HP Pavilion dv2-1030ea 12in Ultraportable

Gaming Performance

Since the NC10 and the Atom/945GSE combination make no claims about providing any gaming performance beyond Desktop Tower Defence, we didn't spend a lot of time evaluating the NC10's gaming performance. We've covered the Intel 945 chipset's poor gaming performance before, so we don't think there's any point going over the same ground again.

On the flipside, AMD does make some serious claims about the Yukon platform's gaming prowess, but it wasn't brilliant if we're brutally honest. Yes, the dv2 can play games, but forget about playing at the screen’s native 1,280 x 800 resolution or with any of the in-game settings turned up.

Left 4 Dead was playable at 800 x 480 with no AA and 4xAF with all of the details set to medium – we could enable high shader detail, but the game felt quite laggy at that setting so we instead opted for the smoother medium detail. We experienced a similar thing with Call of Duty 4 as well, where we had to lower the in-game settings slightly to obtain acceptable frame rates – textures were turned down to medium, while the number of corpses had to be dropped to the lowest setting.

What we can conclude here then is that the dv2 is not a gaming powerhouse, but then in reality it was never meant to be – it’s as if the marketing department got a little over-excited when they told us about the dv2’s capabilities. For casual gaming or older games such as World of Warcraft, we’re sure the dv2 will be more than capable.

Battery Life

This is, frankly, where the wheels started to come off for the dv2-1030ea – the standard battery supplied with the machine just isn’t good enough. In our ‘best case’ scenario test, where the laptop is doing literally nothing, we saw the dv2 return just two and a half hours of runtime – that’s frankly awful. Things got worse when we started to push the system a bit – our 3G test only just made it past the 1 hour 20 minute mark, which is only just enough for the morning’s commute into London from sunny Ascot.

In comparison, Samsung’s NC10 managed nearly five hours in our 3G test. My, how the tables quickly turn and this is the fundamental failing with the dv2 – it’s not really portable with its standard battery because you really need to be within an hour and a half of a plug socket if you’re going to be able to work uninterrupted. What probably exaggerates these problems is the fact that the dv2 is quite a loud machine and there’s a lot of heat being thrown out of the vents in the side of the chassis. Heat and noise usually means poor battery life and there are no surprises here in that respect.

Conclusion

If ever there was a tale of two halves, then the HP Pavilion dv2-1030ea notebook is exactly that. The design, build quality, feature set and application performance are all top notch. Admittedly, there are a few minor complaints with the keyboard, trackpad and artwork that could easily be written off as personal preference, but then we got onto using the dv2 as a portable workhorse and that was when the wheels came off.

In the end, the fundamental problems of heat, noise and battery life are things that AMD is still yet to solve. What's more, while we applaud AMD's keenness for ‘being more honest’ with battery life claims in marketing material, the company needs to really start delivering battery performance close to what the Intel-based competition can offer before we really think about redefining the way we measure battery performance. Right now, it’s quite simple – if you want a notebook that you can use on the move for any length of time, the only realistic solution is an Intel one.

That’s unfortunate for HP in particular, because the company has done all it can with the tools given to it by AMD. The Pavilion dv2 is an attractive and affordable laptop, but it falls well short of the mark in one of the fundamental requirements for an ultraportable machine and it also fills a gap in the market that we’re not convinced even exists. There is a gulf between the sea of netbooks and the breed of highly desirable but very expensive ultra portable notebooks, but we’re not sure the answer to that dilemma is the HP dv2.

• Build Quality
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Features
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

• Ease of Use
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Performance
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 5/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 5/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

Score Guide