The HP 625 is no thrills 15.6-inch notebook aimed at business users. It is powered by a dual-core Athlon II P360 clocked at 2.3GHz and it has 1GB of memory and 320GB of storage. It features HD 4200 integrated graphics, HDMI out, 3 USB 2.0 ports, WLAN/Bluetooth and even an ExpressCard/34 slot. At €225 it's a bargain and it weighs 2.49kg, which is pretty good, too.
Acer’s TravelMate 5735Z costs €249 and like the HP it is worth every penny, or eurocent. It is powered by Intel’s venerable T4500 dual-core at 2.3GHz. Unlike the HP, it has 2GB of memory and at 2.6kg it weighs a tad more. The biggest difference in the practical sense is the use of a larger keyboard, with a numeric pad, which resulted in the touchpad being offset to the left.
Here is the best part of the story. Both of these embarrassingly cheap laptops feature WXGA matte screens and as you probably know by now we are huge fans of matte panels. It is also worth noting that we are talking about Linux SKUs and Windows versions will set you back a bit more.
Of course, these run of the mill lappies are not aimed at enthusiasts, who will probably look for something better looking, more portable or just more powerful. However, businesses and regular consumers could hardly ask for more value for money, especially if you consider that you can get both of them for the price of a proper tablet or a high-end smartphone.