- HP dm3-1132TX Front View
dm3-1132TX Quick Summary
Pros
- Only 1.9kg
- Excellent battery life (around 6 hours of real world usage)
- Exceptionally slim form factor
- Switchable graphics (nvidia for graphics intensive apps and intel integrated graphics for saving power)
- Altec Lansing speakers
- 4 x USB ports, HDMI, card reader in a slim package
- HP ProtectSmart hard drive protection system
- 3 years Pick Up & Return Warranty at only $49
Cons
- Glossy/Chrome areas prone to fingerprints
- 10/100 instead of Gigabit Ethernet
- Windows 7 Home Premium instead of Professional
For any sales enquiries, email us at sales@netroworkz.com.
Design
The HP Pavilion dm3-1132TX is a really neat looking machine from HP’s Thin & Light Series which was sold at the IT Show 2010.
It seems the hype these days has been very much on netbooks due to its portability. Coupled with internet access through WiFi or HSDPA almost anywhere, netbooks are almost must-haves for the connected generation if not for one factor – performance. Yes, the trouble with netbooks, is that performance is rather lacklustre. Try opening an average-sized excel file and the lag is very noticeable.
For users who yearn for both performance and a decent form factor, don’t fret. This is where the brushed metal chasis dm3 really shines. At only 1.9 kg, you get a full-performance processor (as compared to the atom), a discrete graphics card and a 500 GB 7200 rpm hdd. The 13.3″ screen is also nice thing to have considering most pages on the web have more content these days. Most other lighter laptops have 12″ and smaller screens. Let’s not even mention about the 10″ ones on netbooks, which needs you to squint your eyes and get more wrinkles faster – unless you have very good eyesight.
- HP dm3-1132TX Brushed Metal Chasis
Being classified as a “Thin & Light” model by HP, this notebook would be very useful for the road warrior. At less than 1.9 kg, with a thickness of only 2.43 cm at its slimmest point, carrying this notebook around the whole day would be a lot easier than the usual notebooks at the same price point.
Despite the slimness, HP didn’t have to sacrifice the usual ports like the Macbook Air.
- HP dm3-1132TX Right View
As you can see, on the right side, we have the power socket, RJ-45, VGA out, HDMI, 2 x USB, Card Reader, Audio Out and Microphone jack.
- HP dm3-1132TX Left View
Over at the left, we have the power button, wireless button, 2 x USB ports, air vent and lastly, the kensington lock slot.
- HP dm3-1132TX Webcam
The integrated webcam and microphone makes the dm3 a nice tool for web conferencing.
- HP dm3-1132TX Island Style Keyboard
The island style keyboard, first seen on the Macs is used in the dm3. The keys are well separated, making typing relatively easy.
- HP dm3-1132TX Chrome Touchpad
The chrome touchpad looks really cool here but expect to see your fingerprints frequently on it. The good thing is, it is easier to clean and doesn’t get worn out like the rubber ones on some other notebooks.
- HP dm3-1132TX Key Features
Features, Performance and Battery Life
Apart from the usual stuff the most other laptops come with, the dm3 has additional features to boast about.
- HP dm3-1132TX Switchable Graphics
For a start, the dm3 comes with a switchable graphics chip which gives you the best of both worlds – discrete graphics performance and battery-saving integrated graphics!
In the past, you could only have one or the other. Choosing a discrete graphics card for your graphics applications/games would mean sacrificing a significant amount of battery life – sometimes as much as an hour or so! On the other hand, choosing an integrated graphics chip would be having to do without your games, or suffering poorer performance for your graphics-intensive applications.
- HP dm3-1132TX Nvidia Hybrid Graphics
The Nvidia Hybrid Graphics achieves this by switching to the required graphics chip when needed. When running on the AC adaptor, the laptop runs on the discrete graphics card. If you were to plug out the AC adaptor, it switches automatically to the Intel integrated graphics chip.
In doing so, a small notification bubble pops up at the taskbar, notifying you of the switch in graphics mode. You could also customize this setting if need be i.e. you might want to run on the Nvidia chip regardless of whether it is running on battery or the AC adaptor. The default setting is ideal for most users though.
Next, the huge 500 GB hard disk spins at 7200 rpm (revolutions per minute) instead of the usual 5400 rpm one. This means that loading time as well as file transfer times are significantly faster. This is something that consumers often overlook when looking at the specifications on a brochure, focusing on the size of the hard disk only. Size matters, but speed matters as well.
- HP dm3-1132TX 3D Drive Guard
The 3D Drive Guard feature has been around for quite a while now but for those who are not aware, this is an active system that protects your hard drive. A built-in accelerometer measures any movement in the 3 dimensions and parks the disk head, which protects the hard drive in the event of any impact. Quite a neat feature which keeps your data safe – though I’d still recommend that you keep your data backed up on a regular basis.
- HP dm3-1132TX Multitouch
These days, multitouch seems to be everywhere – look, it is even available on this laptop now!
- HP Recovery Manager
The HP Recovery Manager allows you to create recovery discs, which is the first thing you should do. The recovery discs allow you to restore your system back to its factory default state when needed.
- HP Support Assistant
For the non IT-savvy consumers, HP provides a utility called the Support Assistant that helps users to maintain and troubleshoot their laptop, which I think is a good feature to have. At least they won’t get overcharged by rogue technicians who ask for an arm and a leg just to do some plain ‘ol defragmentation.
- LightScribe Control Panel
If you fancy making customized labels on your CD-Rs, the optical drive that comes with the dm3 sports the LightScribe logo. This means that you can etch labels directly onto your LightScribe discs using the drive’s laser beam. You can check out www.lightscribe.com for more info.
- HP dm3-1132TX Battery Life
Now, for the most important thing in a laptop (IMO), the battery life. As you can see above, using BatteryBar, the full lifetime was estimated at 6 hours and 33 minutes. Not bad at all for such a slim and decent performing laptop. This reading was taken over a few cycles, so I’d say that it’s fairly accurate. Of course, as with all things in Life, your mileage might vary, especially if you’re a hardcore gamer. But for the average user, that’s a good gauge of how long you can hog a seat at CoffeeBean or Starbucks before your battery juice or your cup of latte runs dry.
Performance wise, the laptop feels fairly quick – after all, it’s a Core2Duo at 1066 Mhz FSB coupled with a 7200 rpm hard drive. I have included the Windows Experience Index here for your reference.
Conclusion
For a laptop at S$1299, this is a very decent buy. Of course, some might compare it with the Intel core i3 laptops at that price point but the performance doesn’t differ much for day to day usage. Further, the purpose of getting a laptop is to be mobile and in considering that, 2 factors should be of the highest priority – battery life and weight. For a slim laptop that packs more than 6 hours of battery life with such performance, I would say if you need it, get it here. By the way, it costs only another S$49 to upgrade to the 3-year Pick Up and Return Warranty (yes, HP will pick up the item from your home and have it delivered back to you should there be any warranty claims).
Specifications
| System Features | |
| Operating system | Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 32-bit |
| Processor | Intel® Core™2 Duo SP9300 2.26 GHz 6M Cache/25W TDP/1066 MHz FSB |
| Memory | |
| Standard Memory | 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3 1066 MHz |
| Maximum Memory | up to 8 GB DDR3 memory |
| Storage | |
| Internal Drive | 500 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive 7200 rpm |
| Optical Drive Type | LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±RW with Double Layer Support (External) |
| Graphics | |
| Display Size | 13.3” High-Definition LED HP BrightView Widescreen Display |
| Display Resolution | 1366 x 768 |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA GeForce G 105M 512MB dedicated |
| Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family | |
| Expansion features | |
| Ports | 4 USB 2.0, 1 HDMI, 1 VGA port, 1 RJ-45, 1 headphone-out, 1 Microphone |
| Memory Card Device | 5-in-1 integrated Card Reader for SD/MMC/MS/MSP/xD |
| Media Devices | |
| Webcam | HP Webcam with Integrated digital Microphone |
| Audio features | Altec Lansing® speakers – SRS Premium Sound |
| Input Devices | |
| Pointing device | Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical Scroll Up/Down pad |
| Keyboard | Full size island-style keyboard |
| Communication | |
| Network interface | Integrated 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN |
| Wireless technologies | 802.11b/g/n WLAN, Bluetooth® wireless networking |
| Dimensions & Weight | |
| Product weight | 1.893 kg |
| Product dimensions (WxDxH) | 32.6 cm (L) x 23.0 cm (W) x 2.43 cm (min H) / 3.0cm (max H) |
| Power | |
| Power supply type | 65 W AC Power Adapter |
| Battery type | 6-cell Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery |
