*HP dm3 (1XXX series) Owners Lounge*

Don't think it's official, but it will have the same specs as the UL80VT without the DVD Drive and also the smaller form factor. That includes switchable graphics.

 

Just FYI, the only three that I know for sure are the L335/3200HD (a friend owns it and I already tested it), SU7300/4500GMA (there are already reviews on it), and SU7300/nVidia 105M (someone I know that works for HP told me); the rest are just estimates based on what I have heard. Though, looking back, maybe I should bump the SP9300/nVidia 105M up to 4 hours.

 

so f i buy the base model amd with 3200 ati gpu , will i b able to play 1080p movies on my LCD screen via hdmi port with no problems ???

 

Not officially, but find the ASUS rep's comments on Amazon here.

 

I do hope that HP puts out a new driver for the Alps touchpad.

Tech support seems to fall back to "reformat the machine" as a fix. As if that would fix anything.

The driver on the website is two months newer, but really does not fix all the problems.

I can think of so many problems with this machine that would go away with a proper driver setup (and some modified customizations....like "don't respond to your palm touching the touchscreen while typing").

 

Last night I got a noticification that my dm3z was shipped. It's a L665/4330 option.

 

Well, mine 'shipped' Tuesday but they've yet to update the tracking... 2 Day shipping, and this wait is still killin me..

 

My tracking information finally updated. It's still in Shanghai though.

 

The numbers are to low for the other amd platforms. The larger cache is not going to result in a half an hour less battery time and unless your using the 4330 its not going to result in a further loss of an hour . Sorry just not going ot happen unless your actually playing games or something , but in desktop the times of the l335 and l625 will be very similar.

 

Thanks, I added this to the first post under "Cons."

 

Yup, Same here.

Apparently HP thinks it makes sense to tell you the expected shipping date is the 28th, tell you they shipped it the 27, then ship it the 29th. Somehow, 2 day shipping = 7 day. If you count the build time, it will be 2 Weeks and 2 days before I get my laptop. Does anyone else find this absolutely ridiculous?

 

I have an L625/4330 estimated delivery date NOV. 3RD?!? on my tracking information.

I am completely bummed that I won't have this laptop before the weekend. Way to get my hopes up, HP, with that shipping confirmation email. Ugh.

 

ya i have the 3rd also, though last time it shipped faster than estimated, hopefully it does.....

 

I honestly dont put much faith into any of the "my friends" times equaled X. Just way too many variables that could play into what your buddy was doing with his notebook to hold any true value.

A professional review site, that uses a scientific method which can be repeated over and over again, on any notebook is something I would have more faith in. Something like they run program "XYZ-powerdrain" on a particular notebook that started at 100% charge and drained down to zero..

Of course with any good or service, I leave my the final opinion up to my own eyes and experience. Way too many times I've gotten burned buying something because the manufacter (or someone else) said it was great, and it wasnt. Or vice versa.

I'll be more than happy to share my battery life results with you guys after I recieve my notebook for fun's sake. But reality is we will use our laptops in different ways that will have a direct effect on battery life.

 

Don't forget that with win7 u have the additional ability to underclock processor and GPu to save even more energy. that must count for something particularly if your processor is very powerful (or power hungry)...m curious about specs under the most conservative profiles.... So heat and battery may be more manageable than we think.....let's see , we can't tell until we get our hands on the real thing.

 

As a Dm3-1030US owner, let me first say that heat is NOT a problem. Generally in my usage it is cool or just slightly warm on the left, under strain (HD flash video) the left palm rest gets warm, but hardly burning.

As far as battery life, i have been testing it. I think that i got at least 4.5 hours with wifi off for all but 30 minutes (though i did download and install skype etc during that 30 minutes). I didn't even let it drain all the way, there was still a little left. That said, i was pretty conservative with the display brightness.

I am going to test it some more to see how much i can get. You will notice under advanced power settings on the Power Saver it still allows the frequency of the processor up to 100%, i changed that to 50% (anything other than 100 simply cuts it down to 50 max). I don't know if that will make a difference, i guess i'll find out. For those curious about performance at 50% frequency it gets a CPU-Passmark of 450.

Does anyone have the ability to test what the difference in power consumption is between 100% frequency and 50% frequency?

 

What I did was what most professional review sites do to test battery life, continuous web surfing with the screen on 60% brightness. I ran the test 4 times and the most I got was 4 hours, 12 minutes while the least was 3 hours, 43 minutes. I said that the L625/ATI 4330 value was an estimate.

 

Meh on 10/23 i got this email

and last night at 11:58pm I got this email.

Your HP Order Has Shipped and fedex is saying the third for it arriving at my house

 

That's great news! Hopefully the 2-day shipping kicks in, and everyone gets their laptops early. So far, it seems like FedEx is stepping up its pace and moving laptops at a faster speed.
I just checked my tracking number, and FedEx is reporting that my dm3z is now in Anchorage, AK with an est. arrival date of Nov 3rd. It should however take around 7 hours for a shipping plane to arrive to Detroit... so I'm crossing my fingers that I get the laptop by tomorrow morning )

 

Think it still might have to go through customs.

But, either way, my laptop's exactly where yours is. Probably on the same airplane...

Except I'm in Kansas...

 

Same here, mines in AK. I probably wont get it till Monday. I live in Orlando, FL.
Well we can all hope, though.

EDIT: Wait a minute, it says departed fedex location ANCHORAGE, AK at 3:02 pm. I guess there's better hope than i thought

 

Same here and my estimate delivery date is Nov. 3.

 

Hey guys,

I'm a soon to be dm3 owner, and I just wanted your opinion on which version I should buy.

So here's what I'll be doing on my laptop and what I expect.

1) I expect to take this laptop to my university (the longest battery life hours of use I'll need is probably 4ish hours, 5 would be safe)

2) I won't be playing any video games.

3) I won't be using any processor intensive programs

4) I will be surfing the internet quite a bit

5) I will be doing instant messaging and schoolwork on it

6) and on my leisure time the most strain I'll put on the laptop is watching online videos, including HD videos (youtube, ninjavideo.net) no hulu

Any recommendations? I can't wait to get the machine, I just want to make sure I get the right one.

 

Do you have sp9300/g105M? Because That will be the hardware profile that will most be able to take advantage of this feature. That way u don't kill ur battery when ur just browsing.

 

I don't think the dm3 will have any problem with any of that. The only thing that I don't know is what the rated battery life for it is. Considering that it is using a specialized low voltage processor though I bet you won't have any trouble there either.

 

I would get the SU7300/4500MHD combo. You will get 9+ hours of battery life and it will handle everything you need with ease.

 

Yes, and I biched about that over and over in the HP Mini 311 thread. HP sends you an email that your item shipped, provides you with a tracking number and then you check and check... days, maybe a week goes by and finally the tracking number is active. You find that the package was picked up only a few hours before the tracking number went live. Ridiculous? Yes, very much. Don't fakking tell me that my item shipped if it didn't. So, I agree.

 

It is ridiculous that the two day shipping is really five day shipping... lol I think I'm going to call customer service and complain, see if I can't get some money back.

 

If price is an issue, which it was for me, i'd just go with the DM3 L335/3200 version. If you are in class (presumably just taking notes, not needing wifi) you'll get lots of life. I am a student too. I ran my DM3 for 3 hours (i timed it exactly) without wifi and just doing a little WORD and a Bible software program (BibleWorks) and my battery is still at 57%.

 

So I had a question for you already dm3z owners. What is the absolute most you can get out of your battery life if you just left it running with screen brightness set to 40% and Microsoft Word open (wifi + bluetooth = off)?

I am a writer and college student who will be using the laptop in exactly such a scenario... and I'm curious if I could realistically get over 6 hours doing that...

Could someone download Battery Monitor and set their dm3z to be always on in the power settings and then test to see how long it can sit there at 40% brightness + Word + Wifi Off + Bluetooth off? Just leave it on over night and the battery monitor will tell you how long it lasted when you wake up...

I'd appreciate it! Thanks...

 

I just got my tracking number for my sp9300/g105m build... guess they got em done early?

 

I don't think you could get over 6 hours. The specs say 6 hours max for the dm3z models. If there was a way to get more time out of the battery, I'm sure HP would have found a way to say 7 hours, not since. So based on that, and the knowledge that the numbers are always way more liberal than what they should be, I can't possibly see you getting over 6 hours on the AMD models. We all know though they say 6 hours, it's really less than that. The only way to get 6 hours is with the dm3t model.

 

Not true. I had a dv4t with a G105 and P8600 processor, and it had a listed battery life of 3 hours. And I would get 3 hours if I had wifi on and was surfing the internet, but if I used it on only Microsoft Word it would get around 4 hours. The dv3t is listed as having a battery life of 5:15 for the six-cell. I did a battery test today similar to the one I described earlier (except I left a browser window open, which caused it to be fluctuating between 3-15% cpu usage). It got 5 hours 45 minutes (with the High Capacity six cell, which has 16% more wHr). But if I had turned down the brightness all the way to the lowest setting and exited the browser window, I am sure I could have pushed 6+ hours. Getting the actual battery time as listed is very possible if you dim the screen and turn off wifi/bluetooth. Think about the dm3t. It got 9:06 while surfing the web with wifi ON in Laptop Mag's test. The dm3t could certainly get well over 10 hours if you disabled the wifi and let it idle on Microsoft word... I also read a post from a guy who said that he was using the dm3z as I described (lowest brightness + wifi off), and he said he timed it at 3 hrs exactly and he was at 57% battery life left.

To me that indicates that the dm3z could potentially get up to 6:30 while taking notes, but I was hoping someone could verify that for me. Please don't shoot down my ideas before they have a chance to take flight and soar across the eternal skies... (okay, that was over the top... and I'm just kidding, you weren't trying to shoot down my ideas; you were just trying to be realistic). Anywho, I really do think the dm3z can pull 6+ hours idling with Microsoft Word. If no one is willing to do the test, I guess we'll just have until I get mine in the mail on Monday.

 

It's funny you ask...i was doing that tonight! I am a student and here's what i did at my school library tonight:

DM3-1030US (L335/3200)
Brightness 50% (for the purposes of the test i set it to DIM: never, turn off screen: never, sleep: never)
Power Saver (I also capped the processor at 50%)
WIFI and Bluetooth: OFF

I used it lightly (word, Bibleworks)

I had to leave for closing before the battery ran out, i am going to finish tomorrow in class, but i got 5 hours and i still have a little over 30% battery life remaining! *(See correction below)*

(By the way, i am the guy who did that 3 hour test..that was earlier tonight, and i was at 50% brightness, not the lowest setting as stated above)

At this rate, i think i'll come close to 7 hours!

CORRECTION:
I must have looked at the percent wrong last night, but I actually got 5 hours with closer to 20% left, not 30%.
The DM3z gave out at about 6 hours and 10 minutes.

I still think more is possible, but not much. One could dim the screen further, i probably spent some energy shutting down, letting it sit over night and rebooting, but that can't be that much. All in all, 6 hours seems quite possible on NON-wifi light office/student type usage.

 

Booyah baby!!! Sweet justice. lol

 

Quick question:

I bought my dm3z L625/4330 with bing 25% cash back. In case I wanted to exchange it for a model with different config, would I still be able to get the cash back?

I made a rushed decision and opted out of the Wireless N + Bluetooth for only Wireless G

Also, looking at the site now they have 50% off the 4GB memory option -- I paid $40 for that upgrade! Can I get credited the price difference? It's only two weeks after the initial purchase

 

If you want to exchange your order, you lose the cashback. You could try and get the price difference credited, but I warn you I tried that in the past, and because of the credit, I lost the cashback. I don't know if every situation will be like that, but I know I lost mine. It's because getting credited back is considered a partial refund, and in theory a "refund" negates the cashback. As I said, it may work for you. I got unlucky and lost mine.

 

If I was a writer, things would be much easier to optimize for me. I would go with DM3T withthe intel SU4100 (or SU7300) and the integrated 4500MHD graphic card....
That would cover everything you need (and much much more). AND you would guarantee the 10hrs battery life. That is YOUR best option AND it is one of the cheapest config - no need to stretch the 6hrs battery on dM3Z although it might be possible.

Battery life in this case seems to be the most essential element by far - for a writer... and a student.
Can u imagine a day without it? (The spirit of valuation: it's what it is worth *to YOU*)

 

Only problem is typing and clicking around will make a difference, just leaving it on like that isn't going to show the results you really need, I wouldn't expect someone to just test that out unless they have like a paper to write already

 

Hello everyone,

I am seriously interested in the DM3. I'm still debating whether I should go for the SP9300/G105m or for something cheaper. At any rate, here is my biggest and only concern:

Is the touch pad really as crappy as everyone says? I went to Bestbuy and I could not do any multitouch functioning and I left finger prints on it like crazy. Does anyone know if there will be a patch soon to fix its functioning?

Thanks, any advice on the touch pad would be great!

 

This is exactly what Im talking about.. we had a guy literally 2 pages ago saying the L335/3200 combo only gets 3.5 hours. But Im guessing he probably had wifi+bluetooth on, was watching videos, surfing the web, playing music, had the screen brightness set to 100//etc etc etc.

Of course the longer the battery life, the happier I am. But because we all use our notebooks in different ways everybody's experience is going to vary. Once the laptops start arriving we should do a poll and we can get an average of battery life for different combos.

Something like:

L335(625)/3200 - <4 hours, 4-6 hours, >6 hours
L625/4330 - <4 hours, 4-6 hours, >6 hours
7300/4500 - <4 hours, 4-6 hours, >6 hours
9300/G105 - <4 hours, 4-6 hours, >6 hours


There's also something else that comes into play. Wouldnt the 7200rpm HDD use more wattage than the 5400?

 

The SP9300 is not available with the Intel 4500MHD chipset. Only the 105M.
Anyone else have their custom builds hung up in a clearance delay with FedEx?

 

I edited my post to reflect the above.

Mine is on clearance delay, set to be delivered Nov 3rd

 

I just noticed something odd. I was looking to get the laptop from Best Buy.com. (had some gift cards etc)

You guys are not going to believe this. The retail and HP custom order batteries are different! I just looked up the specs for the Office Depot and Best Buy DM3s:

Best Buy
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...3237&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Office Depot
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...0476&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Notice the Lithium Ion battery. If you custom order one from HP it shows a Polymer battery, which I would assume has more capacity. You guys with the custom order are going to get better battery life I assume. I have seen Best Buy do this with the EEEPCs before, slightly different models with smaller batteries.

Also, do all the DM3s come with a microphone? Some mention it and the HP only lets you order "Webcam Only".

Thanks

Teddy

 

At 60% brightness, wifi on, bluetooth off, light web surfing, and with wireless mouse plugged in; it only got a max of around 4 hours for me. That is normal use for me so that is what I tested.

 

The thing about me is that I am a writer and gamer... so that's why I got the AMD version with the 4330. It should have the best overall gaming performance + still get over 6 hours writing. I also ordered a second battery pack.

Oh, and battery life isn't the only thing that matters. Heat build on the palm rests also matter, and from touching both an AMD version and intell version, the palm rests on the AMD were much cooler, though my experience may not be indicative of ALL AMD's and ALL Intels... the intel I had felt was one with a SU4100 in it at MicroCenter.

 

Those who have retail DM3s, can you confirm by looking on the actual battery itself, that it is not a Polymer Battery but indeed a Lithium Ion battery instead?

 

I wouldn't discredit the reports people are giving just because they vary. It's good that things are varying based on what they are doing with their laptops as that is indicative of the different real life situations. Cheer up!

 

Office Depot DM3-1030US, Lithium Polymer Battery! Roughly 4 hrs MAX battery life. 57Wah

 

Same here. . . . .