The dv4t has a
friendly look that's expected of HP's Pavilion entertainment notebook line. Unlike
higher-end Pavilions, however, HP made the unfortunate decision to cover just
about all surfaces of this notebook in glossy plastic. While it may look
attractive on a display shelf, glossy plastic is a dust and fingerprint magnet.
Keep a microfiber towel handy.
At
3.0 x 1.4 inches, the dv4t’s touchpad is wide, but we felt as though it would
have benefited from additional vertical space. And, as with most Pavilion
notebooks, the touchpad’s mirrorlike surface requires too much effort to make
fine cursor movements. Otherwise, it’s pretty smooth, if a bit fast. Positioned
above this area is a button to deactivate the touchpad when you’re using an
external mouse. A pair of mouse buttons provide adequate feedback, but we
would’ve liked more responsiveness.
The Pavilion
dv4t has the bare essentials and little more when it comes to ports. It lacks
USB 3.0, eSATA, and DisplayPort; it's not possible to add them since the dv4t
also doesn't include an ExpressCard expansion slot. At the very least it has an
HDMI port for connection to HDTVs.