HP Pavilion DM3-1030US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop - Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)

by HP

Product Details

• Item Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002ONCCGQ
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Item model number: VM073UA#ABA
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,772 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 18, 2009

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

IDEAL FOR Ultra portability. Count on a thin, lightweight notebook PC that's also affordable and durable. Work and play longer without plugging in using a battery designed for extensive computing.

SPECIFICATIONS

Processor 1.60GHz AMD Athlon™ Neo X2 Dual-Core Processor for Ultrathin Notebooks L335 Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit Memory (RAM) 4GB DDR2 Display 13.3" Diagonal High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1366 x 768) Hard Drive 320GB (7200RPM) SATA Wireless Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN; Bluetooth® wireless technology Graphics Card ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics with 128MB Display Cache Memory AMD M780G with 64MB GDDR2 (sideport memory) with up to 1982MB total graphics memory Battery 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery; Up to 5.5 hours battery life* Weight & Dimensions (w x d x h) 4.21lbs; 12.83" x 9.06" x 0.96"/1.23"

FEATURES

Built-in HP Webcam Video chat live 5-in-1 Digital Media Reader Transfer photos from digital cameras without using cables INCLUDED

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 display. Enjoy your photos and videos on HD TVs with the HDMI port (cable sold separately). Chat face to face with the HP Webcam and add fun special effects. Relax with extra protection from file loss due to drops with HP ProtectSmart. Enjoy easy access to your favorite entertainment with HP MediaSmart.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MacBook Killer?!?, November 7, 2009

By 

K. Kalb (Santa Barbaa, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HP Pavilion DM3-1030US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop - Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) (Personal Computers)

This is a beautiful machine. Check it out -- 4.2 lbs, 1" thick, Magnesium case, 7200 rpm HDD, spectacular HD display, 4 GB memory, 320 GB Hard Drive, Iconic keyboard Windows 7, 4 USB ports, HDMI port, great WiFi,etc. etc. All for under $600! It's astonishing. One begins to wonder what truck they steal these off of. Yes, my title is correct, "Macbook Killer." Look at the two machines side by side -- they are pretty much the same thing. Yes, the Macbook Pro has a backlit keyboard, ok. But the DM3 has an HDMI port, which means I can attach it to my HDTV and play Neflix or Itunes movies, or youtube, etc. in High Definition. Sure, it has no optical drive, but folks, cd's and dvd's are becoming old technology, and being replaced by thumb/jump drives. Even software will be coming on these. Actually, the DM3 weighs almsot a pound less than a Macbook by eliminating the optical drive, and the advantages of using an external drive are many. Keyboards are almost identical, case is a toss up, display's are similar, windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard has its plusses and minuses going both ways. Yes, the Macbook is more powerful for high intensity graphics, but if you are using your computer as most people do, you will not notice the difference. But the knockout comes at checkout: It is less than 1/2 the price of a similarly configured 13" Macbook Pro!

It is so far superior to any netbook that there is no comparison there. Yes, it's not perfect. It does re-charge slowly, and the trackpad takes some getting used to. But it has so many fantastic features, when you factor in the price, it is the best value out there in ultraportable computing.

I have been using portable computers since the mid-eighties when they were 25 pounds with tiny monochrome screens floppy drives and cost $3000. Now for under $600, they are 1/6th the weight, yet 100 times as fast with 3000 times the storage and much more functionality. Think about how amazing this is! You will love this little machine.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More usable than a Netbook, more affordable than a Laptop, November 9, 2009

By 

Webster Clickworthy - See all my reviews

This review is from: HP Pavilion DM3-1030US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop - Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) (Personal Computers)

This laptop is a winner! I'd rather have a fully functioning laptop than a Netbook that can't keep up. I've had it for a week and don't regret buying it.

Pros:

HDMI works well for watching Hulu on my HDTV.
Brushed metal case means fingerprints aren't a problem.
Quiet fan and hard-drive.
Wi-Fi is easy to set up (Windows 7 is rock solid).
Light-weight and easy to carry or stick into a travel bag.
13.3 screen size is a happy medium between a Netbook and a Laptop.
Keyboard is easy to use.
4 Gig of RAM is snappy.
13.3 screen size is a happy medium between a Netbook and a Laptop.

Cons:

Battery slowly drains if not plugged in.
Mouse pad wants to start Sticky Keys at times. Fixed by disabling Sticky Keys. Occasionally the mouse pad is briefly unresponsive.

Notes:

Although the battery lost 10% of its charge in 30 minutes while surfing the Web in normal mode, it recharged to 100% very quickly.

A CD drive would sap energy, which is why it's not included (you can buy an external one if you need it).

Overall, this is a great buy for the price. I really enjoy using it.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So far, OK, but just developed a bad pixel, November 16, 2009

By 

Customized (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: HP Pavilion DM3-1030US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop - Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) (Personal Computers)

I've only had this machine for a couple days but it's very nice so far.

Pros: sleek, widows 7, plenty powerful, lots of ram and drive space, battery life, graphics card is decent, weight

Cons: power plug sticks out pretty far when plugged in, but not a big deal. Updated the track pad driver after one freeze and it hasn't locked up again since. No gigabit lan. Memory card reader won't read MS Duo without an adapter, not a deal breaker. Small up/down arrows, again not a killer, I'm already used to it. Track pad is a little sticky.

The biggest problem I've had so far isn't a ding against this computer, it's a windows 7 issue. Games for Windows Live wouldn't update, couldn't uninstall, couldn't reinstall. Finally got it working, but don't ask me to repeat the process.

I saw a guy on the interwebs frantically searching about how to change the DM3 Function Keys back to the standard F1, F2, F3 etc. It's in the bios. Hit Esc during startup, then F10 to enter the bios, configure from there, it's on the third tab or thereabouts. I may keep them as the media keys, don't know yet.

Games: Runs Halo 1 very well, runs Team Fortress 2 pretty decently, Dawn of War II is playable with everything turned way down. So that's a pass for the graphics and processor as far as I'm concerned.

My favorite thing about windows 7: You can select a group of files, right click and change their meta data! So awesome! Updating mp3 tags is a breeze!

I didn't want a desktop replacement, I wanted a laptop replacement and this fits the bill. I'm coming from an old Sony PCG-SRX99 so I'm used to not having an optical drive. Windows 7 lets you mount one on the network anyway.

Very good overall. I'll update if anything changes.



EDIT 11/29/2009

The touchpad is still unresponsive after coming out of sleep. It's turning into a major issue. Hopefully a firmware update comes out.


EDIT 12/14/2009

Now I have a bad pixel, right in the middle of the screen. Always on green. I've knocked down the rating to 3 stars, and thinking about sending it back.