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We liked
The G2 is one of the cheapest laptops I've ever tested, and while it's hardly a premium device, everything works where it counts.
Thanks to having 4GB of memory, there was no noticeable slowdown in Windows, and therefore it's perfectly adequate for simple tasks. While we'd limit it to word processing, spreadsheets and browsing the web, these are the things the majority of people use computers for, and it's not going to cause problems for them.
The build quality is alright too, and while the HP 255 isn't exactly portable, the keys are a generous size. Also having a 15-inch screen is great if you prefer a laptop with some desktop space.
We disliked
The screen might be a generous size, but its colours, brightness and image quality are generally awful. View it from a different angle and it's unreadable. Clearly, HP had to save costs somewhere and the screen is a very noticeable example.
And while its performance is still better than Windows tablets, the HP 255 G2 really isn't much cop if you think you'll want to use any kind of demanding software.
Final verdict
HP has clearly aimed low with the 255 G2, but in doing so, has hit the mark. Although its performance isn't great, it's hard to be really critical of this laptop, since it's very well priced and it does exactly what it's intended for.
While the low-power processor and fairly limited graphics hardware will definitely struggle with demanding tasks, the inclusion of 4GB of memory ensures it remains perfectly responsive and does a good job running light software.
