HP G62-105SA > Reviews (10)

The HP G62-105SA is a real big change to HP's standard notebook design, with the design having an embedded pattern design in the chassis and the palmrest area, including the top lid, too. It's a nice design, to say the least. I wouldn't consider this laptop a premium laptop and I think HP made it suitable as an affordable home machine that's perfect for throwing your everyday tasks at it. It's priced at around £479, possibly cheaper depending on which retail store you purchase it from.

Screen

The screen is a 15.6" high definition LED "HP BrightView" display, and as soon as I used it for the first time for some reason I absolutely loved the screen. The screen is glossy like most laptops nowadays and will become dirty as a result (fingerprints, dust, etc) but a quick clean with a slightly damp cloth wipening the screen and then wiping again with a dry cloth will make it good as new again.

Webcam

Of course, it comes with a built in webcam and microphone (which is next to the webcam - to the left), and the webcam is of great quality and HP includes some webcam effects software called CyberLink YouCam and while some of the effects are pretty useless - there are a lot of great webcam effects for when you're video chatting, etc.

Sound

I don't generally know how to contrast sound quality compared to other laptops really - but the speakers seem pretty good to me. Works well for Youtube video watching and listening to music.

Keyboard

It's really disappointing that different laptop manufacturers have different keyboard and key styles for different laptop models they sell; and the fact of the matter is some keyboards on some laptops absolutely suck (i.e. you're prone to make typing errors on). Well this keyboard thankfully is completely full size and is easy and comfortable to type on despite the keys being flat like on some other keyboard designs. Pretty good.

The caps lock key lights up when activated by the way, which is useful instead of having a small indictator light at the top of the keyboard which you won't really notice at all.

The only downside to the keyboard is that even after just a day's use it became shiny - pretty annoying but oh well, it's not too noticeable! (I've had the notebook since March now)

Touchpad

Manufacturers are obviously taking into account form over function with a lot of laptops and are not concentrating on whether the touchpad is smooth, etc. Well HP made a good decision with this touchpad; it's better than touchpads on other laptops out there. There is no separate touchpad material - the touchpad is part of the palmrest area / chassis of the laptop, which is pretty stylish! Because the touchpad is using the same material as the laptop casing it's extremely smooth and easy to use, because of the smooth plastic used for the casing. Of course like I said above there is an embedded pattern design in the plastic and this extends into the touchpad of course, and that adds a slight amount of friction which is perfect for when you're using the touchpad.

Some other reviewers have complained that the touchpad buttons are a little harder to push down and at first I noticed this too, but I eventually got use to it. It's not really a problem for me at all.

Ports

This notebook comes with 3x USB ports (external mouse, keyboard, etc), HDMI port, VGA port (for VGA/analogue based monitors), Ethernet port (for a wired Internet connection - WiFi is built-in however), SD card slot I believe, too.

Windows 7 / General

Windows 7 works well. This laptop comes with 3GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive with a new Intel Core i3 processor which is Intel's line of new Intel Core processors, it's a pretty powerful processor as far as I'm aware and works well for all every day tasks you throw at it. The specs with this laptop is exactly to what I need.

Battery life

The battery life with this laptop is pretty good where 15" laptops are concerned. It comes with a 6 cell Li-ion battery and generally lasts for around 3 - 3.5 hours for me. It may last more if you reduce brightness, don't run too many applications, etc., - and turning off WiFi may help extend the battery even further (you can disable WiFi by pressing the f12 key that has the wireless icon on it).

Overall, a pretty nice all purpose notebook. I quite like it :).