HP 2000-350US Notebook PC - Gray

Needed a $400-laptop as a present for my grandfather-in-law. Nothing fancy, just 15" screen, keyboard, and decent speakers. I wanted to avoid AMD-powered laptops. This one seemed to fit the bill, and it works fine. It's fairly light, sub-6 lb. The screen is plenty bright, the keyboard layout is standard, mousepad is comfortable. The battery lasts a couple of hours, at least, I didn't time it. There is enough RAM for any basic office task, and the dual-core CPU is plenty fast for the same tasks.

It comes preloaded with a lot of crapware, but if you burn a set of recovery DVDs (there is HP Recovery Manager installed but note that it only allows you to burn ONE copy DVD, DVD-DL, or USB Flash) you can restore the system with minimal software and drivers which gives you just plain old Windows 7 install with drivers and minimal HP software. The laptop works just fine, and for what it is, you can't be too picky it's a cheap plastic budget box that's not too fast, and not too flashy, but works fine. Oh, and the built-in Altec Lansing speakers are great!

Windows 7 performance score 4.6

processor 5.9

RAM 5.9

Graphics 4.6

Gaming 5.5

Hard disk: 5.9

Only couple of design issues: the laptop lid has a very sharp edge, I can even foresee someone cutting hands on it. Also, for the same reason, the laptop lid is difficult to open.

And finally: on Amazon front page, go to Computers and Laptops, and search for 15" laptops with 4GB of RAM, under $500, with Intel Pentium CPU. At the time of writing this, there were only 7 results, and only a couple laptops for $400 this one, and an Asus with full keyboard (normal + numeric). I liked this one better.

I purchased this laptop in Dec. 2011 and it has stopped working. The power light is on, but the screen is black. Does not boot. There are no HP service centers who will honor the warranty so it has to be sent back to HP. I'm guessing I'll be without my laptop for over two weeks. Very unhappy.

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This is a good laptop for the money... I run Photoshop and Word applications all at once and still keeps chugging. But it has one major flaw, poor connectivity. It will have trouble connecting for no reason, even with a great signal. Web pages time out continually. It's very frustrating. But besides that, it's a great laptop for the money.

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Very disappointed. Check the internet for the MANY complaints about this model. I should have. (due diligence, caveat emptor, etc.) If you buy this product, you WILL NEED the extended service warranty. BTW, HP has discontinued this product...hmmm, wonder why?

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I had the same experience as another reviewer. Bought this in Dec. 2011. It worked great for 4 months then the screen went black. It turns on but nothing on the screen. They diagnosed it as a mother board problem. It has to be sent back to HP to be fixed. We needed it for a vacation that leave on in two days and now we're just out of luck. I had hoped that buying HP would be a good choice. Wrong again.