HP Pavilion g7-2010nr 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.

Buy HP Pavilion g7-2010nr 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black) Now

When I would open & close the lid, the monitor would stay black for 3 10 seconds and flicker 3 5 times before the image would stay. This started the first day and progressively got worse. I had turned off all monitor and hard drive power settings (no sleep mode, hibernation, etc)., and checked to ensure all drivers (video, bios, etc) were up-to-date. With all software up-to-date, I then knew it was a hardware issues. I called HP and tech support who agreed it was a hardware issue and offered to repair it for free as it was 4 days old. I told them "no" and am returning it. Also, the DVD drive would start for no reason and the function keys didn't always work. The sound key and monitor brightness keys sometimes took multiple hits to work.

Edited on September 5....HP tech support has been nothing but fantastic. They bumped my call up to next level support and then emailed me and called me. I informed them of what fixes I tried, how they didn't work and it is a hardware issue, and I am just going to return it. They provided me with a coupon for an HP Store purchase for my troubles and hoped I would buy a HP again. They went out of their to try to make me happy (I wasn't upset, I understand that hardware issues will happen).

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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.

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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.