HP Pavilion dm3-2160sf

HP is up there with the top selling laptop manufacturers. No surprise, then, to find it putting out this ultraportable, a 13.3 inch with a processor and graphics from AMD promising a good level of performance.

Design and build: good finish but some points could do with being revised

The dm3-2160sf is a nice product. Its aluminium chassis gives it a certain cachet. The finish is nice and the various elements that make it up are well fitted together.


The keyboard has separate keys of a good size. Placed in the standard configuration, they make for instinctive and quiet keying. Touch typing is no problem on this machine.
    
The touchpad coating doesn't make such a good impression. Your finger sticks on it slightly and it eventually becomes annoying to use. It is however precise.

The webcam didn't impress us. It lacks sharpness, contrast is poor and the colours aren't particularly bright. The only positive is that it renders movement pretty well.

The connectivity is pretty standard. On the right you'll find the power socket, the Ethernet port (RJ45), the VGA and HDMI outs, two USB 2.0 ports, an SD card reader and the mic and headphones sockets. The air is expelled from the other side beside two USB 2.0 ports.

HP has also chosen to supply an external DVD rewriter to be plugged into one of the four USB 2.0 ports.



Even when you push the components hard, the cooling system does its job well. The temperature remains moderate and the fan noise low. If there's any other noise in the room you won't notice it at all.

Processor power: mainly office documents and Internet

The AMD Athlon II Neo K325 processor gives a lower level of performance than you get on many models. Even the Dell Vostro V130 with its Core i3-380UM gives almost twice the level of performance you get with this HP. The closest ultra to the HP is probably the Macbook Air 11.6 inch.

In terms of usage, the dm3 will be able to handle your office document and Internet tasks and photo and video viewing. It can also cope with heavier operations such as photo retouching and video editing but you'll have to arm yourself with patience as it'll need 2 to 3 times as long as other ultraportable laptops.

You can play HD 1080p (Blu-Ray equivalent) no problem on this machine though we do advise the use of the video playback capacities of the integrated graphics solution. This hardware acceleration allows you to decode Full HD 1080p videos without occupying the processor, which is then freed up for other tasks.

When you start it up, the dm3 doesn't automatically take you to Windows, but rather to QuickWeb, a mini-OS for browsing the Internet, listening to music or firing off an e-mail. It takes 10 seconds to start up.

If you don't want to use QuickWeb, just wait fifteen seconds and then the system will automatically switch to Windows. Total time for this operation: 1 min 30s.

Gaming: low capacity

Note, although the AMD HD 4425 sounds as if it's a graphics card, it is in fact an integrated chipset. Although video is managed perfectly well, you can't say the same for 3D games. You have to make do with relatively old titles or 2D. More recent games won't be fluid for the most part, even with settings at a minimum, with the exception of certain strategy or adventure games such as The Sims for example.

Audio: incidental Dolby processing

Altec Lansing, HP's usual partner, signs the audio on this one. We recommend you don't push the volume too high as the speakers won't handle it well. The headphones out is okay but no better than. Above all, the Dolby processing doesn't seem particularly pertinent to us and can even be destructive.

Battery life OK

The dm3-2160sf gives 3h55 video playback (headphones plugged in, screen at 100 cd/m², Wi-Fi and bluetooth deactivated). Not bad, but under what some of the competition manages - (Asus P31J: 5h45,  Apple Macbook Air 13.3 inch: 5h45). You'll be able to carry it around no problem. It weighs 1.9 Kg and is pretty slim (30 mm) which means it'll slip into your bag pretty easily.