HP Pavilion 15 Review: Price in India, and Availability
I evaluated the HP Pavilion 15 with a 1080p 60Hz display, an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD for the review. The HP Pavilion 15, is a member of one of the HP Pavilion 15 family, and as such, it commands one of HP’s mid-range line’s highest pricing.
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The HP Pavilion 15 is available for ₹49,990. You can purchase the laptop via HP Exclusive online and offline stores, Croma, Flipkart, and Amazon. That isn’t to argue that it isn’t pricey. When shopping for a mid-range computer, saving money on storage is a good idea. However, I recommend you go for 16GB RAM if you can.
HP Pavilion 15 Review: Specs at a glance
Before I get into the intricacies of the laptop, let’s have a look at the on-paper specifications:
- Display: 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080-pixels FHD IPS anti-glare micro-edge WLED- backlit display
- Processor: AMD Quad Core Ryzen 7
- Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1660
- RAM: 8GB DDR4
- Memory: 256GB SSD | 1TB HDD
- Software: Windows 10 Home
- Weight: 2.19Kg
- Dimensions: 360 x 257 x 235 mm
HP Pavilion 15 Review: Design and Build
One of the first things I noticed about the HP Pavilion 15 during the review is that it doesn’t appear like a typical mid-range business laptop. With its sharp edges and stylish silver appearance, you’d believe it was created for gamers without the RGB bling. It has an appealing, modest appearance, with a modern, pleasingly thin bezel that still manages to house a 720p webcam for all of your video conferencing needs. The build quality is solid, with the majority of the device being made of aluminium to ensure it can resist a fall.
The build quality of the HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop is excellent. Although it’s totally composed of plastic, it’s sturdy and scratch-resistant. When twisted, the keyboard deck and rear shell flex, and the screen flex, also; when closed, the laptop feels exceptionally robust. When put on a flat surface, it features rubber feet that help keep the laptop stable.
With a weight of 2.19kg, the Pavilion 15 is notably heavier than the rest of its competitors, yet it’s still light enough to sling in a backpack and carry around.
HP Pavilion 15 Review: Display
The Pavilion’s 1080p IPS display is sharp for a 15-inch monitor, and its 1593:1 contrast ratio is above average—but the rest of the panel is pretty mediocre. The maximum brightness of the HP Pavilion 15 laptop with the claimed panel of 250cd/m2 is below average. In brightly light environments, it doesn’t get bright enough to overcome glare, much less when working outside. However, even at its lowest brightness setting, it gets dark enough to provide a comfortable dark room watching experience. There are models with a brighter, 300cd/m2-rated panel, which I expect to perform much better in bright environments but are still not suitable for outdoor use.
Furthermore, the display only covers around 67.6 per cent of the sRGB colour space, which is used by the majority of applications and websites. Compared to more high-end screens, everything will appear washed out, and colours will be far from true in our assessments, thanks to a gamma of only 1.78 (2.2 usually is optimum). That implies that when the computer sends a precise shade to the screen, it may display a shade that is slightly “off” from the intended colour. This isn’t a big deal if you don’t do photo or video editing, but it’s something to consider.
When it comes to testing moderate budget computers, I’m usually sceptical. The HP Pavilion is a strong, well-built laptop for the price, with clumsy keyboards, jumpy trackpads, and brittle hinges. You get quick speed, a springy keyboard that’s a joy to type on, an accurate trackpad with very minor flaws, and a build quality that belies its price tag. And, despite its 15-inch size, it’s very portable.
The HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop is great at this price point. In our HP Pavilion 15 review, it scores amazingly well in benchmarks and is very well suited for running 3D rendering tasks, making it a compelling option for people who work in 3D modelling or animation. Additionally, there’s very little throttling over time, so the laptop stays near its full performance during extended rendering or computational workloads.
It boasts a sturdy, well-built chassis, a nice keyboard that doesn’t get tedious to text on over time, and a responsive touchpad. It also comes with lightning-fast AMD CPUs and specialised NVIDIA GPUs, making it ideal for students who edit video or work with 3D renders. Unfortunately, it’s bigger and heavier than most, making it a little tough to transport. You’ll also need to carry its dedicated barrel-plug charger because you can’t charge it over USB-C. Its screen isn’t bright enough for outside use, and its microphone records squeaky sounds.
Modern AAA games work smoothly on its MD Ryzen CPUs and dedicated NVIDIA GPUs, however you’ll need the more powerful GPUs if you want smoother gameplay at maximum graphics settings. It scarcely throttles, allowing you to play at top speed for extended periods of time. All of your devices should be able to connect to the ports, which include a dedicated HDMI 2.0 connector for output to an external display. You can also upgrade the RAM and the 2.5-inch storage drive. Unfortunately, when loaded, it becomes hot and noisy.
HP has created a well-balanced, relatively slim laptop for gaming and business or academics that does not come at a high price or with spectacular appearance. However, if you want more game-specific capabilities, there are plenty of gaming laptop options available.