Feb 03 2009
HP Pavilion dv3510nr: One of the first two Best Buy Blue Label laptops
The HP Pavilion dv3510nr is one of the first two Best Buy Blue Label laptops. The customer desire a laptop with a longer battery life, a thin and lightweight design, The HP Pavilion dv3510nr supports all these points, and it looks good doing it.
HP Pavilion dv4-1125nr, which is a stripped down but slightly larger version of this Pavilion. It will do many of the things the Pavilion dv3510nr does and will save you $300. The Pavilion dv3510nr is the better all-around laptop with its superior design, better battery life, and longer list of features.
The Pavilion dv3510nr is the first 13-inch Pavilion, keyboard—is the same full-size unit as that on 14-inch Pavilion dv4 models. HP calls it bronze, but it looks like more of a taupe. Hitting the Function key and the space bar turn on the keyboard’s backlights, this is unique among Pavilion laptops. The touchpad features the familiar glossy coating of all recent Pavilions, which creates too much drag when trying to glide your finger across. The mouse buttons are soft, quiet, and responsive, however, and above the touchpad is a small, convenient on/off switch.
The backlit turned on keyboard will help typing in a dark room or airplane, and it looks like a natural fit with the lighted, touch-sensitive media control keys above it.The display itself is an LED-backlit LCD with a 1,280×800 resolution. It has a glossy coating that makes movies look vibrant and smooth, and it’s far from the worst offender when it comes to glare and reflection.LED backlights, makes the display very thin; helping the Pavilion dv3510nr strikes a sleek profile. Weighing just less than 5 pounds, however, the 13-inch Pavilion dv3510nr saves only about a quarter pound from the impressively svelte 14-inch Pavilion dv4-1125nr.
Altec Lansing speakers located above the keyboard produces the bigger sound in Pavilion dv4-1125nr. FireWire port is the only port missing from this laptop, which may be a deal breaker for those with camcorders and other FireWire devices. The dv4-11215nr has only 10/100 Ethernet.
The HP Pavilion dv3510nr is built on the Centrino 2 platform.The Pavilion dv3510nr is only 5 percent faster on our multitasking test, but enjoyed larger advantages on our Photoshop CS3 and iTunes benchmarks, where its faster CPU clock speed, faster front side bus (1066MHz vs. 800MHz), and its GeForce 9300M GS may have played a larger role in the outcome.
The Pavilion dv4-1125nr uses Intel’s current GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics .The Pavilion dv3510nr uses a standard 6-cell battery which run for 3 hours, 31 minutes on CNET Labs’ video playback battery drain test. The Pavilion dv3510nr’s battery is rated at 55 watt hours (Whr) to the dv4-1125nr’s 47Whr.The dv3510nr has a more energy-efficient LED-backlit screen. Together, the superior screen technology and the higher Whr rating on its battery helped the dv3510nr run longer.
