HP Pavilion DM3-1030US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop – Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life
- 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo X2 Dual-Core Processor for Ultrathin Notebooks (512 MB L2 Cache)
- 4 GB DDR2 RAM (2 Dimm)
- 320GB (7200RPM) SATA Hard Drive
- 13.3¿ Diagonal High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1366 x 768); ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics with 128MB Display Cache Memory AMD M780G with 64MB GDDR2 (sideport memory) with up to 1.9 GB total graphics memory
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, *Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life
Product Description
For those who want full PC performance optimized for mobility, the HP Pavilion dm3 Entertainment series delivers in a surprisingly affordable, minimalist design. Its top and palm rest covers are made of brushed aluminum in Modern Argento gray, while its bottom casing is a magnesium alloy. The metal casing helps ensure maximum durability at minimal weight. The clean design is accentuated by an iconic keyboard. Powered by the latest ultra-low-voltage processor and mobile graphics technologies, it delivers optimal mobile performance to support your on-the-go lifestyle.Get up to 6 hours of life for extended use with the standard battery. Break free with the performance you need in a design you’ll love (without the designer price tag). Set yourself apart with an ultra-thin design in colorized brushed aluminum. Get greater durability with lightweight aluminum-magnesium casing. Experience full-screen views of HD TV and movies with the 16:9 13.3-Inch diagonal… More >>
HP Pavilion DM3-1030US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop – Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life
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5 comments
Elizabeth Chludzinski on December 6, 2009 at 6:00 pm
An absolutely great product with an incredibly convenient form factor! Forget the Intel version; the AMD version comes with ATI discrete graphics and performs much better and costs $[...] less. The heck with Intel!!!
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CJ on December 6, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Pros: Looks fantastic, feels very sturdy, 7200RPM HD, beautiful screen, well spaced “chicklet” style keyboard. The few benchmarks I’ve seen for this processor don’t look so hot, but to me it feels like a screamer.
Cons: HP Bloatware, fortunately I quickly installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. Runs MUCH faster after doing so. Also, the touchpad isn’t as smooth as I’d like. And…the speakers maybe? The sound through headphones is fantastic though. Overall, a fantastic option in the ultralight category.
H. zhang on December 6, 2009 at 8:24 pm
1. get rid of optical drive and cut the weight/size is a pro for me.
2. powerful CPU and Graphic processing.
3. 4G memory, 320g HD, enough for most occation
4. fan is no noisy here.
I rarely use the touchpad. profer a optical mouse. so touchpad is not an issue for me.
A very good machine.
Corey Broeder on December 6, 2009 at 11:03 pm
This is a great lap top. Overall I like it more than any other lap top I have ever owned and I have had IBM, Gateway, HP, and Dell. The AMD dual core processor and 4GB of ram make it a very fast computer that can handle my multitasking. I love having the hdmi out to hook up to my hdtv and the 7200 rpm hard drive is also wonderful. The battery life is great. I only have a few minor complaints. First off, the usb ports are very very tight so you have to be overly careful in plugging in any usb cords. Also, it does not have a cd/dvd drive but I guess that is the price you pay to have such a thin, light, and portable lap top. And finally, the speakers produce decent sound but they do not reach a high enough volume. In the end though, I recommend this lap top wholeheartedly because of its speedy performance and build quality.
bidou333 on December 7, 2009 at 2:00 am
I bought this item to replace a three year old 14 inch eMachines laptop that I spilled coffee on (yeah yeah I know). I looked at netbooks for a while because I liked the portability and lower price but realized that for $100-$150 more I could get this nice 13 inch laptop which fell right where I was looking to be. Netbooks are restricted with processor speed, ram, size (if you’re looking for something slightly larger) and functionality (you can only get it with Windows Starter Edition).
So when compared to a typical laptop, is this a great machine? Well that depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a small laptop with very reasonable performance all around that won’t break the bank, then yes this is a great machine. On sale this unit can be found for around $500-$550 right now (if you are patient and keep an eye on prices) making it a steal in my book. I won’t go into all the details since the other reviews pretty much addresses them all but here are a few others and thoughts:
- Yes the track-pad is awful. It is fairly slow even with the settings set as fast as they can go. The clicking of the mouse button requires a “click” which I personally like over ones that seem to click every time I brush up against it but once again this may frustrate some people. I use a mouse 90% of the time so the track-pad hasn’t been a deterring factor (although it does leave crazy amounts of fingerprints).
- The keyboard is great if you ask me but if you use many shortcuts like some people tend to do, you’ll find having to use the function key a bit of a hassle. I’ve read in another review that for example the F keys can be programmed in the bios to be just that without the use of the function key, so that may be an option worth changing for some. I am a bit surprised though that the keyboard does tend to imprint fingerprints too, but once again not a deal-breaker.
- The fan is not very loud (at least not mine although I read a couple people complain about it) but I found the bottom of the computer does tend to get a bit hot and sometimes the top where you rest on the keyboard. This isn’t unlike many computers and this thing is very slim yet fairly powerful so I suppose it’s to be expected. If you’re the type that feels any heat is bad, then you may want to look elsewhere.
- The lack of a CD drive is worth noting. Through the use of things like Nero to burn images of programs you only have on CD, Daemon Tools to read them, and Bit Torrent to get programs in digital form this is fairly easy to deal with but if you have limited knowledge of computers you may find that just installing your old version of MS Office that is on CD will be a challenge. On a netbook the lack of a CD drive wouldn’t even be worth mentioning but because this unit falls under the laptop category in every way then it’s worth noting as a negative.
- Lastly, the battery life while I haven’t extensively tested seems to be a bit poorer than I thought it would be. I however don’t give it much of a chance since I always have the brightness as high as it goes, wireless on, etc etc. Using the item in lo-fi to gain some extra battery life isn’t worth it to me but should I be without the accessibility of an outlet it’s good to know that I can get by when changing the settings.
So if you can get over these setbacks (like I have) and can get this laptop for the $500-$550 range, then I highly recommend it. If paying more, then the ASUS UL30A should seriously be considered. It’s got very similar specs except double the battery life plus some of the cons of this laptop such as the track-pad and such seems to not be present with the ASUS. Choosing between the two basically boiled down to price for me and I’ve been very happy so far. As far as choosing between a small laptop like this or a netbook, all I can say is that current netbooks don’t have the processor speed, included and expandable ram, and video playback capabilities that this laptop has. I can run multiple programs, including my accounting software, along with antivirus software, all at once without it skipping a beat.