HP G6-1b50us Laptop Consumer Review

In today's economy we need to pay special attention to a well-worn phrase - "more bang for the buck." This laptop fits that phrase quite well and can fill the needs of many types of user from the heavy computing needs of a college student to the professional needs of a programmer. Although the cost could be labeled as "bargain-basement" (under $400 in most cases), the computing power placed in your control is well beyond that meager monicker.

The specifications of this Hewlett Packard system are:

• dual core AMD Phenom II P650 processor
• 15.6" high definition LED display
• 4 gigabytes of memory
• 500GB hard drive
• 6 cell Lithium Ion battery
• Wireless b/g/n LAN
• AMD Radeon HD4250g graphics card
• Digital media card reader
• Integrated webcam and microphone
• HDMI port
• Win7 64bit operating system

Between the dual core processor, ample memory, and the ability to connect to a gigabit wireless network, this system will compete with many higher-priced machines on the market. With a 500 gigabyte hard drive you can store many programs, songs, and even video although an external USB drive would be recommended if you will be storing a large number of videos.

Since we have mentioned videos, let's take a look at the HDMI port and what you can do with it. Do you have a large LCD TV? You can play videos or use that as a large monitor instead of the built-in 15.6" display.

You could display pictures from your digital camera on your LCD television or laptop screen. Take your SD card loaded with pictures out of the camera and plug it into the integrated card reader and it can be opened in the same manner as a hard drive or USB flash drive. Create a slide show to run while you have a bunch of friends over.

Are you a gamer? The high definition AMD Radeon integrated video will work well for your favorite adventures. If you find that your games may be a bit sluggish on the standard 4gig of memory this system can be maxed out with 8GB of DDR3 RAM. The Windows Experience index is a 3.7 due to Aero desktop performance while all other items scored a 5 or better.

What would I improve here? The fact that the video memory is shared with the system may cause an issue for some gamers. A higher capacity battery would appeal to higher-end users also. For this price range, these are acceptable areas to skimp on luxuries.