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back to article HP Pavilion dm1-4125ea 11.6in netbook

Now that everyone and their dog has or wants a smartphone or tablet, the recent drop in netbook sales can hardly be a surprise. Yet does this mean there is no space for a small, cheap laptop? Of course not and HP’s recently refreshed Pavilion dm1 is a fine example of why I hope the breed never dies. HP Pavilion DM1-4125EA AMD …

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  1. GettinSadda
    Boffin

    This is what Ultrabooks are competing against

    When pretty much every Ultrabook that I have seen has a 1366 x 768 screen, it reduces them to the same pigeon-hole as this laptop. Sure, the screens are physically a little larger, and you get a more powerful CPU, but I doubt that there is much that you would actually do on an Ultrabook that this can not do fine for a third of the price.

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  2. spencer

    Glad you finally

    ...reviewed a decent netbook.

    All the ones I've read previous complained about the lack of innovation in this field whilst completely ignoring anything that didn't have an Atom chip.

    Like the poster above pointed out: this is the real competition for Ultrabooks - these things are capable of HD video, decent screen resolution, virtualisation, gaming (well, ok maybe not amazing gaming) and have a decent battery life to boot - and all at half the price of what the top end ultrabooks are going for.

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  3. E 2

    Glossy screen BAD!

    It is a good machine. It would be a much better machine if it had a non-reflective screen.

    7 1
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Glossy screen BAD!

      Meh. Most people I know who hate glossy screens just look at them when they're off and whine that they can see their reflection. If you're actually looking at something on the screen it's very clear and I doubt you'd notice any reflection.

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      1. Flocke Kroes Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Glossy screen really BAD!

        Take a look at a real side by side comparison. Then you will understand why I replaced the panel in my laptop:

        http://www.pixelqi.com/products

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  4. Richard Wharram

    I have a similar...

    ...Lenovo S205. Based on the old E350 chip.

    It's not a bad machine. Only cost me £300 several months ago (plus £40 to upgrade to 8gig of fast RAM). It can even play CS:S in a pinch.

    The downside is though that unlike an Ultrabook it has a very traditional HDD. That means booting and recovery from sleep are PAINFULLY slow. This in turn affects how I use the device. I tend to leave it plugged in most of the time because I know that if I pick it up and I've let the battery run out I'll have to switch it back on and then hope I need to wash the pots or have a shit so that I'm not just wasting minutes of my life.

    So in some ways it does compare with an ultrabook, being a less pretty and chunkier version of the same. In other ways though it does not compare at all.

    Horses for courses.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I have a similar...

      I'm guessing like me the reviewer prefers a cheap slow 320GB drive to a fast expensive 128GB drive. The extra 30 seconds to boot I can live with, the size and cost of an HDD I can't

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      1. Richard Wharram
        Reply Icon

        Re: Re: I have a similar...

        30 seconds?

        Try 2 minutes by the time the hourglass has disappeared and anything actually responds in a timely manner.

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        1. Patrick R
          Reply Icon
          Holmes

          Re: 2 minutes

          "Extra". 30 seconds "extra" to SSD boot. And talk was about boot OR getting back from hibernation. If you computer takes two minutes extra to, lets say, 15 seconds to come back from hibernate or even to boot or even 2 minutes alone to be responsive, it's time to reinstall.

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          1. Richard Wharram
            Reply Icon

            Re: Re: 2 minutes

            It's always been bad. I presume it's a combination of HHD spec, APU/mobo spec and Windows bloat. I'm sure it would be better with Linux on it but since distros didn't support the Llano platform for a while after I bought it I never tried.

            As I said, it's not a bad machine but don't judge the boot/wakeup times unless you've tried it. I'm sure the one reviewed won't be AS bad since it's probably got a better HDD as well as a faster APU but to compare it with an ultrabook is still silly.

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            1. Anonymous Coward
              Reply Icon
              Anonymous Coward

              Missed the memo?

              You guys know that they're shipping "Ultrabooks" with old school HDDs in them right?

              Ultrabooks != SSDs

              ...not 100% at least. Some of the mfrs managed to sneak them in while still complying with Intel's Ultrabook standards.

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              1. Richard Wharram
                Reply Icon

                Re: Missed the memo?

                Fair point I suppose. If I was going to pay all the money for an ultrabook though I'd make sure that the OS at least was on an SSD.

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  5. Steve 53

    Compare to the X121e

    The Lenovo X121e is very similar in price and offers the option of E series Fusion or ULV Intel i3. Same screen size, excellent connectivity and great keyboard.

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  6. fattybacon

    Great size and features

    I've got something similar from Dell (Dell Inspiron M101Z) last year but with a stinky AMD Neo cpu but it has two things over a bog standard netbook - usable screen resolution and HDMI out for hooking up to a TV (on the road) or a monitor (working from home).

    Remember Intel forbid Atom-based N-series machines to have anything better than 1024x600 and must not have hdmi port. It's these sort of arbitrary restrictions make me happy to support losers like AMD.

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    1. PTR
      Reply Icon

      Re: Great size and features

      Not quite true. The Cedar Trail N2600 or N2800 have higher resolution options and have HDMI outputs, IIRC.

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  7. Richard Wharram

    Also...

    It's not a true netbook.

    My old Acer Aspire One was a proper netbook. 200 quid, Linpus Linux. Once I replaced that with Peppermint OS/Ice Linux it was the most convenient machine for plain old web-browsing I ever owned. Chromium was very fast on it. It booted and unslept far faster than any Windows machine. And I didn't worry too much about damaging it as it was so cheap in the first place.

    Being Acer though it took care of dying all by itself after a couple of years and is now a paperweight.

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  8. batfastad
    Thumb Up

    Cool but expensive

    I'm a big fan of netbooks so it's great to see them still being offered.

    I need a replacement for my excellent Asus 1005HA-P and ultrabooks and tablets just don't have the combination of: size/weight, great keyboard, connectivity (full VGA and ethernet sockets), super-long battery life, and full OS with full application compatibility.

    Main thing is the battery. I've yet to see an ultrabook or tablet that gives me full 9-10hrs, perfect for transatlantic flights.

    But this is too expensive. £150-250 is the price point for me. Also I just don't trust AMD in laptops.

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  9. Al Taylor
    Happy

    From the author

    Folks, the dm1's boot time from switched off to running and looking at a loaded page in Chrome is 1:24. That's more than fast enough for me.

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    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      Re: From the author

      I dropped an SSD into mine. Boot time including BIOS post is 25 seconds. That's nearly quick enough for me. Resume from sleep is about 4 seconds, which will do.

      GJC

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  10. Rob Beard
    Thumb Up

    Interesting, this sort of machine would make a nice replacement to my 3.5 year old Acer Aspire 2920. As much as I'd love an Ultrabook I just can't afford £800 or so for a new machine, but at £350 this machine would be ideal, and probably just as quick as my existing Aspire.

    Rob

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  11. Righteously Indignant
    Thumb Up

    had the DM1z

    I had the previous E350 version of this 'netbook' and I loved it. Picked it up in the US for under 300GBP. I would still have it now if my niece hadn't stolen it!

    I was fortunate enough to have a spare SSD to pop into it and it went from being a good machine to a great one! The AMD chippery is more than good enough for everyday tasks.

    This screen is the perfect size for the unfortunately ubiquitous 1366x768 resolution - and it really is a noticeable difference from the crap resolution you get on Atom 'books.

    Highly recommended for those just wanting something small & light that they can do real work on without paying the earth...

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  12. Magnus Ramage

    My wife bought one of these a couple of months ago, and it's very impressive. Laptop power in a netbook size, but reasonably priced and extremely portable. Screen is a bit small for my taste but that's a physical size thing rather than the resolution.

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  13. Robert E A Harvey
    Thumb Down

    screen

    768 high? Not even a dismal 900.

    Do buck up chaps!

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lenovo

    The aforementioned Lenovo S205 can still be had for £279 in Currys/PCW/Etc...

    0 0
    1. bertino
      Reply Icon
      Alert

      Re: Lenovo

      The Lenovo S205 is a right pain in the clacker to get linux on. I bought mine for 240 quid sans OS (well it came with FreeDOS!). The UEFI boot does not play nice with a standard linux install. Had to jump though hoops to get ubuntu installed. Unity interface slows the machine down a bit too much for my linking, was trying to watch some online sports streams and it was dropping too many frames. Installed xubuntu desktop so I now have an option at boot time, and this works better with few dropped frames. I was suprised though, I thought this AMD CPU was much better than an ATOM, but this suggests not in a real world usage case.....

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      1. Richard Wharram
        Reply Icon

        Re: Re: Lenovo

        Same machine here :) In fact it's been my 'main' machine for 6 months now (long story.)

        I'd be interested to hear how you got Linux onto it as I had no success when I got mine.

        As for HD playback it's probably a driver issue as once my machine has spent its usual amount of time thrashing away at the HDD (see my above whinges) it's actually fine for HD video playback on Win7 Ultimate.

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      2. xj25vm
        Reply Icon

        Re: Re: Lenovo

        This machine has the ATI/AMD GPU/APU - and many ATI chipsets have tricky support under Linux. I don't know what is the current support status for this - but last time I looked (few weeks ago) there was a whole procedure involving downloading graphics drivers separately from AMD, installing them and configuring.Some people report success, while others seem to struggle. AMD doesn't release open source drivers for their graphic chipsets, only binary ones - so many distributions don't include them by default. There is a good chance that your Linux install is using the framebuffer (or similar) generic graphic driver at the moment - and that is what makes the general desktop experience slow. It is one of the main reasons I held back on buying this machine for the moment - but a fully working solution will probably be available sooner or later.

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  15. xj25vm

    Cheaper in January

    Interesting - this model was £299 including VAT and shipping on HP's online shop for most of January. Now it went to £349.

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  16. Rick Leeming

    Nice Little Machines...

    I'm using a little Acer "Ferrari One" at the moment, had it for about 18 months as it was only £300 brand new when my old lappy died. I used an MSI Wind u135 for a while, but it caused me rage!

    Similar points raised in relation to a netbook and this type of machine. Screen res is good, graphics are pretty slick, and it's USABLE. The 11.6" point is where usability and portability meet. You're using a proper keyboard for the most part, you've a screen you can read, and the battery life does well.

    18 months down the line the ONLY regret I have in my case is not checking first to see if the XGP parts would come on the market here. They didn't, but I'm still not disappointed by the Sub-Laptop/Big Netbook machines.

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  17. Van

    First Gen?

    Which CPU and GPU's, were being fitted to the first Generation Netbooks to compete with the intel Atom?

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    1. xj25vm
      Reply Icon

      Re: First Gen?

      I believe that makes it the AMD Fusion E-300 and associated (or integrated, more precisely) graphic chip?

      0 0
  18. DrMax

    How about in a 10.1" package?

    Need to replace my NC10 which is dying and will be sorely missed. This CPU sounds great but I'm looking to keep the size advantage of a 10.1" screen but would like the bump in resolution. Anything out there that does this.

    Oh for icing on the cake a touchscreen would be nice.

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    1. James 51
      Reply Icon

      Re: How about in a 10.1" package?

      Sound like the rumoured spec of one of the new playbook 2 models would suit you.

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  19. spegru
    Thumb Down

    Poor Battery life

    I was getting quite excited - then I noticed only 2:50.

    Not good enough for a days work in town.

    So much for atom smasher - let alone tablet alternative

    Disappointed. I'll stay with my 7hr Packardbell!

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    1. spencer
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: Poor Battery life

      From the article.

      "Battery life doesn’t let the side down either. Looping PCMark05 I got 2 hours 50 from a full charge. Looping a 720p MP4 video using VLC I got to the five hour mark. Without playing videos and in more balanced day-to-day use you will see 8 hours easily even with the screen brightness at 75 per cent."

      1 0
      1. spegru
        Reply Icon

        Re: Re: Poor Battery life

        oooh yes. so it does....

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  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a gorgeous little machine. Chuck an SSD in there (80 quid should find you a 64GB one) and you got something that rivals an Ultrabook in spec, for a third of the cost. Sorted!

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  21. archengel46
    Headmaster

    Nitpicking, or missing the joke?

    "but I live in Manchester so that is 'ever' going to be a problem."

    On the other hand, dim screens on HPs do not seem to be only affecting theier netbooks. On screen brightness, my £400 pound Dell beats on my manager's £1500 HP Elitebook!

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  22. Volker Hett

    Very nice machine

    Not the longest but acceptable battery life, fast enough for a typical task worker, i.E. Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook, and it fits into restricted on-bord luggage even when you fly Ryan Air.

    My still studying friends love it!

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  23. bwalzer
    Thumb Down

    Still waiting...

    It weighs half again as much as my Asus 701 and is significantly larger. The better cpu performance and battery life can't really make up for such a significant departure from the netbook form factor.

    ... and yeah, glossy screens are terrible...

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    1. xj25vm
      Reply Icon

      Re: Still waiting...

      You are right. But this is not really a netbook. This is more like the sub-laptops which existed before netbooks - a small enough machine, but with enough performance, resolution and keyboard size to be used for much more serious work (and longer periods of time) then one of the initial, 7" screen Celeron processor netbooks. And the good thing is that this machine doesn't actually cost close to £1000 (or even over) - as the sub-laptops used to cost. So yes, it is more expensive then a "true" netbook - but it is a lot cheaper then a sub-laptop with similar functionality.

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  24. the-it-slayer
    Pint

    Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

    That buzz word will make the product sit on storage shelves until they have to drop the price by half to shift stock.

    Same specs, same dullness, same predictability as any other netbook. Netbook is just a dirty word for a cheap, nasty lappo.

    MacBook Air and a pint of beer please!

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    1. spencer
      Reply Icon

      Re: Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

      Actually the specs are what makes this interesting.

      Decent capability for not a lot of dollar, this is a good thing, no?

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