Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsVery quick laptop, easy to configure, needs a larger primary drive
Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2018
Star restored: see addendum below:
Initial configuration of this machine requires some care to avoid sharing too much personal information with 3rd parties! However the process was simple enough and not the excessive amount of bloatware I've seen on recent laptops.
A 128GB M.2 primary drive simply isn't enough for a gaming computer. Consequently I immediately upgraded the primary to 512GB NVMe M.2 (Samsung 970 Pro). Remember to install the Samsung's 970 Pro driver BEFORE cloning back to the 970 Pro. Then finish by installing Samsung Magician to get best management and reporting on your 970 Pro. With the new memory, boot-up speed was significantly improved (almost 50% improvement). Apparently not all M.2 sticks are created equal!
So onto the performance of the machine: in a word, excellent. The display is a vanilla (but decent) HD display 1920x1080. It isn't premium grade and compared to my son's much more expensive 4K touch screen laptop (Lenovo) it seems very "ordinary" indeed. Most of the time I will be using an external 32 inch monitor so this doesn't bother me. Away from home the screen is perfectly adequate. In addition most games are playable at the native resolution so consider this an intelligent, well balanced pairing of an HD display with NVIDIA 1050 graphic controller.
I do wish they had equipped this machine with a finger print reader, however I bought a cheap USB reader which does a decent job.
The keyboard is red characters on black - not the easiest to read unless you turn on the back-light. Aside from readability, I quickly warmed to the keyboard layout and the sensitivity of the touchpad.
The 6 core processor is very fast and ideal for light gaming, data crunching, streaming and generic home use. The screen is not ideal for photo-editing due to more color coverage, but the only serious complaint I can offer is the unrealistic 128GB primary drive on a gaming laptop!
One reason for buying this laptop was ease-of-updating. 8 screws and a credit card to prize over the case. Note all the screws are on the perimeter but internally there are 3 or 4 tabs which engage with corresponding tags on the battery back. Once you have "cracked" the perimeter (left, right and front) you can gently jiggle the bottom of the case towards the front of the machine to disengage the tabs - requires no real force to do this! Once open the machine provides immediate, easy access to M.2 primary drive, to (2) slots of RAM, the screw-in battery pack and the HDD.
The computer comes with 12GB of 2666 DDR4 memory. This comes from an 8GB and a 4GB card occupying the two available slots. It's easy to upgrade the 4GB to 8GB and I'd recommend doing so. The HDD has no screws but to remove the drive you must first remove the SATA connection onto the circuit board. This requires you to lift a small gate at which point the flat cable is released. Once you've done this, the drive lifts easily from the SATA connector end of the drive. To replace the flat cable requires good eye glasses and decent tools - not hard but equally not recommended for beginners!
However, I'm knocking one star off because the following was found when I opened the case to upgrade the primary M.2 drive:
As I turned the computer over a tiny LED fell out. This came from the RJ45 Ethernet port at the rear of the machine. The damage looked mechanical - possibly from an impact to the LED during assembly (no suggestion of a bad / dry joint). I alsoI found one of the speaker plates was missing a washer - this allowed the speaker plate to move around and vibrate - fortunately I was able to fabricate a replacement washer. Both problems look like poor quality-control during assembly. The design is actually first-rate so maybe HP should put more focus onto QA.
Neither the LED or loose speaker plate were performance-impacting and I saw no other issues to raise concerns. Still, HP could do better. So one star off. I should add there was nothing to indicate this machine was other than brand new which implies these were original-assembly problems.
Addendum:
My HP laptop failed while I was in the UK. I talked to HP on chat. They took the serial number of my machine and immediately confirmed I was inside the warranty period. They had me run a few basic tests which seemed reasonable. They then decided to recover and repair the laptop - no argument or debate.
This is where it gets really good. First they send me a package containing a return box, insulation sleeve, plastic anti-static bag, a return Fed-Ex label and even sticky tape to seal the box. I packed the box according to (simple) instructions and filled in a form detailing the problem. I then dropped off the package at a Fed-Ex office.
The laptop was returned to me, repaired and tested, less than a week later. The problem turn out to be the smart power supply brick which they replaced. They ran extensive diagnostics on my machine and updated the BIOS. Rather like taking your car in for a service and getting it back detailed for free.
So what does this mean? Well it means HP have the most efficient process for dealing with warranty issues I've ever experienced. It means if you buy from HP they absolutely stand behind their warranty - which is good to know.
