I have had this laptop for just over 3 weeks now and it's running great, despite it being bought as a refurbished product from a well known retailer. I don't usually go for refurbished products but i did so this time as i have a tight bugdet as i will be going to University next year and so i'm currently counting the pennies lol. I paid £225 for this (Yes £225!.. was £299 but had 25% offer on all refurbished products for that certain weekend) and so it tempted me and i bought it.

This HP notebook is truly amazing for the price i paid. It comes with Intel Core i3 which is one of the newest set of procesors at the moment (I3, i5, i7..). This along with the 3GB Ram loaded is great for most users as you can run multiple tasks at the same time without slowing the laptop down. It boots up as fast as my old Sony Vaio and faster than my dell notebook and the same for shutting down. The harddrive is 320GB which is becoming the norm these days so nothing special here, but nothing wrong at all as it is still quite alot of space to store your documents, photos and music etc.

I have the black version as it was the only one available at the time. However, i think (although not 100%) that you can buy a silver one where it is all silver apart from the keyobard which is black. I have seen this on google images but cant confirm whether it is actually this model as alot of the HP models look very similar. The black version which i got is quite plain, but it's something i like as it hasn't got the glossy looking cover which gets fingerprint marks easily and therefore i'm happy with it like this. The inside of the laptop however is slightly different as around the screen that glossy material is there. This is quite annyoing as to open the laptop (like all laptops..) I always touch the top of the laptop just above the screen and i can see the fingerprint marks while i'm surfing the web! I suppose this is really a minor problem and so as long as you don't mind seeing a few fingerpirnt marks on the top it's alright, i'm just being fussy.

The layout of the keyboard is slightly different than all of my previous laptops and the ones my family have. Instead of having the 'f' keys as the main keys at the top of the keyboard, instead the top line has the 'f' keys as secondary keys and in their place are keys such as media ones (volume up/down, play/pause, stop, wifi on/off etc..) and to use the 'f' keys you have to press and hold the 'fn' key which is located next to the 'ctrl' key. This was a problem for me at first as i use the 'f' keys alot and i kept forgetting to press the 'fn' key and so something else would happen than i had wished. However, after 3 weeks i have finally mastered it haha. (sounds like im proud of myself lol). One key which i really really like though it the 'lock' key. With one press it instantly locks your laptop onto the password screen so if you had to leave the room for a few minutes and didn't trust someone checking your things then this is perfect! Another weird thing about the keyboard is that along the end of both sides there are keys which lets you jump to different programme such as DVD programmes, the web and email. I never use these and don't think i ever will and so for me they are useless and annoying as sometimes accidently instead of pressing things like caps lock i press one of those keys. (I still havent mastered this yet :(... ). Apart from these problems which may take a while to get used to, the keyboard is fine and big enough to type up long word documents and the like and the keys are nicely sized.

The screen is a massive 15.6 inch, although I guess it seems massive to me but for most people it's their normal size. I'm used to using smaller 14 inch notebooks or 10 inch netbooks. The size from 14 inch to 15.6 inch screen might not sound like a lot, but believe me it's quite a difference! It also makes the whole laptop alot bigger which brings alot more weight to it. However, this HP is actually not as heavy as i thought it would be after lifting other 15.6 inch laptops which came as a suprise to me. The speakers of the laptop are not actually HP's own, they're from a company called Altec which is written on the corner by the speakers. They are really good for a laptop, quite loud and good range of sounds especially when you're watching an action film with scenes of car windows smashing etc. I must admit it doesn't sound as good as my old Sony Vaio but for this price it's definately the best i have ever seen and other reviews on the net seem to agree that they're really decent.

The Battery life of this is really good and is one of my favourite points about this notebook. It lasts for around 3 and a half hours on full charge when i'm using it to surf the web, type up documents etc. Watching videos and listening to music on full volume lowers this to around 2 hours whuch is still really good as it allows you to watch a full film atleast. It's quite rare to get such good battery life length for notebooks with good processors like the intel i3 such as this but somehow it seems HP have pulled it off. This is all on the highest settings with full brightness so if you lower the brightness etc you could get an extra 45 mins roughly! Superb in my opinion.

Other little features on this laptop round it off nicely. The HDMI port allows you to watch movies etc on your big HD tv via a HDMI cable. I use this atleast once a week when we have a movie night. It also has a 1.3mp webcam which is average in todays market really and to be honest i never ever use it but it may come in handy for people who use skype and things similar. There are 3 usb ports and also a memory card port which is obviously needed nowadays.

Despite all of these good points, there is something that can be seen as stopping people from buying this which is the click-pad. HP have done wonders with whats just above it, the track pad, as it's greatly disguised and it's not noticable as it is actually under the core cove of the laptop surface and is really cool. (Can't really explain it sorry). However, the click pad is quite a disaster and may turn many people off this laptop. This is because it is really stiff and feels as though it will break very easily as it is just that stiff! I have tried the same HP model in-store and the same problem so it's not just my laptop, it's all of them. After a few weeks i have now put up with it and accepted the fact that it will always be like this and it will work as normal but everytime i click it just doesn't feel right.

Another problem, although very minor is the HP sofware that is bloated onto the laptop. It comes with alot of unnecsary junk which most will not use, well i don't anyway, and so to save space and make it run that little bit faster it's best to un-install it all. This is easy to do in control panel so it's not so much a big deal, just saying so that you're aware of it and if your laptop is slow at first then you know why :)

At first i was skeptical about buying a HP as many customer reviews led me to believe that HP laptops over-heat easily and various reports suggested that HP came lowest in customer service. I decided to go for the laptop and there has been no heating problems whatsoever and the fan comes on every once in a while for no more than 60 secs and then goes quiet again which leads me to believe that it's all fine and is not over-heating as i have never had a random shutdown etc. I use my laptop all day too and is seems as though this common problem is not as common as it may seem.

All in all, great laptop, great for the price i paid and would definately reccomend for the speed of it. One big problem being the click pad but if your happy with the feeling then it's all good.

I'll give it 8/10 as the click pad is a problem and so is the slightly different layout of the keyboard.