HP DM1

Ahh..I'm torn before the DM1 and the x121e Intel.

The extra power of the i3 seems nice but the battery life isn't as great. (I love battery life!)

The glossy screen of the DM1 is what is really putting me off.

I think I'll head down to a shop and take a look at one to judge for myself.
 
I had to see them first hand to decide and that's what won me over on the DM1.
Some of the units were shocking, I mean REALLY shocking. Some felt like lego (Lenovo Ideapad), the front edge screen lip on the Samsung nf310 felt unfinished, even sharp.
I know the HP at 11.6 is essentially a step up from the two listed but christ, you could tell where the money hadn't been spent. That's why I went for the HP; I couldn't justify the saving vs the crap quality.
Can't comment on performance as it's upstairs somewhere, hiding in wrapping paper!
 
Well I just came back from 'the shop'.

The DM1 is pretty impressive looking, quite well built.

The keyboard is nice to type on and it feels quite solid in general. The glossy screen is annoying though. Seriously why!

I'm still not sure what to go for...

The 10% voucher on the x121e expires tonight so I need to make my mind up. :confused:
 
I've had my DM1 for a week now, and I'm so glad I chose it. Lovely and cheap, reasonably powerful for the money, and very compact, which is perfect for what I need it for. Namely web browsing, some gaming (just played UT2K4), media playback, and office applications. Audio has impressed me, normally laptops sound very tinny to me, certainly ain't the case with this.

Seems from reading back in the thread people have got some fairly recent and modern games running well!
 
Having had both they each have their positives and negatives but are essentially the same thing assuming you go for AMD, the difference between E350 and E450 probably aren't work mentioning.

DM1

+ slightly better build quality, though not amazing, has lasted me longer than the x121 lasted.
+ better touch pad
+ better screen, x121 seemed to wash out at certain angles worse than the DM1
+ System status LED indicators on the machine like HDD activity, sorely missed from the x121
+ Sound out of this netbook is awesome considering its cheap ness.
+ I like the fact that the function keys are set such that access to F1 -F12 require you to press the function button and the other stuff like volume, brightness wiffi etc take priority.
- power hookup on left side quite annoying for me, particularly as its long and not angle, prefer the x121 rightside hookup (not a flaw as such more my circumstance, still it annoys)
- comes with 4Gb but 32bit OS, so you can access most of it but loose a few hundred MB, not really a bit deal but a bit of a fail in my book.


x121

+ Full ubuntu compatibility for basic AMD setup with no dicking about.
+ Win 7 x64 out of the box.
+ can get i3 in it if you need grunt over graphics.
+ better keyboard
+ better looking (subjective I suppose)
+ pointing nipple is awesome
+ some decent power save software that would light up only portions of the LCD that were in focus, course not so handy if you maximise every thing as I do, nice feature though.
- trackpad is awful with an annoying slope that makes things like double tap a difficulty.
- flimsy, I broke mine opening it by the screen, some flex my fault for sure but none of my other machines died in such a manner with same treatment.
- no LEDs to know what was going on when things started to crawl due to too much multitasking or background updates
 
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That was very helpful Gideon Lorr and sandys, thanks.

How you finding the battery life on the DM1?

I'm now leaning towards the DM1 only because price wise it is now much more sensible than it was 6 weeks ago; I told you all that it should come down in price, and it did! :p ;)
 
I've not really been out with it yet, when working at home it does last all day, I don't use it much but to check emails, skype etc but I don't let it sleep just leave it on running.

Computer hardware always comes down in price, you don't need to be a soothsayer to work that out,.
 
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sandys said:
I've not really been out with it yet, when working at home it does last all day, I don't use it much but to check emails, skype etc but I don't let it sleep just leave it on running.

Computer hardware always comes down in price, you don't need to be a soothsayer to work that out,.
Click to expand...

Ah come on now. No need to sound bitter about the price reduction.

While I very much appreciate your input about the DM1 and x121e; I'd place a large bet that you wouldn't of imagined (I wouldn't of guessed it, so soon!) that the DM1 would fall so sharply in price only 3 weeks after I mentioned it should be priced at around £240. To which a few told me good luck with that. :p

It actually dipped to £227 until a few days ago (after cash back).

It's definitely a more of an attractive buy in this price range.

I'm just totally not thrilled by the CPU performance and glossy screen. I have a feeling I will give in sooner or later though!
 
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I paid little over £300 for mine after cashback, a good price for a product on launch, of course it was going to be cheaper eventually.

You should bite with the current discounts as they probably won't last and the price which is obviously a contentious issue for you will go back up.

If you are worried about performance then spend the appropriate dough and buy something better like a UX21/31.
 
New catalyst update last night 11.12.... Not sure what has changed though?

Well I paid the full 349 and I'm glad I did as I've ben able to play with this little gem of a laptop for a little over a month now:p

And to be honest this little laptop has shown me how much my old 4.5ghz i5 rig was a waste as I never really need ed the power.
 
Do you see the slider you used to remove the battery, it moves this long orange locking bar? ...well once you have removed the battery slide that over again and push.

If in doubt, this video shows you how about 4 minutes in.
 
I just bricked my hp mini 311c so I might be in the market with one of these. The 1.6Ghz N270 was getting a little slow for me anyway (though having an SSD in there made a world of difference!).

Though one of the things I loved about the 311 was that it could run OSX. I don't suppose there's much support for the E450 on OSX?
 
Moeks said:
Do you see the slider you used to remove the battery, it moves this long orange locking bar? ...well once you have removed the battery slide that over again and push.

If in doubt, this video shows you how about 4 minutes in.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, most useful!! I am going to get the SSD installed this weekend. Very impressed with the DM1 so far, I took it into work and a couple of friends are going to order themselves one as well.
 
I found my first negative point about the DM1, the Atheros AR9485 wifi chip is only a 2.4ghz b/g/n so will not connect onto the 5ghz N standard routers. I have an Asus RT56U router and it doesn't me see my 5ghz SSID, not a big problem, but it shows that a bit of penny pinching was used on the DM1.
 
I caved in and order the DM1 £269 plus 10% cash back.

Not too bad at all! Looking forward to under volting the thing to with an inch of it's life ;).
 
** The mentioning or hinting name of competitors is strictly prohibited. As too is their pricing - Please read FAQs regarding rules ** then the deals keep on coming.
 
Well it's been tracked but it says the date its due to be payable is 31 May 2012 :eek:

Cashbacks are usually paid after a few months so that is an unbelievably long time to wait.
 
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