HP Pavilion x360
Not your average laptop, but the x360 falls behind in the responsiveness and battery-life stakes
HP’s Pavilion x360 range exploits the familiar rotating lid design, in which the touchscreen folds around to turn the system into a tablet. It’s a nice option to have, but since this 13.3in model weighs 1.65kg, we doubt you’ll want to use it for extended periods.
As a laptop, meanwhile, the Pavilion x360 is slightly idiosyncratic. Like the Acer Spin 3, it uses a lastgeneration Skylake processor, though here it’s a rather more powerful Core i5-6200U. Also like the Acer, it comes with a 1TB, 5,400RPM mechanical hard disk. Uniquely, that’s partnered with a huge 12GB of RAM.
This mixture of components doesn’t yield particularly distinctive desktop performance, but the x360 is far from slow: in our application benchmarks, it scored 44 overall, putting it almost on par with the PC Specialist ( see below) and just a little behind the Dell Vostro. Unfortunately, where the Pavilion x360 did break from the pack it was in the wrong direction: in our High detail Dirt: Showdown test, it averaged just 15fps, while other Core i3 and i5 systems managed frame rates of 29fps and up.
It’s also worth mentioning that, while that mechanical hard disk has minimal impact on in-application performance, you can definitely feel the difference when opening and switching between applications. Despite its generous memory allocation, the Pavilion x360 felt palpably less responsive than the SSD-equipped systems.
Keeping those platters spinning also uses more energy than powering an SSD, which may be one reason why the Pavilion x360 did so poorly in our battery-life test. A full charge was exhausted after just 4hrs 50mins of video playback, making the x360 this month’s worst performer.
The Pavilion x360 isn’t an unattractive machine: the horizontal lines around the touchpad provide a little personality, and the screen isn’t bad at all. While brightness and contrast are merely average, its Full HD resolution translates to a crisp 165ppi – the same as our recommended ZenBook.
Ultimately, though, the Pavilion x360’s only real clear-cut advantage over its rivals is that convertible design. The generous RAM and storage provision may appeal, but the hard disk makes Windows feel clunky. If you can live without a touchscreen, you’ll get a smoother overall experience from the PC Specialist, or the Asus ZenBook.