I just bought a HP Pavilion dm1z laptop PC as it easily met my minimum criteria

... and so far so good, I like the HP dm1z unit a lot.

I was looking for an ultraportable/netbook that had to meet these criteria:

• 5+ hours of battery life
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit (none of that starter junk)
• Under $500, and the lower the better
• 3.5 pounds or less
• Full size keyboard
• Good performance.

I'm flexible on many details but above is what I needed.

My research quickly revealed the HP Pavilion dm1z and Lenovo ThinkPad x120e as viable options. I chose the HP Pavilion dm1z "Base configuration" (product number XL303AV/dm1z-3000 variety). The list is $449.99, I bought it for $419.99 + tax = $458 (free delivery) at the HP.com store using coupon code "SAVE30HP" to get $30 off. Look for coupon codes on Google, they're out there, you might even find one worth more than $30. The base configuration met all my criteria so I bought it.

The HP Pavilion dm1z Base Configuration has:

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• AMD Dual-Core Processor E-350 (1.6GHz, 1MB L2 Cache)+AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6310M Discrete-Class Graphics
• 3GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 320GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery (standard, HP says up to 9.5 hours of battery life)
• 11.6" diagonal High Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768)
• Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone
• 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R)
• Standard Keyboard

You can top out the system with more RAM and an SSD to boost performance but I got the base for the cheaper price. The base unit had everything I was looking for so no need for extras.

I bought it on February 26th, got it delivered to me via FedEx on March 15th. HP estimated it would ship to me on March 17th and since I took the free shipping option that would take another 5-7 business days they said. I waited nearly 3 weeks but I feel like I got it early.