HP Pavilion dm4: Performance

Performance

Our review unit has a really good set of hardware for this price point. The Intel Core i5-2450M dual-core processor just came out in Q1 of this year and can clock 3.1GHz with Turbo Boost (2.5GHz without). And, it has hyper-threading technology to ensure that multi-tasking can be done with ease. HP also regularly runs deals such as "upgrade to 6GB of memory at no extra cost" and hard drive capacity upgrades. With the hardware in our review unit, you'll be able to watch HD video content, multi-task very easily, and have almost the full multimedia experience. One thing you won't be able to do is play many of the latest games with the integrated Intel HD graphics card with no DirectX 11 support - but there is a 1GB AMD Radeon HD 7470M GDDR5 discrete graphics card available if you customize the dm4, which will work a lot better for gaming. The 500GB hard drive included in our setup only has a 5400rpm spin speed but was still able to clock 113.9 MB/s, which isn't so bad. All in all, our review unit provided a "smooth sailing" multimedia experience.

Our HP Pavilion dm4 Beats Edition review unit has the following specifications:

• 14.0-inch HD+ anti-glare display with LED backlighting (1600 x 900)
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Intel Core i5-2450M dual-core processor at 2.5GHz (3.1GHz Turbo Boost, 3M cache, 35W TDP) 
• Intel HD integrated graphics
• 6GB-1333 DDR3 memory
• 500GB RAID 0 hard drive at 5400rpm
• Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 802.11 b/g/n wireless network adapter 
• Bluetooth 3.0
• 720p webcam
• 8X DVD SuperMulti optical drive
• 1-year limited warranty (hardware support)
• 6-cell Li-ion battery (55 Whr, 2.55Ah)
• Weight: 4.33 lbs
• Dimensions: 13.30 x 8.85 x 0.96~1.27 inches (LxWxH) 
• Price as configured: $769.99
• Starting price: $579.99

Performance and Benchmarks

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark Vantage measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

PCMark 7 is a newer benchmark which measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test: