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LOADING... Hefty and ready to haul heaps of coursework, HP's Pavilion revision makes for a compelling value that carries the household name well. Pros
Cons
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test. When you think of the quintessential college computer, HP's Pavilion line has to be one of the first that comes to mind. The firm's PCs and laptops have powered students' careers for over 20 years right alongside those pink iMacs that found their way into a scene in every '90s teen show. And, like clockwork, HP is ready to take the kids back to school with its Pavilion lineup of affordable multimedia notebooks. Your everymachine for every task, if you will. Naturally, HP has gone and upgraded its leading learning laptops with stronger components while making them thinner and lighter than before. And, one to always exercise a flair for style, HP has tried something new with its laptops' looks. Design and displayNow, don't mistake here: you won't find aluminum finish and obscenely small measurements here. These laptops are designed to perform well for a low price and maybe even show off a little. The $579 (about £394, AU$753) Pavilion 15 (also available in 14 and 17-inch varieties) comes encased in a smooth plastic shell that's available in several colors. Naturally, HP has cute names for these colors: Natural Silver, Modern Gold, Dragonfly Blue, Cardinal Red, Sport Purple, Blizzard White and Onyx Black. You'll also notice that each of HP's new Pavilions have adopted a new design language in bands of color that line the machine's keyboard deck. It's a flashy touch said to be inspired by tennis shoes. (A product manager on-site at a preview event even had one such inspirational swatch to show off.) The one touch of (almost) metal on this laptop is a pair of chrome-covered hinges that support the screen well. Beyond that, it's plastic for days. In a way, that works in the laptop's favor, considering all of the components it can house inside make for just up to 4.62 pounds (starting at 4.26 pounds) of weight and up to 24.5mm (starting at 22.5mm) of thickness. You'll definitely feel this machine in your backpack, but I've definitely put up with worse, especially for what you're getting. Let's start with what you're looking at: a bright (if a little too blue) HD display. Color accuracy doesn't appear to be this display's strongest suit, but it'll be just fine for coursework and the odd Netflix binge. In this case, "HD" means 1,366 x 768 resolution, with FHD (1,920 x 1,080) and 4K (3,840 x 2,160) IPS options available. By the way, those Netflix binges will get a hearty help from some top-firing speakers tuned by Bang & Olufsen. What's inside, and using the laptopWhile HP has been decidedly mum on the specifics, the Pavilion 15 comes packing up to a 512GB solid-state drive and 2TB of spinning drive storage. That's backed by as much as 16GB of memory and an Intel Core i-series processor (up to i7, 6th generation). If you're planning on moonlighting as an eSports pro, then you can equip a Pavilion 15 with Nvidia graphics as powerful as GTX 960M. (AMD Radeon R7 graphics are available on systems configured with the firm's quad-core A12-9700P processor.) HP pegs the Pavilion 15 for 9 hours and 30 minutes of battery life, though judging from every battery test I've ever run, I seriously doubt that's the case in real-world use. It's good on HP then for shoring up that loss with its Fast Charge tech that can charge its laptops to 90% capacity in just 90 minutes. On the connectivity front, all new Pavilion models come packing at least one HDMI port, two USB 3 ports, one USB 2 port, an SD card reader and an audio combo jack. Finally, you can swap the stock webcam out for an Intel RealSense camera, which enables Windows Hello secure login through face recognition. As for the using the laptop, its keyboard is unsurprisingly not backlit, but worse offers what felt like rather squishy travel from chiclet-style keys that are a little too square for my liking. Given the Z-axis height available here, surely something could be done to make for a punchier set of keys. That said, they're spaced well, and I don't anticipate the keyboard presenting anything more than a learning curve. The smooth plastic trackpad isn't anything stellar, but isn't anything outright awful either. Early verdictThrough and through, this is a cash-strapped college student's laptop. The Pavilion 15 offers the power that the average student needs but at a price tag that the average student may afford. When you look at the HP Pavilion 15 like that, it's almost as if folks are better off heading here before the primo PC aisle, flush with a few more bucks of book (beer) money. While it's a bit heavy and the keyboard isn't the best I've ever laid fingers on, this looks to be a solid workhorse that, if treated right, could last a kid through all of undergraduate study if not longer. (Trust me, I had a Pavilion carry me through college.) For under 600 bucks, there's not much more you can ask for. Joe Osborne is the Senior Technology Editor at Insider Inc. His role is to leads the technology coverage team for the Business Insider Shopping team, facilitating expert reviews, comprehensive buying guides, snap deals news and more. Previously, Joe was TechRadar's US computing editor, leading reviews of everything from gaming PCs to internal components and accessories. In his spare time, Joe is a renowned Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master – and arguably the nicest man in tech. What is a hands on review?Hands on reviews' are a journalist's first impressions of a piece of kit based on spending some time with it. It may be just a few moments, or a few hours. The important thing is we have been able to play with it ourselves and can give you some sense of what it's like to use, even if it's only an embryonic view. For more information, see TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee. Is AMD A12 a good processor?The integrated graphics on an AMD A12 processor is the Radeon R7 GPU, while the integrated graphics on an Intel i5 processor are the Intel HD Graphics. In terms of performance, the Radeon R7 GPU on the AMD A12 processor is generally better than the Intel HD Graphics on the Intel i5 processor. Is HP Pavilion 15 is good or not?If you're in the market for a strong multitasking laptop for a home office or school work, the HP Pavilion 15 is a fine fit. It tested on par or slightly better than similarly configured 15-inch laptops past and present. Keep in mind, too, that we tested the base Intel configuration. Can AMD A12 run Windows 11?The first thing that stands out is your CPU (Processor) which is AMD A12-9720P. This is not a Windows 11 supported AMD processor. Your laptop is unfortunately does not meet the requirements for this operating system and you will need to continue using Windows 10. How old is the AMD A12?The AMD A12-9720P is a mainstream SoC from the Bristol Ridge APU series for notebooks (7th APU generation), which was introduced in 2017. |
