HP Pavilion dm4-2180

HP Pavilion dm4-2180us

The HP Pavilion dm4-2180us ($699 list at Staples), a mainstream laptop, will last you seven hours when you're on the road. Its Core i5 and 6GB of RAM combine to make a powerful tag team; whether your work involves day-to-day office tasks or something as strenuous as photo editing - the dm4-2180us has you covered. However, the Asus U46E-BAL5 has it beat in terms of features, as the Asus laptop offers WiMAX and USB 3.0. The dm4-2180us's steel grey aluminum chassis has a brushed lid, like the Samsung QX411-W01 ($799.99 list, 4 stars). The design adds sophistication to what would otherwise be a metallic brick. The dm4-2180us weighs 4.33 pounds, which puts it on the lighter side of other 14-inch laptops. It's lighter than the U46E-BAL5 (4.9 pounds), QX411-W01 (5.11 pounds ), and Toshiba Satellite L745-S4210 ($639.99 list, 3.5 stars) (4.5 pounds). The 14-inch widescreen has the standard 1,366-by-768 resolution, which amounts to 720p HD viewing for online videos and downloaded content. The chiclet keyboard is full-size, but there were a few alterations that had to be made, like shortening Shift key to make room for the arrow buttons.