The HP Pavilion g6 is a straightforward, solid all-purpose laptop for a good price.
The HP Pavilion g6 is exactly what you'd expect for its starting price of around £300: bland. While there's absolutely nothing exciting about this machine, it does what it's supposed to do, and does it well: The chassis is simple yet sturdy, the keyboard and trackpad are well-designed, and the performance is just around average.
Our review model, at an RRP of £540, costs a bit more than the bare-bones version of the HP Pavilion g6. That price gets you the latest-generation Intel Core i3-380M processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, and a 5400-rpm, 500GB hard drive. Our review model also comes preinstalled with the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium and features a built-in Webcam, a microphone, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. In our WorldBench 6 benchmark tests, the g6 received a score of 101, which is on the low side of average for laptops in this class.
The HP Pavilion g6 is surprisingly attractive, considering its price point. Don't get me wrong - it still looks and feels like a budget machine. But its minimalist form and rounded edges lend it an air of style that most budget laptops lack. The lid is a shiny, solid-gray plastic that bends slightly in the middle if you put any weight on it. A small, brushed-metal HP logo is on the bottom left corner, and the edges are smooth and rounded. The underside of the chassis is your typical matte black plastic, with two Altec Lansing speakers located on the front, just under the keyboard.
The interior of the HP Pavilion g6 laptop is simple, with a smooth black plastic border around the silver keyboard and wristpad area. A slightly depressed border is also around the matte-black island-style keyboard. The trackpad is just a textured area directly on the wristpad, with two separate silver buttons below it. The HP Pavilion g6 weighs about 2.55kg, and measures 374x245x30.5mm.
Port-wise, the HP Pavilion g6 is typical for its class. On the right side, you'll find a VGA port, an ethernet port, and two USB 2.0 ports - plus an HDMI port and a SD/MMC card reader, both nice touches. The left side is dominated mostly by the tray-loading DVD-RW drive with LightScribe, but HP manages to squeeze in an additional USB 2.0 port along with a Kensington lock slot.
The HP Pavilion g6's full-size keyboard is quiet and comfortable to type on. The keyboard itself is a pseudo-island-style affair, and the keys have flat tops and are wider on the bottoms. The keys are evenly spaced and offer good tactile feedback. The keys move a little too much as you press down, but overall the g6 still offers one of the best typing experiences I've had on a budget notebook.
The trackpad is also impressive, considering it's just a square of textured plastic on the wristpad area. I'm usually not a fan of textured trackpads (I prefer indented ones), because they usually don't work as well as their counterparts. However, the HP Pavilion g6's trackpad is extremely responsive, and the discrete mouse buttons are large and easy to press. The trackpad has no scrolling area, because HP has built in multitouch support.
Unfortunately, multitouch gestures work sluggishly at best.
The HP Pavilion g6's 15.6-inch LED-backlit display has a native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. The glossy screen is nicely bright and has good image quality, so long as you're sitting directly in front of it. Off-axis viewing is poor, and the glossy screen throws back a lot of reflections if you happen to be in direct or bright light. Speaker quality is pretty good (perhaps not as rich as you might like), and the Altec Lansing speakers are loud enough to fill a medium-sized room.
Since the HP Pavilion g6 features a second-generation Intel processor, it also comes with integrated Intel HD graphics. Casual video playback is good on the g6, but it's not exactly a gaming computer. In our Unreal Tournament 3 graphics tests, the g6 managed an unplayable frame rate of just 16.8 frames per second (highest quality, 1024-by-768-pixel resolution).
The HP Pavilion g6's WorldBench 6 score of 101 is pretty average for its category. So you're not getting a closet gaming machine, but this laptop will support everyday use just fine.
Comments
Speedking said: had this laptop for ages and it works perfectly except for one of the speakers exploding while playing my speedcore. also my trackpad is working perfect after the anti-lean was disabled but despite the problems its still a good laptop
Listening said: Using a new one now and really missing my Dell. It's a budget machine, yes the scrolling track pad doesn't work at all... blah blah get what you pay for.
Andrea said: I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Battery broke within a year of having it, so can't use it anywhere if it's not plugged in (may as well have bought a desktop!). It often overheats and has crashed 3 times (I have had to send it away for repairs each time, something to do with the display driver apparently, it seems to be a common problem with this computer as I've read many complaints online about this) and now, every time it has been on for a little while it and has warmed up, it comes up with these weird horizontal lines all over the screen and I can't do anything... meaning I have to turn it off and can't turn it on again for another 20-30 mins. Very annoying. Would never ever buy an HP laptop again.
Paulayres310 said: how do i activate my @ key.on my g6, note this is my other pc please help
Andysaunders66 said: bought my pavilion g6 and within 3 months the keyboard packed in, phoned helpline and tec support. after totally resetting computer they sent me a new keyboard, no instrucions. ever since, takes on average 2 goes to start up properly, over 10 minutes to log off, sometimes sound doesnt work and fails to download programmes. sorry to say what a waste of my hard earned money.
Crazyjun30 said: Yes , stutter all the time .
Vtsboi said: Does ur mouse stop
Sukhi said: I got the same from argos
Dylanprudom said: today I got this computer for £399 at pc world. The gaming graphics are good enough to play most games on medium settings. It can play Skyrim well and I will be getting assassins creed revelations for my b'day soon and it should be able to play that. It is good at multitasking and I recommend it if you want to buy it.
Nicole said: Bought my laptop in December 2011 and within less a month it started saying disk read error, i nearly lost all my data because of this laptop! HP's contact lines are appalling and the fact they don't have a num lock key in sight is ridiculous (if anyone knows where it is please tell me it's driving me insane!) I'm never buying an HP product again i'm very disappointed with this laptop. £400 down the drain and the shop won't take it back neither so i'm stuck with this! However it does have advantages so i won't fault it completely just wish they made it 100x's better tbh!
Stella said: I've not even tried running the laptop yet, but I am going to return it on the basis that it is a very cheap build. The whole keyboard compresses when you press down a key! Try it for yourself in a shop. Not impressed at all!
guest said: Where did you find that deal please?
Hansy said: Thanks for sharing.
Maria Mari said: i likr this laptop...and i was thinkng to buy one but can i use in it windows 8 because i was learning about it from this sitehttp://www.full-windows8.com/and i really wanna try it any ideas plz!!!!
Neilbah said: Never mind will it blend, will it melt like previous hp g6xxx (insert model number) laptops?
Yorkiegal73 said: I bought my pavilion G6 laptop from Curry's a week ago. The keyboard constantly locked and after half an hour on the phone with their so called tech support I was told that they didn't have a clue why it was doing it. Took it back today and exchanged for another of the same. Got home, switched on and within 15 mins I had the exact same problem. The tech support tried to tell me I'd got a virus but I had their 60 days Norton trial and a full system scan hasn't found anything wrong either. the cursor also keeps moving around the text and then sticking. Back to Curry's tomorrow. This replacement was the last of their stock. No wonder they had £200 off the price. I anticipate an argument when I try to get my refund.
killme said: Comes with a dGPU that you cannot use 95% of the time. You get stuck with the intergrated one. DO NOT BUY.
Patryk S. said: I love my blue HP Pavilion G6. I have the AMD Chipset one. Looks sexy as hell and it plays games very well. Portal 2 19fps with High settings. Same with TF2. Only thing i dont like is the speakers. 10/10
Martin E Foot said: I Bought a Pavillion G6 on the 28th Dec 2011 & on the 21st Jan 2012 the HP software asked for the BIOS to be updated! although very wary I updated it so not to have annoying messages & after the Update Windows7 Froze!I contacted HP & PCWorld. HP came back with once their laptops are sold (& any other HP Product I presume) DSG Group (Currys,Dixons, PCWorld) then take over the warranty.I took the laptop back to PCWorld with the receipt & they wouldn't give a refund & wouldn't fox the laptop for free! Not even after less than a month.I was also told it must have got a virus! I said with Norton installed ( PCWorld are always promoting Norton & always have it installed on their laptops! Wonder if they'e on comission) which they told me was the best & most secure! Also, being less than a month Norton didn't need activating as it was still on the trial period.I talked to the Tech team that told me to hold or repeatedly press F8 to re-set the laptop. Pressing F8 didn't do anything - luckily I remembered that F2 did something on boot up which did bring up the HP screen to allow the BIOS to be rolled back to the previous one. After doing that the laptop has run slower but it seems to function.PCWorld Tech guys told me they could save my data & re-install Windows but I'd have to pay! They nigh on accused me of putting a Virus on the laptop & said it couldn't have been HP Software! Well I checked in the folder on the Laptop & it's an HP Bios Update dated 21st Jan 2012 when it was updated.How Tech are the Tech staff, prob like mocrosoft tech, you can almost hear them reading the procedures out of a manual rather than knowing the software & operating systems inside out! I personally wouldn't buy another HP Machine & unless I really have to, once this issue is sorted buy from PCWorld! Up to you but check the warranty & be prepared to pay!
awwwwhyeah said: This laptop is definitely feeling fly like a G6 - it's a sexy as hell shiny blue, speedy and responsive. What more could you possibly want from a cheapy machine?