HP DV3510NR Laptop Review

The HP DV 3510NR is the newest consumer laptop by HP and it’s first 13 incher. The DV 3510NR offers a very stylish package with nice powerful specs and a light and compact body. It is a total multimedia monster and also can manage games quite well. It excels when it comes to performance but lets down when it comes to endurance. It is priced decently at $1100 and seems to be worth every penny. In this review we aim to find out exactly that - whether it is worth the moolah or not.

HP DV 3510NR Specs:

• Dimensions: 12.6 x 9.0 x 1.4 inches
• Weight: 2.2 kgs
• Processor: 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350
• RAM: 4 GB DDR2 RAM
• Hard Drive: 320 GB SATA HDD, 5,400 RPM
• Optical Drive: 8X DVD +/- RW DL
• Display : 13.3 inches, 1280 x 800 pixels
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 9300M 512 MB VRAM
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0
• Operating System: MS Windows Vista Home Premium
• Ports: 2 USB 2.0, Headphone, Microphone, Ethernet, Modem, USB / eSATA, VGA out, HDMI, 5 in 1 card reader, Express Card

Design and Build Quality:

The DV 3510NR sports a very stylish design - a highlight of the recent HP notebook lineup. The build quality is superb and is similar to the HP DV5T, but sports a different design finish. The lid is dressed up in HP’s Imprint finish which looks very stylish and cute. It successfully differentiates the HP DV 3510NR from the scores of other monotonous and simple notebooks. It has dimensions of just 12.6 x 9.0 x 1.4 inches which is very nice and compact and weighs about 2.2 kgs which is also quite decent. It is very thin at just 1.4 inches, may be fat by Lenovo X300 and Macbook Air standards, it definitely out slims most other notebooks in its league. It is the most portable of standard business notebooks, though significantly heavier than the anorexic netbooks available these days. But it makes up with all the power loaded into it.

The build quality of the HP DV 3510NR is quite good and upto standards. The metallic body is very sturdy and feels durable. With normal usage, the HP DV 3510NR should easily last you more than about a couple of years. Absolutely no complaints with this little gem on the design or build quality aspect.

Display and Speakers:

The HP DV 3510NR sports a superb 13.3 inch wide LCD display which has a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. The brightness levels and contrast are perfect and very much suited to movie watching. It has awesome wide viewing angles, both horizontal and vertical. The video playback is awesome. The image quality is very good, thanks to the new discrete graphics solution - the NVIDIA 9300 M solution. You can also plug it to a larger display using the HDMI or VGA out for better viewing. The Nvidia 9300M is capable of handling it. The DV 3510NR sports a 0.3 MP webcam which works decently well. The images captured are crisp and clear. The built in Microphone also does quite well and records audio without any glitches. The webcam and mic in tandem work very well and offer very less reasons for complaints.

The DV 3510NR comes with built in Altec Lancing speakers. The speakers are adequately loud and have much better sound quality compared to other notebooks. You can plug in headphones for even better sound quality, the DV 3510NR has dual headphone jacks using which you can plug two headphones at the same time.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The HP DV 3510NR sports a full size keyboard with a nice standard key layout. The key spacing and travel is just about perfect. The keys are covered with a protective layer and feel smooth. It also improves the durability of the keyboard. The keyboard is also backlit, you can turn on the backlighting manually using a keyboard combo. This is very useful especially in dark environments and at night. The keys feel nice and offer good tactile feedback. The keys are laid out according to the standards and the size is also normal. This keyboard is perfect for touch typists.

The HP DV 3510NR sports a silver touchpad which stands out from the rest of the body. The touchpad is nice and smooth which eases the mouse navigation. The touchpad sensitivity is good and it is very responsive. It also has a vertical scroller on the right which is very helpful when you have to scroll through long web pages or documents. The touchpad has two buttons on the bottom which also have a nice feel. They offer the perfect feedback and are much better than notebooks which merge both buttons into one. Above the keyboard, you find the touch sensitive multimedia controls. They work just as expected, nothing special.

Performance:

The HP DV 3510NR is a very able Intel Centrino 2 machine and comes with great specs like a Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 , 4 GB RAM and the Nvidia 9300M discrete graphics. It also has a 320 GB hard drive at 5,400 rpm. It slices through normal tasks like a hot knife through butter. It also manages to do the other menial tasks like video conversion and file compression very well. It aces at multimedia playback and is also capable of running light as well as moderately demanding games. Windows Vista runs perfectly smooth on it with no lags.

Other Features:

The HP DV 3510NR sports a wide range of ports - it comes with 2 USB 2.0, Headphone, Microphone, Ethernet, Modem, USB / eSATA, VGA out, HDMI, 5 in 1 card reader and an Express Card port. It also comes with a remote control which nicely fits in the Expresscard slot. The Wi-Fi reception is nice and offers good data transfer speeds. The battery life is also decent at about 3.5 hours considering the 9300M discrete graphics solution instead of integrated graphics. It is a bit less than expected but should improve if you use it properly and efficiently. To maximise battery life, tweak the power saver mode settings, switch off Wi-Fi when not needed and decrease the display brightness and sound volume.

Pros:

• Nice Design and Sturdy Build Quality
• Great Performance
• Nice Display, Speakers and Graphics

Cons:

• Low Battery Life

Final Words:

The HP DV 3510NR is a superb notebook and offers lots of features in a small form factor and at an affordable price. We will definitely give it a thumbs up. It does have low endurance but that can be ignored when compared to its overall performance.

Our Rating: 4 / 5.