HP’s Pavilion series has been synonymous with the company’s laptop offerings for many years now. The HP Pavilion Plus 14 (2023) aims to be a one machine for all your work eeds as well as some entertainment taken care of on the go. Starting at a price point of Rs. 91,999, let’s try and see what it gets right and what it doesn’t:
Design: The laptop is made mostly of aluminium and HP says there’s some recycled aluminium and plastic used for the construction here. It features a 14-inch 16:10 aspect ratio display with thin but not very thin borders around it. The top has a 5MP Wide Vision webcam (with a physical shutter over it) that supports HP’s Presence 2.0 feature to have better focus on you during your video calls.
The left side houses the 3.5mm audio jack along with USB type A port; while the right side carries another USB type A port, an HDMI 2.1 port and 2 USB type C ports. The laptop weighs under 1.5kg and measures 17/5mm in thickness, and it’s one of the highlights of this machine – not once did it feel bulky to be carries around or working with on the go.
Display and keyboard: You get a 14-inch (2880x1800) 10-bit OLED display that supports full IMAX content with added support for 120Hz refresh rates. It’s not exactly a non-glossy display but you wouldn't need to wipe it clean frequently, plus it does not struggle with viewing angles when watching something. It okay when it comes to brightness though sharpness and colour reproduction don’t disappoint as the display does a good job when used for playing high resolution videos or viewing images. The keyboard is a white backlit keyboard that is really comfortable to type on. You get a satisfying feel thanks to its clickity and tactile keys that are spaced out well and have just enough travel.
Performance and software: The Pavilion Plus 14 is powered by Intel’s 13th gen. Core i7-1355U chip, integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics along with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, running Windows 11 Home edition (23H2 version). I found the laptop to handle Web browsing plus Office apps plus a music player playing in the background without breaking a sweat. It comes with a 1TB SSD, which helped in opening and closing of apps quickly while having decent read and write speeds for files from and to an external drive. It’s not a gaming laptop, but you can play low intensive games at low to medium settings with decent, but not too great, gameplay. On the other hand, it handles higher frame rate videos at high resolution well enough to not be a bottleneck for your work mode.
Battery life: The device is powered by a 68Wh battery unit and comes with a 65watt USB type C charger, but you can also charge it with another compatible USb type C charger. The laptop lasted me 6.5-7 hours most of the time, for similar tasks as office apps, one Web browser and a music player in the background.
Verdict: All in all, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 comes across as a reliable Windows machine for getting stuff done on the go, whether it is for documents, spreadsheets or Web browsing or for having your entertainment capsule for the day. Its battery life could have been a little better, but it certainly has the design, B&S speakers and keyboard under its strengths to make it a consideration for a consumer laptop in the crowded market today.
