architecture so its safe to assume that this one will have it as well.

  • Sorry, I am a newbie in laptop. I would like to ask. With this specs, can it play some racing games, such as NFS Shift 2 Unleashed, or Racedriver? Thank You

  • Hi! I just bought this the other day, and I’m quite happy with what i’m seeing. I got a good deal at it fro 21,990 with a free 4GB RAM upgrade and an external disk drive which may come in handy in the future. I can’t wait to have this as a staple device in my bag when I go to school. I addressed the wallpaper problem with the Oceanis application which makes it change my wallpaper in time intervals. Besides that I’m really happy with this buy, looks like it really help me in my studies.

    • That’s great customer feedback. HPs 12 and 10 inch line are always stylish and dependable and you got a pretty good deal right there.

  • It has some keyboard problem, sometimes the keyboard stop working. I think its a driver thing. I ask about HP, and until now they have no response in their forum…

    • Keyboards usually aren’t driven and if you feel a problem with it, you may as well have it replaced while it is still within warranty. Lets hope this issue gets resolved hastily.

  • I did also experienced keyboard problems, hopefully just a driver problem since I was a friggin HP Tx1000 victim, anyways quite happy as i got for 17k with the odd and a 4gb flash drive. Good for light 3d modelling and Autocad applications. Runs at 76c when on DOTA.

  • hey, I am also experiencing the keyboard problems and up until now, I’m not sure what causes it. Is it really the driver thing? I bought it last Thursday and I went to SM North (where I bought it) yesterday to have it replaced but then the problem didn’t occur while they were checking it so they refuse to replace it, they just advice me to update regularly. It happened again this morning, grrr.. I don’t know what to do..

  • i am facing just the same problem: keyboard and touchpad stop working occasionally. i checked internet, it seems the problem is a world wide issue.

    updating the bios to the newest F.15 version doesn’t help at all. some people even installed linux based OS, but the problem still exists. to me, it is clear that it is a hardware problem.

    i bought dm1-4000au around a week ago, and almost everyday the problem appears in random situation. i have created a case report to hp, and am still waiting for their reply.

    however, actually it is a good spec netbook. it is very disappointing that it has a very annoying bug. hopefully hp will fix it soon. they’re betting their big name on it. there are already many posts on this issue, and i’m sure the number will increase if the issue has not been closed by hp. come on hp, you can do it!

  • can i upgrade the processor on this notebook(dm1-4000au)?

    if so, how do i know which processors can fit or be placed in it?

    • Generally consumer notebooks aren’t meant to be upgraded except for putting in additional RAM or hard disk space

  • Hi. I’ve read about the keyboard/touchpad bug in the HP Support Forum, and so I’m not buying this notebook anymore. So disappointed, as I’ve been planning to buy it next week. What laptop can you recommend instead that is within this price range (18-20k)?

    • There’re a lot of possibilities out there right now but if you’re looking for an equivalent 12″ notebook Asus has one slightly over your budget though the 1225b or if you’re ok with a 10″ you could go for their Flare 1025c series. Conversely you can get the earlier dm1 model without the beats audio, my brother has one and he didnt have the keyboard problem that this refresh seems to be plagued with. Thanks for dropping by!

  • argh I was planning to buy this as well but since I’ve read lots of keyboard issue about it I change my mind…

    Can you suggest any affordable 14″ laptop, I will only use it to watch anime online, and games like ragnarok and dota

    • Affordable ones out right now are those with the AMD APU on them. When you go into a shop ask them for notebooks with the E-450 processor in them, you should have plenty to choose from multiple manufacturers.

      • Great! thanks for that, been canvassing some laptops, is it mandatory to buy one with DEDICATED VIDEO RAM? Since I’m playing ragnarok and dota

        • Ragnarok and DOtA are relatively playable games since they dont have too heavy graphics. The newer processors now: AMD APUs (A4, A6, A8) and Intel Cores (i3, i5, i7 2nd or third generation) have integrated graphics that are capable enough to run those games. Happy gaming!

  • guys how to configure the beats audio??? i tried to install windows ultimate and install all the drivers that i downloaded in the hp website. but i noticed that whenever i tried to increase or decrease the audio but the logo of beats doesn’t appear anymore?

    • I would love to be able to do this but HP has yet to reply to my inquiry… might be I’ll drop them a line again for you guys.

  • i just bought one of these a few months ago.. i’m not satisfied with the processor performance. will it run better if i install windows xp instead?

    • it will definitely run faster, you need to prepare a complete set of XP drivers though but im not sure if that is available

  • hello there… im also a newbie in laptops..bought my dm 4000 for like 19,990 in sm taytay and it comes with an external dvd writer plus a canon printer kinda weird to me but it really doesnt matter but thats one hell of a great deal..anyhow ive got a question about the battery..sometimes i get to use this laptop for 8 hrs straight and the battery gets too much hot well not like a boiling water 🙂 its a little hot but i can tolerate the hotness of it but im really worried..is that normal??? ive asked my friend who works as a project manager of hp in amsterdam and he said thats normal that were pretty much in the same situation..one more thing..ive noticed 2-3 weeks of using that whenever i turn off my laptop coz the battery is almost dead already but then after 2 or 5 hrs..surprised its fully charged!! my friend told me that hp laptops nowadays are really designed for that..but then just now.. i cant turn this thing on for some reason..so assumed that maybe its lowbatt or something then i charged it turned the power on and it opened! it somehow contradicts on what my friend was telling me..so im really confused about the battery concerns of mine.. hope you could help in some ways..

    • in my experience, the battery is supposed to only heat up when it is charging ang not while it is discharging unless the vents are directed towards them which almost never are.
      despite the new technologies being put into batteries I’ve had this habit of taking the battery out when fully charged especially for long periods of time.
      completely drained batteries generally take some time before the computer recognizes that it is actually charging a battery pack.
      these smaller models are also known to lose contact from the charger if the plug is too deep, so in actuality you might not be charging when you think you are.
      the led indicator should turn orange to indicate a charging state otherwise you’ll be using direct AC power without charging the battery pack.