Well, I've done it again. Bought another sub-notebook. I guess that's what it should be called; too large and powerful to be a netbook, and too small to be a laptop. After just a couple of days of working with it, I love it. Specs for the HP Pavillion dm1-1020ez:
- Intel Celeron DualCore SU2300, 1.2 GHz
- 2 GB memory
- 320 GB SATA disk
- Intel GMA 4500 MHD graphic controller
- 11.6" 1366x768 display
- Realtek RTL8102e 10/100 wired ethernet
- Broadcom 4312 WiFi b/g
- Bluetooth
- 5-in-1 SD/MMC/MS/xD card reader
- Webcam
- Ports: 3 USB, HDMI, VGA
- 28.9cm x 20.4cm x 1.98-3.06cm, 1.46 kg
I think those are very good specifications for such a small and light system. The Celeron DualCore CPU is one of the primary reasons I bought this one, I wanted to see how it compares to the Intel Atom, AMD Athlon Neo and VIA C-7M. The keyboard is "92% of full size", but the good news for me is that I think it is exactly the same keyboard that is in my HP 2133 Mini-Note, which is truly excellent. The screen is what HP calls "HD LED BrightView Widescreen - what is important to me is that it has a good resolution (I still don't like 1024x600).
It came with Windows 7 Home Premium. Sigh. Grrrr. Well, I've already had a few requests for help from friends who have Win7 systems, so I suppose I'm going to have to keep one around as a "reference" system. But honestly, it sucks. It just really gulps down huge buckets. Boot time is slow compared to any of the Linux distributions I've loaded on it, even after removing the pre-installed Symantec rubbish and Microsoft Office "trial version". Once it managed to boot Windows 7, the first thing I noticed was that the user interface is full of gratuitous changes from any previous Windows version... ugh. I could go on, but why bother. Here's the perfect example - why the heck have they changed the "Shutdown" menu AGAIN, now the power-button looking thing is gone, replaced by "Shut down", while the "Shutdown" option is gone from the menu, so I guess you have to click the button rather than selecting from the menu... but I thought "Suspend" was supposed to become the new "shutdown", so you could turn off and turn back on much faster... Enough said.
When I went to install Linux, I found that HP and Microsoft have now found a way to use all four available diskpartitions - one for the Windows bootloader (don't ask me why, I don't understand), one for Windows 7, one for Recovery, and one for HP Tools. So the first thing I had to do was make a set of recovery DVDs, so I could delete the Recovery partition and create an Extended Partition to hold the Linux distributions. That took well over an hour, to create three DVDs. Once that was done, I was ready to install Linux...
The next thing I learned is that this thing is very cranky about booting from CD or USB disks. I still haven't figured it out, but sometimes it starts to boot and then just stops cold. In most cases doing a power cycle and trying again gets it going, fortunately. The frequency of the problem is related to which distribution I am booting, and I have seen one small hint that what is really happening is that there is a device that is not recognized, but I haven't really tried to track it down yet.
Once I get a LiveCD to boot, the installation is quick and easy. So far I have installed Ubuntu 9.10 (standard and UNR), openSuSE 11.2, Mandriva One 2010.0 and Linux Mint 8. The only problem I have with any of them is the Broadcom wireless adapter, which I expected - this is the same adapter as in my 2133, and it is a royal pain. The only distribution that gets it completely right is Mandriva, and it is really a treat. The display is gorgeous, the wireless network came up on the first try, and everything else I have tried so far works. With Ubuntu and its derivatives, there is supposed to be a notification from the Hardware Drivers utility that proprietary drivers are required for the Broadcom device; I get those when running the LiveCD to do the installation, but once I boot the installed system, I can't get them again, it just keeps telling me "no proprietary drivers". Strange. This applies to UNR and Mint as well, of course. With openSuSE, I used the install_bcm43xx_firmware utility, but the wireless network still doesn't seem to work. Even more strange... I will track both of these problems down in the next few days.
For the time being I will be using Mandriva as my primary operating system on the dm1, while I try loading a few other distributions and i try to track down the problems I've seen already. There is something about this notebook that I just really like. I think it is the best compromise I have seen so far in a small and light notebook, and not only because it has a fairly high resolution in a small screen. The weight is good, the keyboard is excellent, and for those who have complained about the HP 2133 having buttons on to the side of the touchpad, this one has them more typically placed. Oh, and it is very nice that the flash card reader will take Memory Stick cards as well as SD/xD, that has been a problem with several of my other sub-notebooks.
More on this over the next few days.
jw 12/1/2010
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I'm curious about the relevant performance and battery life of the dual core Celeron processor versus the Atom dual threaded processor.
In Jaunty, I use the Broadcom STA Wireless Driver reached through the Hardware Driver Programme in Administration. However, until installed it is necessary to use the wired Ethernet connection.
Strange that HP have used all 4 available Windows partitions. Is this a trick to try and commit users to Windows or is it just a more convenient (lazy) way of configuring the computer to simplify the programming for installation, recovery etc. across all HP models?
@Moley - The CPU/Graphic performance and battery life were exactly the things I had in mind to evaluate too. What I can say so far, just from general impression while loading and configuring various distributions, is that the graphic performance seems noticeably better than Atom/945 systems, the CPU performance is at least as good but I haven't done much yet that would really show whether there is a significant difference, and battery life is at least better than the Pavillion dv2-1010ez. It has a 6-cell Li-Ion battery, which should be quite good, and HP claims that the LED display is also particularly good for battery life. We'll see.
I did get the Broadcom STA driver to load on Ubuntu and Mint yesterday evening, and it seems to work well, but I haven't tested that very much yet either. As you said, after completing the Ubuntu LiveCD installation, you have to have a wired internet connection at least long enough to let it download whichever Broadcom driver you choose to install.
I think their using all four partitions is a combination of Windows stupidity and HP convenience/laziness. With the general trend now toward OEMs delivering systems with "Recovery" partitions rather than physical media (DVDs), the majority of new systems today have three partitions used (the third being the Windows bootloader partition which arrived with Vista, I still don't understand...). The HP convenience/laziness is that another partition is taken for "HP Tools", which I suppose includes system-specific drivers as well as 3rd party cruft. My own opinion is that it is not done so much to simplify or standardize recovery/reinstallation, but more to save money for HP, both in not having to provide, handle and package the media - look beyond the 10 cents or less per DVD that it would probably cost HP for the media, and think about production, handling, packaging, inventory and so on.
Thanks for reading and commenting, as always.
jw
Hi jamie, regarding the hardware:
Whenever Intel releases a new chip at the moment it seems to be a cut down version of a previous more expensive chip that has been out for a while, removing several features ie.
No Hardware encryption - used by Windows 7 Ultimate to hardware encrypt Windows hard drives.
No Virtualisation - ie. unable to run Windows 7 's , virtual version of XP.
No 64Bit - its not a true 64 Bit processor
No 'Embedded' - Embedded chips are ones Intel will produce for a minimum of 7 years, and therefore you get 7 years of support for the chipset - its a good one to look out for.
HP/Intel are pretty bad at supporting existing hardware with new operating systems - HP DV9000 is not officially supported by Windows 7- and its just over a year old. They just want you to buy 'new', or in my case stick with XP.
Comparing this chip SU2300 to the SU9300 (same 1.2GHz speed - they seem to have only cut out the Hardware encryption, hyper-threading, cache size, its not 'embedded'
Good news: It has 64bit, virtualisation.
It hasd 1MB of cache compared to SU9300's 3MB
It doesn't have hyper-threading - ie. Operating systems see its 2 cores as 2 cores not 4.
Intels naming conventions here are very confusing:
By the looks of it the Atom processor is always going to be Intel's lowest power consumption, (with most of above features removed) general purpose single core mobile chip, ie, as things move forward expect the Atom to move away from laptops into phones/slates/handheld mobile devices.
The Celeron will be the low power laptop/mobile cpu, the equivalent of an Atom dual core 'mobile' processor (a dual core 'mobile' atom doesn't exist, the Atom dual core 330 is a nettop/mains powered device processor)
You get the feeling the Atom brand is heading elsewhere due to the competition from Arm Processors in the mobile world.
Sidenote:I think its always easy to be critical of Windows, but the installation of Windows 7 has been done pretty well-considering. Its like turning week old vegetables/turkey (Vista) into a pretty tasty soup (Win7). Your initial ingredients were pretty poor and in reality should have been thrown out - the end result is the best that could have been hoped for given the initial ingredients, its familiar, bland - but does the job, but the initial excitement wears off fast.
Maybe fresh vegetables/ingredients is always the way to go - its certainly a close call with Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0, given the fresh looking produce from iphone/android mobile/palm pre systems.
Hi Adam, Thanks for the interesting and informative comments. I was aware that the Celeron processor line has been a "depreciated" Pentium from the start, but I have never seen a good list of major differences. Very interesting. As you point out, I think there could be a very interesting discussion of what has happened to processor development over the past few years. Why does it seem like it has gone from "Moore's Law" (yeah, I know that's memory, but you get the idea) of continuous improvement in power and speed, to "full stop" all of the sudden? How long has it been now that the fastest processor for desktop systems is ~3 GHz, typical laptop processors are ~2-2.2 GHz, and sub-notebook/netbooks are ~1.6 GHz?
Anyway, for the specific situation at hand, the comparison of the dual-core Celeron to a hyper-threaded Atom was one of the things that interested me about this laptop. I can tell you that so far the new dm1 feels considerably faster than my nettop dual-Atom system (which is seen by the operating systems as four CPUs).
The 64-bit situation is unclear to me. I didn't expect the Celeron to be 64-bit, but I hadn't actually checked that. Out of curiosity, I put the 64-bit Ubuntu LiveCD in first, and it booted and installed with no problem, which really surprised me.
Finally, about criticizing Windows... I am well aware that everything I have read about Windows 7 from sources which I trust (which does not include Microsoft) says that it is better than Vista. Well, that doesn't take much, and if Vista is your yardstick, then you aren't doing much measuring, are you? I like your analogy of turning poor ingredients (Vista) into a pretty tasty soup (Win7), but I think that my desciption of Win7 as being "Vista with Lipstick" is more accurate. But at the end of the day, my single biggest objection to Win7 is purely commercial. Microsoft made a Dog's Lunch out of Vista, and it was so bad that within six months of its release they were talking about pushing forward the development of the next release to replace it. Now everyone, and I mean absolutely everyone including Microsoft themselves, is going around saying Win7 is "what Vista should have been". My question then is, if Vista was rubbish and Win7 is the solution to that, why are they forcing people who paid for Vista to pay again for Win7? I find that absolutely shameful, and I refuse to be duped that way. At least in the past there was always a "reason" or an "advatage" to a new release of Windows - it supported a new type or class of processors or peripherals, or whatever. It was also generally true that the new versions required considerably more processing power and/or memory than the older version, so there was often no question of using the new version on old hardware. But this time, as far as I can tell, the only justification for Win7 is "it's better than Vista", or "it's what Vista should have been", or some such. Sorry, but that's just way too lame for me.
Thanks again for reading and commenting.
jw
Pavilion DM1??? I have it at home, just now. It is in its box, waiting to be sent back. Why?
- The fan is always on, makes noise like an old Dell dimension 2004, but worst.
- The battery lasts 3 hours, only browsing the web and typing on Microsoft Word.
- The mouse pad is the worst ever.
No wonder they took so long to get it out, here in Sweden anyway.
My girlfirend has a Packard Bell with a 11.6 screen that I have been using. I will go for it big time instead of HP Dm1. I bought the DM1 because the seller says that it has a 9 hours lenght battery. I was screwed.