TechRadar Verdict
A powerful, portable laptop for a very attractive price
Pros
- +
Well-built
- +
Strong performance
- +
Great screen
Cons
- -
Basic graphics
- -
Limited features
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HP is currently the number one laptop seller in the world, largely due to an impressive line-up of business machines.
For consumers it offers the Pavilion range, which mixes multimedia features and cutting-edge functions at realistic prices.
The HP Pavilion G6061EA (£380 inc. VAT) is the budget model in the range, but still manages to offer good all-round usability.
Powerful chipset
It chooses not to use an Intel processor, although you'll find the AMD Turion X2 still offers a dual-core solution, so you'll be able to run multiple applications at the same time.
This was certainly the case in our tests, and we found this a quick and reliable machine to use. The 120GB hard drive is a little mean, but is reasonable for the price.
In day-to-day use we found this a pleasurable machine to use and powerful enough for most users needs.
Solidly-built laptop
The build quality is solid and firm. The screen sits on one long hinge that is built into the case, so there is minimal movement when typing.
The chassis is made from plastic and we found very little flex in the overall build. We found this a quiet laptop, even with multiple windows running, with fan activity kept to a minimum. The chassis stayed cool, even after long periods of use.
The screen is a widescreen 15.4-inch panel that is great for movies as well as working or using the internet. Being Super-TFT, the screen has a fair degree of reflections cast on it when used in bright conditions, so isn't ideal on the daily commute. Graphics are an integrated nVidia solution, which we found was fine for basic tasks, but trails behind the equivalent chip from Intel.
The most impressive feature of this laptop is the keyboard. The keys are individually mounted and have plenty of travel to them but they never feel soft. With a comfortable typing action, they felt solid to the touch and were a pleasure to use. We were less impressed with the mouse buttons, which were large but sluggish to respond.
Budget feature set
Extras are kept to the minimum. While you won't find an ExpressCard slot, the three USB ports can be found split between the sides of the chassis. The webcam is mounted above the screen and we found it worked exceedingly well.
The optical drive is a DVD rewriter. Wired and wireless functions are built in and you can even turn theWi-Fi off when not needed using the dedicated button on the front of the machine.
The HP Pavilion G6061EA is a great machine for those looking for a powerful solution delivering battery life and ease of use at a bargain price.
