Verdict The HP Pavilion 15 is a sturdy, stylish laptop that's available at a decent price. It packs a lot of performance under its silver bonnet, while featuring a sharp 1080p display and decent capacity SSD. However, battery life is a letdown for those working on the go. Show
Pros
Cons
Key Specifications
The HP Pavilion 15 has so much on offer that you could argue its punching above its weight as a mid-range laptop. It comes packing a powerful fourth-gen Ryzen mobile chip from AMD, while also seeing some decent design features and a plethora of ports. And while it may not look as classy as a Dell XPS 13, or have the sheer grunt of the new Macbook Air, it still might just be worth a look if youre searching for a bargain. Price and availabilityThe HP Pavilion 15-eh0014na model I have for review is currently available for £849.99/$699.99 via HPs online store. This configuration features AMDs Ryzen 4700U mobile processor, a 512GB SSD, 16B of RAM and integrated Radeon graphics. That price makes it more expensive than the likes of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 and Microsofts Surface Laptop Go. This puts it firmly in the frame for consideration for those who have some money to spend. HP offers some cheaper models, too, including the HP Pavilion 15-eh0017na (£499) and HP Pavilion 15-eh0017na (£649.99/$629.99). These laptops come packing the Ryzen 3 4300U and Ryzen 5 4500U processors, offering slower speeds but more affordable price points. Design and keyboard Premium looks, solid keyboard and decent port selection
One of the first major things to note about the HP Pavilion 15 is that it doesnt really look like a mid-range office laptop. With its sharp edges and cool silver styling, you might be forgiven for thinking its designed for gamers, just without the RGB glam. It sports an attractive, understated look, with a modern and pleasingly thin bezel that still manages to hold a 720p webcam for all your video conferencing needs. Build quality is sturdy, comprising mostly of aluminium to ensure this device could withstand a drop. The Pavilion 15 weighs noticeably more than the majority of its rivals at 1.75kg, yet its still just about portable enough to sling in a bag and carry around a university campus. HP has decided to opt for a touchscreen setup with this laptop; but the Pavilion 15 isnt a convertible laptop, so bending back the hinge will only cause damage. The company also partners with B&O in a bid to give this business-class laptop some nicely balanced audio performance. In addition, the speakers are mounted on the laptops underside at an angle, which means sound wont be obstructed by your desk. Even with the Pavilion 15 being quite a slim bit of kit, HP hasnt skimped for port allocation. The laptop comes with two high-speed USB-As, a Thunderbolt 4/Type-C port, as well as an HDMI-out, a headphone jack and micro-SD card slot, providing plenty of compatibility. Its nice to see older ports being included in a market where sometimes USB-As and HDMIs have been ditched altogether. Theres also some welcome support for Windows Hello included through the small fingerprint reader, just below the keyboards dedicated number pad, and its within easy reach for when you need to use it. The keyboard is nicely tactile, smooth and responsive, which makes a difference to some of the more compact laptops out there. However, one thing to note is that it isnt backlit, meaning it might not be the best option for working after the light fades. The Pavilion 15s trackpad is almost MacBook-like in size, offering your fingers plenty of travel. Its pleasantly smooth and tracking is accurate, with some pretty firm and responsive buttons. Display A 1080p display with some nice colours
For the Pavilion 15s display, HP has opted for a tried-and-tested Full HD 1080p resolution thats ideal for day-to-day working. The sizable 15.6-inch IPS display presents enough screen real estate for an ideal experience when streaming films or television. In watching a few different shows on Prime Video and using it for some web browsing, the screen is bright and colours are nicely vibrant. Viewing angles are also pretty good although, with a classic 16:9 aspect ratio, I cant help but feel HP is behind the curve. Most modern Ultrabooks run a 16:10 ratio, which is better suited for website viewing. The biggest downside of the HPs screen is brightness. HP claims a peak brightness of 250 nits, which falls short of the 300-nit average expected from laptops. In my own experience browsing the web and watching video, the brightness here is okay for indoor use, but isnt really sufficient for uber-bright sunlight, presenting quite a glossy screen in some levels. Performance Business-class laptop with Ultrabook levels of power
The HP Pavilion 15 packs a fourth-generation processor, with the specific 15-eh0014na configuration on test here featuring the Ryzen 4700U. This is a similar chip to the one featured in the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7, and more powerful than what the Surface Laptop Go offers which certainly helped this laptop to serve up some surprising and rather promising results in the benchmarks. It garnered some high-riding scores in PCMark 10 and the Geekbench 5 multi-core test, placing the Pavilion 15 even higher than some of the more premium and expensive Windows Ultrabooks such as the Dell XPS 13. This goes to show the performance boosts that a Ryzen processor can bring to the table, as well as the gains from a decent capacity of RAM.
Even having a load of Chrome tabs open didnt cause the 15-eh0014na to falter when browsing, and its certainly up to the task of breezing through any coursework or any urgent deadlines that might need to be met. Theres even the option to indulge in some light gaming although dont expect to go too crazy. It manages to work well on less-intense titles such as Minecraft, but loading up a massive Football Manager database proved a bit too much. The 15-eh0014nas 512GB SSD is pretty standard for Windows laptops at this price, and its capacity is plenty for day-to-day working. That being said, SSD read and write speeds of 1633 MB/s and 922.7 MB/s fall behind the competition, making it comparatively sluggish to save and load files on the physical drive. Battery A little underwhelming
The benchmarks demonstrate that the HP Pavilion 15 is a laptop punching above its weight when it comes to performance. Unfortunately, the same cant be said for its battery life. In reducing the brightness to 50% and using PCMark 10s benchmark that simulates office work, the HP lasted around seven and a half hours, which is practically the figure HP quotes (seven and three quarters). In comparison to the competition, the Pavilion 15 doesnt stand up well. Lenovos Yoga Slim 7 lasted 14hrs 39mins, and our favourite budget Windows machine, Microsofts Surface Go, made it to 8hrs 45mins. However, benchmarks are only one side of the story; in real-world testing, the 15-eh0014na comfortably lasted a working day before requiring the big charge back up to 100%. HP Pavilion 15 (2020) conclusionThe HP Pavilion 15 is a well-built and classy-looking mid-range laptop, with a tactile keyboard and decent port selection. It also offers some nicely balanced speakers and Ultrabook levels of power at a cheaper price than most of the competition. However, with its slightly dim display and sub-par battery life, the Pavilion doesnt perform as well as the convertible Lenovo Yoga Slim in everyday use. That said, for those wanting to add a bit of style to their office setup, this is a pretty good option. You should buy the HP Pavilion 15 (2020) if
You should not buy the HP Pavilion 15 (2020) if
How we test laptopsUnlike other sites, we test every laptop we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. Well always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product. Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy. Used as our main laptop for the review period Tested for at least a week Used consistent benchmarks for fair comparisons with other laptops Reviewed using respected industry benchmarks and real world use Trusted Score |
