Fist off, by the look of this unit some might say it looks alot like the Macbook pro 13", with that being said, looks are NOT everything, This HP G62 packs alot of KICKASS punch, Unlike the other person who wrote that he's having a track pad problem.....GET GLASSES if you cannot see the track pad. One of the features regarding the track pad is the shut off, you just tap twice on the led thats located on top of the pad too disable the track pad, of which then an amber light comes on letting you know that you have disabled the track pad, too enable it, just tap twice and your good too go, this feature was made if you are going too use an external mouse. Now as far as This unit's functionality, its awesome, all hard drives depending on your configuration, are @ 7200 rpm,the base CPU is the new i3 core by intel, of which is upgradeable too the i5 or i7. It also features the new L3 cache, giving you a smoother ride then the older L2 cache systems. The system bus is well over 1066MHz, uses very fast DDR3 ram of which this unit is upgradeable too 8 gigs of ram. In addition the graphics are in true native, and watching a dvd was an experience, with the Altec Lansing audio surround. OK now for multi-task, I have compared it too the Macbook Pro, With the Intel core 2 duo running @ 2.8 Ghz, the results were very impressive, The HP (base model) not only beat the Macbook Pro in muli-tasking, but also ran apples own software like itunes and others with little effort, running adobe CS4 was so fast I could not believe what I was seeing. As far as surfing the web, I have never been on a mobile device that has speeds that are just unbelievable. HP and Intel have put together a product that surpasses systems worth 00 and up. Of coarse if you deside too get your HP G62 FULLY loaded with the i7 intel cpu, blueray, 500gb hard drive, and dedicated graphics, and built in bluetooth, this unit will run you about 00. Now weather you get the base model or upgraded version, 1 word....Kickass, its about time a PC company challenges the bar, weather your a casual user or an extreme user, makes no difference, this unit is built for decades too come! Well worth the money!
Average Rating:
Brand: Hewlett-Packard
Model: G62-144DX
Product Description:
This laptop features LightScribe technology and a double-layer DVD±R/RW drive for creating your own customized discs with labels. Connect to the Internet wirelessly via the integrated wireless LAN.
Features:
- Intel Core i3-330M Processor 2.13GHz
- 15.6" Diagonal High-Definition LED HP BrightView Widescreen Display
- 4GB DDR3 Memory / 500GB Hard Drive / LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
- Built-in HP webcam and microphone / Intel HD Graphics / 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader / HDMI Port
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit / 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
Available at Amazon
Lowest Used Price: USD 700.00
Lowest New Price: USD 662.99
Lowest Refurbished Price: USD 649.99
Customer Reviews
Great notebook except for the mouse pad
For the most part, notebooks with similar specs are not much different from each other. This G62 is a great notebook which I have no complaints about when using an external mouse. The built-in mouse/track pad is another story.
The mouse pad is not as sensitive to (my) touch as any other I have ever used. Sometimes I have to look at the pad to confirm I am on it when it doesn't sense my touch (unlike other notebooks, the G62's "hidden" mouse pad is flush with the computer case, with no visible or tactile difference to let you know when you slide your finger off it). Another issue with this flush mount mouse is that you don't have a "lip" or edge with which to know that your other fingers or palm are not touching the pad and keeping your moving finger from having any effect.
If you need to use the built-in mouse instead of an external one, I would seriously consider finding another notebook.
This mouse pad is a very poor design element and should be eliminated in future versions.
Not bad, but not great
I bought this computer for the price and system specs: 9 for the dual core i3, 7200 RPM hard drive, 4 GB DDR3, and new L3 cache (which is debatable on whether or not is worth anything).
I bought this laptop intending to dual-boot it with Linux, and use it as a Linux development/sys-admin box part of the time, and then let my wife use the Windows side the rest of the time for her office work. I bought it cold, without ever trying it out. I'm someone who doesn't get too picky about performance and graphics, and is more concerned with the comfort of a system. I don't care if something takes 2.3 seconds instead of 1.8 seconds as long as I'm comfortable.
I'll go ahead and list the pros of this laptop:
- It's fairly snappy, especially for a laptop, and works very well with Windows 7.
- I've never needed to use swap space yet. 4 GB of DDR3 is awesome.
- The screen seems to work fine, although the glossiness can be annoying
- Fairly durable
- 5 in 1 reader is good add-on
- You get a great package for the price.
- No dedicated number pad. I want that real estate for my other keys.
- Wireless works great. DVD/CD burning works fine.
- Stays very cool and very quiet. Beats my MBP here hands down.
- No stupid latch for opening the screen.
- Lots of good connections: 3 USB (should be plenty for anyone), HDMI and a serial out, optical out.
- Battery life is great.
Here are the cons:
- The column of buttons on the left. No one in the world uses those stupid shortcut buttons (copy, paste, Internet browser, music client, email client). The column on the right gets used all of the time (Delete, Pg Up/Down, Home/End). There is half of an inch of wasted space on the left of your keyboard.
- Because this laptop has an integrated graphics card, Linux does not play well with it. Don't expect any accelerated stuff, and don't expect to use anything other than basic graphics drivers. This is only a problem because you will try to use newer drivers, and then your Linux system won't boot right.
- Because of the integrated sound card, Linux does not play well with it. I have yet to get any sound out of the speakers in Linux. I'm assuming no one at HP is smart enough to write drivers in Linux.
- HP installs their own recovery software, which means your system comes from the factory with all 4 primary partitions already used (Windows + Windows Swap + Windows Recovery + HP Recovery). This means that you have to use HP's installed software to create your 1 time recovery disks (takes about 2 hours), and then you have to delete the HP partition, defrag the Windows partition, and then shrink the Windows volume to have some free space for a Linux partition. This was a pain in the butt.
- THE MOUSE IS FLUSH WITH THE LAPTOP! Because it isn't 'inset' at all, you will constantly tap the mouse area with your thumb by accident, which will then either change your application or change focus within your app to somewhere you didn't want. Aggravating as hell.
- The mouse buttons are way too difficult to handle. You have to press them very, very hard, and there is no speedy way to use them. You can get away with clicking by just tapping the mouse pad, but your screwed when it comes to right clicks (as much as I hate to say it, Apple has the best mouse pad in the world in their MBP).
- The Esc button is to the top left of the tilde button, not above it (F1 is above tilde). You Vi/ViM users will not like this.
- The power button is weird. If you are a man and you don't have little skinny girly hands, it's hard to fit a thick finger in the area where you have to push the button.
This is still a fairly good deal for the money, but if you are a developer and are looking for something that will let you fly around on the keyboard, this might not be the best system. Also, you Linux users will probably want something with dedicated graphics cards, as it makes you install and boots much easier. For people who are using this for random usage and not any thick, dedicated work, this is a great deal. I don't really recommend it for developers, especially Linux ones.
Jury is still out
I've had this laptop for a week. The first issue I noticed was the touch pad buttons were too hard to press. The second issue is that Norton seems to be built-in. I've installed Web-Root Anti-virus, but the system keeps asking me to activate Norton. It also seems unstable. Windows 7 and/or IE8 seem to be crashing twice a day. Not sure if there's a hardware compatability issue or if it's the software.
I love the weight and feel. For the price this is a great laptop.
Massive Speed & Battery Life for Price
I picked this up on sale at Best Buy for 9, I was first inspired by the looks the the unit, as well as the texture of the casing. But I went and looked at just about every other laptop in the store in similar price range. Most of them tended to be the previous generation T4400 processors, rather than the new i3 series processors. One of the other things that caught my eye almost immediately was the posted battery life for the unit. Most 6-cell laptops you expect to get 2-3 hours of usage. The G62-144DX has 5hr 15min (admittedly, the way those battery lives are calculated is with just about everything shut off and the laptop not being used, but still significantly higher) I looked around at the other i3/5/7 series, the i3's and i5's all tended to have significantly longer battery life. They are the perfect mix of low electrical power utilization and high performance. Plus the fact of the DDR3 memory and the 500gb hard drive (most laptops tended to top out at 320gb), it was really an unbeatable deal.
Most of the other i3 laptops at the store were running at least 0 higher or more, and didn't have all the specs of this unit. It is quite a speedy system for a very reasonable cost.
