HP Pavilion dv2-1030us

More affordable than a traditional ultraportable notebook and more powerful and stylish than your typical netbook, the HP Pavilion dv2-1030us has a lot to offer for a reasonable $749. This 12.1-inch machine is the first laptop powered by AMD’s new Athlon Neo processor, which is designed to deliver more oomph than Intel’s Atom CPU, and it’s equipped with relatively robust ATI Mobility Radeon graphics. HP also includes an external optical drive, a shock-mounted 320GB hard drive, and 4GB of RAM to handle the resource-hungry Vista. Unfortunately, a somewhat cramped keyboard and short battery life prevent the dv2 from being a top pick.

Design

There’s no mistaking the fact that the dv2 has a more premium look and feel than most netbooks. HP decked out this ultraportable with a high-gloss Espresso black finish with silver trim around the deck. The lid picked up fingerprints quickly, but we’ve seen worse, and we like the modern-looking HP logo. Beneath the keyboard you’ll find a pinstripe pattern on the right side that leads into a graphics treatment that include bubbles and swirl patterns. Depending on your tastes, you’ll find this aesthetic chic or too busy (we’re leaning towards the latter).

At 3.8 pounds, the dv2 is a bit heavy for a 12.1-inch system without an optical drive. By comparison, the Samsung NC20 weighs 3.4 pounds. On the other hand, the sloping design on the dv2 has a sleeker profile, measuring 0.9 inches at its thinnest point up to 1.3 inches, while the NC20 is 1.2 inches all the way around. When viewed from the side with the lid closed, the dv2 is reminiscent of a sports car. And the beauty is more than skin-deep; thanks to its magnesium alloy casing, the dv2 feels sturdier than most netbooks.

All the ports on the dv2 are found on the sides of the notebook. The left side houses the Ethernet jack (10/100, not Gigabit), a VGA port, HDMI port, and two USB ports. A Kensington lock slot, the third USB port, headphone and mic jacks, and a 5-in-1 memory card reader line the right side of the machine, along with the power switch (we’d prefer a button on the deck) and a wireless on/off button.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the dv2 is certainly usable, but it feels unnecessarily cramped. This system’s layout is 92 percent of full size, which is good for a netbook, but in this case space is wasted on either side of the deck. In addition, there is very little space between the keys because the layout is flat and nearly flush with the rest of the deck, although HP did make the keys a bit concave to counteract this effect. Overall, we could type at a decent pace on the dv2, and the keys provided a firm feedback, but the keyboards on the Samsung NC20 and Lenovo ThinkPad X200 are more comfortable.

We have mixed feelings about the silver touchpad, too. The mirrored design looks cool, but it takes more effort than we’d like to move the cursor exactly where you want it—say, a link on a Web page—as well as to activate the scroll function on the right side. The touch buttons are large horizontally and relatively easy to press. HP includes a button that locks both the touchpad and buttons, which comes in handy if you decide to plug in an external mouse.

Display and Audio

Outfitted with a 12.1-inch LED screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, the dv2’s display is crisp and bright. When watching an episode of Heroes streamed from Hulu.com, the picture looked richly saturated, and we enjoyed generous viewing angles from the sides. And despite the fact that the screen is glossy, we didn’t find it distracting when surfing the Web or typing in WordPad. Our only beef with the display is that it sits higher than some competing ultraportables and netbooks, both because of the dv2’s relatively larger bezel and the way the hinges are designed, which leaves a space between the bottom of the screen and the deck. Frequent flyers worried about other passengers leaning back too far might prefer a system with a lower profile.

Underneath the front lip of the dv2 you’ll find the Altec Lansing speakers, which benefit from SRS Premium Sound technology. When we cranked the audio all the way up when streaming “Someday” by The Strokes on Slacker, the sound was loud but somewhat tinny. Dialogue came through loud and clear in the Heroes episode. This notebook could certainly double as a movie and music player when you’re on the go.