HP Pavilion DV2-1030ea laptop

MORE: Read our full review of the HP Pavilion DV2

The DV2 range is HP’s attempt to make a light computer that’s still powerful enough to be useful for most users, what with netbooks being a little low-powered if you want to do any more than just email and web usage.

It’s not as the Apple Macbook Air, but it’s still slimmer than most laptops, and it does look impressive with the glossy black exterior and the patterned inside.

The 1030ea model we’re looking at is in the middle of the range with an AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor which is specifically designed for thin laptops, and 2GB of memory. There’s a 320GB hard disk but one it’s missing a built-in CD/DVD drive.

There’s an external one in the box, although it’s a hassle to have to plug it in to use it.

The processor and memory were enough for office and internet tasks, and even photo editing and video playback.

Our main problem with the DV2 was the noise it made while we were using it. In order to keep all those powerful components cool HP have had to put a whiny fan in, so unless you’re using somewhere fairly noisy the sound of the fan is going to be quite distracting.