The HP Pavilion dm3z is a 13.3-inch screen portable laptop targeted towards students and other consumers that need a laptop that’s easy to carry around and yet has a large enough screen and decent enough performance to easily get work done. The dm3z was recently released by HP along with the Pavilion dm3t. These two laptops are exactly the same in their design and build, but the dm3z has an AMD Neo processor and ATI graphics inside while the Pavilion dm3t has a Core 2 Duo processor and optional Nvidia graphics. This review will focus on the HP dv3-1030us stock configuration model on the HP website available for $599 at the current time.
The specifications of the HP dm3z under review are as follows:
- Model SKU: HP dm3-1030us Quick Ship model
- Processor: AMD Athlon Neo X2 Dual-Core 1.6GHz for Ultrathin Notebooks L335
- Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics with 128MB Display Cache Memory
- Hard Drive Storage: 320GB (7200RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
- Memory: 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 DIMM)
- Screen: 13.3” HP LED BrightView Widescreen (1366 x 768 resolution)
- Battery: 6-cell Lithium Ion
- Wireless: 802.11 a/b/g/n and built-in Bluetooth
- Ports: 4 USB ports, 1 Headphone out, 1 microphone-in, HDMI, 1-VGA port, 1 RJ-45 (Ethernet LAN), 5-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
- Optical Drive: None built-in, optional external
- Weight: 4.2 pounds without adapter
- Web Camera: Integrated HP Webcam and digital audio microphone
- Dimensions:
- Width: 12.83″
- Height: 0.96″ front / 1.23″ back
- Depth: 9.06″
- OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
- Price: $599.99 at HP.com
- Complete specs from HP: http://www.shopping.hp.com/shopping/pdf/vm073ua.pdf
HP dm3z unboxing
Here are a few pictures of the dm3z packaging and then out of the box with the included documentation.
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HP dm3z design
HP knows that it’s not just the technical specs that sells a laptop, looks are very important to today’s buyers as well. Thin design and an attractive outer finish make all the difference when buying a laptop, and the Pavilion dm3z hits the mark on this. The dm3z weighs around 4lbs and has a sloping thin design that is under an inch thin at the front. The case has what HP calls a “Modern Argento” brushed aluminum finish. This gives the dm3z a sleek and modern look, and the best part is that despite this the price tag starts at a low cost of $549.99.
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The dm3z does not have any bright and flashy lights around the keyboard area. In fact, there are no fancy touch sensitive media buttons with lights whatsoever like we saw on earlier Pavilion models. This gives the dm3z a clean look on top.
HP dm3z Construction and Weight
The Pavilion dm3z case is made of aluminum on the lid and around the keyboard while the ports area is a silver colored plastic molding. The case is very rigid and nowhere on the body can you find flex. The bottom of the laptop is strong as it is constructed of a magnesium alloy to help prevent any damages during drops. You can pick this laptop up using one hand on the corner and it will not bend and flex like is often true with cheaper laptops.
HP quotes the dm3z as weighing 4.2 pounds, I actually found it to be slightly lighter at 4.15 pounds. However, when you add in the power cord and brick the travel weight of this laptop rises to nearly 5 pounds.
 The dm3z weight without power cord is 4.15 pounds |
 Pavilion dm3z weight with power adapter and cord is 4.93 pounds |
HP dm3z Keyboard
The HP dm3z keyboard is full sized and what you’d be used to with a desktop keyboard, except for the function keys that is, which I’ll discuss soon. The keyboard is chiclet style, the same type you’ll see in MacBooks and is becoming more and more common in PC laptops. The keyboard has a firm feel and is easy to type on with good travel for each key. It took no time to adjust to using this keyboard, all keys are sized and placed as you would expect with the exception of the up/down arrow and PgUp/PgDn keys which are shrunken and located in a bottom right hard to reach spot of the keyboard.
One thing worth mentioning is that what are normally Function buttons on a PC laptop now act as the media buttons on the dm3z, so for instance to increase volume you simply push what is on a normal keyboard the F8 key. To get the volume increase key to act as a regular F8 button you have hold down Fn + F8. This design is the same as what Apple does on Macs where media function takes the precedence over Function shortcuts (such as F5 to refresh a browser).
HP dm3z Touchpad and Mouse Buttons
The touchpad on the dm3z is a decent size, though I’m not in love with the glossy metallic look because it tends to show dirt easily and, although stylish, reflects a bit too much for my tastes. I’d prefer a regular more textured touchpad. Out of the box the touchpad has a sticker overlaid on top with directions on how to use the swipes and pinching to zoom gestures, when I took this off a sticky residue remained making the touchpad hard to use but a wipe down with a wet paper towel took care of this issue.
The mouse buttons work fine, they’re a good size but the travel and feel is nothing to write home about – they simply get the job done. You can turn the touchpad on and off using a button placed right above the touchpad, this is a nice feature for those that prefer to have the touchpad turned off (so you can’t accidentally brush it and move the cursor) and use a mouse instead.
HP dm3z Ports
The HP dm3z has just the right number of ports and everything you would need and expect from a laptop of this size, below is a listing of those ports:
- 4 USB ports
- 1 Headphone out
- 1 microphone-in
- HDMI
- 1-VGA port
- 1 RJ-45 (Ethernet LAN)
- 5-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
Below is a picture of the left side of the dm3z laptop that includes (from back to front) the power jack, Ethernet port, VGA monitor out, HDMI port, 2 USB ports, 5-in-1 digital media card reader, headphone and microphone port.
Below is a picture of the right side of the dm3z laptop that includes a power switch, wi-fi on/off switch, 2 USB ports and the heat vent and fan.
It’s great that HP put an HDMI port in the dm3z so that you can easily output high-quality video. The four USB ports is more generous than the two or three I’ve seen on every other 13.3” laptop I’ve used, so kudos to HP on this too.
HP dm3z Screen
The dm3z has just one option for screen resolution, and that’s a 1366 x 768 WXGA 13.3” display with a 16:9 aspect ratio. This resolution is HD format friendly and is the same resolution as some LCD TVs offer, so your HD content can fill the screen with no annoying black bars. The 1366 x 768 resolution / 16:9 aspect ratio is a very standard resolution these days and will offer comfortable viewing for the average person, though some may crave a higher resolution to fit more on the screen, that’s not offered on the dm3z. The screen is an LED backlit variety and provides bright and vibrant colors. The screen brightness is great and horizontal viewing angles are decent, however colors quickly get washed out and distort if you do not look at the screen straight on with a 90-degree vertical viewing angle.
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 Above is a screen capture of the desktop wallpaper the dm3z comes with, it’s pretty cool. |
One thing to note is that the only option you have is for a glossy style screen which means the screen will reflect light, especially when dark colors are being viewed on the screen and there is a lot of light in the room.
HP dm3z Speakers
The integrated speakers on the Pavilion dm3z are Altec Lansing branded stereo speakers with SRS Premium sound. They are positioned on the front lower part of the laptop which results in them facing down. Despite this, the audio was surprisingly crisp and clear. The low-end bass sounds weren’t very good, but they never are on laptop speakers.
HP dm3z Heat & Noise
The fan noise on the Pavilion dm3z is louder than other low voltage processor laptops I’ve used, which is somewhat disappointing. In a quiet room the fan is certainly audible most of the time, especially when the CPU is above 30% utilization, if you’re in a room with ambient noise such as an air conditioner or TV you probably won’t hear the fan over the top of it, but if you’re hearing is sensitive then you will.
As I’ve found with many AMD based laptops, the d3mz gets warmer than Intel counterparts. The Acer Aspire 1410 I recently used was much cooler running than the dm3z, though granted it was a lower power processor. The left palm rest of the dm3z gets especially warm after a period of demanding tasks – when running a 3DMark06 benchmark the left side palm rest became rather uncomfortable and the CPU Temp went up to 60 Celsius (140F). Under normal usage the laptop does not get overly hot though and the CPU temp rests at around 51 (123F), and since most people will certainly not be using the dm3z for demanding 3D games I think the heat issue will be a minor one for most.
HP Pavilion dm3z optical drive (or lack thereof)
This section might not make sense given the fact the d3mz does not have a built-in DVD or Blu-Ray player, but I add it to make people aware that this laptop does not have a built-in optical drive. So many people buying laptops these days just assume a laptop comes with at least a DVD drive that they don’t even bother to look before buying. HP decided to leave the optical drive out and to offer an external DVD Rewritable optical drive for $99.99 instead. Personally I don’t need an optical drive so not having one does not bother me, but if you prefer a built-in DVD player then you need to look elsewhere for a laptop.
HP Pavilion dm3z Performance
The HP Pavilion dm3z is not supposed to be a performance power house that you can use for advanced gaming, instead it is sold as a portable laptop that will have good battery life and let you easily do all of your basic tasks while on the road and enjoy multimedia entertainment as well. I found the dm3z to be peppy in everyday tasks but when the system was stressed out with more demanding applications such as benchmarking tools the overall performance was in-line with low end Intel dual core processors, such as the Intel Pentium Dual Core in the Inspiron 14 I reviewed. The ATI 3200 graphics helped 3D performance with the dm3z, and the scores show the ATI 3200 is about 50% better performing than the Intel GMA 4500 graphics. In terms of real world usage, this meant that HD content on YouTube.com ran smoothly, and 480p content on Hulu.com was playable though in full screen mode it sometimes stuttered. I tried to watch Hulu 720p video, such as a Legend of the Seeker preview and it paused and stuttered horribly to the point it was not worth watching.
| HP dm3z (AMD Athlon Neo 1.6GHz, 4GB RAM, ATI 3200 graphics) | Acer Aspire 1410 (Intel 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo ULV SU3500) | Dell Inspiron 14 (Intel Pentium Dual Core, 3GB RAM, Intel GMA 4500 graphics) | Dell Studio 14z (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz, 3GB RAM, Nvidia 9400 graphics) | |
| PCMark Vantage | 2,339 | - | 2,437 | 3,520 |
| 3DMark 06 | 1,132 | - | 751 | 2,081 |
| PC Wizard 2008 Global Performance | 11,453 | 9,431 | - | - |
| Windows Experience Index | 3.5 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 4.8 |
Overall the performance is more than fine for everyday tasks students will do, but it is not desktop replacement style power nor a multimedia powerhouse.
 3DMark results |
 PCMark Vantage results |
WEI results |
 PCWizard CPUID results |
HP Pavilion dm3z Battery Life
To test the battery life I set the screen brightness to the middle (level 4) and left wireless on with an Internet Explorer 8 browser window open to a College Football box score on ESPN.com that refreshed the browser every 60 seconds. I figured this is pretty close to real world usage of somebody surfing the web. I unplugged the dm3z and started BatteryMon, a benchmark that tracks the time and battery usage and rundown over a given time, and after 4 hours and 12 minutes the Pavilion dm3z ran down to 5% battery remaining and went into hibernate. And so you can assume that you’ll get around 4 hours of battery life under conservative usage, while 3 – 3.5 hours is probably more reasonable under more demanding usage scenarios.
HP dm3z Recommendation and Conclusion
The HP dm3z is definitely priced to move with a starting price of $549 (and less if you look around) which gets you a very attractively designed 13.3” portable notebook that has decent performance. The build quality of the dm3z is most impressive for a laptop of this price point. The heat issues on the left hand palm rest of the dm3z might bother some, but it’s a minor complaint in the scheme of things. The port selection of the dm3z is very good, the screen good, speakers good and battery life decent — though not close to the range of 6 – 10 hours of battery some Intel CULV laptops are getting. I can’t find a whole lot wrong with the dm3z, and those issues that do come up can be justified by the amazing price and so I have no problem recommending this laptop.
HP dm3z Purchase Information You can buy the HP Pavilion dm3z direct from HP.com for the starting price of $549 with various configuration options.
Are you sure this laptop is plastic? HP says it IS Aluminium.
@Sheldon, it could be that the lid and around the keyboard has a thin metal composite molded on top of the plastic, but the surface does not get cold like a metal (I have a MacBook Pro that is made of solid aluminum and just tested the feel of the case on it and the dm3z in the same room) so I don’t think it could possibly be a solid metal — the low cost of the dm3z alone would make it cost prohibitive for HP to use a thick aluminum case like the MBP as that’s an expensive process. When HP says “aluminum finish” I’m guessing that they mean a thin aluminum sheet on top of a thicker plastic that actually serves as the skeleton for the case, so the finish does look metallic and it is true that the outer showing is metallic. Also, when you tap the case it doesn’t sound or feel the same as a MacBook Pro — it’s more of a plastic sound on the dm3z. The area where you see the ports is most definitely all plastic with a silver paint finish for accent. At the end of the day though the build is very good and the case solid, so I wouldn’t get too hung up on whether the case is 100% metal or a composite of metal and plastics, it gets the job done.
Hey, I was wondering 1) is the laptop too hot to keep on your lap when you are on the go, particularly when just using it for a word document? 2) do you think it is actually possible to squeeze out six hours out of it if you disable Wifi/Bluetooth, turn down brightness, and only use a word document? I am a writer/student and primarily need to take notes on it/write papers… so I’m really interested in it’s battery life in that context… Thanks!
very nice hands-on review, aj. i have a few questions though if you dont mind.
for everyday use, (home, including office or library) is the dm3 fan noise tolerable or bothersome?
2nd) would heat issue withstand everyday use (mostly web surfing and ms office use)?
do you have other recommendation that is better or near to dm3 to its price/spec/performance?
@Brandon. 1) No, it’s not too hot to keep on your lap when you’re just using it for simple stuff like Word. If you start watching hi-def video or trying to play games is when you might run into problems with it getting too hot to be comfortable in your lapt. It’d be tough to squeeze out six hours, but I bet if you set brightness to the absolute lowest level and turned off all wireless you could approach it. If battery life is the most important aspect to you, then Asus UL30 and Acer 3810 laptops are 13.3″ laptops that can easily achieve 9 hours and are worth a look.
@ricky. The noise isn’t that bad, especially if the dm3z is being used for your typical office application type of uses, the temperature will stay lower and therefore the fan will not have to rev up and get loud. A lot depends on how much ambient noise is in the room too, if you’re running an AC or heater, listening to music or have a TV on in the same room it’s doubtful you’ll hear the fan over it. If your room is fairly quiet, you will hear it, but it’s not vacuum cleaner loud or anything. In terms of where else to look for laptops like this in a similar price range, I’ll recommend the same as I did to Brandon. Asus UL30 and Acer 3810 laptops are 13.3″ laptops that compete with the HP dm3, though not quite as strong on the graphics front, they achieve better battery life and have comparable overall performance.
Hi AJ,
A question: I need a laptop for photo editing (primarily) with Adobe Lightroom, and video editing (secondarily, not hardcore) with Adobe Premiere Elements 7. I don’t do any gaming. Would this laptop work well for me? I’m not worried about hard drive size, as I have portable HDs for storage. Thanks
Hey AJ, the DM3 is an all-metal chassis. The Top of the lid and keyboard surround is aluminum, the bottom is Magnesium. Nice review, but you should really correct that bit; it’s one of the DM3′s biggest selling points.
…PS, you may have been confused because the aluminum is coated to avoid dings and scratches, unlike the MacBooks, which are just raw metal.
AJ, another professional reviewer (laptopmag.com) came down really hard on the touchpad, said it was very difficult to use. You seemed to have no problems after the paper towel wipedown. Is there anything else you can say about how well the touchpad works or doesn’t work? I’m looking to buy one of these things fully-loaded (including discrete graphics) from the HP store, but don’t want a crummy touchpad.
@Todd: it depends what you’re using within Lightroom, if you’re doing stuff such as using the Localized Adjustments tool, that can tax even high-end graphics machines, so it would definitely push the dm3z to its limits and your experience may be a frustrating one. However, Adobe Lightroom minimum system specs are the following:
* Intel Pentium 4 processor
* Microsoft Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise
* 1 GB of RAM
* 1 GB of available hard disk space
* 1024×768 display
* CD-ROM drive
And the dm3z definitely exceeds those, so for most purposes Lightroom would run just fine on the dm3z, but the experience may lag now and again when you use the most demanding tools within Lightroom.
@Adam: ok, after further evaluation it seems you’re right and I’ll adjust the review as such. Most of my reluctance to believe the case is fully aluminum is due to the low price, but if HP says it’s so and others are validating this then I stand corrected.
@Jeff: I don’t think the touchpad is as bad as the author of that review made it sound, “fighting the touchpad” would indicate it’s nothing but a battle to use, and I don’t find that to be the case. In my opinion the shiny surface looks nice (when it’s clean) but in use it is just mediocre. I think what the laptopmag author is referring to is that the touchpad somehow feels different depending on the state off your skin, for instance, when my fingers are dry the touchpad is more “sticky” than when my fingers are more sweaty and oily (gross, I know) and they glide across. I found that adjusting your finger pressure helps the most, instead of pushing down hard and creating more resistance and dragging your finger across the touchpad, a light sweeping motion worked better. I have not had any issues with the touchpad being non-responsive or lagging due to touchpad sensitivity or driver issues etc., it’s just the feel of the texture and feel of the touchpad you may have to adjust to a bit.
Thanks AJ! That is the best explanation of the touchpad that I’ve read so far.
I have one question about this HP dm3z laptop!
Can you open the lid of the laptop without hold down the bottom part of the laptop? Or you need to use both hands to open the lid (in other words, while pulling up the lid with one hand, you have to use the other hand to hold down the laptop)?
Thanks!!
Can you please post the breakdown for the pcmark vantage scores.
Thanks!
Just as a note, if you had stuttering issues with youtube and hulu it is not a graphics adaptor issue and is not a valid measure of said adaptors performance. At the moment Adobe Flash (Which is how youtube and hulu both display their videos) relies totally on the CPU for processing, which of course means it’s going to be lacking on any low power laptop/netbook such as this.
Just thought you might want to correct that in your review and do a proper GPU test as it’s a little misleading.
@Tom: No, you need to hold down the base of the laptop to open the lid, if that wasn’t the case it would mean either the hinges are weak and the lid flops open easily or the base off the laptop is very heavy and enough to anchor down resistance from the lid opening, and you wouldn’t want either of these really
@rafael: a screenshot of all the benchmarks is now posted, for some reason pcmarkvantage did not give breakout scores, I’m guessing it’s because I purchased the basic edition.
@TheD: thanks for clarifying that, hopefully the 3DMark score is enough to give people an idea of graphics performance, I’ll try a different test when time allows me to.
This was a very helpful review thank you. I was wondering if you could tell me if I could play games that are a couple years old or not top of the line games on the dm3z such as spore? thank you!
AJ, do you think a [HP dm3t (Intel) with Processor SP9300 (2.26GHz, 6M Cache) w/ 512MB NVIDIA GeForce G105M, 4GB DDR3, 250GB 5400rpm Hard Drive] for ~$850 is a good buy?
Do you think with Intel it won’t heat up as much? and with the 5400RPM (instead of 7200RPM), it won’t be as loud?
Thanks!
@Jason, I’m getting the dm3t in about 2 – 3 days time to do a comparison to the dm3z so stay tuned and I’ll let you know.
Thanks for the review. Looks like the diligent commenters already took care of most of the issues.
Although, when trying to stream HD video, do you think that stuttering may not be an issue of the CPU or the GPU, but your internet connection?? It would seem inappropriate to put that in the PC performance section, unless relating it to the actual bottleneck, which maybe the wifi card is the issue. Was the video adequately buffered and still stuttered, because Im willing to bet a 720P Bluray disc plays just fine. Does a desktop replacement laptop under the same internet conditions perform the same? I know my Thinkpad T400 with Intel P8400 and discrete graphics and Intel 5300 WLAN-N experiences the exact same issue with streaming HD video when using my home broadand wireless router. It may also be to the website itself and how much traffic it has.
If you stil have it a battery rundown without wireless and perhaps 1/3 brightness would be great to know. I think it would reach over 5 hours then, and these LEDs do great even at low brightness. And did you try it with the non-Windows fast boot web GUI? That boots in like 5 seconds and probably uses less battery than Windows. Looks like a great feature to get some comments on.
You also still have a line which states although it looks like aluminum its actually plastic, which is bothersome, if you could modify that.
Look forward to your DM3t review, hopefully similar, CULV with IGP to compare. Although seeing what the decked out versions of either could do would be neat.
One thing many consumers might be interested in is the ATI4330 offering in the DM3z which is better than the Nvidia G105 offereing in the DM3t, and does it have switchable graphics to save some battery?
Hi AJ great review–
did you try to play hd video 720p/1080p?
Do you know how does it compare vs atom/ion about GPU?
Thanks
Where’s the dm3T review man?
Hi, you can find that posted here now: http://www.studentbuyingguide.com/2009/11/hp-dm3t-review/ it sounds a lot like the dm3z review as I just changed the parts that are pertinent to the differences of the laptops.
Decent review. And nice handling of comments. Well done.
Does the dm3z have an integrated microphone or do I have to purchase a microphone as well. I’m not that savvy when it comes to purchasing computers. Thanks!!
@Ali, yes, the dm3z has an integrated microphone next to the webcam.
Hi. I’m currently looking for a laptop and the HP dm3z is in one of my choices so I was wondering whether should I buy it. I use the laptop for school stuff,watch videos and photoshop. So will you recommend this laptop?
Great review, thanks! Just one question: I read somewhere that the dm3z would be able to switch from discrete to integrated graphics when running on battery only, thus getting an even longer battery life. I don’t see it mentioned anywhere..?
Im still thinking about getting this. It didnt look as impressive at the store . But then again the demo was all banged up. There’s a youtube video of a guy pushing his finger against the keyboard tray and the tray flexes like cheap plastic. What is that all about. I’m talking about the frame that covered the keyboard…can u verify that? It shouldn’t flexes like a cheap plastic.
I was just wondering if you tried playing any games on this and how they worked? I want a very portable laptop but also would like to be able to play only one game on it when I have it hooked up to my larger monitor at home. Do you think it could handle something like the new call of duty game?
hey. im looking at this laptop and i saw it in walmart and i loved the feel of it! ill be starting highschool next fall and i write so i was considering buying this. so i was wondering if this would be a good laptop for me. besides word and maybe itunes and the occasional web surfing i wouldnt use it for much else, any tips?
hey Drew, the dm3z or dm3t would be just perfect for your needs if you’re considering that. It’s great for students due to the portability, plus it’s durable and stylish.
Is the dm3z actually able to switch from discrete to integrated graphics when running on battery only (as mentioned in some articles) thus getting an even longer battery life. I don’t see it mentioned anywhere… Please clarify. Thanks!
I was considering the dm3z as a dedicated under-set box to send Hulu content to my HDTV via HDMI when I found this review. When I saw the marginal performance you experienced with Hulu I was a little discouraged. But then I found an article in the 11/17 Laptop magazine which compared Hulu performance using Flash 10.1 vs 10.0 and earlier players. Apparently 10.1 is able to offload as much work as possible to the GPU if available. The results were impressive: an HP Mini 311 displayed 720p at a solid 24fps using FP 10.1, compared to barely running at all with 10.0. Have you had a chance to re-test either dm3 model using this update? (Released mid-November, it wouldn’t have been available for the above review.)
Also, you noted much better Hulu results in your dm3t review. Do you happen to know which Flash Player version was installed at that time?
My apologies for the previous entry — I didn’t realize at the time that Flash Player 10.1 is still in public beta. I should have researched that first. However it will be interesting to see how this version affects video performance on netbooks and low-end laptops, when it goes into general release.
Is the dm3z actually able to switch from discrete to integrated graphics when running on battery only (as mentioned in some articles) thus getting an even longer battery life. I don’t see it mentioned anywhere… Please clarify. Thanks!
Hi, one thing that you might want to rectify in oyour review: the heat issue is worse than you initially said. Specially while on AC, the notebook gets unconfortably hot (from 104F to 108F), when watching youtube videos (doesn’t have to be HD ones, regular videos cause just the same problem). The problem is worsened because the said temperatures can be measured in the left palm rest area, which is horrible because if doesn’t allow you to do normal usage (writing + music/occasional youtube video). Even when the laptop is on battery, the area is still warm, specially on the underside of it. It seems that the issue is because the hdd is in that place (a 7200rpm one), and hp screwed up in their project with this notebook, which is a shame, because it’s a real nice piece of hardware. I’ve read the dm3t review, and really hope that the heat issues there are resolved. I’m returning mine, i’ll try to look for the intel version.
hey, I’ve already got one of these things on order so theres no turning back now i guess, but ive heard some negative things about the touch pad on this laptop. Seems like the paper towel worked well for you but i read somewhere that turning it off when you put the computer to sleep then turning it back on when you use it again fixes the problem..do you know if thats true?
My complaint was regarding some stickiness on the touchpad and so turning it on and off wouldn’t resolve that. I think what you’re referring to might be some type of driver issues, I’ve heard of touchpad issues on the HP tm2t and Envy 13 and 15 but not so much with the dm3z or dm3t.
AJ,
I have the dm3z. Is there a utility out there to increase the fan speed on this laptop? It gets awfully hot. I am using Windows 7/64bit.
Know if the works well with Slingbox? Quality ok when you connect to TV? BTW, good review.
Hi, im considering getting this laptop i was a little skeptical at first but after your review im leaning towards it more. But is the heat issue as bad as Savio mentioned?
The case is made of aluminum. The “heel” rests get cold if the computer sits dormant/off. An also has the sound/scratch as a metal would.. Just saying.
Other then that, I have no complaints, except one
Does any ones mouse pad sometimes after logging in, get stuck on zoom? Mine does, an it requires me to restart the computer.