Criteria
Comments
Rating
- Speed and features With a second gen. i7 (Sandy Bridge) and 8GB RAM, it's impossible to slow this thing down.
- Design and form factor Very sexy. Brushed aluminum front and back. I've even come to love little things like the font on the keyboard. Everything on this laptop is just gorgeous.
- Battery life Even with every setting all the way on "performance," I can still get about 4 hours. If I'm more conservative and practical, I can get closer to about 7 or 8.
- Display Large, bright, and clear. I only wish it was 1920x1080, but 1600x900 is fine
- Durability Just...no. Things have stopped working, broken, come lose, etc. This is this machine's Achilles heel, and this alone drops the overall score way down.
- Expandability with 4 USB ports (2 of which USB 3.0), 2 headphone jacks, HDMI, and VGA ports, the only thing that this particular models lacks is Blu-Ray.
- Noise When being used for basic tasks like browsing, it's completely silent. However, if more complex programs are used, the fans kick in, and they can be a bit loud.
- Portability (size / weight) Pretty hard to lug around without a bag. However, with a 17.3" screen and about 7 lbs., you have to understand it's not made to be like a Macbook Air.
Detailed review
I recently bought this laptop because I'm going to be going away to college in a few months. I was looking for some pretty specific minimum specifications, and when I saw that this one met all of them with some extras, along with being on sale, I jumped on it.
In the few weeks I've had it, it has actually replaced my desktop as my "main computer." That is to say that this is the one that I turn on regularly and use even for petty tasks. I've come to really love this laptop, and even some of the "bonuses" that I wasn't even looking for have turned out to be great features that I use like crazy.
An example of one of these bonuses is the BeatsAudio. I'll admit, when I saw a BeatsAudio station in Fry's before I was looking at this laptop, I thought that it was kind of a gimmick - something that HP uses as an excuse to charge the consumer more money. However the first time I started playing music through the speakers, I was truly blown away at not only the volume, but the depth and clarity. I've honestly never heard such a sound come out of a laptop before.
Another great "bonus" was the fingerprint scanner. When I bought the laptop, I didn't think I would ever use it. Now that I've gotten to learn how to set it up, I use it as a very quick way to access my laptop (it's way faster to swipe a finger than to type a password), and I also use it for security, because now only I can access the contents of the computer.
For the record, here were my "minimum specifications" while I was shopping and in parenthesis are the specs of this laptop:
i5 or more (i7-2630QM [Sandy Bridge])
6GB RAM (8GB DDR3 RAM)
500GB+ HDD (750GB HDD)
1GB Video (1 GB Radeon HD 6770M s)
USB 3.0 (2 x USB 3.0)
15.6"+ Screen (17.3" screen)
As you have probably already figured out if you have read everything thus far, you can easily see that I absolutely love this laptop. Best part? My dad has been jealous ever since I got this that his laptop is way slower! :P
***UPDATE: August 6, 2012***
To make a long story short, things and pieces of it stopped working not long after purchasing it. Various and widespread issues, including hard drive crashes (technically not it's fault), buttons not working, the body falling apart and flexing, and refusing to run certain programs, combined, made me feel about as far away from comfortable with it as possible, and because I'm going away to college again in a few weeks, I didn't want to be alone with a laptop that I couldn't trust, so I don't own this one any more.
In the few weeks I've had it, it has actually replaced my desktop as my "main computer." That is to say that this is the one that I turn on regularly and use even for petty tasks. I've come to really love this laptop, and even some of the "bonuses" that I wasn't even looking for have turned out to be great features that I use like crazy.
An example of one of these bonuses is the BeatsAudio. I'll admit, when I saw a BeatsAudio station in Fry's before I was looking at this laptop, I thought that it was kind of a gimmick - something that HP uses as an excuse to charge the consumer more money. However the first time I started playing music through the speakers, I was truly blown away at not only the volume, but the depth and clarity. I've honestly never heard such a sound come out of a laptop before.
Another great "bonus" was the fingerprint scanner. When I bought the laptop, I didn't think I would ever use it. Now that I've gotten to learn how to set it up, I use it as a very quick way to access my laptop (it's way faster to swipe a finger than to type a password), and I also use it for security, because now only I can access the contents of the computer.
For the record, here were my "minimum specifications" while I was shopping and in parenthesis are the specs of this laptop:
i5 or more (i7-2630QM [Sandy Bridge])
6GB RAM (8GB DDR3 RAM)
500GB+ HDD (750GB HDD)
1GB Video (1 GB Radeon HD 6770M s)
USB 3.0 (2 x USB 3.0)
15.6"+ Screen (17.3" screen)
As you have probably already figured out if you have read everything thus far, you can easily see that I absolutely love this laptop. Best part? My dad has been jealous ever since I got this that his laptop is way slower! :P
***UPDATE: August 6, 2012***
To make a long story short, things and pieces of it stopped working not long after purchasing it. Various and widespread issues, including hard drive crashes (technically not it's fault), buttons not working, the body falling apart and flexing, and refusing to run certain programs, combined, made me feel about as far away from comfortable with it as possible, and because I'm going away to college again in a few weeks, I didn't want to be alone with a laptop that I couldn't trust, so I don't own this one any more.
good review!
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review history
- 2012-08-06
-
Durability rating changed from 5 to 1
Edited comment on Durability
Updated overall rating
Updated detailed review