HP Envy dv7-7250us 17.3-Inch Laptop

PROs: Absolutely INCREDIBLE light weight for such a large laptop. Setup was reasonably easy (except for my frustration with Windows 8 more on that below). A real DVD tray instead of a slot. Beats Audio = pretty amazing, customizable sound from a laptop. An amazing battery life (so far).

CONs: Windows 8 (more on that below) but this is overcome-able.

This replaced a Dell 17" Studio 1735 (Upgraded) running Windows Vista, purchased new in 2008 for $1100 a magical machine for its first 18 months, at which point it began overheating & shutting down suddenly whenever it was given a processor-intensive task like watching a DVD movie or running a full-disk security scan or even converting a single camcorder video or watching a YouTube video longer than 1 minute. (Bought a Logitech Cooling Pad N120, USB-Powered, Silent-Airflow Fan with Low Power Consumption (939-000345), and that helped somewhat, but still wouldn't allow a full-system scan.)

Since 2003, I'd always bought Dells but between that miserable experience and the fact that a basic Dell Inspiron we'd purchased in 2007 as a Christmas gift for in-laws was also a lemon, I refused to buy another Dell. My last 2 work-issued laptops have been HPs, and I'd been impressed by the reliability and battery longevity, so I looked at HPs this time around.

I need a large laptop because it's our only home computer and I do a lot of photo and video editing need the big screen. The Dell weighed close to 10 pounds it was a heavy clunker but I'd always just assumed that a large laptop would be heavy. This HP is amazingly light, and weighs almost as little as my work-issued 15" ProBook.

Windows 8:

I bought this assuming I could get up to speed with Windows 8 as easily as I have migrated from the first Windows, through almost every version since Windows 95 (plus all my employer-specific versions of Windows that are ever-so-different from what we use at home). Nope. It was PAINFUL and FRUSTRATING. Part of that is my fault I just thought I could "get up + go" like I always have in the past, from ancient Windows95 and 98, through Windows XP, to Vista and Win7...I just figured it out on my own. Nope. On this machine, I fought and cursed and wrangled my way through this new OS. Two weeks later, I finally looked at the Windows 8 guides that were pre-loaded on this laptop....umm, am much better now. ;-)

I've always bought DELL laptops in the past, for at least the last 10 years or so. So I was uneasy about getting a different brand. Sure enough I purchased the HP 7250 and its been awesome! The only modification I made was swap the 1TB HDD for a 240 GB Solid State Drive. It's super fast. I also added Office 2013 for Excel, Word and Outlook for my emails, and I am so glad that I picked up this PC. I'm not IT person, I simply bought the Solid State Drive and handed it to my IT department, and they swapped out the hard drives. Nonetheless, this PC is lighting fast. I also upgraded to Windows 8 PRO, and although it doesn't have a touch screen, I can do all I need with the Logitech Zone Touch T400 Mouse, which makes it like I am touching the screen. All in all I use this computer for work, as I am in sales management, so I am always working on spread sheets and a CRM system. And this computer has been great. For anyone switching to Windows 8 from Windows 7, don't be afraid, as Windows 8 allows you to toggle between the Touchscreen interface to the Conventional Desktop mode, which you are all used to on Windows 7. The only reason I upgraded was because I had my laptop stolen, but all in all, great purchase. I don't see how any other PC would have worked for me! Oh yeah, and this PC, although not stated, can be upgraded to 16GB RAM, as it only comes with 8GB. I am only running on the stock 8GB, and it hasn't shown signs of being slow at all. Everything is SUPER fast, from startup, to shutdown. Even opening files is extremely fast.

Hope This helps! 5 Stars in my book!

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Although I've only been using this for 3 days, I'm impressed with the machine: it's fast, full-featured, and has the potential to store a lot of data, which was a big plus on my wish list. The speakers and sound system are awesome, and I've streamed movies on the big screen several times already: very impressive! Keyboard works well (a little clicky, but easy to type on), and the touchpad is very nice. Getting used to Windows 8 will take some time, but I've downloaded an app that restores the Win7 shell and that makes it easier.

HP continues to make awesome machines, thankfully.

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I had originally purchased a Samsung Series 3 laptop as it was a very good price for what looked like good specs. After receiving it however I was sorely disappointed in the pathetic performance. I bought this HP Envy DV7 instead and am so glad I did.

This is by no means a small laptop. With a 17.3" screen and over 1 1/2" thick it is still surprisingly mobile. Battery life has been very good so far and I run everything all the time on the High Performance setting. I just turn down the screen brightness which is usually the biggest draw on your battery.

This machine with its i7 processor is super fast. This laptop does have a couple of components that hold it back from its potential: a 5400 RPM hard drive and built-in Intel HD 4000 video. However, I have found the HD 4000 video to be very capable. And even with the 5400 RPM drive the machine still boots up very quickly with Windows 8. It also has USB 3.0 ports for fast file transfers with compatible drives and USB sticks.

Most importantly, and I'm surprised at some of the other reviews, but I was surprised at how little extra bloatware/junk that was pre-installed. Most of the software installed is HP software for support, recovery, etc. The extra software like HP EasyRoom (an IM/Twitter application) is all very easy to identify and remove via the normal Windows Program uninstall process. The uninstalls also go very quickly with the fast processor.

Typical of most laptops any more, this laptop does not come with installation media. The recovery program will allow you to create media and will require at least a 24gb USB stick, 6 DVDs, or 4 DVD-DL.

This laptop also has the capability of installing a second hard drive if you wanted to. This would allow you to get a solid state drive to use for the OS partition and keep the 1 TB 5400 RPM drive as a data drive for all of your files and would make this machine even faster. To use the second drive bay you do require an additional drive caddy and SATA cable to connect the second drive.

While this machine may not be a full fledged gaming PC, for the average user, it is more than capable and is a lot of value for the money paid.

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I've had an HP laptop for years and wanted a faster, more powerful one. This one is much lighter and I really enjoy the biometric finger scan in place of a password