HP - Pavilion Laptop / AMD A-Series Processor / 15.6" Display / 8GB Memory / 640GB Hard Drive - Dark Umber

This laptop has very nice looking, nice performance, sound and screen for one of the lowest price 4 core processor based equipment.

First of all, this laptop is AMAZING!!!! I was replacing a 5year old Asus laptop for this one. My previous laptop had a screen flickering problem. When I came across this HP one, I was blown away at its specifications- and the cherry on top: only $630!!!! I'll cut to the chase, I bought this laptop almost 2 weeks ago and have already run into problems. Pros: -great processor / HDD space -can run any game on medium to high settings. I have tried: Dead Island (highest settings), DC Universe Online (highest settings), Starcraft 2 (Ultra, with lag if played online), Crysis Warhead (highest), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (highest with some lag) ((Most of the games listed below are high demanding, especially STALKER)). -The speakers kick butt!!! Because laptop computer's speakers usually aren't good. -I can multitask without overheating the laptop: I was installing 5 programs / softwares, downloading 3 applications online, watching a movie, and chatting on A.I.M. = did it lag? Nope, not at all. -Lastly, I love the 2 2.0 and 2 3.0 USB slots CONS: -BeatsAudio: sometimes you can hear crackling noises through the speakers (headphones on or not), it only lasts for a second ((you can work around it somewhat, in the options for BeatsAudio, but over time this problem might become unbearable (read on forums) )). -The CD-Rom is a pain to open, the button is sooooo miniature, that it takes skill to poke it to open -VERTICAL LINES!!! I read the reviews on here before buying this laptop.. and was thinking "Hopefully I don't end up with the laptop with the vertical lines." WELL... sadly... this problem started TODAY =[. My laptop was on a screen-saver and I moved my mouse to realize on the TOP of the screen... there was a vertical line flickering. In fact, as I type this, it is STILL there haha. I read on various forums about this problem and only 2 problems remain: 1). replace screen or 2). return the laptop. IF you do not want to return it, just know that in the future those vertical lines might multiple.. and soon your whole screen would be covered with obnoxious vertical lines. I had to deal with a flickering screen for 2years with my old laptop.. and don't want to relive that experience ever again. Conclusion: This laptop is BOSS!!! The video card, processor, space are incredible. However with any epic laptop (not desktop, in my experiences)... there is a caught, usually. I would recommend this laptop to ANYONE because of how awesome it is, but if you end up with the speakers crackling and/or vertical lines.. return it ASAP. And buy a new one or replace it with same model, for hopes that the problems would not repeat.

I have this laptop as long as one month.It`s a second laptop.The first one I returned because it had problems with installation of some of the windows updates and it wouldn`t install external hard drive drivers. But! I believe this one will be working excellent as now for a long time. It has great beats sound(only Toshiba has better sound, but otherwise HP has better specs), hard drive is big enough 640GB, ram 8GB is more then enough, very nice design that doesn`t look chip (as Toshiba), AMD VISION A8 APU processor isgreat (i never had AMD before), goot batery life. There is one thing not great about it, fingerprints stay on the cover. But it is not a big deal becuase otherwise It Is EXELLENT LAPTOP!

I only bought this computer last night so this is going off of first impressions only, but dollar-for-dollar, this is probably one of the best performing laptops you'll find. Initial setup takes a while, but that's to be expected with a new computer. The following reboots I went through to tweak a few things were a breeze. I haven't gotten around to testing out the graphics too much, but the first impression was solid. The 8 GB of RAM is more than enough for pretty much the average user, and the fact that you can expand it to 16 GB is pretty outstanding, but I don't imagine many people would actually make use of that, given the current cost of an 8 GB RAM stick. The AMD A8-3500 quad-core, unlike some of the Intel "quad-cores" that are no more than hyperthreaded dual-cores, is a true quad-core, and it's got some great power to it. I was updating one game, playing Silkroad Online (a World of Warcraft kind of MMO), and torrenting a third game, and there wasn't a single bit of slow-down on any of them. My only complaint with this laptop is the screen is too glossy, and it catches a bit of glare, but it's tolerable. Overall, this is a solid machine, great performance for the price, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a new laptop, if they're looking for performance. I wouldn't recommend it for just everyday computer tasks. For that, you could find a cheaper, less powerful model.

I waited a month before posting my thoughts, but I have to say... This laptop is great! I bought it as a replacement/upgrade from my college laptop which is a 4g RAM/500g Hard drive HP Pavilion dv4 with an AMD Athlon II processor. While I wasn't a total fan of the overheating dual-core AMD processor of the past, this one is UH-mazing! Although I went into the store looking for this laptop with a 2nd gen i5, after feeling the heat under the Lenovo competitor and the (lack of) heat under this model, I was sold! Now that I'm a professional, my needs have changed from writing research papers, cyber-stalking the frat boys, and building up my music collection to getting work done wherever I happen to be, Skyping with friends, & catching up on the latest episodes of my favorite shows. I'm able to complete additional training for work online, download new language modules because I'm learning French (which sounds great with Beats audio), and when I record minutes for the non-profits I volunteer for, I'm able to send them out before I even leave the coffee shop. I love that I'm able to multitask like crazy without it overheating (Thanks to HP's CoolSense management I can actually control my fan settings). I LOVE how long the battery lasts! I am getting some serious mileage out of this model WITHOUT having to buy the extended battery like I did for my last model. The quad-core processing actually divides the work evenly among all 4 processors unlike some Intel i5 processors I looked at. BONUS feature: the fingerprint scanner lets me sign into my most-used websites with just a swipe of the finger. Great time-saver!

I purchased an HP desktop earlier in the year with an AMD chip and it has been a great computer so I decided to go with another AMD. I am not a gamer but wanted a fast chip, lots of ram and a good graphics and sound card and this computer really delivers. I am really happy with the image quality and it does a great job when streaming to our HDTV. Battery life was not a factor in my buying decision but this one seems to perform as advertised. This is a great value at this price point.

I did a lot of research on the new AMD A series processors, and the conclusion that I came to was that the processing power of the Quad Core A8 for standard tasks like encoding wasn't anything special (This is pretty much confirmed after doing some work with it once I got it home#. Where the A8 processor shines is it's dedicated-class Graphics processor, which rocks. I've loaded up Dark Age of Camelot, WoW #Cataclysm# and Sims 3--all of which run better than I'd have ever expected on a mid-range laptop. DAoC is smooth and clear #mostly--it *is* a 10 year old MMO#, WoW is running consistently at 50 fps in high settings, DirectX 11 #as mentioned by a previous reviewer--I can confirm), and I finially get what all the fuss was about with Sims 3. It looks like it's supposed to and it's glorious! I've also found it runs very cool, even when under pretty heavy gaming load. The 8 Gigs of ram are also a great new experience for me. This thing multitasks like a champ. I've never been able to play a game and have my own music running in iTunes in the background. That doesn't even make this lappy sweat! I have yet to try more demanding applications like Photoshop, though, but I expect the GPU to lend a capable hand in processing power. I had originally purchased the A8, 8GB, 1.5 TB HD Pavillion Desktop, but brought it back after intolerable monitor incompatibilities #watch out for that new dvi-d connector!) and find this laptop to be a worthy alternative. It is large--full keyboard, for example. But, I'm using it as a desktop replacement anyway, so it works brilliantly for me! If graphics performance is important to you, this is definitely the way to go!

8Gb of Ram... i should stop talking right there. you will eventually need more ram everyone almost always does, so starting with 8 Gb is surely the way to go. as for the plus sides you can read the other reviews all they say is true (for the most part) lol, this lappy is missing maybe only three things that you may or may not need [bluray? bluetooth? 3G?] but one thing you can be sure of is this one here has everything you need to get going and keep going for a little while into the future. nice design with the case it has a subtle swoop towards the rear and the color is really lovely, i call it midnight chocolate. beats audio comes thru superb for built-in laptop audio, hdmi output if youre in the market for top of the line without going broke laptop, this HP dv6 is the one. yes also this laptop qualified for the bestbuy bundle hooked up with the HP Touchpad so i picked the tablet up for 150, very happy camper over here