Overview
With the credit crunch looming over us everyday, people want a laptop to offer them as much performance for their pound than ever before.
With HP laptops you're getting a name you know you can trust, having been in the market since time began.
So as the HP G70-120EA hits the laptop scene, we find out whether this budget laptop deserves the title 'budget' or does it offer us a little more than we have come to expect.
Review
Style
Sporting the ever popular black style laptop, HP have never been ones to please the stylist crowd by having a laptop available in all different colours, no you get special editions for that…..classic. Touting a 17"³ Screen, it the biggest screen size available for this price range, unless you get a custom job. Plus with a webcam available on the laptop as standard, MSN video communication should be a walk in the park.
Another smart little feature on this laptop is the disc drive. Gone is the standard DVD Drive and in comes the Blu-ray disc drive that can err…….play Blu-ray discs. But don't worry this can also play DVDs as well but hey the Blu-ray option is nice to have.
Under the bonnet
This laptop comes with the all powerful Intel Core 2 Duo Processor which has boosted Intel's processor sales through the roof. The model running on this is the low/mid spec version, the T5800. This runs at a 2 GHz exactly but bear in mind this means x2 and that many applications are now being released that support dual cores so you will be getting the benefit of two processors’ speeds rather than one. But check with your software that it supports dual core first otherwise you will only be getting the 2 GHz out of it.
The amount of RAM that comes with this laptop is 3GB; which is a nice amount in terms of performance. Office applications will run on this perfectly, which is what you expect from a budget laptop but other more demanding applications should work alright as well, but as always check what spec is needed.
Hard drive wise, this comes with a below standard 160GB which is a fair bit lower than most models on the market. It does however allow you to store and extensive amount of Word, Excel etc files not to mention a fair few other programs as well as the few MP3/AVI files to boot.
Gaming wise this is another definite maybe; having being built with a Nvidia GeForce 9200 graphics card this laptop by no stretch of the imagination is able to handle the pressures that come with high gaming life, but it’s better than an on-board one which takes its power from the laptop to run. The golden oldies will run-on this as well as a few undemanding games that are being released at the moment, but games such as FEAR and CONAN will laugh at you for even attempting to run this.
Otherwise this laptop comes with Wi-Fi only has the optional extra.
The Gaj-It Verdict
Design 9/10
Usability: 8/10
Features: 8/10
Value: 9/10
We Say
This laptop is better than others at the same spec thanks to its Nvidia GeForce 9200 graphics card, which is why it got a better score than others in its range. If you're after a budget laptop that does not have graphics on-board then this is one to look at.
Technical Specs
- Processor – Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 / 2 GHz ( Dual-Core )
- 3 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) – DDR2 SDRAM
- 160 GB Hard Drive
- 17′ Screen
- Blu-ray DVD with re-writer
- Nvidia GeForce 9200 – 256 MB
- Bluetooth – No
- Notebook Camera – Integrated
- Wi-Fi – Integrated
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