HP PAVILION GAMING 15 REVIEW: A VERSATILE GAMING NOTEBOOK
In recent years, the gaming laptops market has experienced a tremendous acceleration, so much so that eminent representatives of the hardware industry, such as NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, have compared the spread of these powerful portable gaming machines to that of the most famous consoles . like PlayStations 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. bolts.answerhop
This positive turnaround is due to several factors, among
which the marked improvement in the quality / price ratio, with increasingly
performing components and lower costs, as well as a marked softening of some
designs that have allowed these particular laptops to take on less aggressive
forms stand out. (often excessive) especially for multitasking use.

This is precisely the direction taken by Hawlett-Packard
with the 2020 range of the HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop series, which seeks to
combine gaming performance with shapes that are also suitable for the working
environment. The summary of this research is the HP Pavilion Gaming 15 .
The eye also wants its part (but without exaggerating ...)
HP Pavilion Gaming 15 is a laptop with simple, minimal and
clean lines but accompanied by a good attention to finishes and details. In the
version we tested ( ec0014nl), the laptop has dimensions of 36 x 25.7 x 2.35 cm
and a total weight of about 2.25 kg which allow it to be easily transported in
bags and cases, also leaving a certain margin of maneuver in the general
organization. The choice of the slightly trapezoidal shape is interesting, with
the air intakes placed in the rear and lower part, which gives the overall
system a certain dynamism and vaguely recalls the lines of certain sports cars
without however being aggressive. The color completely in matt black is quite
elegant while the acid green chosen for the icons and details adds a
"gaming" note to the whole.
Then note the HP logo placed on the upper body and adorned
with a metallic chrome plating that in the backlight gives shades in the same
shade of green. The internal part maintains a rather clean style, with the
keyboard accompanied by finishes in acid green that are highlighted, once
switched on, by the backlight of the same color.
Finally, the honeycomb grille with three-dimensional print
that protects the B&O audio speakers . In general, therefore, shapes and
colors allow the Pavilion Gaming 15 to adapt to different situations, whether
they are business or fun.
A hybrid with a gaming soul
The range of HP Pavilion Gaming laptops covers multiple
market segments, starting from the entry level to get to the mid area, with
configurations that impact, depending on performance, even on design. The model
in question is equipped with a processor AMD Ryzen 7 3750H (4 cores and 8
threads) with APU Radeon RX Vega 10 capable of providing a base frequency of
2.3 GHz which can arrive in boost up to 4 GHz. 16 GB of 2400 Mhz DDR4 ram allow
you to easily manage even the most complex workloads while the 512 GB NVMe M.2
SSD guarantees optimal space and speed for all uses.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 dedicated video cardwith 4 GB
DDR5 instead reveals the gaming soul of this laptop that aims to satisfy gamers
with a good number of fps on the 1080p standard. The picture is completed by a
15.6-inch FHD display with WLED backlighting and anti-glare filter, maximum
resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and capable of expressing almost 220 nits of
brightness with a gamut that is around 45% of the NTSC range.
From the point of view of numbers we are faced with a
product that can provide noteworthy general performance, above average in the
case of common and work and entry level activities in the gaming field,
although able to meet the needs of players up to 1080p.
System benchmarks offer a fairly accurate indication of this
laptop's capabilities. The HP Pavilion Gaming 15 records an overall score of
4060 with PCMark 10 while Geekbech 5 returns a score of 867 in single-core and
3566 in multi-core.
Moving on to the analysis of the processing capacity of the
CPU, with Cinebench R20 a score of 378 points is achieved in single-core to
reach 1795 points in multi-core. Finally, the graphic tests carried out with 3D
Mark: we obtained 3461 points with Time Spy (DX12) and 8081 points with Fire
Strike (DX11).
Finally, the field test carried out with Metro Exodus , a
game capable of squeezing the PC hardware properly and capable of using the
latest graphics technologies from NVIDIA. To get a good compromise between
graphics and performance we had to set the settings at medium level with 1080p
resolution: in this way the game remains stable on the average of 60 fps,
hitting the peak of 70 fps in the least excited moments. Spending a few minutes
in customizing the settings you can also achieve better results and aimed at
better graphics quality. In general, however, the gaming experience remains
solid, even with battery power and with the support of one of the best
integrated audio we've ever heard. In short, the HP Pavilion Gaming 15 is best
expressed even with the most demanding video games, showing a remarkable power
considering the market segment in which it is placed.
Connectivity, software and consumption
As for connections, the HP Pavilion Gaming 15 has a USB 3.1
Type-C port, a USB 3.1 Typa-A port (for data transfer only), an HDMI 2.0 port,
a multi-format SD memory card reader, an Ethernet port and a combo jack that
functions as a headphone output and microphone input. Connectivity is instead
guaranteed by a stable and performing Realtek Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5 chip. The
picture is then completed with the integrated HP TrueVision HD webcam with
digital microphone. The laptop is powered by a 52.5 Watt / hour three-cell
polymer lithium-ion battery accompanied by a 150 Watt power supply. Under
standard or working conditions of use, the battery was able to ensure full
operation for the entire working day, even allowing a few extra hours to watch
video content.
Playing at the maximum allowed settings and in the face of a
small loss in performance, the Pavilion still managed to hold out for nearly
four hours before showing the first signs of slowing down. Finally, the
software equipment is limited to the classic pre-installed Windows 10
accompanied by the HP suite for PC management. Finally, no problem for the
presence of the two video drivers with the AMD Adrenalin software that
integrates very well with the operating system and with the NVIDIA drivers.