The HP Pavilion dm3t 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 dm3t was recently released by HP along with the Pavilion dm3z. 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. If you’re interested in the HP dm3z, check out the earlier review I did for that. This review will focus on a customized HP Pavilion dm3t purchased from HP.com and available starting at $599 at the current time.
The specifications of the custom HP dm3t under review are as follows:
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1.3GHz, 3M Cache)
- Graphics:Intel GMA 4500MHD
- Hard Drive Storage: 250GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
- Memory: 3GB 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
- 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: $699.99 at HP.com as configured
HP dm3t 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 dm3t hits the mark on this. The dm3t 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 dm3t a sleek and modern look, and the best part is that despite this the price tag starts at a low cost of $599.99.
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The dm3t 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 dm3t a clean look on top.
HP dm3t Construction and Weight
The Pavilion dm3t case is made of aluminum on the lid and around the keyboard while the ports area is a silver colored plastic molding to blend in with the aluminum case. 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 dm3t 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 dm3 weight without power cord is 4.15 pounds |
 Pavilion dm3 weight with power adapter and cord is 4.93 pounds |
HP dm3t Keyboard
The HP dm3t 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 dm3t, 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 dm3t Touchpad and Mouse Buttons
The touchpad on the dm3t is a decent size, though I’m not in love with the glossy metallic look because it tends to show dirt and greasy fingerprints easily and, although stylish, reflects a bit too much for my tastes. I’d prefer a regular more textured touchpad. Unfortunately the glossy finish also makes the touchpad in general quite hard to use. The finger does not glide across it very easily, especially if your fingers are dry. The multi-gestures (pinching to zoom) were also hard to use and would often kick-in when I didn’t intend them to. In the end I had to disable all of the added multi-gesture features to have a usable experience.
Notice the greasy fingerprint build-up on the touchpad
The mouse buttons are a good size but their feel is nothing to write home about. They’re stiffer than I’d prefer, it takes a good push to get them in and register a click, and the positioning is somewhat odd, it seems like they should be lower down. 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. Frankly, you’d be doing yourself a huge favor by getting a travel mouse, the touchpad and mouse buttons are by far the weakest part of this laptop.
HP dm3t Ports
The HP dm3t 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 dm3t 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 dm3t 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 dm3t 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 dm3t Screen
The dm3t 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 dm3t. The screen is an LED backlit variety and provides bright and vibrant colors. The screen brightness is good 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. Below are a couple of pictures that show the dm3t with the screen view straight on and another with the screen tilted back and the colors inverting:
 HP dm3t straight-on perpendicular viewing angle |
 HP dm3t with screen tilted back viewing angle, notice the color inversion |
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.
Notice the reflection of the light on the screen due to the glossy finish
HP dm3t Speakers
The integrated speakers on the Pavilion dm3t 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 volume was not particularly loud nor were the low-end bass sounds good, but rarely are such things decent on laptop speakers and a good set of headphones are recommended to fill in the gaps there.
HP dm3t Heat & Noise
When I reviewed the HP dm3z laptop with an AMD processor I was disappointed with the amount of heat that built up and as a consequence the noise that the fan created. However, I’m happy to report that the dm3t did not suffer this same problem. The Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz processor literally sips power and is still able to perform well. Here is a screenshot of the temperature readings for the dm3t under normal usage:
When using the Pavilion dm3z the processor temperatures would rest at 51 under normal usage and go up to 60 Celsius under stress, but the warmest the dm3t with the SU7300 got was in the 40 degrees Celsius range when running some benchmarks. Because of the lower overall temperatures on the dm3t the fan noise was less and there was greater comfort in using the dm3t on your lap. The better power efficiency and cool running of the Core 2 Duo low voltage processor also contributed to a far superior battery life, but more on that in the battery life section.
HP Pavilion dm3t Performance
As far as overall performance of the HP Pavilion dm3t with the 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo, though it was not staggeringly fast or enough power for serious gaming, it’s certainly good enough to power you through everyday productivity applications such as email, office and of course web surfing with zero slowdown. Although the dm3z I used had a faster clockspeed 1.6GHz dual core processor, the Core 2 Duo actually outperformed it in benchmarks and it also felt faster. The dm3z did score higher on graphics benchmarks thanks to its ATI 3200 graphics while the dm3t I have has integrated Intel GMA 4500 graphics.
If you read the review of the dm3z you’ll recall I mentioned that the Hulu 720p video Legend of the Seeker preview I ran stuttered horribly on the dm3z. I tried this same video on the Pavilion dm3t with the SU7300 processor and it ran flawlessly, even in full screen, with no stuttering, slowdown or artifacts whatsoever. That’s a real testament to the Core 2 Duo processor.
Below are some comparison benchmarks for the dm3t versus the dm3z and some other laptops. You’ll notice that the 3DMark06 score and Windows Experience Index (WEI) is lower for the dm3t, these are both due to the fact the graphics card for the dm3t is less powerful and the WEI score takes the lowest score and uses that as a base performance measure. The overall system performance scores for PCMark Vantage and PC Wizard were measurably higher on the dm3t over the dm3z.
| HP dm3t (Intel SU7300, Intel GMA4500 graphics) | 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 | 2,658 | 2,339 | - | 2,437 | 3,520 |
| 3DMark 06 | 708 | 1,132 | - | 751 | 2,081 |
| PC Wizard 2008 Global Performance | 14,169 | 11,453 | 9,431 | - | - |
| Windows Experience Index | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 4.8 |
Overall the performance for the dm3t more than fine for everyday tasks students will do, but it is not desktop replacement style power nor a multimedia powerhouse. I highly recommend uninstalling all the bloatware HP loads on the system to improve performance, things like the HP update advisor, Wild Tangent games and various other annoying software applications that want you to pay to use them. If you have the competence level, the best way to get the fastest performing machine is to do a clean install of Windows 7.
Below are screenshots of the benchmarks I ran, just to backup the written results!
 3DMark results |
 PCMark Vantage results |
 PCWizard CPUID results |
HP Pavilion dm3t Battery Life
To test the battery life I set the screen brightness to the middle (level 4) and left wireless on and forced the laptop screen to remain on. I did some web surfing while unplugged for a couple of hours and at that time the battery still showed 75% remaining. I then went to bed leaving the laptop on and used BatteryMon to record the battery rundown and time when the laptop finally went into sleep. I was astounded to find that the dm3t did not go into a forced hibernation until after 8 hours and 49 minutes of being unplugged. Needless to say this trounces the 4 hours and 12 minutes I got on the dm3z configuration I had. That’s over twice as much battery life using the same battery and under very similar testing scenarios!
HP dm3t Recommendation and Conclusion
The HP dm3t price is very fairly priced with the starting price of $599. I prefer the dm3t over the dm3z due to the better battery performance and lower amount of heat, but the cheaper price tag and ATI graphics on the AMD configuration might appeal more to some people, it depends on your wants and preferences. The port selection of the dm3t is very good, the screen decent, speakers good and battery life superb. I’m a big fan of the Intel CULV processors thanks to their good performance and low power usage. Outside of the lousy touchpad, I can’t find a whole lot wrong with the dm3t, so if you’re on the fence for ordering the dm3t I’d say go ahead and jump over it!
looks good man, i just ordered one with the 128gb SSD and the Nvidia 105 GPU 4gb of RAM and an extra battery using that $200 off coupon
looking forward of nearly 20hrs of battery uptime
hey AJ. would adobe lightroom and photoshop CS4 run better on the dm3t with the G105m graphics as compared to the dm3z? i was comparing the SU7300 model against the SP9300 model and i’m sort of stuck. my main concerns are battery life as well as performance. having a good balance of both would be the best.
leonard, according to this article on apcmag http://apcmag.com/adobes_new_cs4__finally_exploits_the_true_power_of_graphics_cards.htm the author recommends choosing Nvidia over ATI for its known better performance with OpenGL grgaphics
As far as the processor, if budget is no concern go with the faster SP9300 processor, it will tend to drain the battery a little faster so you might get say 20 – 30 mins less battery life. However, if the extra $100 is a budget breaker then you’ll do fine with the SU7300.
Where is the $200 off coupon Adidas4275 was talking about up there? AJ, did you mention any applicable coupon in this write-up that I didn’t see? I love this review but already put in an order for the dm3z but would love to cancel that and order this Intel-based one….4hrs compared to 8hrs battery life is a big deal for me. Thankks…any applicable coupon will help this student out.
That coupon expired a couple of weeks ago and was in a separate post I made, now and again HP issues coupon codes to save money. If you wait there might be another coupon soon. There’s also an HP Student discount that can get you 8% off:
http://www.studentbuyingguide.com/2008/05/hp-student-discount-guide/
I just bought a customized dm3t with the su7300 processor and 4500mhd graphics, 4gb of ram, 320gb 7200rpm hdd, and an extenal lightscribe cd.dvd drive. I stuck with a wireless-g card, and got 4 years of lojack for laptops. I paid $709 before tax. The biggest difference is the student discount hp offers through their hp academy — it saved me an extra $80 on top of the $150 instant rebate, plus some random $10 coupon I found — SV6462. I haven’t gotten the laptop yet, but I thought it was worth the extra $$ to buy an intel processor that is leaps and bounds ahead of the amd. If you’re looking into the dm3t, consider filling out the hp academy form – it takes a whopping minute, just make sure to use a .edu e-mail address when you register. Dm3t usually retails at $800 with a weaker su4100 processor, so try the customize options with hp.com and you might save even more on a better computer. Happy hunting
GREAT REVIEW! Very clear and extremely helpful. I tried the HP web site and am confused. When I do a custom config, and then review the result, the screen resolution shows 1280 x 800, not the 1366 x 768. I did as Chat session with HP and the sales rep said that the higher resolution is only available with the quickship configuration, not the custom configuration. My pr4oblem with the quickship configuration is that it shows a SU4100 and not the SU7300 (or better) processor that I would like to order. Can you clairify any of this for me?
I know this computer is not designed for a lot of gaming, but is it still possible? Will it lag if i am playing online? What specifically makes this not a good choice for someone looking for a very portable laptop and wants to play for example call of duty modern warfare 2 online?
Has anyone used this comfortably on an airplane? I’d love the higher performance of this machine over some of the 11.6″ options, but I’m unsure if the 13.3″ books will make airplane use impractical.
I paid $850 before tax. Cant really beat the price for the performance. Would the upgraded procesor bring the battery life down dramatically? Ill be happy with atleast 6hours. Anyones thoughts?
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor SP9300 (2.26GHz, 6M Cache) with 512MB NVIDIA GeForce G 105M
• 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 13.3″ diagonal High-Definition LED HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1366 x 768)
• External Tray LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer
• Webcam Only
• Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n Card (Dual Band)
• HP Color Matching Keyboard
• 6 Cell Polymer Battery
• $50 OFF! Microsoft(R) Office Home and Student 2007
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Because you have a faster processor and Nvidia graphics the power drain will be a bit more with this configuration, so don’t expect to be able to get 9 hours of battery life. That said, it won’t drastically change things, I’m guessing it could reduce battery life by about 10%, so your battery life might be between 7 – 8 hours optimistically which is still very good.
can i get any discount coupons on this
the price is touching 1000$ with Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor SP9300 (2.26GHz, 6M Cache) with 512MB NVIDIA GeForce G 105M
any discount coupon will be very help full
thanks
Hi AJ,
Im looking at purchasing either an dm3-1130us or a dm3-1030us and was wondering what the main points of difference are. There is about $150 price difference but specs seem fairly similar. They both also come with a AMD Athlon™ Neo X2 Dual-Core Processor. Is this a bad thing?. This is the url if needed, http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/808119/HP-Pavilion-dm3-1130us-13-3/. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
@Alex, hardware wise I can see no difference between the dm3-1130us or dm3-1030us, the dm3-1130us is marked as more recent, it could be some minor software updates/additions, but nothing of value I can see, so just go with whichever model you can find cheaper.
Great. Thanks for that AJ. The laptops I am looking at also both have a AMD NEO X2 Dual-Core processor as oppossed to the intel processor. I saw you made reference to the dm3z in your article and the fact that its AMD processor was inferior to the intel, would this be the same in this model and is this a big issue? Any info would be great. Thanks again.
I recently bought this computer from Sam’s Club and I had to return it the first time because the touch pad did not function correctly once the computer came out of hibernation. It would go into its multi-gesture feature randomly and would not respond to my finger when I would try to move the pointer. It would begin to work like 10mins after the processor was running or if you restarted the computer. I don’t if this a common problem with particular model or a problem with an individual shipments of the computer, but I am currently in the process of giving back my 2nd computer. Like the review said, you want to fall in love with this computer but this stupid problem is holding, me personally, back. LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED A SIMILAR PROBLEM
Great review! I actually bought the dm3z and clearly the ATI chip has a significant impact in the temperature (and fan noise is a annoying) Do you think that the dm3t with the Nvidia chip has the same problem? Was the dm3t fan always on? Thanks
Too bad Alex already bought the laptop…
the 1030/1040 models had a BiOS error which caused the trackpad to lock up if you tried to use it immediately after hibernation. the error also adversely effected the battery life and performance of the laptops if they ever went into hibernation mode…. this problem has been fixed on the newer models, though.
I went with the 1130 because of the pricepoint but had I known the battery life was so much more superior I owuld have grabbed the other one =/