HP 15-g020dx 15.6 inch Laptop Review

15.6" HP 15-g020dx Laptop PC
via Amazon

HP 15-g020dx is a modern and reliable, budget and mainstream 15.6 inch laptop with a quad core AMD A6 processor rather than an Intel Celeron like on other low cost machines, a massive 1024GB hard drive and AMD Radeon HD 8400 graphics for standard daily tasks and entry level multimedia (but again a better alternative to entry level Intel HD graphics cards) and roughly 4.5 hour battery life. Naturally you do have better options on the market with Intel i5 or i7 processors but they cost hundreds of dollars more and those that cost less simply can’t be compared with this machine.

HP 15-g020dx is offered with the economical but fast AMD A6-5200 accelerated quad core CPU- Kabini system on a chip (2MB cache) at 2.0GHz base speed without turbo function, 4GB DDR3L SDRAM for good multitasking on a budget system, a large 1TB Serial ATA hard drive at 5400rpm rotating speed offering lots of storage space for most of your multimedia and Windows 8.1 64-bit operating system. Everyday computing chip AMD A6-5200 has a Passmark benchmark score of 2435 on the day of this review and has a Thermal Design Power of 25- you can perform basic daily tasks with no dramas and 4GB memory is plenty for that purpose and can be upgraded up to 8GB in case you need more.

15.6 inch HD BrightView WLED backlit non-touch display with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution and AMD Radeon HD 8400 integrated graphics is not as impressive as a Full HD screen with IPS panel but not disappointing at all- standard HD with TN panel with narrower viewing angles. This low end AMD graphics card is not suitable for playing the latest 3D games at high settings but quite capable of running non-demanding game titles like Minecraft fluently- some demanding titles can be played at low settings and resolutions and as an AMD card, it is better than the basic Intel HD graphics cards you’ll find on Celeron CPUs. It comes with the HP TrueVision HD webcam with integrated microphone and does the job just fine for live chats with friends and family and stereo speakers for adequate sound quality.

Curved and simplistic design black Licorice HP 15-g020dx (glossy black finish solid plastic chassis) weighs 4.8 pounds and measures 10.20 x 14.90 x 1 inches- slim, lightweight and portable with average battery life of up to 4-4.5 hours as it just has a 3-cell 32WHr capacity battery. The island-style keyboard is fairly standard and non-backlit but comfortable and has a touchpad supporting multiple gestures with separate left and right clicks and a 10-key numpad for quicker numeric data. Connectivity options include DVD±RW/CD-RW drive (No Bluray drive), 802.11b/g/n WLAN for fast wireless internet access, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x USB 3.0 port for up to ten times faster data transfer than USB 2.0, an HDMI port to let you do your thing on your larger screen HDTV via a single HDMI cable for audio and video, Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connectivity for wired internet access and a Multi-format Media Card Reader.

Conclusion: HP 15-g020dx is a great simple and economical notebook that could be considered decent, fast and powerful for an entry level machine that seems to do just fine in all the daily tasks except for running very demanding software and modern games. Sure, you do have cheaper alternatives but they really can’t compare to this HP in terms of performance. We do like the AMD A6-5200 with the integrated Radeon HD 8400 graphics better than the Celeron processors you’ll find in a lot of those computers. Passmark speed benchmark score of 2400+ is quite a bit for a budget system (when you consider the score of 1100 for an Intel Celeron). 1TB size hard drive is also rare for a computer at this price level, it is quite generous and will easily accommodate most of your regular and multimedia files. 4GB RAM that is upgradeable to a maximum of 8GB is sufficient for everyday multitasking of Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, web browsers, streaming music and videos etc. at the same time and no problems. HP Simple Pass lets you use a single password for all your accounts online and this laptop comes with a standard 1 year warranty by HP.

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