In the past few months we've seen big boys Dell and Acer release a few 13-inch thin-and-light laptops. These are meant for people who don't like the tiny dimensions and under powered hardware of netbooks. They have comparatively large 13-inch screens, and ultra-low voltage dual-core CPUs that process applications faster than netbooks' paltry-powered Atom processor. However, one common missing component they share is a DVD drive.
Ideally these notebooks are placed between the price range of a netbook and a traditional laptop (i.e. between Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 40,000). While a majority of makers have relied on Intel's CULV (Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage) processors, HP offers the dm3 in two variants, an Intel CULV based and an AMD-based solution (that we have for review). While AMD processors are generally cost-effective, in our experience we found a few that seemed to have an overheating issue.
Ideally these notebooks are placed between the price range of a netbook and a traditional laptop (i.e. between Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 40,000). While a majority of makers have relied on Intel's CULV (Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage) processors, HP offers the dm3 in two variants, an Intel CULV based and an AMD-based solution (that we have for review). While AMD processors are generally cost-effective, in our experience we found a few that seemed to have an overheating issue.
So, what does the HP Pavilion dm3 1005AX offer that can trump the competition?
Design and Build
The HP Pavilion dm3 1005AX has a sleek design. It is quite thin and weighs just 1.91 kg. The top lid and the area surrounding the keyboard is covered with brushed aluminum metal, which gives the laptop a feeling of solidity. Also, thanks to this particular finish, the top is not as susceptible to fingerprints as many other laptops we come across.
The HP Pavilion dm3 1005AX has a sleek design. It is quite thin and weighs just 1.91 kg. The top lid and the area surrounding the keyboard is covered with brushed aluminum metal, which gives the laptop a feeling of solidity. Also, thanks to this particular finish, the top is not as susceptible to fingerprints as many other laptops we come across.
On the inside we have a 13-inch 1366 x 768 pixel (HD) display. It is quite bright and displays content well. HD movies look good on it. The webcam delivered acceptable video quality, with a decent frame rate. The keyboard is of the chiclet style (or isolated design), as seen on many laptops these days. They are tactile and evenly designed to offer a comfortable typing experience. The up/down arrow key size is smaller than usual, but isn't a problem to use once you get accustomed to it.
Below the keyboard is the real trouble maker for this laptop - the touchpad. Thanks to the mirror finish material, the touchpad loves fingerprints the way Adam loved Eve. It also caused random pointer motions a few times in our use. When well-behaved, it offers decent touch response, but we were scared for it to go crazy again. Also, the sensitivity of the touchpad was an issue while typing, as it kept throwing our cursor at a random position due to accidental brushes on it. Another snag we faced was with the left-click button, which sometimes had to be pressed hard to register an input. This very well could be a fault with our review sample, so be sure to inspect it before you buy this notebook. It does not support multi-touch gestures, but rather relies on the traditional side-scrolling strip to do the job.
On the sides we have a healthy number of ports. Starting at the left side are the power, LAN, VGA, HDMI, two USB, an SD/MMC/MS Pro/xD card reader and a headphone/microphone jack. On the right we have the power on/off switch, a wireless toggle button, two more USB ports followed by the air vent. So that brings the total number of USB ports to four - one more than the traditional three ports found on most thin-and-light models.
The speakers at the base emit clear audio quality, but aren't very loud. Decent for listening to music at your desk without disturbing others we'd say. A 6-cell removable battery lies at the base, which protrudes only slightly, thus maintaining the thin profile of this laptop. Another area of concern was the heating at the base, which was a little more than what laptops traditionally emit. While doing non-intensive work, like say surfing the net on battery power, the heating was just about acceptable. But when running a game or a video while plugged in, the extra heating was definitely noticeable.
While the Pavilion dm3 does bring a good-looking design to the table, the slightly erroneous touchpad and the extra heating at the bottom were a cause of concern to us.
Benchmarks
PCMark Vantage
PCMark Vantage
3DMark 06
SiSoft Sandra 2009
Real World Performance
The HP Pavilion dm3 came pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit edition, which is kinda odd, since the AMD Turion Neo processor supports 64-bit. If that wasn't enough, the laptop is also loaded with 4GB of RAM, the minimum required to make good use of a 64-bit OS. Anyway, the performance of this machine was pretty decent. Typical tasks like multi-tabbed browsing were handled with ease and so was HD video. While all 720p HD videos played back flawlessly, many of the 1080p videos were also successfully decoded by the ATI Radeon 4330 GPU on board when played back with the K-lite Codec Pack installed. Only a few 1080p videos stuttered a little in some scenes. All in all, thanks to the good quality screen, watching HD movies on the dm3 was an enjoyable experience.
Thin-and-light laptops aren't primarily designed for gaming. But since HP decided to put a moderately-powered ATI graphics chip from a few years ago in this laptop, we decided to put it to the test. We ran the Street Fighter IV benchmark on the highest settings at native resolution. Here it delivered a laggy 20.04 fps. Undefeated, we toned a few of the settings to 'medium' and then got a playable 29.8 frames per second, with the game still looking fairly good. So we infer that games from a couple of years ago (like the NFS Most Wanted or Counter-strike) should run fine on the dm3, provided you go easy on the settings.
Battery Life
We put the HP dm3 through our regular set of battery tests. In the 720p video drain test, the brightness and sound was set to max. Here it could play back the looped video for just an hour and a half. In the second test, we toned the brightness down by a notch and connected to the internet over Wi-Fi. We performed typical tasks like typing in an online document editor. Here, however, it lasted for close to 2 hours 40 minutes.
For a thin-and-light this is not good news. They sport power-efficient processors that are meant to give better battery life than typical laptops. But these numbers are similar to what a clunky 15.6-inch desktop replacement laptop serve. The blame could logically be placed on the ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics on board, which sucks more juice than say, Intel's on board X4500 graphics. We don't know for sure, but we wonder if these unsatisfactory figures could also mean that AMD's Turion Neo X2 processors aren't as power-optimized as Intel's Core 2 Duo SU series ones.
The HP Pavilion dm3 came pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit edition, which is kinda odd, since the AMD Turion Neo processor supports 64-bit. If that wasn't enough, the laptop is also loaded with 4GB of RAM, the minimum required to make good use of a 64-bit OS. Anyway, the performance of this machine was pretty decent. Typical tasks like multi-tabbed browsing were handled with ease and so was HD video. While all 720p HD videos played back flawlessly, many of the 1080p videos were also successfully decoded by the ATI Radeon 4330 GPU on board when played back with the K-lite Codec Pack installed. Only a few 1080p videos stuttered a little in some scenes. All in all, thanks to the good quality screen, watching HD movies on the dm3 was an enjoyable experience.
Thin-and-light laptops aren't primarily designed for gaming. But since HP decided to put a moderately-powered ATI graphics chip from a few years ago in this laptop, we decided to put it to the test. We ran the Street Fighter IV benchmark on the highest settings at native resolution. Here it delivered a laggy 20.04 fps. Undefeated, we toned a few of the settings to 'medium' and then got a playable 29.8 frames per second, with the game still looking fairly good. So we infer that games from a couple of years ago (like the NFS Most Wanted or Counter-strike) should run fine on the dm3, provided you go easy on the settings.
Battery Life
We put the HP dm3 through our regular set of battery tests. In the 720p video drain test, the brightness and sound was set to max. Here it could play back the looped video for just an hour and a half. In the second test, we toned the brightness down by a notch and connected to the internet over Wi-Fi. We performed typical tasks like typing in an online document editor. Here, however, it lasted for close to 2 hours 40 minutes.
For a thin-and-light this is not good news. They sport power-efficient processors that are meant to give better battery life than typical laptops. But these numbers are similar to what a clunky 15.6-inch desktop replacement laptop serve. The blame could logically be placed on the ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics on board, which sucks more juice than say, Intel's on board X4500 graphics. We don't know for sure, but we wonder if these unsatisfactory figures could also mean that AMD's Turion Neo X2 processors aren't as power-optimized as Intel's Core 2 Duo SU series ones.
Price and Verdict
The HP Pavilion dm3 1005AX sells for Rs. 44,990 plus taxes. That is expensive when you compare it with one of its competitors, the Acer Timeline 3810TZ, which sells for as low as Rs. 32,000. The Dell Inspiron 13z, which we thought was one of the best 13-inch laptops under Rs. 40,000, no longer appears on Dell's website. The Vostro V13's price has also been bumped up to Rs. 44,000 now, making it unworthy of purchase. The MSI X350 has a similar price tag like the dm3, but it too has a touchpad issue.
While one may argue that the dm3 has an ATI graphics chip and 4GB of RAM to justify the cost, we honestly feel the presence of a dedicated graphics chip in a thin-and-light doesn't make sense. The under-powered processor acts as a bottleneck, resulting in reduced performance as compared to a typical laptop with a fast processor and graphics chip. It also drains those extra precious minutes of battery life that thin-and-lights are supposed to deliver.
The HP dm3 has a good design, but its cons outweigh the pros, which prevents us from recommending this laptop to anybody.
The HP Pavilion dm3 1005AX sells for Rs. 44,990 plus taxes. That is expensive when you compare it with one of its competitors, the Acer Timeline 3810TZ, which sells for as low as Rs. 32,000. The Dell Inspiron 13z, which we thought was one of the best 13-inch laptops under Rs. 40,000, no longer appears on Dell's website. The Vostro V13's price has also been bumped up to Rs. 44,000 now, making it unworthy of purchase. The MSI X350 has a similar price tag like the dm3, but it too has a touchpad issue.
While one may argue that the dm3 has an ATI graphics chip and 4GB of RAM to justify the cost, we honestly feel the presence of a dedicated graphics chip in a thin-and-light doesn't make sense. The under-powered processor acts as a bottleneck, resulting in reduced performance as compared to a typical laptop with a fast processor and graphics chip. It also drains those extra precious minutes of battery life that thin-and-lights are supposed to deliver.
The HP dm3 has a good design, but its cons outweigh the pros, which prevents us from recommending this laptop to anybody.
