April is the month that employers (i.e. me) dread and employees love. It’s the month that Thailand basically shut down with so many holidays packed in including official Thai New Year (Songkran). I’m still waiting for NIA committee to deliberate on our iPhone game project. The meeting kept moving back past 8 weeks. I have a feeling that most of them are already on holiday mode. Since I have until May before I can give update on our iPhone game status, I might as well post something useful.

Since reading about the new MacBook Air-ish ‘netbook’ from HP, the HP Pavilion dv2, it’s been on my shortlist of next notebook to get. I checked out local dealer in Bangkok couple weeks ago and they weren’t even aware of it. So it was to my surprise when I spotted the new HP dv2 at nearby local IT mall while searching for a new USB drive.

I asked them if I can play with it and take some photos.

Here are my impression without running any official benchmark (they told me I can come back to run it if necessary).

There are two models available:

SPEC/Price:

dv2-1002AX.
Price: 24,900 baht (approximately $720 USD)
AMD Athlon Neo Processor MV-40 (1.6GHz, 512mb L2 Cache, 1600MHz FSB)
Window Vista Home Premium
250GB (Serial ATA)
2048MB DDR2 RAM
12.1″ WXGA Brightview
802.11 a/b/g Wireless LAN, Bluetooth
Integrated Webcam
1 year onsite warranty
ATI Mobility Radeon HD Premium Graphic 3410 with 512MB
HDMI

dv2-1003AX(approximately $840 USD)
AMD Athlon Neo Processor MV-40 (1.6GHz, 512mb L2 Cache, 1600MHz FSB)
Window Vista Home Premium
320GB (Serial ATA)
2048MB DDR2 RAM
12.1″ WXGA Brightview
802.11 a/b/g Wireless LAN, Bluetooth
Integrated Webcam
1 year onsite warranty
ATI Mobility Radeon HD Premium Graphic 3410 with 512MB
HDMI
External DVD

I’m quite please with the pricing. It stays in-line with HP’s estimate. The best thing about the price/spec for models in Thailand is that both models come with HDMI and dedicated ATI GPU option as standard.

Design

Shiny. That was my first impression. I have a feeling that the black color picks up fingerprints and smudges worst than the white color. The touchpad is shiny metallic, another fingerprint magnet. I personally would have preferred black or matted color. For that matter, I would have preferred that they do not use shiny material along the side. Besides being a smudge magnet, it also adds cheapness and ‘volume’ to the design.

All the nitpi kinb aside, the design is very nice. It’s arguably better looking than almost all the netbook out there today (with the exception of the Asus S101 and Sony P…if you count the latter it as a netbook).

The design is more Sony VAIO than Apple. What I mean is that the HP dv2 has that two-piece design ala Sony VAIO where you clearly see separation between display and body. Like the VAIO, HP dv2 body’s composed mainly of magnesium. I personally prefer magnesium as it is lighter (and supposedly stronger) material than that of aluminum. It certainly feel as sturdy as the best Sony VAIO.

On the other hand, Apple MacBook and Air has smooth one piece design. This is the reason why the Mac seems thinner, even the MacBook. In actuality, the HP dv2 is pretty thin (similarthickness as MacBook). I literally measured with a ruler and it was indeed less than 1″ thick as HP claimed. If you want to get very exact, you can certainly argue that the hinge area with small protusion may slightly exceed 1″ thickness.

My overall impression, design-wise, is that the HP dv2 has very nice design that follows HP notebook’s current motif. You can certainly feel proud carrying it around. It certainly looks more expensive than it’s price. Actually, it looks more expensive than most of the HP other notebooks (and majority of the netbook and notebook out there). Being thin AND light means that it’s easy on your shoulder and very portable.

Weight.

The current edition on the street (of Thailand) comes with 4 cell battery. This tip the weight at around 3.8 kg. My own unscientific test (hefting it around) is that it’s around the same weight as MacBook Air if not slightly lighter. While the official weight difference between the HP dv2 and the MacBook is around .7 pound, it seemed to me carrying it around that the difference is greater.

It definitely won’t weight you down and is extremely portable.

Display.

LED backlight. Very shiny. The body’s shininess gives the illusion that the screen is shinier than it might actually be. You can see from my photo the reflection.  As with this type of screen, the color looks very good, I would say on par with MacBook.

Keyboard:

Same keyboard used on the used on the class-leading Mini 1000 series which means same layout (no annoying misplaced right shift key like most netbooks…ahem ASUS) it feels very solid and touch-typist should be able to hit the ground running. However, with more real estate, I do wish that HP could’ve put in a full-size keyboard. Moreover, the matted material on the HP Mini 1000’s keyboard looks classier and seems like it could stand up the vigor of stain and oil from the fingers.

The version on the HP dv2, like everything else, is shiny. It looks like it’s oily out of the box. See photos for comparison.

Performance.

This is where my ‘review’ gets very unscientific since I did not run any benchmark software.  I did measure boot time and it started Window VISTA (which comes with the all models) at around 1:19 using my stopwatch. A bit slow for my liking.

However, once it’s booted, it seems to run applications without any lag. I tried running several applications at once and the HP dv2 handled them with aplomb.

DVD and video were pretty smooth. I think it’s huge that the version they sell here comes with the ATI Radeon 3410.  If the NVIDIA Geforce 9400M that comes with the Mac is faster, it would be by a hair.

Ports:

Pretty comprehensive overall with added bonus of HDMI. The only key port missing for me the eSATA (well…I do wish for a Firewire port also).

Heat and Noise:

Nice and quiet. Heat-wise, it certainly feels warm but not intolerable. I would say in the same range as that of the Air.

Battery Life:

4 cell battery is standard. The rep told me it should average around 3 hours as was HP’s official line. I do not have the chance to test this claim. I dug through and found out that you can get buy 6 cell battery separately for around $100 USD. When asked, the rep had no idea that HP even offer this option. They certainly do not have one in stock.

Conclusion:

Would I buy this notebook? If money’s no object, I would get a MacBook Air with Superdrive option. The decision is mor emotional than rational for sure.

However, I’m definitely on a budget so the choice really comes down to the new white MacBook (assuming the $200 USd debate is true…I checked Apple’s web site and no official news on it yet) versus HP dv2.

With MacBook I get a more powerful notebook, nice suite of productivity software (iLife), good stable OS, and best in class design (yes, even the white one).  Since most of my clients, subcontractors, and partners use Window, I need to get VM Ware and Window XP. Those two items add $300 USD to the overall price tag. That bring the price of the MacBook configuration to $1100 USD (again, assume that $200 debate is good).

With HP dv2, I get one of the best design (but a notch below the Mac), highly portable notebook, and the an emotional substitute for my inner desire MacBook Air.

Once I take price into account, even with Apple supposed upcoming $200 debate on the White MacBook  (that’s still almost $300 USD premium), logic dictates that I pick the HP dv2. The machine strikes a good balance between design, practicality, and price. If MacBook Air is on the extreme side of emotion while MacBook is on the extreme side of logic, the HP dv2 sits in the middle of the two.

I’m holding out for the white one though…