I got this HP to replace my Toshiba 13.3" netbook that finally BSOD'd after 3 years. I was very happy with my Toshiba and honestly afraid I wouldn't like this HP, but it was time for an upgrade. My previous lappy before the Toshiba was an HP DV(don't remember what the numbers were!) and I have a HP desktop, so I'm familiar with the brand and durability.
A few things: I mainly use this computer for the internet. I almost always have 2 browsers open with 4-5 tabs open in each of them (I play a lot of those stupid flash games on facebook and may have 4 up at once without any issues) and have never had lagging, except when my comcast was wigging out. I watch a lot of youtube and have only once experienced a choppy video, after which my comcast promptly went down for 3 hours (pretty sure the computer didn't have anything to do with that!). I have installed Photoshop CS3 (I know, I'm outdated, but that program is freaking expensive!) and used it almost daily since getting my computer a couple weeks ago-no issues with that either.
So, the pros:
1. Quiet as can be. I haven't heard the fan or hard drive once.
2. Audio is incredible. Thank you Dr. Dre.
3. Super fast everything.
4. Full sized keyboard is comfortable and has a solid inlay so little nitty gritty things can't get down there easily. It took me literally 2 seconds to get the feel of the keyboard.
5. Screen is more than big enough (I thought it might seem too small-the 10" acer/asus ones are just teeeeny to me and I wondered if the extra inch would really make a difference-well it does.)
6. Very sturdy connection between screen and main unit
7. Very light/portable & amazing battery life. The estimate says 9.5I'm getting closer to 11 hours (I keep my brightness at the minimum).
8. Sturdy power cord connection.
the cons:
1. It is a finger-oil magnet. Not so much finger prints, but rather little finger pad shapes. I gave up trying to deal with that and now just ignore the back of my screen. I'm thinking of getting some vinyl design thing to put on the back of the computer to combat this issue.
2. "Gray" is a poor description (more the fault of Amazon than the computer, though)-on the Amazon page, in the HP description and on the HP site, it says "Finish: HP Imprint finish in charcoal" -I would say that's a lot closer to correct. It's not quite black, but nowhere near gray.
3. HP likes to give you a lot of extra crap software that you either don't need or don't want. I still haven't figured out how to turn some of it off, and I'm not sure I ever will. All I can suggest is closing everything out when you start the computer.
4. The webcam isn't fantastic. I don't know how it can be called "truevision HD" when the picture looks like my webcam from 2005.
If I could do a 4.5 review I would, but I've decided to round up.
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This is the second iteration of HP's dm1z 11" AMD powered netbook. The first one had great reviews, boasting excellent graphics for a netbook (even better than many low-cost laptops) and amazing battery life. The latest model, the dm1-4010us has a newer but similar processor and physical redesign.
While HP might not include a lot of 3rd party bloatware on their machines, they certainly have a lot of 1st party crap that the computer would run fine if not better without. As a computer science student, I have access to some free software from Microsoft. Luckily, that includes Windows 7 Home Premium. I tried to keep the computer stock, but the combination of excess software and four partitions (one recovery, one for HP's software, one for the operating system, one for the bootloader which is impossible to avoid) was too much to bear.
First, with stock software:
The computer was laggy at times. Boot time was slow and some programs took a long time to launch (also an affect of the 5400RPM hard drive). It comes with Norton Internet Security, which is totally useless since Microsoft has their Security Essentials software and is perfectly fine, and very quit. It just sits in the notification area and doesn't bother you unless something tries to get in, something has gotten in (i.e., YOU let something in), or it's doing a scheduled scan.
Beats Audio seemed cool at first, but it took me a few dozens times to adjust the sound to get it perfect. Beats Audio, to me, is essentially the "bass boost" button on old budget stereos.
HP bundles some software that's supposed to help with keeping the computer cool, connecting to networks, getting customer service, games, etc. I found all of that completely useless, since having the correct display driver will likely keep the fan going when it needs to, Windows has perfectly fine networking tools, customer service can be found by calling or emailing HP, or doing a simple web search.
You'll also need to upgrade the BIOS, and you'll need to do two in succession since it's had two updates since the product launched. The updates must be applied in order.
With a clean install of Windows 7:
It's important to download the WiFi driver and/or ethernet driver FIRST and store it on a USB flash drive before reformatting the hard drive and installing a retail copy of Windows 7. I didn't do that, so I had to install Ubuntu first (install, not use the live CD, because I had to install the WiFi driver there too, and it required a restart) and then save the driver to a USB flash drive.
Without any of HP's software, the computer was significantly smoother. Boot time was shortened, less memory was being used, and there's nothing like seeing a blank list under your "uninstall programs" control panel. Of course, it's necessary to download and install the display driver from HP, but that's where I would stop. Audio sounds perfectly fine (through headphones... more on that soon) without the Beats Audio software installed. Strangely, it seems to sound better without it installed at all over having it installed but not using it.
Hardware:
I love the sleek black look. The chiclet keyboard is great. But (here comes a shocker) the touchpad kind of sucks. Whether I use the Synaptics driver or the built-in Windows driver, it's not fun. Actually, I find it less frustrating when using the generic driver built in to Windows. The feel of the touchpad is weird, because it's textured. With the Synaptics driver installed, you can use two-finger scrolling or edge scrolling, pinch to zoom, rotate, and there's a little dimple on the top right of the touchpad that can be double tapped to disable the touchpad. Without the driver, it just works and tracks your finger movement; no scrolling, no disabling feature, no rotating.
The display is really nice. I actually really love the display. With the ATI driver installed, it will auto-adjust the brightness (sort of) based on colors on the screen. For instance, if you are viewing a black image, movie, web page, etc., and then switch to something white, the screen will dim a little bit. Colors look great, purples look purple (if you've ever seen a crappy display, purples look light blue and hurt the eyes) and blacks look black.
Video plays nicely, that includes 1080p. No problems with that. I'm able to play Portal 2, which defaults at native resolution with the following settings:
-Anti-Aliasing: None
-Filtering Mode: Bilinear
-Wait for Vertical Sync: Enabled (Double Buffered)
-Multicore Rendering: Enabled
-Shader Detail: Very High
-Effect Detail: Medium
-Model/Texture Detail: High
-Page Pool Memory Available: High
The game played well and looked good, but the framerate seemed pretty low (you can just tell). I think lowering a few of the "high"'s to "medium" would help.
The webcam is your standard ho-hum webcam. It'll work, people will see you, but it won't blow anyone's mind.
Speakers kind of suck. They're fine for system sounds, but you'll need speakers or headphones for music and video... but it's a laptop. Not even $1500 Apple laptops have incredible speakers. There's a tradeoff that must be made in favor of compact size.
As for weight, I guess it's average. It's no Ultrabook or MacBook AIr, and it's a tad heavier than some other netbooks, but those other netbooks are kind of cheap and cruddy. The dm1z feels sturdy and well built.
You know how a lot of Windows laptops have bumpy bottoms? There are bulges all over for the battery, hard drive, and other components. This one is totally smooth except for the feet at each corner. Also, the entire bottom plate comes off for access to the computer's innards. That means easy, painless memory and storage upgrades and replacements. My only complaint with the case (the lid and the palm rest, keyboard too actually) is how it holds onto oils. We humans will probably never stop secreting oils from our pores, and, unfortunately, some manufacturers will always forget that.
Ports:
On the left, an HDMI port (I hook mine up to a 32" 1080p TV and all is well) adjacent to a USB port, with the power input near the lid. On the right, an ethernet port near the lid, a VGA port for older monitors, two USB ports, a microphone jack and a headphone jack (two separate, not a combo-jack) and next to that is an SD card slot.
Battery:
Sometimes Windows will show that I have 7 hours left, other times it has shown 7:40, most times it will show 3:40. As I write this sentence and unplugged the power cable with a 100% charge, I hovered over the battery icon and it's displaying 5:30. I have brightness slightly below 50%, Zune open and playing music, Chrome is open with one tab, Microsoft Seucurity Essentials is hanging out in the notification tray. That's no where near the 7 or 8 hour battery life advertised, and it's not as good as last year's dm1z. However, before I reinstalled Windows, the computer had a pre-configured HP power plan. I'm sure I could tweak Windows' balanced plan to match HP's power plan and increase the battery life.
Conclusion:
HP's latest upgrade to its dm1z line is a good one. I really like the simplified deisgn over the previous model's silver and black color and unneccesarily fancy lid design. It's also nice to have buttons under the touchpad this time around. I wish battery life was as advertised, and I wish computer manufacturers would ease up on the crapware. You can buy a computer from Microsoft's online store and get one with no bloatware at all... a pure Windows experience. Overall, I like the computer, but if I wasn't on a budget, I would have purchased an 11" MacBook Air and dual-booted it with Windows. But for under $500, there aren't many viable options, and I think the dm1z is one of the best options out there in the price range.
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I really like this netbook; it's light, fast, great screen. It gets 3 stars because of the INCREDIBLE amount of crapware it came loaded with. After I cleaned it all out (which took hours) I got 20 gigs of my hard drive back.
There is the option, in the setup function, when booting, to restore to a clean image with drivers & operating system only BUT it failed three times. What a surprise. What a waste of my time. On principle, I will not be buying ANYTHING that HP has preloaded.
If you can put up with that (I'd almost pay more not to have to deal with this almost) then go ahead & buy it if you are a savvy user that can clean it out. Otherwise, be prepared to put up with a lot of aggravation at first.
UPDATE
Well, A year of ownership has decided me against buying any more HP laptops. This was my second try (the first didn't work out well, either).My wife and a friend were also seduced by this same model, and none of them have been problem free.
My issue: The "delete," left and right arrows do not work. I called, and after the usual going over a checklist with three people, they sent out a box and I shipped it in for service. Back in ten days very nice. I was impressed with the turn-around time. Fixed? No. Same problem. If they can't fix a simple mechanical problem like that, why bother to try again?
I'll use this till it dies or I can't stand it any more. HP is permanently off my shopping list. Too bad.
Honest reviews on HP Pavilion dm1-4010us (11.6-Inch Screen) Laptop- Gray
I had an HP dm9500 for several years. 17" was way too large and heavy as I started to travel a lot more. I bought a netbook, but it was way underpowered. It was extremely frustrating, even with max (2GB) RAM.
I saw that AMD was releasing the Fusion APU, and was waiting when HP released the DM1z. I didn't go for the first iteration, I never do, but waited to see the individual reviews from users. I ordered it at Thanksgiving 2011. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and it is exactly what I wanted.
I upgraded to max RAM (8GB)and the graphics performance is extremely good. I use Chrome and have 10-20 tabs open all the time, along with Word, Excel,Powerpoint, and Photoshop. It hasn't choked once. Switching between windows is fast, with no screen lag. Video rendering in Sony Vegas is not that fast, but the CPU is the weakest component in the machine. (Windows Experience Index is 3.9 based on the CPU. Game graphics and disk data transfer are in the 5.9 range. )
I love the tool-less access panel the bottom of the computer slides off and everything is easily accessible. It took less than 2 minutes to install the additional RAM.
It's not as light as the netbook was, but it is extremely light anyway. I can run around campus with it all day with no problems. Battery life is running over 7 hours on the HP power saver plan. I imagine that I can easily get the advertised 9.5 hours if I drop the screen brightness.
It runs cool as advertised, and the Beats Audio is fabulous with my headphones. Speakers are good for a small laptop. The screen is bright and surprisingly large compared to a 10" netbook. That extra 1.6" is really worth it. Keyboard is good key spacing makes it easy to touchtype. Trackpad is OK,especially with the dedicated buttons, unlike the first version, and I like the doubletap to turn it off. Build quality feels good and solid.
It came with a lot of programs but many were ones I use regularly, so it was good for me Evernote, Skype, Cyberlink Webcam software and Norton. It took very little time to get it up and running and everything installed.
I'd have given it a 5, but it's got no USB3 port. VGA and HDMI ports are good, given that I teach and sometimes need VGA for a projector and sometimes HDMI, depending on what equipment is in the lecture room.
Basically, it's exactly what I wanted, for the price I could afford at the time. If I had $1000 to spend, I would probably have gone for a Macbook Air and loaded Windows 7, but for the price, this is perfect.
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Background:
I was looking for a netbook that was small and light enough to be extremely portable, but powerful enough to play 1080p MKV files without hiccups. Expecting to pay over $600, I found this machine for under $500. After reading mixed reviews regarding high definition video playback, I decided to give it a shot.
First Impressions:
The unit is very sleek. It's been compared to a sports car, since its about as thick as a USB port towards the front, but slopes up slightly to the rear. It even has "Hewlett Packard" printed on its "rear bumper", reminding me of my Mustang. The monitor folds all the way back to 180 degrees, allowing me to stand the system vertically, balancing the front lip on my stomach while laying down and still get a great angle of the screen..something all of my other laptops couldn't do. The sound is surprisingly good for the size. I wasn't expecting much but thanks to "Beats Audio", the speakers pack a punch and get much louder than I thought they would. The battery life is pretty good. Obviously run-time will vary depending on usage and power settings, but so far I've been very pleased running it on full brightness and the "high performance" power option.
Upon my first couple days of use, I was slightly disappointed in the performance. For simple tasks like web browsing and word processing, it performed very well, but HD youtube and .mkv videos were choppy and I was starting to wonder if I should have spent another $150-200 on an i3 machine. However, after uninstalling much of the HP "bloatware" and configuring Flash & VLC Media Player to utilize the gpu, it felt like a new machine. Now I can stream 1080p videos over my 802.11n network with no problems! There's an extra memory slot to add another 4GB of RAM, and at some point I'll probably replace the HDD with an SSD, so the performance is only going to get better, but even as it is now it's performing admirably for what it is.
I have yet to try gaming, but will update the review when I can speak to its performance. Also I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Overall, I am very satisfied with my purchase. Sure, it's not the fastest computer, but it gets the job done for what I need and at this price point it's a no-brainer!
Pros:
Great value
Extremely portable
Capable sound
Cons:
Lots of "bloatware" that I had to uninstall for best performance
Fingerprint magnet
Windows Experience Index Scores:
Processor 3.9
Memory 5.8
Graphics 4.6
Gaming 5.9
Hard Disk 5.9
