What do you guys think of this laptop? (with specs)

[Sylon04]

I built myself a custom laptop on the HP website. Its a thin and light ultra portable. I need something that I can travel with easily, that isnt super expensive, has a good and fast processor, and has no more than a 13" screen (personally I wanted an 11" or 12" screen, but they just dont exist with a 2.0GHz+ processor) . My current laptop is a 14" beast POS that is over 5 years old with a processor weaker than most netbooks. Its on its death bed, so I need a replacement. I haven't pulled the trigger on buying this yet, wanted to hear your thoughts on it.


I went with the new HP Pavilion dm3t, custom built with these specs:


Operating system - Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (opted for this because I have it at home already in case something happens in the future)

Processor and Graphics - Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor SP9300 (2.26GHz, 6M Cache) with 512MB NVIDIA GeForce G 105M (fastest, most powerful processor offered on this model)

Memory - FREE Upgrade to 3GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 2GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) (is this enough memory?)

Hard drive - FREE Upgrade to 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

Display - 13.3" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)

External optical drive - External LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer (an internal drive isnt available with this model)

Networking - Wireless-N Card

Primary battery - 6 Cell Polymer Battery

Productivity software - Microsoft(R) Works 9.0 (I have Microsoft Office at home)



I didnt want the Envy 13, the processor isnt fast enough and its way too expensive. Same thing with most Sonys. I need something that is super thin that can fit in my camera bag better than the one I have now. I was also looking at the Macbooks, but this is a lot cheaper in price. The Macbooks look great and are great on paper, but they are so expensive, and so are the accesories that go with them. I'm not ruling them out just yet, but I want to see cheaper alternatives.

[damen]

I dont like HP laptops. Every one christina or her dad have had has broken in a very short amount of time

[áÜß]

i think not having an internal DVD drive kills it's portability. are you really going to carry a drive with you to like the airport to watch DVD's while traveling and stuff?

[Sylon04]

i think not having an internal DVD drive kills it's portability. are you really going to carry a drive with you to like the airport to watch DVD's while traveling and stuff?


In today's day and age, not really. I only buy Blu-Ray movies now, and 9 times out of 10 they come with the digital copy of the movie on a 2nd disc. With a 320GB HDD, throwing a couple movies on that would work just fine, would do the same thing if movies were bought off iTunes. If I wanted to watch DVD's on a plane, I would have to carry the DVD's with me too. An external disc drive isnt that big (especially the one for this), so if Im already carrying movies with me, an external drive isnt going to be much more of a burden then those DVDs already are.


Even on the laptop I have now, I can't remember the last time I used the built-in disc drive.

[áÜß]

thats fine then, for me i'd have to have a blue-ray drive to make it worth my while

[Sylon04]

thats fine then, for me i'd have to have a blue-ray drive to make it worth my while


It used to be offered as an option but now its not anymore. Weird.

[Bob808]

Sony & Asus make small laptops, look into them as well. I've also had problems HP desktops and laptops, but never with an Asus.

[Sylon04]

Sony & Asus make small laptops, look into them as well. I've also had problems HP desktops and laptops, but never with an Asus.


Both are too expensive for the hardware they offer. Already looked. And if their hardware and prices are decent, then they lack in other areas, like overall size being too big, battery life being miserable, etc.