HP Pavilion 15 can be considered as an entry level gaming laptop by HP.Although it hasn’t got the impressive rugged gamers look, it still has all the specs which reminded me of the Lenovo Ideapad Y700.Let’s get into the detailed review and see how different it is from the latter:
Table of Contents
Specifications
Screen Size: 15 inches
Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
RAM: 8 GB DDR4 2133
Storage: 1 TB 7200rpm
Graphics Coprocessor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
Wireless Type: 802.11 A/C
Item Weight: 4.8 pounds
Laptop Dimensions: 15.1 x 9.9 x 1 inches
Best Buy: www.amazon.com
Price: $ 724.99
Amazon Ratings: 3.5/5 stars
Display and Design
The laptop has a very impressive premium look with an all silver cover along with the HP logo on sitting on top. The laptop has a nice black touchpad along with island style silver keys on the keyboard which really gives it a nice classy look and makes it look less like a mean gamer’s laptop.
Along with a nice design and an elegant finish to it, the laptop has a Full HD anti-glare display which is pretty good, however, in comparison with the Lenovo Ideapad, it is little behind. The colors do seem a little less vibrant as they looked in the Lenovo laptop and that leaves the laptop with a good but not great display in the given price range.
I think this laptop has a good display and if not that great at least it is still not a major let down. This laptop has various other specifications which make it a better option than the rest of the gaming laptops in the given price range. For an entry level gaming laptop this HP series laptop has done pretty well.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The laptop has nice sleek keys and it really does not resemble any of the earlier gaming laptop keyboards that we have seen. This one is pretty much like a silver finished keys on a nice black chassis which give it a really nice feel. The keys are backlit and sport the island-style keyboard which makes the overall experience with the keyboard a great one.
The keyboard includes a number pad a well, although that doesn’t take too much space resulting in the odd alignment of the touchpad to the left. It has a nice orientation of the touchpad making it comfortable to use regardless of the extra number pad added to the right.
The touchpad is powered by Synaptics and it is accurate, sensitive and smooth. The gestures can be easily tracked by the system making the entire experience really responsive. The touchpad and the keyboard on this laptop are great without any major usability issues.
Audio
This laptop has speakers by Bang & Olufsen which are great for this price range. The audio gets really loud when at max, however, you could possibly find it a little distorted at higher volumes.Though I think keeping it to somewhere around the max can help reduce the distortion and even though it isn’t as good as the Lenovo Ideapad, I still consider it great for a $800 laptop.
The overall audio in this laptop is good, even though I’m not impressed but neither do I have nay complaints. With an overall good audio, the gameplay just becomes much better and I think it is a needed feature we all look for in our gaming laptops.
Gaming and Graphics
The laptop’s GPU is powered with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M which is way better than the GPU of the Asus entry level laptop although the Alienware 13‘s GPU performance is slightly better than the GPU performance of this laptop.
The graphics are really good but most of the titles can be played on low settings, you might need to downgrade a few graphics hungry titles like The Witcher 3 from medium to low settings for a better gameplay. The other titles can be played on medium settings but the heavy graphics demanding titles can be played only on the low settings(only then they hit the 30 fps playable mark).
Storages can include 1 TB HDD or a combination of 1 TB HDD and 128 GB SSD.You even have the option of expanding the storage in case you need more RAM or hard drive space. Having the SSD storage for gaming is a must these days because they increase the performance speeds by multiple times and help in easy multitasking as well. The model I mentioned here lacks SSD, however, you can easily buy the better configuration which includes a 1 TB HDD and 128 GB SSD
Battery Life and Overheating Issues
The battery life is better than the Lenovo Ideapad Y700 which gave around 3-4 hours of battery life but this laptop gives around 5 hours of battery life which makes the HP Pavilion 15, a better option when it comes to traveling with the laptop.
For the overheating issue, the laptop is powered with CoolSense technology which adjusts the fan speed according to the chassis temperature of the laptop. Most of the time laptop remained at a comfortable temperature and did not go unusually hot . In this case, I think the laptop has done pretty well in maintaining an optimum temperature level for comfortable usage.
Ports and Warranty
Unlike the abundance of ports in the MSI laptops, the ports in the HP Pavilion are sufficient and limited, these ports include USB 3.0 port, HDMI, a headset jack and a Kensington lock slot on the right. Along the left are a tray-loading DVD burner, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, Ethernet and a power jack.
The laptop comes with one year warranty from the manufacturer.
Bottomline
The HP Pavilion 15 is a great gaming laptop with a really good performance when it comes to having multiple tasks being performed at the same time, you will not find any lag or issues while gaming even with the i5 processor in it. It is pretty light which makes this gaming laptop stand out from the rest of the laptops in the same price range.
Rarely we get to see a light laptop with an above average battery life which makes the HP Pavilion 15 a perfect choice for traveling. It really can be a competition for the Lenovo Ideapad Y700 and I would recommend you consider this laptop and the higher storage version of it if you have any plans of buying the Ideapad since they do have a lot in common(However, the speakers of the Ideapad might be a little better).
The gaming on this laptop is pretty good although the GPU performance is not as great as the Alienware 13 but even then it isn’t bad. The team of hardware with the GPU gives the overall quality of gaming experience and even though not as great as the Alienware, it is in no way bad either.
The laptop is a really great entry level gaming laptop and with all the different combinations you have of the processors and storage, you can spend a few more dollars and this laptop would be a good competition for all the other gaming laptops in the price range.
If you have any questions about the specs and any further clarifications then leave them in the comment section below and I would be happy to help you out 🙂
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