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HP Pavilion G6-1381SA
by lights84
I chose this laptop as my Christmas present from my husband as my old Dell was starting to reheat too easily and was becoming unreliable. I use my laptop for my work as I work from home. I chose this laptop in the local Currys store and it cost £245 at a sale price and extra for insurance which was something like £25 a month for 3 year ... insurance, which I don't think is a lot as they had other models there that cost more money but did not suit my needs as well.
One reason I really liked the HP laptop more than the others that were on display in the store was because it is compact and lightweight but also friendly-looking, which may sound silly to you but when you spend hours staring at a screen you don't want sharp edges, heavy clunking and an annoying keyboard under your hands. I tried the laptop out, the sales assistant let me type a few things on it, and I was sold. The only downside is that it has no CD playing facility, which doesn't matter to me because all my music is on iTunes now, but it may matter to other people. You can't watch videos from DVD on this laptop, although since it has such a small screen I'm guessing few people would buy it for that purpose. Having said that though, the screen is very clear, crisp even, so in some ways watching a film on this laptop's screen beats watching one on an older laptop's larger screen, eg my old Dell.
I love that this laptop is so small and not at all heavy, which means I can easily take it into different rooms in the house and also out with me in a case when I need to work elsewhere. It loads up really quickly, within a few minutes, and the battery lasts for about 4 hours when fully charged so I rarely have to worry about taking the charger with me when I leave the room/house. Also, a single click on the battery icon on the desktop tells me how much time I have remaining and also lets me change the way the screen etc is lit in order to save power if I'm almost out of charge.
The laptop surface is smooth and easy to use and I like how all the letters are slightly curved. The laptop came with a mouse that inserts via USB port but I have never needed to use it as I prefer the touch-pad on the laptop and the two buttons below it for selecting things on-screen. It has 4 USB ports in total which is really useful for me when I need to transfer work to memory sticks or back them up to my external hard drive. I have had a fault however with the keys recently in that the shift keys on both ends stopped working one day, which means that I have to use Caps Lock to capitalise words. I have yet to get this fixed as it will mean posting off my laptop for at least a week, and I do use it every day for work. This is really inconvenient to me. The other issue I will bring up is the battery, which can easily fall out of the bottom of the laptop. I am by no means rough with my laptop but a couple of times I have moved it and the battery has fallen out of the bottom which results in lost work etc. This is a design flaw as the battery slots back in easily but is clearly not so secure that a knock won't make it fall out again.
The desktop is very easy to set up although it only comes with a basic software package which means that proper versions of Microsoft Word and Excel have to be bought separately. Windows 7 is easy enough to use, and although I don't like all the changes I see no point in grumbling since we have to get used to the new versions whether we like them or not.
The laptop has an inbuilt webcam above the screen which gives a good, high quality image. I found it a bit creepy at first- to have it always facing me, I mean, and always on- but I have used it many times now and it is easy to use and saves fiddling with old-style web cams as you can just tilt the screen to get a better view of yourself to whoever you are video-chatting with. The image is always clear and I can't fault it at all. The microphone also picks up sound extremely well and I have not had any problem with sound quality.
This laptop does not have a loud fan, in fact the fan seems very quiet and efficient, as my laptop has yet to heat up noticeably and I have been using it for well over a year now, every day and often for extended periods of time. The laptop still works well after over a year of frequent use, everything loads quickly and as it should, and nothing is difficult to use. My only issues with it are the keys and the insecure battery which is why I'm not giving it 5 stars. Despite those problems, I would still buy this laptop again, as I have found it so easy to use and it has not really let me down at alll. (..Yet. Touch wood!!)
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HP Pavilion G6-1381SA
by hunnybabyuk
I got this after my other one was doing my head in and then I dropped it and chipped it it worked but looked horrid so got this one.
I have had HP items before and find they are very reliable and this laptop is deffinately like that. It's not crashing but has done a few times when I have had tons of windows open but that's my ... fault trying to do 100 things at once. The system isn't as reliable all the time when I am running on the battery the mouse keeps sticking sometimes, was going to take it back but it stopped doing it but now out of warranty its at it again sometimes but no biggy as I tend to have it plugged in most of the time and its not too annoying.
Battery life is good, lasts about 3 hours unless your watching videos or listening to music or skyping can decrease battery life faster.
Was very easy to install, it gave you a step-by-step guide on screen and told you what to press and what to do, I can usually setup laptops anyway, but this was so straight forward to setup even if I couldn't I would of found this very easy. You just turn it on and follow the on-screen instructions, came with all the necessary items including CDRom installation disc and power adapter.
The laptop is red and looks very stylish and modern, with a red lid and red inside, the keys and plastic surrounds being black make it look rather delightful to the eye. Only problem is finger prints show up too easily on it. But that's not too much of an issue, can always be cleaned.
I have Windows 7 on it and was a bit reluctant to use Windows 7 as I was used to the previous system but its so easy to use and looks great, you can easily change things like colours and backgrounds like before to suit you, it's just as easy to navigate around just looks more modern & stylish and more up-to-date.
The built-in webcam is rather bad compared to others I have had/seen but as I don't use it too often i'm not overly bothered, would be nice for a better camera but people complain they can't see me very well (maybe that's a good thing) and it's blurry at times.
Sound & Video quality is very good, music goes loud enough not club style loud but for a normal person listening to music at home its very good, goes quite loud actually. Would go loud enough for a normal house party or you can always connect it to your speakers or surround sound for higher sound. The clarity of sound I find is very good, I use it a lot to listen to music, watch videos and catch up on TV. The video quality is very good aswell, very clear bright picture.
Overall I find this laptop very good and would recommend it, its very easy to use, looks modern & stylish and has a lot of memory for my needs, its processing is very good but don't overload it with a LOT of windows I have 1 internet explorer, 7 pages on safari, my documents folder, real player, real player downloader and iTunes open and it's working fine for me now.
Highly recommend this laptop but not for the webcam.
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HP Pavilion G6-1381SA
by Rhone210
Well...
I bought this laptop from Curry's around two months ago. I has a lot of problems with it at the start. I set up the laptop in the way that I was instructed to and after a while I was up and running. Initially I have to admit that I was a little daunted at the prospect of using windows 8, but the sleek new design looked ... fab and after a while you soon pick it up. The computer itself looks great and there is a choice of vibrant colours (I chose Red!). The design is very modern and even has a special function where the direction pad can easily switch from different pages/screens.
However, the problems I started having began when I tried to start up the computer. Every time I wanted to use the laptop I had to wait for 30 mins for it to load updates (or something similar). It would upload to only around 12% and then fail to update- forcing log in. Need less to say this was a long and frustrating process. After a month I knew that this was not just teething problems.
But as the title suggests, I did get the problem fixed- after a lengthy conversation with a very helpful and polite curry's tech support person- and I really love the laptop. The internet is super fast and it looks so slick and cool, while making accessing all the features convenient.
I really love the laptop and all of its new features, but as with everything- make sure you check the store's policies and tech advice (just in case), and don't be afraid to demand the quality that you deserve!
Overall, large screen, comfortable buttons, great look, windows 8, good laptop. But this is not for a first time or inexperienced laptop user.
Thanks :)
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