HP Pavilion g7-2240us 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

First I want to emphasize that I’ve only had this laptop a little over 2 weeks. In that time I have used the DVD burner to create the recovery discs (that’s the FIRST thing everyone should do when they get a new computer, before they do anything else with it), the restore CD, a few other DVDs I needed to make (which ended up being fully compatible with my old Lenovo/IBM T61 laptop’s DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive), had the computer running 24/7 for about a day and a night uploading backups, ran the computer almost constantly during the day for the past two weeks (on A/C power).

The computer performs fantastic, is very fast and stays much cooler (even in a hot apartment) than my old laptop did.

I use my computer not just for watching videos, email and surfing but also for my work doing web development and also running virtual servers for testing scripts, etc. Also another thing I did was make sure the OS and computer (including BIOS) was updated fully so I have the latest of everything.

The pros:

Very fast, plenty of hard drive space, built-in SD card reader (I use 64GB SD cards for backups), AWESOME SOUND (from headphones). The built-in speakers also aren’t too bad. I have a pair of powered Altec Lansing speakers packed away and always loved the sound so I was glad to see that Altec Lansing audio was built into this laptop. Including Dolby which makes the sound (especially with headphones) truely awesome! You may want to also tweak it to your liking in control panel and Windows Media player, if needed.

The display is amazingly brilliant and sharp. Very rich colors. I love the size of this display. I was used to a 14″ display on the old laptop and hated dragging out a 19″ monitor I used to have. This lets me play some casual games and watch videos in just the right size. The laptop isn’t so big that it won’t fit on larger laptop lap desks, which makes it great for watching movies outside the home office.

There’s a full size keyboard with nice large keys and a keypad. No more having to hit Fn-Numlock to get a number pad (which was integrated into the keyboard on my Lenovo laptop).

It took a bit to get used to Windows 7 but I’m looking forward to the Windows 8 upgrade which I registered to get for $14.95. You do that directly from Microsoft.

I was on Skype with a friend a couple times and was amazed I could talk and hear them and without no glitches while talking.

The built-in video isn’t too bad for a low-end video camera. It could be nice for doing video chat or YouTube videos. Just be sure you have plenty of good lighting around you.

Love the White LED scheme. Goes well aesthetically with the look of the computer, which is a nice glossy black and silver accents.

The Cons:

The keyboard is back a ways from the front and it takes some getting used to.

I am still trying to get used to the placement of the keys. LIke the delete/home/end and the way the Control and Alt keys are between an Fn and Windows key on the left. Sometimes I end up hitting Fn instead of Control!

The Function keys you have to use the Fn key to get F2, F3, etc. F5 doesn’t have a pre-mapped function. I had to get used to that but found that it was nice to be able to raise/lower volume and move between songs using the function keys.

The touchpad is really rough but since I don’t use the touchpad much, it sometimes gets in the way. Thankfully you can double tap a little bubble in the upper left to turn it off. Though I think it should show an LED when on and not when off.

The screen is incredibly glassy. While this makes for an awesomely rich colored and brilliant display, it’s also impossible to see if your laptop is facing a window or lamps or just about anything. It pretty much works like a mirror sometimes! I moved my desk around so that it’s facing the wall to solve the problem.

The location of the AC power jack is on the right side towards the back. I liked my Lenovo T61′s power jack location better as it was on the back of the computer out of the way.

The hard drive light is a tiny light on the side near the power jack and USB port. This is kinda inconvenient when you want to see hard drive action to see if the computer stopped or if something is using the hard drive a lot. So far I haven’t really needed to check it though.

The WiFi light is on the F12 function key, which if you press F12, you would turn on/off your WiFi. I don’t like this as it could be forgotten when using a program that uses F12. Also the WiFi light is either red for off or white for on. It doesn’t blink to show if there’s any activity going on (my old laptop’s light was on the monitor bezel and would blink according to activity). Good thing the router is nearby so I can check activity if I needed to.

When you first log into the computer for the very first time, the desktop wallpaper is just plain UGLY! Sorry, but that really struck me as odd.

Other stuff:

I had to get used to the headphones and mic jacks being on the left side instead of the front. But in thinking about it, it’s better this way if you are using a lap desk as then the headphones would fit.

I’m not crazy about the extra programs that came with it but I did keep some of them HP ones.

I at first thought it had Bluetooth built in but later found out that it did not. This was MY fault as I didn’t read the advertisement fully. But it worked great with my little Bluetooth adapter and a few other devices also installed quite easily.

Overall:

Overall, I still quite happy with the laptop and intend to use it for everyday use be it personal, entertainment, work, etc. I do hope it’ll last me a good long time.

Excellent all purpose laptop. Extremely quick for all everyday tasks including surfing, email, basic games, etc.

The touchpad can get a bit troublesome with the multigesture support but you can go into control panel and shut off certain aspects of it.

Great built in features including webcam, hdmi port and card reader make this laptop very versatile.

Stays very cool and quiet compared to much older dell machine that it replaced.

The one place it may lack is gaming as it uses integrated intel hd 3000 graphics. But if you’re into hardcore gaming,
chances are you’re spending double on a machine with discrete graphics and not looking at this.

For the price, this is an excellent buy.

EDIT 8/31/12: Have been experiencing a problem where I would plug in the A/C power and the battery indicator would tell me “plugged in, not charging”. Called HP for support for the battery issue, and even though the service was excellent with remote access, the issue has not been resolved. I will try returning it to Amazon and exchanging for same model. I do really like the laptop otherwise.

It took a few days, but I think I now have Windows 8 figured out. The Laptop itself is great. I like the speed and the 17 inch, very clear, display. The keyboard is easy to use, but I bought a wireless mouse. I don’t like working with the touch pad. The only disappointment I have, is the CD/DVD drive is not Lightscribe compatible. It wasn’t in the description. I just forgot to check for it. I’ll get an external Lightscribe CD/DVD drive to use as I need it.

I just had to state, I could not find a compatible external Lightscribe CD/DVD burner. Lightscribe doesn’t work with Windows 8, and it has been dropped by HP. HP started deleting Lightscribe burners from their computers in early 2011. I believe the technology has been dropped by third party DVD burner manufactures also. Despite my disappointment, it’s still and excellent computer.

This laptop has performed exactly as advertised. The only hitch was that I transferred my files and programs from my old computer wirelessly and then had trouble installing programs like Roxio Move Maker. I had to reset the computer to factory settings and then the installation went smoothly. Would caution anyone about transferring files wirelessly, especially from a computer that was not functioning well.

Bought this laptop as a replacement for my old desktop HP. Couldn’t be happier. Beautiful big screen and solid construction, nothing flimsy about this unit. I would not hesitate to suggest this unit to anyone seeking an affordable desktop replacement.

This is my second machine. the first seemed slow thats because it t came with only 2 Gigabites of ram .I contacted customer service and they apologized and sent the machine I ordered with the 6 Gig of Ram. excellent response by customer service in correcting the mistake which we all know do happen ,but I suggest checking the machines properties to make sure your getting what you ordered.
Works great ,big screen and fast speed what else do you need.I just got it so far so good for viewing NFL MLB HBO and Netflix as well as zipping around the net.

I bought this for my wife to replace a six year old 15″ HP laptop that had grown very slow and needed a new battery. This laptop fits the bill. It is fast, she loves the larger screen, it is not too heavy and she doesn’t have to drag around an electrical cord behind her any more (for some reason she did not want to spend the money on a new battery). The high gloss black finish looks very good. She has had no problems with this computer which is wirelessly connected to our home network. A 17″ laptop with these specs at this price is a good deal.

For the amount I paid, this is a great laptop. It’s fast, compact, relatively light and has a good looking case. The only issues I have are:

-The screen is HIGH GLOSS, just like every other laptop made today, I spent weeks looking for a matte screen, and the only people making them are Samsung. During the day it’s a bit annoying, at night so much.

-HP BLOATWARE! Make sure you go into Programs and delete all the garbage they put on here, and be to check your Startup files and uncheck most of the bloatware they load.

-The plastic overlays they put all over the laptop are hard to get off, especially around the hinges where the screen attaches to the body, I have to delicately remove tiny bits of plastic with a knife.

Other than that everything works well, a dead pixel free screen and great Wifi connectivity.