HP Pavilion Power 15 Review
HP Pavilion Power 15 is a classic example of a stylish gaming laptop packed with entry-level components; it is one of the best gaming laptops under $800. Starting at the price tag of $769.99, this laptop delivers enhanced battery life, elegant looks, and optimum performance with the use of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU along with the Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor. However, the potential of the laptop is dimmed down by the display which is too dull and dim for being a gaming laptop.
Additionally, this HP laptop’s worth is again dimmed due to the slow form of a solid-state drive or a weak audio output system. The HP Pavilion Power 15 laptop is an evolutionary innovation of its predecessors Pavilion 15Z and Pavilion 15T. Its high-quality Kaby Lake Processor is decked with the GTX 1050 GPU in order to target the mainstream gamers who wouldn’t want to spend a penny extra on other expensive laptops like Lenovo Yoga 720 or Dell XPS 15 9560.
If you want to buy this laptop, you need to know about its specs and features. In this guide, we are going to review this gaming laptop. However, before we move towards the review, let’s have a look at its pros and cons.
The Good
- Slinky and attractive design
- Solid graphics with top-notch performance
- Better battery life
- Comfortable Keyboard
- Spacious touchpad
The Bad
- A Dull/dim display
- Weak Audio Output
- Sluggish SSD
For more details and price, click here.
Bottom Line
The HP Pavilion Power 15 serves as a significant improvement over the standard version of the Pavilion 15. Though it is designed, especially for creative professionals, this laptop is a great option for the gamers too. It comes with high-tech specs that any gamer will look for in a laptop; it makes it an ideal laptop for beginners.
What do you get with HP Pavilion Power 15?
Specifications and Features
- Processor: Intel Core i7-7700HQ
- RAM: 8GB DDR4
- Graphics Card: GTX 1050 4GB
- Display: 1920X1080 FHD IPS
- Storage: 128GB SSD+1TB Hard Drive
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Ports: USB 3.0, SD Card Reader, 3.5mm Jack, USB Type-C, HDMI, LAN
- Weight: 2.358 kg
- Price: $769.99
Design
HP Pavilion Power 15 flaunts a standard design which even though isn’t as groundbreaking when it comes to looks, surely gives a solid feel. The overall construct along with the chassis can be termed as a major improvement over its previously launched series of the notebooks. The laptop comes with a tough rigidity. The edges of the laptop, as well as the corners are sharper, stronger, and properly defined to render a better finish. All thanks to its improvised look, this laptop feels very versatile and aesthetic.
The HP Pavilion Power 15 with Core i7-7700HQ has been constructed keeping in mind everyday usage. The lid of the laptop lifts rear half of the device for better air flow while maintaining the temperature of the laptop. The display has been designed to tilt back as far as 150 degrees. Dimension wise, this laptop measures exact 9.93*14.88*0.95-inch that comes as a standard for any normal 15-inch laptop. Moreover, the laptop weighs a mere 4 pounds, making it perfect for daily commuters.
Display
The HP Pavilion Power 15 display review confirms that the laptop sports a Full HD Display that is 15.6-inch diagonally. This display packs a 1920X1080 pixels resolution with a panel decked with IPS WLED-backlit light. Now, the 1080p IPS based display works perfectly fine for most occasions. It reproduces vibrant colors alongside the 178-degree wide-viewing angles. However, we thought that the display is a wee-bit grainy that takes the fun out of watching high-resolution videos or when playing games.
Not just that, the HP Pavilion Power 15-CB071NR laptop has a contrast level that goes a bit behind competition. The laptop’s color temperature isn’t overly warm or cool which can be a good feature. It comes with the right color balance making it optimum for gamers as well as regular users. The backlight is subtle which can provide a good amount of thrust when it comes to daylight viewing.
Hardware
HP Pavilion 15 CB071NR also packs some powerful specs and robust innards. Talking about the specifications and hardware of this device, it comes with the newest 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad-Core Processor. The default processor clock speed is 2.8GHz that can go as high as 3.8GHz when pushed in the full throttle.
For handling applications and multitasking, this laptop features 16GB RAM. This spacious and latest 16GB version of RAM ensures an efficient and smooth performance at the fastest possible speeds. For storage purpose, this laptop is packed with 1TB hard drive Serial ATA. Additionally, the device flaunts 128GB PCIe NVMe M.2 Solid-State Drive. Both the write and read speeds of the SSD are perfect; the hard drive that has been used for this laptop is functional at 7200RPM speed.
Now, as far as the graphics card decked in this laptop is concerned, it flaunts the GeForce GTX 1050Ti GPU coupled with 4GB DDR5 VRAM.
Touchpad and Keyboard
HP Pavilion 15 series packs in the latest full-size Island-Style Chiclet Keyboard. This particular keyboard is rather rigid with better feedback. Although the laptop’s keys are made up of plastic, they flaunt the right kind of concave structure that makes typing fairly effective and easy. Plus the keyboard is backlit, making it quite handy.
Now, as seen on the gaming laptops, this one doesn’t flaunt any WASD color keys, but this is what makes it stand out from other gaming laptops. A professional device, the HP Pavilion 15 is actually a beast inside with a perfect mix of play and work.
The touchpad presented with this device is very spacious with sufficient surface area that suffices all inputs and gestures. Moreover, it comes with a Chrome-Trimmed Trackpad that gives a rich feel to the users.
Webcam
The HP Pavilion Power 15 specs come along with an integrated version of 720p HD web camera. The camera in the device can sufficiently aid video conferences but hasn’t been designed for someone who wants to capture perfect images.
Even though the device captures images, resulting pictures can be disappointing. The picture has some visual noise that appears blurry.
Ports, Slots and Connectivity
This laptop has all the required ports & input slots that are expected to be present on a laptop. To start with, the HP Pavilion Power 15 houses USB 3.1 Gen 1 Ports, Kensington Lock, Audio Jack, USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 1 Port, RJ-45 Port, USB 3.1 Gen 1 Port, HDMI port, as well as the Media Card reader.
The selection of port on this laptop is perfect and one will never run out when it comes to picking ports. However, these ports are slightly aligned close which can be problematic when connecting the thumb drives adjacent to the USB ports.
When it comes to connectivity, the Bluetooth 4.2 isn’t among the features added to the laptop. However, at this budget, this laptop does house a reliable 2X2 AC Wi-Fi.
Software
The HP Pavilion 15 laptop functions on Windows 10 which is the standard norm when talking about the gaming laptops. The laptop comes with its own set of pre-installed applications of which many are useful. However, you can easily uninstall them to enjoy a complete Windows experience.
Thermals
The thermals on board Pavilion 15 laptop are great. The laptop doesn’t actually have a super powerful GPU and CPU combination which is why thermals aren’t a major concern with the laptop.
Performance
Thanks to its application set, this laptop offers incredible device performance that isn’t in any way compromised. That being said, this device delivers a very powerful performance that keeps up time-to-time with the users’ demands for multitasking.
The perfectly spacious keyboard along with trackpad helps one stay productive in terms of work. Plus the connectivity feature is top-notch making your work easy. With its combination of the SSD+HDD, this device achieved an optimum data transfer rate.
Audio & Video
The speakers in the HP Pavilion Power 15 aren’t actually powerful. However, they can be subtle enough in order to cater to a reliable audio & listening experience. Moreover, the device flaunts the presence of dual speakers which is tuned internally by the B&O Play to cater to better output for audio.
Battery Life
As per the claims made by the company, this laptop can render a battery backup of 11 hours with a single session of charging. It is a reliable timeline for any kind of gaming laptop. When being used, this laptop caters a runtime of 7-8 hours with a single charge that is perfectly commendable when it comes to any gaming laptop. Powered with lithium-ion based polymer battery, it takes an hour for complete charge going from 0-100. This laptop shines & stands out with the battery life, making it an ideal option for the users.
Conclusion
The HP Pavilion Power 15 without a doubt is the best gaming laptop when it comes to a proper value-for-money device under the price tag of $800. Even though this laptop counts slightly behind its competitors for audio output and the display quality, its other features such as built, battery life, and performance make it worth purchase.
