HP Pavilion 14 Review: A Premium Notebook at An even cheaper
The HP Pavilion 14 is a good laptop. It looks good and it can do work. The HP Pavilion 14 has an 11th-generation Core i5 CPU, which is one of the newest CPUs available today.
Just know that the battery life isn’t as long as some other laptops. But if you want a good-looking laptop, this one has plenty of styles.
Specs
- Product Brand: HP
- Screen Size: 14 inches
- Screen Resolution: 1080p
- Processor: Intel Core I5-7200u
- RAM: 8GB DDR4
- HDD/SSD: 1 TB/128GB
- GPU: Integrated
- Ports: 2 USB 3.1, USB type – C, 3.5mm audio jack, SD card reader, Ethernet, HDMI
- Connectivity Options: WiFi, Bluetooth
Pros
- Snappy processor and integrated graphics for most tasks
- The stylish, pink outer shell
- Solid anti-glare display works in most settings
Cons
- Battery life could be better
- non-backlit keyboard
- The display looks a little dim in bright areas
Key Features
- Lightweight design: The HP Pavilion 14 is a backpack with a design that meets the demands of both students and on-the-go individuals. It weighs just 1.41kg, making it an excellent choice for college kids and businesspeople on the move.
- Good port selection: It includes a decent number of current and legacy ports, including USB-C, HDMI, and an SD card slot.
- Full HD display: The HP Pavilion 14 is an excellent choice for watching a video with a standard 1920 x 1080 IPS display.
That is also true in terms of the power it can deliver, with an 11-gen Intel Core i5 CPU and a lovely design making it a great choice for students.
However, the HP HP Pavilion 14 is now available for £649.99/ $499.99 and contains an Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU, 256GB SSD storage, and comparable integrated Iris Xe graphics that powered previous Intel-driven MacBooks.
It’s a solid showing for the Lenovo Legion Y520, which is surprisingly cheap compared to other Windows laptops in this price range, matching up well against the Honor Magic book 14 and Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Go. However, can it compete with the finest laptops?
Design and keyboard
- Business-class appears to be pink, with a razor-sharp edge.
- Its aluminum frame gives it a sense of solidity.
- The keyboard is responsive, although it does not include any backlighting.
When you think of a mid-range laptop, you don’t generally think of one with an aluminum case that feels incredibly well-made or one made of pink-tinted metal. HP delivers just that with the HP Pavilion 14.
It looks wonderful and has a premium feel to it.
The HP Pavilion 14’s understated beauty stands up well next to laptops costing two or three times as much.
It’s a step above HP’s formerly less expensive, brightly colored laptops, which have taken on a more professional appearance that won’t cause eyebrows to rise in the workplace.
The HP Pavilion 14 has narrow bezels on the sides and top, whereas the bottom bezel is somewhat broader.
Nonetheless, for all of your Zoom or Teams requirements, the HP Pavilion 14 still includes a standard-issue 720p webcam within.
The HP Pavilion 14’s 1.41kg weight ensures that it is sturdy enough to feel well-made while remaining light enough to carry around school, university, or the workplace if required.
The HP Pavilion TouchSmart 14t is a budget computer with an ultra-slim profile and a classic design that won’t appeal to everyone.
It has the ideal touchscreen for this price range, but it isn’t a convertible laptop, so bending the hinged round will damage it.
HP has taken the sophisticated design on the surface and extended it to the speakers, which are now positioned at an angle.
There’s also a collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, which lends the HP Pavilion 14 some fairly good-sounding speakers for a reasonable laptop.
Ports will also be business as usual – HP hasn’t cut corners with the connections it offers.
There is a high-speed Type-C, 2x USB-As, an HDMI, SD card reader, and headphone jack. This has just enough compatibility with existing hardware yet lacks the second Type-C.
It also works with Windows Hello, which is a more advanced version of FaceID that unlocks using facial recognition.
The keyboard has a tiny and inconspicuous-looking fingerprint reader on the bottom-right corner to unlock it.
The keyboard has a small design and is smooth to the touch.
However, it isn’t illuminated, which makes it unsuitable for late-night work. It can also be difficult to see the keys at certain light levels because of the laptop’s pink coloring with silver markings, especially since they’re backlit.
The HP Pavilion 14’s trackpad is colossal, with plenty of travel and smooth tracking for such a tiny laptop. The actual buttons have a strong tactile feel to them and are responsive as well.
Display
- 1080p resolution is great, displaying good colors
- 250 nits of brightness feel a little dim
- 16:9 aspect ratio works okay, but feels a smidgen outdated
On the display side, there aren’t any real shocks: The HP Pavilion 14 features a Full HD IPS screen with acceptable colors and is suited for daily tasks.
Its 14-inch screen has enough room for working and is small enough to take on trips.
For watching university lectures or relaxing with some YouTube videos or Prime Video series, the HP Pavilion 14’s display was adequate. The viewing angles on an anti-glare display were great, as well. However, while the aspect ratio of 16:9 is alright, it feels a smidge behind the curve.
Most current Ultrabooks use a squarer 16:10 format that is better for applications and web surfing.
This slightly smaller version, like the Pavilion 15, suffers from brightness problems. The maximum brightness of 250 nits is significantly lower than the typical 300-nit standard for laptops.
That said, in normal light levels, the display performs well – just don’t expect to achieve top-quality outside in bright sunlight.
Ports & Connectivity
The HP Pavilion 14 has a total of 10 ports, including two USB 3.0 ports and one USB-C port with power delivery, transfer rates of up to 10Gbps, and DisplayPort 1.4 connections.
If required, you have the option to chain additional monitors together using this feature. In addition, there is an HDMI 2.0 connection for a basic display connection.
Whatever your work presentation demands, the HP Pavilion 14 is undoubtedly adaptable. A micro SD card reader, a 3.5mm headphone/microphone connection, and Bluetooth 5 compatibility are also included.
The power supply is a separate barrel connector, but you may also charge the phone using USB-C.
Performance
- 11th-gen Core i5 offers great performance speeds
- Integrated graphics are ideal for casual gaming
- Snappy SSD read and writes
The HP Pavilion 14 isn’t going to revolutionize the world with its specifications, but in practice, it delivers a decent all-around experience.
The HP Spectre 13 is a convertible laptop with an excellent 12.3-inch touchscreen display and solid build quality, as well as 8th-generation Intel Core i5 CPU performance.
It gets some fantastic scores in both PCMark 10 and Geekbench 5’s multi-core test, beating off its closest competition by a wide margin: the Honor MagicBook 14.
The HP Pavilion 14’s 16GB DDR4 RAM was more than enough for keeping several Chrome windows open. It would be feasible to edit a 1080p video with the HP Pavilion 14.
Given the comparative speed of the 11th-gen CPU and the manageable power of the Intel Xe integrated graphics, it’s possible to indulge in some light gaming on the HP Pavilion 14.
However, stick to the less-intensive titles such as Minecraft; Crysis won’t run on this laptop.
The 256GB SSD is reasonable, but if you’re going to be downloading a lot of data or programs, it will fill up quickly. Its performance was very quick with 968.24 MB/s writes and 2490.93 MB reads, making it an excellent choice for loading data in and out.
Battery Life
- It Lasts 8hrs 18mins in the benchmark test
- Capable of lasting one working day
During our PCMark 10 battery benchmark test, the HP Pavilion 14 lasted HP’s advertised 8hrs 18mins.
The HP Pavilion 14 is best for students and office workers who just need to get through a full workday.
However, the HP Pavilion 14 falls short against comparable rivals in terms of value: Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Go and the Honor MagicBook 14 both outlasted it by about an hour in the same testing.
The Pavilion 14’s performance lasted throughout the day before requiring a complete chargeback to 100 percent, as expected.
The laptop also has a rapid-charging capability that provides a 50% charge in 45 minutes, allowing you to get back up and running fast.
Gaming: No glory without a graphics card
Given its poor performance metrics, it’s no surprise that the Pavilion 14 is a gaming PC.
You won’t be able to run most games at anything higher than medium-low settings because there isn’t a dedicated graphics card.
However, for older and less graphically intensive games, we discovered that this laptop has sufficient power for a somewhat playable experience.
Gamers and others looking for incredible graphical performance should look elsewhere, but students and the working professional on the go will find this laptop to be a fantastic choice.
It shines in retro-style games that prioritize gameplay above graphics.
While playing Downwell, we thought it was smooth and entertaining, and the high contrast color scheme of the game stood out thanks to the superb picture quality.
Dota 2 was playable on medium-low settings, which kept a consistent framerate while not looking too harsh or pixelated.
Despite the small screen, playing anything more graphics-intensive is difficult due to the fast pace and detail-oriented nature of the internet experience.
Audio: Loud and proud
Laptops don’t usually offer much of a listening experience from their frequently insufficient speakers.
The Pavilion 14, on the other hand, has a fantastic sound system from Bang and Olufson that produces high volume with excellent quality throughout its volume range.
We were wowed by how the speakers reproduced the deep, throbbing low tones that characterize this Mongolian rock song, and the strummed notes of stringed instruments in “Wolf Totem” by The Hu.
We also liked this audio quality while watching Stranger Things and playing DOTA 2. Of course, if you’d rather listen through headphones there is a 3.5mm jack supplied as well as Bluetooth compatibility.
Network: Fast and reliable
We’ve never had to complain about the speed of our networks. When I ran Ookla Speedtest on my laptop, it showed that it could take full advantage of both our wireless and wired Ethernet connections.
Camera: Just about adequate
The webcam is present, and that’s about all there is to say about it. Video quality is limited to 720p at 30 frames per second, and image resolution is restricted to 0.9 megapixels.
That’s a reasonable standard for a laptop camera, but not particularly outstanding.
It performs adequately for video conferences or capturing a brief profile photo, although, in low-light situations, it has poor picture quality.
There is face tracking for photographs that work surprisingly well, although HDR support isn’t great at all.
Software: Windows with a little bloat
The HP Probook 440 G5 features Windows 10, and we were relieved to discover that HP has avoided putting too much bloatware on the system.
You’ll have to uninstall Candy Crush and a few other pre-installed games, but it’s not difficult.
HP licenses HP Support Assistant and HP Jumpstart, which are software solutions that offer computer support as well as hardware help.
In addition to this, HP has added several useful tools like the aforementioned update manager and device management program.
The latter is an exceptional way to keep your laptop cool while gaming for lengthy periods because it adjusts the cooling system’s settings according to whether or not the device is moving.
We discovered that even when playing games for extended periods, this seems to work quite effectively at keeping the PC cool.
Unfortunately, the i5-7200u CPU is becoming somewhat outdated, which will become more apparent rather quickly.
The only real bloatware, which is a shame, is McAfee LiveSense, which was frequently guilty of annoying us with interruption alerts.
We would rather pick our security software and would not install anything as notoriously awful as McAfee.
Price: Quality at an affordable price point
The Pavilion 14 is not a cheap laptop, even if It’s priced reasonably when compared to other ultraportables, but its value becomes apparent only when you consider how tiny and light it is, which draws comparisons to premium ultrabooks.
HP Pavilion 14 vs Dell XPS 13
The most recent Dell XPS 13 is a smaller, sleeker, and more expensive computer with a significantly higher price tag about twice that of the Pavilion 14 for a comparable configuration to the one we tested.
On paper, the HP offers greater value for money than the Dell, especially in terms of hard drive storage capacity where it has a 1TB hard drive as well as an SSD.
That said, the XPS 13 is thinner, lighter, has a superior build quality, and has an excellent trackpad.
Between Acer, HP, and Lenovo, the laptop market is a competitive one. The choice you have to make varies depending on your priorities: budget, value, and hard drive space.
If price, value, and storage capacity are important factors for you, HP is likely your best option.
Dell is the way to go if maximum trackpad performance and superior build quality are critical elements in your purchasing decision.
Conclusion
The HP Pavilion 14 is a good, inexpensive laptop for home or business use that can handle most tasks you throw at it, from video conferencing to web browsing and social media.
The only disadvantage is the display may be too dim for some people, and the touch screen isn’t required.
While the notebook is no bigger than a standard computer, it is smaller and lighter enough to be carried around. The device’s size and weight make it appropriate for hotdesking or working from home on occasion.
HDMI and DisplayPort 1.4 compatibility allows you to connect the laptop to as many as three displays quickly, while a fingerprint scanner adds an extra layer of security.
The Pavilion 14 is on the more expensive end of budget laptops, but it’s well worth the money. If you need a Core i5 or larger SSD, there are even stronger versions available.
HP Pavilion 14
HP Pavilion 14 Laptop, HD Display, AMD Ryzen 3 3250U (Beats i7-7560U), 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, AMD Radeon Vega 3 Graphics, Webcam, Wi-Fi, HDMI, Bluetooth, Windows 10 Home, Natural Silver (Latest Model) Start From Capacity: 16GB RAM | 256GB SSD to 16GB RAM | 256GB SSD Price Range: $559.00 to $871.99
Product Brand: HP
Product Currency: USD
Product Price: 559
Product In-Stock: InStock
4.5
