HP Pavilion dv3 (Intel Core i7-820QM) - Silver With Envy

Green with Envy? Nay, Silver!

When we last saw the HP Pavilion series, they had gone from shiny, metallic plastic, to still shiny metallic plastic, but with nice HP Imprint patterns on the notebook. The newest refresh however, bumps things up with yet more tweaks to the overall design, borrowing from HP’s Envy line and doing away with the previous plastic metallic looks. The overall result is one that’s very good looking and easy on the eyes, as the HP Pavilion dv3 shows.

However, we do like to point out that the dv3 does look like a notebook from Apple, thanks to its new brushed metal finish and rounded curves. That said, the notebook has enough personality that it doesn’t look like a clone. For one, it comes with HP’s Imprint technology which gives the notebook a beautiful exterior. Inside, there are yet more changes, which we’ll find out more on the next page. For now, let’s take a quick look at the exterior:

Inside a Pavilion

Now that we’ve covered the nice looking exterior, it’s time to take a look at the insides, and we’re definitely impressed. While the previous keyboard layout was pretty good, HP has taken the Envy’s isolated design and implemented it on the Pavilion dv3. It makes for a great typing experience, especially if you have long fingernails, and the keys had a nice feedback without being loud, allowing you to type quietly.

Other design changes include the removal of the capacitive media controls; like the Envy notebooks, everything is now remapped back to the function keys and function as control buttons unless the function key is pressed. This is against the trend of what’s normally done for notebooks, though similar to what Apple has been doing for the MacBooks.

Heading further down, you’ll note that the trackpad too has gotten the same Envy treatment, and instead of having separate buttons, they are now part of the trackpad. The change of material in the overall design also means that the shiny slippery trackpad that we disliked is now gone. While the new trackpad does have improved multi-touch features, there’s just one thing we don’t quite like about it.

If you’ve played around with the trackpad, you’ll realize that the whole trackpad’s actually one button, but in order for the click to register, you have to push the trackpad down at the right spot to make a left or right click. Since the entire trackpad can be clicked, it just doesn’t make sense to restrict the clicking action to certain spots. Of course, you can still tap to click, but being able to physically push down would make it a more satisfying experience.

Lastly, the HP Pavilion dv3 comes packing Altec Lansing speakers with Dolby Advanced Audio technology, and our experience with the unit’s audio was pretty solid with its loud volume and decent bass. It’s definitely much better than what you’ll find on other notebooks of the same size, and those looking for multimedia notebooks with an ear for sound will do well to take heed.

Performance Benchmarking

Packing an Intel Core i7 , 4GB RAM and ATI Mobility Radeon HD graphics, the dv3 is a unit that’s pretty strong in the CPU department, but suffers from having a low-mid range discrete graphics. We’ll find out how much of an impact on the gaming experience further down. For now, let’s take a look at what we’ll be comparing this notebook to.

The HP Pavilion dv3 is pretty well matched here in the CPU department but bear in mind that the discrete graphics of the dv3 isn’t quite as good as the other notebooks on this list, so expect to see slightly lower performance results. We’ve thrown in a last generation 14-inch MSI GX400 which is using a mid-range NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT that should give a good indication of just where the dv3’s discrete stands in the overall scheme of things.

Futuremark PCMark Vantage

Going by the results of the PCMark Vantage results, you’ll note a pretty decent performance from the Pavilion dv3, though not as good compared to the units with better discrete graphics. But that’s how the benchmark program works, so the lower score is kind of expected. We’ll see exactly how much of a difference the discrete graphic plays in the following test.

Futuremark 3DMark06

Since the Sager notebook used in our comparison is a gaming powerhouse, we’re leaving it out for this benchmark comparison. That just leaves us with the Apple MacBook Pro and the MSI GX400 and their more powerful discrete graphics, and the results do indicate that the HP Pavilion’s dv3’s discrete graphics is really more towards the low end range. That said, if you do want to play games, you should be able to do so with lowered settings.

Battery Life and Portability Index

Battery life of HP notebooks have always been pretty decent and we’re expecting no less of the HP Pavilion dv3. Our review unit came with two batteries, a 6-cell and a 9-cell but to keep things standardized, we’ll be reviewing it using the 6-cell.

Battery Life and Power Consumption

To test the battery life of the notebook, we’ve done our usual DVD loop test, where we play a DVD movie with Wi-Fi turned off and setting both audio and brightness at 50% until the unit dies. Our result? The HP Pavilion dv3 lasted a little over 2 hours at 128 minutes and it wasn’t as good as we would have expected. Then again, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450 is one in the 5400 series (the other two behing the ATI Mobility HD 5430 and 5470) that doesn’t have switchable graphics, so battery life is bound to take a hit in the process.

As we can see from our power consumption graph, it’s actually consuming more power than the older MSI GX400, but if our unit were to have a switchable graphics feature, then perhaps we would see power consumption approaching that of the Apple MacBook Pro (which has its own switchable graphics solution). Right now though, the dv3 feels like a power hog compared to the older MSI GX400 and it’s probably a good idea to bring along the 9-cell battery for when a power point isn’t available.

Portability Index

Our portability index is a simple test where we take the battery uptime and divide it by the product of the unit's weight and volume to get an idea on how portable the notebook is. The higher the number, the more portable the notebook is. For the HP Pavilion dv3, we’re looking at a score of 0.417, which while not very high, but is what we would consider an average score. Just be sure to pack in the above-mentioned 9-cell and you’ll be fine.

The Envy Effect

At the end of any review, we normally find ourselves asking a simple set of basic questions - did we like the notebook? Was it pretty? Does it have a good design? Well, the answer to those three simple questions is yes. The HP Pavilion dv3 is a notebook that takes the best features from HP's premium, Envy series and makes them available for consumers who are looking for something pretty but are unable to pay the steep price.

Of course, no machine is perfect and the HP Pavilion dv3, does have its small share of issues. First, the trackpad, which can use a little tweak for clicking, and second, the less than satisfactory battery life is a huge letdown, especially considering it’s a notebook you want to be carrying around and showing off to your friends. You can’t do much showing off if the battery is flat though.

Generally speaking, the HP Pavilion dv3 is a fine machine for just about anyone, but you might want to get a model using a less power hungry Intel Core i5 processor, though that comes with a decrease in performance. But if you want a notebook that’s capable of encoding videos without too long a wait, then our review set with its Intel Core i7-820QM processor is what you’re looking for. Just watch out for the price tag, which will set you back S$2199, though the base models start from US$699 (~S$961).

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