HP Swing: Paving the Way to the New Generation of Computer Games

Computer games seem to be all the hype these days. And if you’re one hardcore gamer, chances are you spend a lot of time in front of your desktop, pressing buttons and punching on your computer keyboard while you’re transported in a virtual world—only to end up with your eyes strained and your back aching after hours of gaming. Not much of a healthy lifestyle, don’t you think? Well, if you really can’t be away from your computer too long but you still desire to live a healthy life, you might want to take a look at the newest from Hewlett Packard: the HP Swing.

The Swing is a motion sensing gaming console that’s offered together with HP Pavilion Desktop PCs. Contrary to the traditional games found on your desktop (which only involve buttons, keys, and your computer mouse), the Swing will give you the opportunity to engage in real life action games such as basketball, tennis, and bowling. When you play using this console, you’ll have to imitate the movements on the game real-life. At the end of every gaming session, you can expect to feel sweaty, out of breath, and with real energy—not the usual lethargic feeling you’ll get after fighting monsters on your desktop by merely clicking on keyboard shortcuts.

The HP Swing comes with seven life-like games for you to enjoy. It also comes with a graphic card for great visuals on your HP monitor.

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HP Pavilion G62 Notebook Review

This is the new Pavilion notebook series apart from the DV range which HP has. I like the DV range, so much so that I actually own one! But how good is the G-series? Let's find out.

Packaging and Contents

The G62 comes with what the laptop usually comes with- the laptop itself, a power brick, a power cord, some manuals and a bag to carry it around in.

First Impression

The G62 which I got for review was dressed in Charcoal color, with HP's now traditional Imprint finish. Thankfully, the G62 is completely matte in finish (except the border around the screen) which makes it less of a fingerprint and scratch magnet- unlike the DV range.


Performance

Powered by the Core i3 processor clocking at a very fast 2.4GHz coupled with 3GB RAM, the G62 should be fast if we look at these specs on a sheet. This machine comes with Windows Home Basic 64-bit edition, and a high end ATI graphics card.

In terms of benchmark testing, the G62 is an absolute rocket. The PC Mark score of 6622 is a clear testament to the fact that this machine is a multi-tasker's delight. There will no slowdowns even with multiple apps open.

The 3D Mark score, which evaluates the 3D rendering and gaming capabilities of the machine, clocks to a score of 4093. The ATI graphics card with 1GB dedicated video memory is a real delight for anyone who wants to have a gaming session on the G62.

The battery life of a machine so powerful, inevitably, will not be like those offered by a less powerful one. The battery completely drained out in just less than 2 hours in the battery tests. However, this test was with full screen brightness and all connectivity options switched on. If you turn down the screen brightness a bit, and switch off stuff like Wi-Fi, then the battery life improves.

The build quality if the G62 is quite solid. The keypad has a nice soft feel to it. The only niggle which I had was with the touchpad. It was as bad as the one in the HP dm3 notebook- rough to use, temperamental response and annoying to use. This can be solved if you use an external mouse, whenever you can, with the machine, though. There is no E-Sata port. However, the HDMI out will allow you to connect this machine to an HD projector or a TV as well.

Verdict

At a price of just under Rs 40k, the G62 does make a lot of sense to actually buy this one. It has the raw processing power as well as a lot of grunt for games. If you have a budget of just under Rs 40k, this is definitely my pick, even over the Dell Inspiron.


Price: Rs 38,990

Specs:

Intel Core i3 processor M370 @ 2.40GHz
3GB RAM
320GB hard drive
15.6 inch LED display (1366x768 HD Ready resolution)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD5470 graphics (1GB DDR3 video memory)
Wi-Fi/Bluetooth
3 USB
Memory card slot
HDMI out
Windows 7 Home Basic (64-bit)

Pros:

-Excellent Non-gaming performance, -Great gaming performance
-Budget pricing for a powerful laptop makes this a great deal

Cons:
-Temperamental touchpad

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