HP G60-530US 15.6-Inch Black/Silver Laptop - Up to 3.75 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)

by HP

Product Details

• Item Weight: 9.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002ONCCCU
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Item model number: VM084UA#ABA
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,658 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 18, 2009

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

IDEAL FOR Everyday value. Count on simple productivity and enjoy entertainment in high-definition with a mid-size notebook PC. Edit photos and videos easily, plus enter data quickly using the numeric keypad.

SPECIFICATIONS

Processor 2.10GHz Intel® Pentium™ Processor T4300 (Dual Core) Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit Memory (RAM) 3GB DDR2 Display 15.6" Diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView Display (1366 x 768) Hard Drive 320GB (7200RPM) SATA Optical Drive LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support Wireless Intel WiFi Link 1000BGN Graphics Card Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M (shared) with up to 1309MB total available graphics memory Battery 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery; Up to 3.75 hours battery life* Weight & Dimensions (w x d x h) 6.57lbs; 14.88" x 9.9" x 1.38"/1.72"

FEATURES

LightScribe Technology Burn labels directly onto CDs and DVDs Built-in HP Webcam Video chat live 5-in-1 Digital Media Reader Transfer photos from digital cameras without using cables INCLUDED

Product Description

For those who want to connect and manage everyday computing tasks with an elegantly minimalist notebook, the HP G60 series Notebook PC delivers balanced mainstream performance at a great value. Powered by Intel processor and graphics technologies, the G60 includes essential features to enhance your PC experience and life. Watch full-screen HD TV and movies with the 15.6-Inch diagonal display’s 16:9 aspect ratio. Enjoy your photos and videos on HD TVs with the HDMI port (cable sold separately). Enter data quickly with the numeric keypad. Look good on the go with award-winning, high-gloss HP Imprint finish. Get online more quickly with Windows 7 and high-speed wireless LAN. Create personalized, silkscreen-quality DVD and CD labels with LightScribe. Chat face to face with the HP Webcam and mix it up with YouCam’s fun special effects.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good value for the money, November 24, 2009

By 

M. Miller "mcm" (DFW area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: HP G60-530US 15.6-Inch Black/Silver Laptop - Up to 3.75 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) (Personal Computers)

I purchased the HP G60-237NR notebook PC in February for less than 550.00. This laptop has all the features and ports I needed. I have had good customer service from HP when I had questions. I have Vista and we bought this same laptop for my Mom last month at Amazon with the new Windows7. I would recommend this laptop for the average user. I use it for email, shopping the web, MS application software, Skype, LinkedIn, DVD play, and watching Hulu tv over the web. The volume was not loud enough to watch a DVD movie while on vacation in our RV so I bought small external speakers to plug in at a cost of less than $30.00.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice entry-level to mid-range laptop, December 21, 2009

By 

D. Sauer "Unix Geek" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: HP G60-530US 15.6-Inch Black/Silver Laptop - Up to 3.75 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) (Personal Computers)

I'm quite happy with the laptop as-shipped. The packing was good, and the laptop arrived in good condition. It comes with a little pad of paper, some other misc junk, and a cloth for polishing the case. The shiny case, by the way, is one of two drawbacks. It looks pretty with most surfaces being shiny, but the glossy black cover constantly has fingerprints (and palm prints) on it. A positive to the shiny surface is that it's relatively easy to peel off all of the NASCAR-level of sponsor labels. The other drawback to this laptop is that it doesn't have built-in Bluetooth. Seriously. It has a Wireless N interface - which I'm pretty sure wasn't even an approved standard when this was made - but no Bluetooth? Oh well. I had a Kensington Bluetooth adapter which is one of those little ones that you leave in a USB port, and it works well (under both Linux and Windows 7).

That leads me to the good things. Ubuntu 9.10 installed on this machine with no problems. The volume keys and hardware graphics acceleration work fine, and multiple monitors (using the internal LCD and an external display) work out of the box. The button to disable the trackpad and the wireless disable button both work under Ubuntu (as do the corresponding LEDs). The indicator LEDs for things like caps lock, num lock, the trackpad, and the wireless all blend into the laptop nicely. Wired and wireless (B and G, at least) both work properly. NTFS resizing also worked fine. The machine is fairly fast with both operating systems, though the 5400 RPM drive does hamper application start-up time. Graphics performance is very good for business applications; I don't play games on a general purpose computer, though, so my standards may be lower than people who would spend more on a video card than I did on this whole laptop. I like the track pad pretty well, and the laptop feels reasonably sturdy. I haven't tried the built-in HDMI output or media card readers under either OS yet. I'm assuming they'll both work; I'll post a follow-up if one fails. For the record, I would be willing to trade HDMI for Bluetooth as well. :)

The only other thing of note is the keyboard layout. There is an "end" key shared with the number 1 on the number pad, and another end above the number pad (sharing the scroll lock / sys req button). I'm fond of the "shift+end" (and shift+home) keyboard shortcuts to select everything from the cursor to the end (or beginning) of the line. However, pressing "shift" and the closer "end" key actually makes the keyboard type a 1. That's minor, but it does annoy me.

Speaking of minor annoyances - no Windows install media is shipped (I'll bet a CD costs less than the paper notepad and microfiber cloth HP chose to bundle). You can create a set of install disks if you want using an included tool, though (only single-sided supported by the tool, even though there's a dual-layer burner here); make sure you do that before you wipe Windows off of the machine to install Linux. :) If nothing else, it's easier to sell your license if you have media to go with it. ;)

Overall, if I could get another one of these at the same price I bought this one for (a Black Friday deal, with a couple of other discounts including the current rebate deal) I would not hesitate to do so. Yeah, I spent most of this review griping about little things, but the main good things are already patently obvious. The CPU and memory included are very good, the drive capacity is good (despite being slower than a 7200 RPM drive), the screen quality is excellent, and the sound is good for a laptop. Windows 7 doesn't suck as much as Windows has in the past, and the Linux support on this device is very good.

Update: I finally got around to testing the HDMI (translation: I finally got a TV with HDMI support), and both video and audio work fine out of the box under Ubuntu 9.10; plug the cable in, start up the display preferences, and you have another monitor you can either extend or clone your desktop over to - then go to the sound preferences and change the default output device from the on-board sound to the hdmi output if you want sound over HDMI. Multiple monitors work fine with the RGB cable on the back as well. However, I haven't attempted HDMI and RGB external connections simultaneously; I suspect that such an arrangement won't work as expected. :)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A nice computer at a budget price, January 5, 2010

By 

S. Barrett (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: HP G60-530US 15.6-Inch Black/Silver Laptop - Up to 3.75 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) (Personal Computers)

I purchased this Windows 7-64 bit notebook to replace a crashed desktop. It's nice enough that there's a sleek design with its black case and aluminum touchpad and trim, but there's a lot more "under the hood" of this budget-priced model. 4GB of installed DDR2 @SDRAM with 1MB of installed memory cache, a 320 GB hard drive and a 2.1 Ghz speed on its T4300 processor. The 1366 x 768 BrightView is crisp and clear with a 15.6 display size. The G60 weighs less than seven pounds yet has enough bells and whistles to perform like a desktop. In fact, I am using it as one with a purchased flat screen monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse.

Ports/Connectors:
3 USB 2.0
RJ-11 modem
RJ-45 LAN
HDMI
HDDB15 VGA
headphone
microphone

Additionally, there's a webcam and a 5-in-one media reader (alas, not large enough for a compact flash card, but an external card reader solved the problem).

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit edition is pre-installed and took a little getting used to after my XP machines, but I think it ultimately will make home networking a much easier install as the system is quite intuitive.

This is my second HP computer and I am impressed with its performance. I especially like the software compatibility feature that allows me to run older programs in XP mode.

Gripes? Very few. The 5400 rpm drive speed seems a little slow after a 7200 desktop speed and I would not recommend it for serious games, however, for the beginner to average user, it's a good solid machine.

Recommended.