HP’s G72 laptop boasts a generous screen size, stylish design and decent specifications, but surprisingly it’s also a budget desktop replacement without a steep price tag to match.
It’s encased in an elephant grey chassis, and the subtle geometric pattern etched onto the surface adds visual charm, a luxury often missing from budget desktop replacements. It’s only when you touch the surface of the G72 that it becomes clear the chassis is plastic rather than aluminium.
Despite the plastic casing, overall build quality feels reassuring, and although the screen displays more flex than we’d like, we’re confident it would survive in a bag during transit. Tipping the scales at just shy of 3kg and with fairly chunky dimensions, it’s certainly not dainty, but that’s not overly heavy for the size.
Under the hood the line-up looks good too: HP has employed a low-voltage 2.27GHz Core i3-350M, at the less powerful end of the i3 line but still capable of handling most tasks with ease. In our application benchmarks it gained a score of 1.3, which is respectable, and it’s backed up with 4GB of DDR3 RAM – a healthy helping that should enable you to run as many apps as you need simultaneously without impinging on responsiveness.
There’s no dedicated graphics chip, and a result of just 13fps in the Low quality Crysis test shows intensive titles will be beyond the HP G72, but HD video is well within its reach. It tackled both 720p and 1080p HD video files well and we also found both YouTube HD and the demanding BBC iPlayer HD channel played smoothly on the 1,600 x 900, 17in display.
Physical specifications | |
---|---|
Dimensions | 412 x 269 x 32.4mm (WDH) |
Weight | 2.880kg |
Travelling weight | 3.3kg |
Processor and memory | |
Processor | Intel Core i3-350 |
RAM capacity | 4.00GB |
Memory type | DDR3 |
Screen and video | |
Screen size | 17.3in |
Resolution screen horizontal | 1,600 |
Resolution screen vertical | 900 |
Resolution | 1600 x 900 |
Graphics chipset | Intel HD graphics |
VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 1 |
HDMI outputs | 1 |
S-Video outputs | 0 |
DVI-I outputs | 0 |
DVI-D outputs | 0 |
DisplayPort outputs | 0 |
Drives | |
Capacity | 500GB |
Hard disk | Seagate ST9500325AS |
Optical disc technology | DVD writer |
Optical drive | HP |
Replacement battery price inc VAT | £0 |
Networking | |
802.11a support | no |
802.11b support | yes |
802.11g support | yes |
802.11 draft-n support | yes |
Integrated 3G adapter | no |
Bluetooth support | yes |
Other Features | |
Wireless hardware on/off switch | no |
Wireless key-combination switch | yes |
USB ports (downstream) | 3 |
3.5mm audio jacks | 2 |
SD card reader | yes |
MMC (multimedia card) reader | yes |
Pointing device type | Touchpad |
Audio chipset | Realtek HD Audio |
Speaker location | Above keyboard/Front edge |
Hardware volume control? | no |
Integrated microphone? | yes |
Integrated webcam? | yes |
Camera megapixel rating | 1.3mp |
Fingerprint reader | no |
Battery and performance tests | |
Battery life, light use | 5hr 6min |
Battery life, heavy use | 1hr 30min |
Overall application benchmark score | 1.30 |
Office application benchmark score | 1.02 |
2D graphics application benchmark score | 1.34 |
Encoding application benchmark score | 1.42 |
Multitasking application benchmark score | 1.46 |
3D performance (crysis) low settings | 13fps |
Operating system and software | |
Operating system | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
OS family | Windows 7 |
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