Review HP Pavilion x360: Performance, keyboard 'quality'

The latest HP Pavilion x360 offers a powerful processor, comfortable keyboard and a good pair of Bang & Olufsen speakers for $ 749 (VND 17,310,000). This device will be one of the best laptops (or at least one of the best 2-in-1 laptops), without short battery life and a bad screen. Despite this, the Pavilion x360 is still a decent option, in terms of price.

Pricing and configuration options

The base model of the Pavilion x360 is priced at $ 499 (VND 11,530,000), with a Core i3-8145U processor, 8GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and a 1366 x 768 screen. Meanwhile, the model is $ 899 (VND 20,776,000). integrated Core i5-8265U CPU, 12GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 1920 x 1080 screen.

The Pavilion x360 tested in the article costs $ 749 and is powered by an Intel Core i5-8265U processor, 8GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and a 1920 x 1080 panel.

Technical data

CPU Intel Core i5-8265U Processor 8GB RAM Size 12.7 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches (32.3 x 22.4 x 2cm) Weight 3.62 pound (1.6kg) Screen size figure 14 Native resolution 1920x1080 Hard drive capacity 128GB SSD Hard drive type Warranty / Support 1-year Warranty Touchpad size 4.3 x 2.1 inch (11 x 5.3cm) upgradable RAM up to 12GB Intel Brand HD UHD 620 GPU Graphics The highest resolution available 1920 x 1080

Design

The exterior of the Pavilion x360 is covered in warm gold paint, accompanied by a reflective HP logo. There is also the Pavilion logo on the hinge of this laptop.

Open the Pavilion x360 and you'll see a silver tone around the center keyboard and a hole for the Bang & Olufsen speakers right above it. There is also a fingerprint reader to the right of the touchpad. Thankfully, the bezels on the screen are relatively thin.

Weighing 3.6 pounds (1.6kg) and measuring 12.7 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches (32.3 x 22.4 x 2cm), the Pavilion x360 is slightly better than the competition. The Acer Spin 3 weighs 3.6 pounds and measures 13.2 x 9.1 x 0.8 inches, while the Huawei MateBook D weighs 3.4 pounds and 12.7 x 8.7 x 0.6 inch, and Asus ZenBook 13 UX333FA at 2.7 pounds and 11.9 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches.

Gate

The Pavilion x360 has a fairly large number of ports, including a USB 3.0 port, a headphone jack, a power button and a security lock slot, all on the left side.

Meanwhile, the right edge has a power jack, HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, a USB Type-C port and an SD card slot.

Screen

The Pavilion x360's 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 display is a bit disappointing. Although the screen is relatively bright, it is glossy and feels a bit uncomfortable to look at.

According to the colorimeter in the test, the Pavilion x360 panel covered 61% of the sRGB color gamut, worse than the laptop average (76%), Spin 3 (69%), MateBook D (73%) and ZenBook 13 (115%).

At 261 nits, the Pavilion x360 panel is brighter than the average (253 nits), as well as the Spin 3 (237 nits), MateBook D (230 nits) and ZenBook 13 (225 nits).

Keyboard and touchpad

You will find it very comfortable to type on the keyboard of the Pavilion x360. The keys are not very flexible, but feel smooth, and need to press a strong force.

The test speed reached 74 words / minute on the 10FastFingers.com typing test. The keys move at 1.4 mm (still within the preferred range of 1.5 to 2.0 mm) and need a force of about 70 grams to type.

The touch screen of the Pavilion x360 is very sensitive when the author sketches a picture of the sunset.

The 4.3 x 2.1-inch (11 x 5.3cm) touchpad is not as comfortable as the EliteBook series, but works well. The keyboard has Windows Precision driver, so it handles Windows 10 gestures, such as 3-finger gliding and 2-finger scrolling, quite well.

Sound

The Pavilion x360 Bang & Olufsen speakers are amazingly good for a $ 800 laptop like this.

Benefits from the Bang & Olufsen audio app, including presets for Music, Movie and Voice . In those settings are items to adjust for the bass (bass), treble (treble) and clarity of conversation, as well as the full Equalizer tool.

Efficiency

Equipped with an Intel Core i5-8265U processor and 8GB of RAM, the Pavilion x360 handled 30 Google Chrome tabs and 4 1080p YouTube videos at the same time without any problems.

On Geekbench 4.1's overall performance test, the Pavilion x360 scored 12,495 points, which is well above the laptop average (9,482). The Pavilion x360 cannot surpass the Spin 3's Core i5-8250U (13.203) or the ZenBook 13's Core i5-8265U (15,110), but it's faster than the MateBook D.'s AMD Ryzen 5 2500U (8,845).

The Pavilion x360 transcoded 4K video to 1080p in 21 minutes and 59 seconds on the HandBrake benchmark test, which seemed long, but a lot faster than the average (31 minutes 19 seconds). However, Spin 3 (21 minutes 09 seconds), MateBook D (21 minutes 30 seconds) and ZenBook 13 (20 minutes 48 seconds) all complete the same task faster.

HP's 128GB SSD copied 4.97GB of data in 41 seconds, which is equivalent to a speed of 124 MBps. This is only slightly faster than the laptop average (119MBps). MateBook D's 256GB SSD (110MBps) is slower than HP's 128GB SSD. Spin 3's 256GB SSD (145MBps) is just a little faster, while ZenBook 13's 256GB SSD (424MBps) completely beats the other competitors.

Graphics card

Equipped with Intel UHD 620 GPU, the Pavilion x360 scored 71,938 points in the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited graphics benchmark test, surpassing the laptop average (61,258) as well as Intel UHD 620 (61,440) performance of Spin 3 Radeon Vega 8 (63,302). However, the ZenBook 13's Intel UHD 620 (80,655) beats the Pavilion x360.

In actual testing, the Pavilion x360 ran the Dirt 3 benchmark at 26 frames per second, almost half the average (43 frames per second), not to mention below the minimum of 30 frames per second for the ability to do so. play ability. Meanwhile, Spin 3 (47 fps), MateBook D (65 fps) and ZenBook 13 (59 fps) all performed above average.

Battery life

Unfortunately, the Pavilion x360 doesn't have great battery life. After continuously surfing the web via WiFi at 150 nits brightness, the battery lasted only 6 hours 17 minutes, which is lower than the laptop average of 6 hours 39 minutes.

Although the Pavilion is close to average, it can't match the Spin 3 (9:12), MateBook D (9:16) and ZenBook 13 (11:28).

Webcam

Although the Pavilion x360's 720p webcam is not as bad as most other options, it still doesn't show all the details. Camera "catch" is good red, white and blue, while pink, green or yellow is not.

Heat

The Pavilion x360 works well under pressure. After streaming a 15-minute 1080p video, the hottest underside reached 91ºF (33ºC), within a comfortable threshold of 95ºF (35ºC). The center of the keyboard and touchpad are at 85ºF (29.5ºC) and 80ºF (27ºC), respectively.

Software and warranty

There are several HP branded utilities in the Pavilion x360, including HP JumpStart (Windows 10 instructions), HP Support Assistant (HP device driver updates), HP Smart (print status monitoring) and HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (testing and providing system information). There's also HP CoolSense, which can automatically adjust performance and fan settings to balance heat.

There are also plenty of Windows 10 bloatware, including Candy Crush Saga, Gardenscapes and Asphalt Street Storm Racing.

The Pavilion x360 comes with a 1 year warranty.

Conclude

The HP Pavilion x360 ($ 749) is a good laptop, offering commendable performance, a comfortable keyboard and decent quality speakers. But it's hard to accept the short battery life and the screen is a bit bad, especially when paying a relatively high price.

For $ 850 (VND 19,643,000), you can own ZenBook 13, with a more premium design, more powerful performance and battery life that allows you to stay online for more than 11 hours.

But overall, the Pavilion x360 is a pretty good laptop if you can accept short battery life.

Advantages:

1. Strong performance
2. Comfortable keyboard
3. Sounds pretty

Defect:

1. Battery life is below average
2. The screen quality is a bit bad