HP G7000

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Fast
Look & Feel	Good
Comfort & Portability	Good
Robustness & Durability	Good
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	Quick, memory, screen, can play DVDs, battery life
Disadvantages:	Overheats, can be slow

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

As a child, I always wanted a laptop. My “cousin”, who was 9 years older than me had one when I was little and I always looked up to her, and wanted to be like her. I remember one time I was at her house, she let me on to play a horse riding game, but I went home in tears afterwards when I accidentally broke her laptop. That didn’t put me off though and I longed for one of my own.
When I was 10, I got a computer for Christmas and I was ecstatic. My mum had refused to get me a laptop because she wanted the computer to be “available to the whole family” if they needed it. It was a fairly good computer and worked really well. With this computer, it made me almost forget about my desire for a laptop but not really.

I got my first laptop when I was around 13 years old. I am now 15, and I’m on my second one. The first one I got was a decent one and set me back £500, however I accidentally left it on when we went away for the week, and when I came back, it had completely blown up due to overheating! (oops!). It took my mum a lot of persuasion but last Christmas she bought me my second laptop. The one I am writing about today!

**

My laptop was bought in November 2008, and was bought from Comet. It cost £349 which was the retailing price. Looking online at the website however, it shows that this price is after it had been lowered from £399. This price for a laptop is actually pretty good and as long as it is a decent laptop, you have probably got yourself a bargain. Compared to some of the other laptops offering the same features and packages this was one of the cheaper ones. The most expensive laptop offering the same things was around the £520 mark, which is a huge step up if you’re not going to get anything more!

Buying the laptop was easy. We simply paid the money there and then and then took it home. I do think it is possible to pay a deposit and then pay the rest with monthly instalments however I do think it depends on where you have purchased the laptop.
The laptop came in a normal sized laptop box. It had information on the front about the laptop and a picture of it too, as well as information about the laptop itself. Inside the main box, the laptop was then placed in a brown cardboard box for extra protection. The brown box had absolutely nothing on it; no pictures, no text, nothing. Inside the brown box, the laptop is then packed in polystyrene for even more protection. It did take a while to get in to the box, but once you’re in, it’s easy enough from there.
In with the box are two instruction leaflets, and a booklet which provide all of the information for the laptop!

The laptop is fairly attractive. All black in colour. The screen is “widescreen”, that is that it is, 15.4’’. it does look like a TV screen actually and is bigger than the screen my brother had in his room up until a month ago! The keyboard is also very wide with each number/letter big enough to type and see properly. As with most laptops, the mouse is a touch sense one which means a mouse doesn’t have to be carted around with you! Just above the touch pad there is a mouse lock which I find it really helpful if I’m watching a film. Underneath the mouse pad there are the usual “left and right clicks” which simply perform, as, well, the “right and left clicks” of your mouse. The power button is placed at the top of the keyboard above the keys, and there is a button which shows whether you are connected to the internet or not. Overall, the laptop is really quite attractive. Its nothing special but it is very pleasing to the eye!

After my brother had a bit of bother with his laptop, and after the death of my first laptop, my mum decided it would be best if we had a man come round to set up my laptop properly. So on the 28th of December, three days after I got my laptop on Christmas day, he arrived. I cant say exactly what he did, because he’s the expert after all, but it did look plain and simple, and only took around 20 minutes. The information on how to set up your laptop is included in the laptop booklet. I gave it a quick flick through and it is written out in fairly big font with diagrams and pictures so it shouldn’t be too difficult!

Once I was “on my own”, completing set up for the laptop wasn’t too difficult. I was simply required to create passwords and locks where I wanted them, and set things such as the date and time. This was really easy and the instructions on the screen were really easy to follow.
Once your laptop is up and running, there really isn’t much else to do, except start using it!!

**
The Stuff most of you want to know!

I use my laptop every single day without fail and its probably on four about 5 hours per day during the week, and near 8 or 9 hours at the weekend. I find that after about 3 hours of the laptop being in use, it tends to get really hot and overheat sometimes, especially if it is not on a hard surface. We almost suffered the loss of ANOTHER laptop, when I’d been using my laptop on my bed covers all day! It let off a horrendous burning smell, and sounded as though it was going to take off! If the laptop gets too hot, it shuts down automatically with no warning. One minute the screen is in use. The next minute its black. I guess this Is just because it doesn’t want to break and is protecting itself however it can be really annoying if your in the middle of something (like a review) and haven’t saved it! It isn’t too much of a problem though, as long as you keep the laptop on a hard surface like a desk or a table.

The battery life of the laptop is fairly good. I tend to have mine on charge all the time as I don’t tend to travel with it. However when it isn’t on charge it usually lasts for about 2 hours before completely dying on me. It is possible to set your battery to different modes including “balanced”, “power saver” and “high performance”. I tend to have mine on high performance all the day as I find it works better and a lot quicker, and the screen is at its optimum brightness!

What do I use my laptop for? Well, I really only use it for the internet, msn, and word documents. However I have been known to watch films on it. It plays most films, and they are usually a very good quality. Because the screen is so big it feels just like a television and if on “High performance” the screen is very clear and bright. I do find though that around half an hour into the film, they can begin to jump and freeze a little however this only lasts for around 10 minutes before its back into its normal rhythm again. I’ve tried playing games on it like The Sims and yes, they do work however they completely slow the laptop down, and make it freeze an awful lot. Also, the graphics on these games aren’t very good and can become quite pixilated. If you are looking for a laptop to play games on such as The Sims3, I’d look somewhere else as I don’t think this is the one you are looking for.

The laptop does have an awful lot of storage on it. I’ve probably got about 1500 pictures, 2000 songs, and probably 6 or 7 films and downloaded shows stored on it. Even with all of these I still have more than half of my memory left which is really good. When this memory runs out, it will be possible for me to buy either an external hard drive or more memory for it! Overall, for what I use the laptop for, its really, really good, and doesn’t cause too many problems!!

The laptop also comes with a built in webcam and microphone. The webcam is on the top of the screen, just above it, and goes pretty unnoticed. Its simply a little camera which is built in and so doesn’t stick out or anything at all. It is a really good quality camera, and takes really good pictures as well as being excellent quality when live as well! (Amy69!!)
The microphone is alright too although its not very clear. On occasions when Amy69 and I have had video calls and live chats, she has commented that it is a bit grainy! However when chatting to other people on it they say its great and very clear! Maybe Amy is going deaf…….

I don’t really use my laptop out of the house though I have taken it on the train once! It Is quite easy to carry however it is slightly heavy, especially for somebody week like me. There are plenty of laptop cases which fit it and I have a lovely green and pink flowery one!
I have connected my laptop to three different printers and a scanner, all of different brand names and it has worked perfectly with all of them. I have encountered no problems (so far!), therefore the compatibility is excellent! It also works well with ipod and itunes and my mobile phone!

The disk tray is easy to use and works well. There is obviously the usual button in which you press, and out pings the tray. It fits every disk including the tiny little ones you get to install some phones! The disk tray states on it that it plays DVDs, and compact disks!

It is possible on the laptop to have more than one account and at one point I did have three, in order to store different pictures and documents in different places. However this got confusing so I ended up just sticking to the one!

The laptop comes with a 250gb hard drive. The dimensions of the laptop are 25.7cm in length by 35.7cm in width. The weight of the laptop is 2.9kg or 6.39lbs.
The temperature of the laptop depends on how well it will work as does humidity.
The laptop comes with 3 USB ports. Two on the right hand side and one on the left hand side. There are also holes for headphones and microphones and these are found on the bottom side of the laptop. These have worked with me every time I have used them whether it be my ipod, phone, camera etc. The only time they didn’t work was when my ipod wasn’t recognised but I think was itunes fault, not the laptop itself. The laptop is obviously able to be charged up at mains. There is a connecter to the plug, and the laptop and the chord is long enough for me to walk about 4 metres or so. I could be in the hall, and the chord still in my room and my room is pretty large!
Overall, this laptop is great for what I need it for. Its good for word documents, and using the internet. It comes with all your usual programmes such as Microsoft office, paint etc, as well as some extra things such as a special photo programme!

If you want to see the technical information but laid out so its really easy to read, visit this link:
http://static.tigerdirect.com/pdf/Compaq_Presario_C700_Series_NotebookPC-MnSG.pdf