HP Pavilion Plus 14 First Impressions
Regardless of the configuration selected, it is instantly apparent that the HP Pavilion Plus 14 is an exceptional bargain. How can HP continue to differentiate its premium solutions and justify their higher prices?
I am aware of how it sounds. When was the last time you could buy a laptop with an H-series Intel Core i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 14-inch OLED display for less than $1,000? Correct, never Additionally, this configuration is now on sale for $850.
Do I now have your attention? I believed so.
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is, as its name suggests, an upgraded version of a more basic Pavilion laptop, including numerous significant enhancements. This is something HP has been doing frequently as of late: taking an existing popular PC model, enhancing its specifications, and offering it as a premium alternative for a marginally higher price. The Dragonfly Elite surpassed the EliteBook 14 in enthusiast space, and the Elite Dragonfly Max surpassed the original Elite Dragonfly. And in the professional realm, the EliteBook 840 Aero outperformed the EliteBook 840.
However, you need not delve deep into HP’s price list to locate instances. It did comparable feats in the consumer market with the HP Pavilion Aero last year. And now it’s doing it again.
To clarify, the addition of the term “Plus” to the name of the laptop does not adequately reflect the enhancements seen in this new model. According to HP, this Pavilion laptop is the thinnest ever at 16.5 mm in the front and 18.4 mm in the back. And though it’s less wide side-to-side than the non-Plus Pavilion 14, it has a taller 16:10 display with a greater 87 percent screen-to-body ratio, as opposed to 84 percent.
Regarding the display, the Pavilion Plus 14 is the first Pavilion to offer an OLED display option, which is included on the review unit and is stunning with its vivid HDR colours and deep blacks. This computer’s display is rated at 400 nits and supports 100 percent of the DCI-P3 colour space, making it an excellent choice for designers. It is also available with a resolution of up to 2.8K, or 2880 x 1800, which is certainly unique but offers a high-DPI experience below 4K. There are further possibilities for 60 Hz and 90 Hz.
Intriguingly, the Pavilion Plus 14 is available with U-, P-, or H-series 12th-generation Intel Core processors, which requires a minute of reflection. Despite the fact that each is a hybrid design with both performance and efficiency cores, each still has a highly distinct power profile: the U-series processors are 15 watts, the P-series chips are 28 watts, and the H-series chips are 45 watts. It is amazing and almost unbelievable that the Pavilion Plus can be configured with any of them. Additionally, it is configurable with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 4G graphics.
Intel Core i7-12700H processor with 14 cores (6 performance and 8 efficiency cores) and integrated Iris Xe graphics, necessitating a 90-watt USB-C power supply. It likewise delivered with 16 GB of RAM, however HP had to upgrade the storage to a 1 TB SSD due to a shortage of 256 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD components used in the $850/$1000 configuration described above. I’ll manage.
According to HP, the U-series models are intended for general users, while the P-series models are designed for heavy multitaskers and digital producers, and the H-series products provide the best performance for both work and pleasure. The H-series models are also included with HP’s Omen Gaming Hub software, which can, among other things, automatically optimise your system for optimal performance.
Naturally, I was curious as to how cramming a strong H-series processor into such a narrow chassis would affect temperatures and fan noise. However, HP has entirely overhauled the cooling system with two new thin-bladed fans and dual heat pipes that exhaust air from behind and below the display. And the company claims that the vastly increased airflow decreases heat and noise regardless of whether you are gaming, streaming, creating, or multitasking. I’ve just finished configuring the PC with all of my applications and data, and so far it has been relatively silent. However, I will shortly be editing some videos.
Nevertheless, battery life should decrease with this setting. HP claims I can expect approximately 6 hours of battery life in the real world, but I will test this.
Expansion is generally excellent, though Thunderbolt 4 support is conspicuously absent. On the left is a 5 Gbps USB-A port, a microSD card reader, and a combination headphone/microphone port.
On the right are a second 5 Gbps USB-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and two 10 Gbps USB-C ports that enable USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, and HP Sleep and Charge.
The backlit keyboard appears to be excellent so far, and it includes the column of Home, Pg Up, Pg Down, and End keys that I adore, but it is really noisy. I’ve never seen an emoji key (F2) before, however the majority of the other keys are rather conventional.
I’ve already had to disable three- and four-finger taps and gestures due to accidental clicks on account of the touchpad’s enormous size.
A 5 MP HP True Vision web camera with temporal noise reduction, HP Presence, and auto-framing so you can roam around a bit, as well as integrated dual array digital microphones for online meetings, seem more impressive, at least on paper. Bang & Olufsen-tuned stereo speakers that enable HP Audio Boost but not Dolby Atmos.
Obviously, it remains a Pavilion. And the Pavilion Plus 14 must, should we say, make sacrifices to its more expensive siblings.
The construction is made entirely of aluminium, with the exception of the black plastic bezels; nevertheless, it is comprised of three pieces, the bottom two of which are held together by Torx screws as opposed to being a single CNC-machined piece. I have no objections to this, and I believe the design to be elegant and timeless with a wonderful quality feel.
The display cannot lay flat. In actuality, cannot even come close to being flat. And there are no multitouch alternatives, despite my preference for multitouch on a laptop.
It supposedly comes in five hues globally—Space Blue, Warm Gold, Mineral Silver, Tranquil Pink, and Natural Silver—but the only option available in the United States is the dullest one: grey. (HP indicates that Warm Gold may arrive soon.)
There is no mention of quick charging, so I will investigate that further.
In addition, HP does not make some regrettable software errors on their premium PCs. Two HP utilities and McAfee LiveSafe are pinned to the Taskbar by default, and HP fills the Start menu with an unfortunate amount of bloatware, including WildTangent Games, Simple Solitaire, Express VPN, a Dropbox promotion, and difficult-to-remove bloatware such as Adobe Offers, Amazon.com, and Booking.com. There are over fifteen HP and Omen utilities, as well as a few hardware-related applications.
However, there is also the pricing.
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 with a P-series Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB of SSD storage, and a 2.2K (2240 x 1400) IPS display starts at just $790 (from HP or Staples, currently on sale for $710). Obviously, that is impressive, but there are notable configurations available at other vendors. Acom provides a variant of this product with a 512 GB SSD for $703 (regularly $850) on sale. In addition, HP offers a $1230 U-series configuration with a Core i7 processor, NVIDIA RTX 2050 graphics, a 2.8K OLED display, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of SSD storage. Obviously, you can also configure the gadget at HP.