Epson A3 EcoTank
A delightful notebook for a surprisingly low price: only the lacklustre display gives away its budget
Slash running costs with this bottle-fed A3 photo inkjet
SCORE ★★★★☆
PRICE £499 (£599 inc VAT) from store.hp.com
S “urprise and delight” is a phrase used by marketing types to describe the feeling a customer gets when they discover something unexpected in their purchase. It’s a phrase I loathe with a passion, so I was disturbed to experience a degree of S&D when I fired up the new HP Pavilion 14.
First, it uses the same sandblasted, anodised finish on the cover and keyboard frame as more expensive HP machines such as the Envy 13 ( see
issue 319, p83). The “Serene Pink” lid is lovely, too, and since it’s a largely metal construct it feels solid (there’s a silver model too). There’s more flex to the lid than in the Envy 13, but it’s nothing to worry about.
This laptop defies the rule of thumb that affordability equals girth. A 1.4kg weight and 17mm height means it can hold its own in the company of thin-and-light 14in notebooks costing far more.
The keyboard is spacious and sensibly organised, albeit not faultless with a flex that might annoy heavyhanded typists. Note the lack of a backlight as well, while the power button is bizarrely placed between the print-screen and delete key. The fingerprint scanner was a more pleasant surprise and it’s tucked nicely out of the way below the cursor keys. While the 115 x 73mm trackpad lacks a glass coating, it’s faultless in use.
Connectivity is another strength for the price, with two USB-A 3.1 ports and one 10Gbits/sec USB-C port; this also supports DisplayPort and USB Power Delivery. HP provides an HDMI 2 port as well, alongside a microSD card slot and 3.5mm audio jack. As is typical of HP laptops, you can charge via either DC-in or USB-C. Taking the Pavilion apart to check internal upgrade options would have involved ripping off the two rubber footing strips that cover four of the six screws securing the base. Luckily, a search on YouTube shows that once you get inside, the 2280 M.2 SSD slot and two SODIMM memory slots are easily accessible.
Wireless comms are handled by an Intel AC-9461 module. This only supports Wi-Fi 5 rather than Wi-Fi 6, but such are the compromises you must endure in this price range. The Full HD IPS display is mediocre, but no worse than the panel in the Huawei MateBook D15 ( see issue 324, p49).
Brightness topped out at a reasonable 275cd/m2, but colours are drab compared to the best screens: sRGB coverage of 55% and an average
Delta E of 5.9 both sit at the wrong end of the screen-quality spectrum. One positive, however, is that this is a touch-sensitive panel, which is a rarity at this price. It also has a matte, anti-reflection finish that will appeal to anyone who plans on using their laptop outdoors or under bright lights.
HP again impresses with a Bang & Olufsen speaker system, which sounds similar to the setup in the more expensive Envy 13. There’s a stack of volume available and the sound is never less than composed and punchy. There’s even a decent wallop of bass.
Nor can I complain about the core components for the price. A Core i5-1135G7 with Iris Xe graphics and two sticks of 4GB DDR4 3,200MHz RAM pushed it to a competent 107 in the PC Pro benchmarks, which is only a few points below the MateBook D15. For basic productivity, the Pavilion has more than enough potential and – at a few seconds short of eight hours – the battery life is fine too.
Gaming and other graphicsintensive tasks will be beyond this laptop’s reach. Our gaming benchmarks, Metro: Last Light and Dirt: Showdown, averaged 29fps and 59fps at 1,920 x 1,080 respectively. Run Doom 2016 at 1,280 x 720 and you’ll find it’s just about playable at an average of 40fps, but you will experience stuttering when things get hectic onscreen. One final limitation to note is the 256GB NVMe SSD, which will quickly fill if you are a gamer. Nor is it the quickest, with sequential read and write speeds of 2,017MB/sec and 675MB/sec close to the slowest I’d expect from a drive with a PCI-E Gen3 x4 interface ( see p42).
So it isn’t perfect, but for its price the HP Pavilion 14 still packs plenty of appeal. It looks and feels like it should cost more and has some features that I genuinely didn’t expect to find given the price.
SPECIFICATIONS
4-core 2.4GHz (4.2GHz burst) Core i5-1135G7 processor 4GB DDR4 3,200MHz RAMIntel Iris Xe graphics 14in touchscreen IPS display, 1,920 x 1,080 resolution 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD microSD card slot 720p webcam 2x2 Wi-Fi 5 Bluetooth 5 USB-C 3.2 2 x USB-A 3.1 3.5mm jack 45Wh battery Windows 10 Home 325 x 217 x 17mm (WDH) 1.4kg 1yr RTB warranty part code DV0007NA
“A 1.4kg weight and 17mm height means it can hold its own in the company of thin-and-light notebooks costing far more”