A Great Middle-Ground (HP Pavilion dm1z Series)

NYitGuy www.shopping.hp.com

When I encountered the HP DM1Z, I had been shopping for a system that would bridge the worlds of portability and performance, and assuming I'd have to make comprimises one way or the other. From all appearances, and judging from the few hours I've spent with this machine, the compromises aren't nearly as extreme as I expected them to be.

The first unit I received had a problem with the internal fan. An error appeared every time the unit started, and it got very hot, so I had to send it back for exchange. This was frustrating and extended by a month the time when I could finally start working with it. The HP customer service people, apparently in the Phillipines based on their accents, did a great job of handling the return and reorder process, and the replacement was sent FedEx 2-day which I appreciated, so that sort of made up for the delays.

An important factor for me was keeping the cost down, so I opted for the K325 processor, knowing that this could potentially be a performance bottleneck. While it remains to be seen whether that's the case, I suspect the processor won't be that big of an issue, considering I'm not going to be gaming with this thing.

So far, the form factor, screen and overlal aesthetics of the DM1Z have all met or exceeded my expectations. Only the keyboard and touchpad leave something to be desired, but since they're the most tactile and physically personal aspect of using any computer, they may just take time to get used to. The feel of the keys is unusal to me, they have a concave curve that bows from front to back and a smooth surface, which makes for a somewhat slippery sensation. But the layout conforms to the standards I prefer, with both a ctrl and alt key on either side of the space bar, the ctrl key being the outermost key, which I like - some manufacturers put the fn key out there, making it hard to find the ctrl by feel. Although there is room around the arrow keys for two more keys, HP opted to make pg up, pg, dn, home and end keys functions of the arrows. I really like having those keys independent, but I guess the DM1Z engineers figured that if they couldn't include all, they'd include none. The touchpad is very sensitive, as others have noted, and I hope that can be dialed down as I'll be doing a fair amount of typing and want to avoid the Mexican jumping cursor syndrome.

The system recovery disk creator is very finicky and is really only good for generating coasters for your coffee table. I went through four DVD-R disks, with only one successfully created before I gave up. The only alternative is to pay HP at least $15 to get a set mailed to you, which I consider a rip-off, since the cost of including disks with the hardware is only a fraction of that. When ordering them online, they make it appear that the disks themselves are free, and we're only paying for shipping, but $14.95 for 5-7 day shipping, plus tax? Hmm.

Overall, I'm very pleased so far with my purchase. If I'm ablel to update this review I'll add more thoughts as necessary.

Posted in HP