Hp Pavilion Dm3t

By Author: Kieth Gauvreau
Total Articles: 13
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Design
The HP Pavilion dm3t offers an attractive and durable brushed metal finish on its screen cover that resists smudges and scratches.The keyboard has a battery and power button with that area has subtle dotted patterns. The notepad has a wedge shape so it is 1.3 inches at the back and it measures 0.9 inches in the front and it is very easy to carry around as it weighs just 3.2 ounces.The lettering is very light and even the backlight seems inadequate. The touchpad measures 3.5×2.2 inches with mouse buttons.

CoolSense Technology
HP paid close attention to heat when designing the dm3t, battling warm temperatures with what it calls CoolSense technology.Using a built-in accelerometer, HP's Thermal Assistant can detect if the dm3 is being used on a desk or one's lap--the notebook gets jostled around more on the latter--and can automatically shift into maximum performance or maximum cooling mode.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard has a battery and power button with that area has subtle dotted patterns. The notepad has a wedge shape so it is 1.3 inches at the back and it measures 0.9 inches ...
... in the front and it is very easy to carry around as it weighs just 3.2 ounces. The keyboard is backlit with right amount of gap between keys and they are very comfortable to type and touch.The lettering is very light and even the backlight seems inadequate. The touchpad measures 3.5×2.2 inches with mouse buttons.

Performance
The Hp dm3t has 1.2GHz i3 Core processor scores 3,669 on PC Mark Vantage which is more than the ultraportable average but is less than the slim laptops. This laptop falls between Asus U33Jc priced at $999 and Toshiba T235 priced at $599. The notebook boots in 1minute and six seconds. It has 320GB hard drive at 7,200 rotations per minute. It is 3Mbps faster at transferring media files. The dm3t transcodes a 114MB mpeg4 file to AVI in a minute and fifty seconds which is 50 seconds slower than slim notebooks.

Graphics
The integrated Intel HD GPU offered merely average performance; its 3DMark Vantage score of 1,143 is nearly identical to the typical ultraportable. Even the Toshiba T235 scored about 100 points better. This version of the dm3t can handle mainstream games at low resolution; at 1024 x 768 and effects at their default setting, we averaged 50 frames per second in World of Warcraft. Maxing out everything dropped our average to just 7 fps.

Battery Life and Wi-Fi
Battery life on the HP Pavilion dm3t was pretty good for a CULV-based notebook with a 6-cell battery. In our tests with screen brightness reduced to 70%, wireless active and Windows set to a balanced profile, the dm3t stayed on for 6 hours and 30 minutes before automatically going into hibernation. The Broadcom 4313 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi chip returned decent, but not spectacular, results. At 15 feet from our access point, we saw throughput of 29.7 Mbps, which dropped to 22 Mbps at a 50-foot distance. Consumers can also opt for Qualcomm Gobi wireless broadband ($125), which includes HP Navigator.

Heat and Noise
The metal chassis helped spread out the heat from most areas reducing hotspots and overall just gradually warming up the entire chassis. The hottest measured spot was only 97 degrees Fahrenheit, which was during the middle of our second 3DMark06 benchmark.

Software and Warranty
HP Pavilion dm3t includes several apps and utilities on the dm3t that are quite handy. Aside from the Thermal Manager, there's HP's Power Manager, MediaSmart (a slick multimedia suite), and QuickWeb, an instant-on environment that lets you surf the web, chat, e-mail, and share photos without booting into Windows.HP also bundles the CyberLink DVD, even though the dm3t lacks an optical drive, as well as a 60-day trial of Symantec Norton Internet Security.The dm3t has a one-year limited warranty and 24/7 toll free customer support. Read more Notebook Review & Guide