Can you keep going through companies' product pages when you do product pages? It's pretty nice to see where people should spend a bit more or a bit less
I have a Ryzen 7 envy laptop with 16gig ram.. 250gig evo.. and 1 tb drive.. and Pen.. outdated before it landed at my doorstep.. If you worry about being at the top of tech.. you are screwed..
@@graemejohnson9025 Yep, why GN's "is it good enough for your use case" philosophy is so underrated. Still using my 3500U/8GB Walmart laptop from a couple years ago. Not planning to upgrade until intel 4/ TSMC N5. Even then, we'll see what I need
@@AnhTrieu90 Because bookmarks aren't easily visible as soon as I open my browser, I forget that I have stuff there lol. Same with the watch later page on yt
Integrated graphics use up memory too though, so getting only 8GB is cutting it a little tight (Windows can quite happily run on 4GB with iGPU but that's really cutting it). 16GB is a good choice considering you can't upgrade it after.
imo if your budget is under 500 bucks get a used Thinkpad or another business laptop. There's tons of those on ebay from companies who just had them sitting on a desk for a few years and they're basically like new, and are going to last you ages
I don't think it'd trust it. Imo, Alex was way to generous here. There are other reviewers who actually do in-depth content about laptops, and I'd sooner go to their judgement over LTTs.
3:13 - I disagree with what Alex seems to imply or could be incorrectly be taken the wrong way by HP and other manufacturers. That essentially HP should make lower-priced laptops worst so it pushes people to buy the higher price laptop that is better. I give kudos to HP for creating good products at any price point. It doesn't matter if they seem similar in terms of how good their keyboard or screen is. You see many other manufacturers do things such as having a poor screen just because of the price point of the laptop. Some may argue that why don't the manufacturer just make the higher-priced laptops even better. That's generally not how manufacturers work when they create different price point products. They take the best top of the line as a baseline and work their way down. Exclude certain features and make certain components a bit worst to tempt the customer to buy the more expensive and better version.
While I see your point, I disagree and I can equally take it as a clear fault in their execution. Here's how. Why would HP spend money machining a magnesium chassis with the same hardware as a cheaper Asus Zenbook or even HP's own Envy line?? Sure, you could say they wanted to differentiate, but changing the body is only going to appeal to the layman who reads the specs and will get sold on the feel of the machine. HP is clearly wanting to throw as many cheap variations into the boiling hot market for tech these days, and it's likely they believe that vast sea of models will cover for more areas promoting customers to only consider HP above anyone else. Add on how egregious they and Dell love to wastefully manufacture everything, and how it's destined for a landfill with a relative zero upgrade path. So no, other companies shouldn't follow HP in any way or form. If anyone has earned the top spot that manufacturers need to follow it would be framework.
My take is that they Alex and most at LTT has little idea about budget laptops with price not even half of what he is holding. You already got an all metal CNC build there and he is stressing the magnesium alloy too much already as too premium. :/ At the end of the day it's all about the money for manufacturers and it all depends how much of a sucker I am or anyone else buying into this. When we talk about actual needs for different jobs (except for gaming which not really a job or multimedia production which is mostly a job), I never felt like they really get what laptops really are supposed to and also feel like begging for them to just buy a desktop. I still like and support them though because I get informed of new tech but i just dont agree with their opinions most of the time when it comes to laptops. I just love the facts they present on laptops but not their opinions. And i am always hoping and praying that laptop manufacturers don't take them too seriously or else the form factor gap might only get worse. I can't tell you enough how bad that really feels in this time of shortage. I mean take them with a pinch of salt.
i feel like the flex 5 or yoga 6 would’ve been a good comparison, we need more variety than the often more expensive xps lineup that’s in another class
@@mini9503 Honestly the M1 macbooks are amazing value for the money in general. If you can get away with using one for your day-to-day work (or if your job gives you a work machine anyway) I'd highly recommend it. For what I want out of a laptop there's not been a better machine.
but watching the webcam off the xps almost made me cringe just as hard as i was amazed by its speakers, you can clearly see some savings/cuts was done there.
@@AdaaDK Laprops always cheapout on Webcams/Mics BUT with the changes to the requirements from Microsoft for FHD webcams for preinstalling Windows 11 they are going to get a bit better even tho yes they are still going to be the worse FHD(1080P) webcams out there but they will look better then the sub 720p webcams that many laptops get saddled with
HP's pavilion line drives me nuts. Sure you get nicer hardware at the high end but the materials are so cheap. My pavilion 2 in 1 is basically the ship of Theseus at this point. Almost every part had been either swapped or upgraded. Some of it due to the plastic breaking
@@mini9503 I believe the refresh was somewhere in mid 2019. The build quality on the new ones is much better. Still got some minor issues when dealing with the internals though.
@@ark_knight ive had this one from 2019. Motherboard was replaced from my own stupidity, ram and drives have been upgraded. Keyboard and bottom case have been replaced. (bottom case has a crack in it)
Thanks for highlighting this laptop that seems to provide excellent value. I know this is going to get buried, but here are a few things I would love to see in budget shortcircuit laptop reviews: 1. Compare to the closest premium version of the same laptop that you have in your inventory e.g. HP Envy 14 instead of comparing to the XPS 15. 2. Gaming benchmarks and fan noise/overheating issues for older games at low settings 3.Sound quality from headphone jack e.g. hiss or other filtering issues
I've used 3 HP laptops for work and I really can't ignore the long term quality issues I've experienced in under 2 years - battery issues, fan issues, and general stability issues (not to mention HP's bad device management software)
Hp has used this form factor for the envy, spectre, x360 laptops and I think it's a big winner, they keep improving on it, and it's just great for light, mid-range and premium not gamer laptops. Also, usually it's a good value for the money compsred to other brands. So, I hope they keep going forward with this concept.
At this point, every Laptop(of any budget) video that is hosted by Alex seems more like a promotion for Dell XPS speakers rather than an overview for the laptop whose video it was meant to be. Great vid though.
@@AlzainAli I don't quite get why he brought up the XPS here though, it's literally meaningless. Edit: I get it now, he brings out the XPS every time because it's easier when you know what it sounds like and can compare it no matter what device or headphones you're listening on (because obviously watching environment would affect how it sounds unless you have a constant benchmark).
@@destituteanddecadent9106 Yeah, he should have brought out the $800 13" MacBook Air speakers instead, much more comparable to this in weight and price.😂 But then this would get PAWNED...which is why he compares everything to XPS 15 I guess, for a _fair_ competition.
@@mini9503 do you mean USD? Where do you live that the MacBook Air is 800 USD?? last I checked it started at 999 or something. Which would justify a difference in speaker quality.
This would be perfect for someone who already has a good desktop and just wants something portable for lite work. I have a good workstation so I never saw much point in having a super powerful laptop so at the moment I just have a cheap $500 Lenovo yoga 6. it is a surprisingly excellent laptop, but It is a cheap solid plastic laptop and it very much looks and feels like it. This laptop would be a great much more premium looking and feeling option.
We need to ban the XPS 15 from these 13-14 inch previews. It started off fine, but now each video is like. Ha, you can't afford or have the upper body strength to use an XPS 15.
Even if they've completely reimagined it, and this is actually a decent quality machine, I think HP should very strongly consider just dropping the Pavillion branding. It's not the kind of product line you come back to if you've owned one before. It's the kind of product line where your parents get sold one at the big-box store, and you watch it die an agonising death over the course of a couple of years as it goes through a series of minor hardware failures and literal disintegration of the plastic - never *quite* dying enough to force you to buy a new one, but gradually becoming a more and more terrible experience.
I went in buying this laptop for something not lightning-speeds fast... something that could get the job done on the go, can do some lightweight gaming, had decent battery life... but not slow and sufferable when opening Adobe files. I got it specifically for college (as an animation/graphic design student) and I gotta say... it's SUCH an amazing lifechanger. It's extremely fast and durable for its size and is phenomenal that it actually beat out my previous one (Huawei Matebook D14), which had comparable specs. It also saved A LOT of back pain during my 2 hour commutes unlike its predecessors. Got the AMD Ryzen 5 + 16GB RAM + Backlit Keyboard + 4K Display at around $749.99. Didn't modify anything else. (including storage, I kept the 256GB since all my stuff can just be stored on the cloud or on my external HDD) Plus I think the one I had is slightly better than the one showcased because I did not have to upgrade my WiFi at all for any additional cost, and the Type-C USB on the left is thunderbolt (which acts as a 2nd charging port) despite being AMD. Thank you for convincing me to get this gemstone!
@@Yayaloy9 Yeah 2K, sorry. It is still very much kickass with the resolution boost, and even then, you can just tell Windows to downscale to 1080p if it really bothers. The battery life is still insanely impressive.
@@LimboGenehell yeah same boat. I’m also a college student and I got the 1600p display 5600u w 16gb ram 512gb warm gold w backlight keyboard Upgraded wifi card All for $682 USD
I have to respect that you're both looking at more affordable machines that the rest of us can reach, and that you recognize that this is still "relatively expensive" by those selfsame standards. Full kudos. I would load mine out a bit more conservatively. For a non-gaming machine, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD meet my needs, and I've been using non-backlit keyboards for years. I'd probably only buy the upgraded WiFi unit above the base device if I was shopping for a laptop right now. I'm not shopping for a laptop right now because I am happy with my current selection, but seeing this overview honestly makes me happy.
I *just* bought an envy x360 15" with a 5700u, it came out to like $1000 and it includes a pen and touch screen, I think there definitely is an argument for this pavilion tho
When you switch to the white color, it comes with the backlit keyboard. So if you prefer that color it costs the same as upgrading the silver one to a backlit keyboard anyway.
Yoou gotta take a look at lenovo's offering at this range... The Ideapad series is truely amazing and not mentioning this while talking about premium budget laptops is not fair..
Can you use that usb c for charging? If yes, why isn't the included charger type c? Makes absolutely no sense at the end of 2021 on a laptop that needs less than 100W...
I hope we'll get more reviews and showcases on affordable laptops like this one. In my experience many people who already have a powerful desktop get a cheaper laptop. For example my PC was around 1500$ and I bought a 700$ laptop for uni stuff. There is just no need to have similar performance on the go for me, if I have to do something hardware intensive for uni (which is really rare), I will do it at home or on the provided systems on location. Sure, many students don't own a desktop so the laptop has to cover all use cases, but there are already so many reviews out there catering to that kind of consumer
@@Fay7666 TB4 is a game changer for us WFH guys in IT... wonder how AMD's version will be when they get it on market. should make for an interesting affair.
Great video SC! Loved the first impressions. But you guys made an extremely misleading title this time around, I feel that $750 is not budget at all. $500 is the max i would say as budget and that too being my *hard* limit not a dollar over that.
We used to use Microsoft Solitaire as a key benchmark! We'd play it a few times until we won the game and then got to see how the end card bounce performed. It took a good system to not produce a laggy, juddering card bounce animation. Obviously a good few years later benchmarking software became available...
6:56 it says in the configurator that the backlit keyboard is included in the price and not a 20 dollar option. And if you get the laptop without it, it's minus 20 dollars.
If you go back a few frames, you see that the *first* option no backlighting and is included in price, and it says +$20 for backlighting. *After* the second option is selected, that’s when it changes to backlighting being included in price and no backlighting being $20 cheaper.
There IS - Acer Swift 3 14". But not at this weight (2 lbs/950g), with this screen (400 nit QHD), with HP's snappy keyboard, using metal build (aluminum top plate). Acer makes good stuff but their main focus is _accessibility_ outside America like in Asia and EU, where it's hard to get good value on brands like HP, Lenovo, and Dell. Also in general the quality of HP's low-end budget laptops are MUCH better than Acer's.
@@mini9503But even in Asia, like my country India for example, Acer don't have any authorised service centre which is totally a deal breaker for me, whereas HP, Dell and Lenovo has like service centre in almost all state's town. I live in, almost a village, but we have all three big service centre and after sales support is just undeniably better with friendly employees. Even if I consider from budget perspective, HP, Dell and Yoga laptops gets insanely low on Amazon at a festival season, almost comparable to Acer which makes me shift to it for a productive windows laptop.
2:05 "Extremely stiff feeling chassis" while the deck flexes like it is hollow underneath. We get it that it is sponsored by HP even though you don't mention it is.
I bought this a month ago - It's fantastic. I purchase the configuration you pitched - battery life is ok but the rest of the experience is quite an upgrade for me
Lenovo slim 5 gen gen 4 14" and 16" need a video!! Ryzen 5800u 16gb ram, 2.2k screen and about $1200 aud!!! The 16" even has a 3050 with an and core for a fraction of the cost of a razor or xps 15 💪
Genuinely impressive. I got an Asus ZenBook 14 about a year and a half ago. It was on sale for $550. For that you got an excellent build quality, beautiful 1080p screen, aluminum body, Nvidia MX350 GPU, a Ryzen 5 4500u (at the time it was literally the first time it was in any laptop. "Zen 2.5” people called it haha), 8gb RAM (non-upgradeable, unfortunately) and a 256gb NVME SSD (which I replaced with a WAY-too-nice-for-the-computer 2TB Samsung Evo970 Plus) But for $550! I can actually do some gaming on the thing. It even runs games like Doom Eternal on low settings. I was blown away by what you can get these days, and it's only getting better.
I think Alex's point is to use a known fantastic benchmark to show a more realistic example of what you sacrifice for the price difference. I find it more useful personally but your milage may vary. Not much different than people shopping XPS comparing it to the M1 MacBook tbh. I take it like this: every person compares themselves to what they are beneath to measure their success. Nobody compares themselves often to those at the same level. Humans want to look up to something. Who doesn't want to be the best at something?
If I had not bought the base model M1 Macbook Air, I would have bought this. From time it got announced to the time it released took way too long for me. Looks great though since it's technically the very first "Aero", so I hope they end up making this a new line of laptop.
I've got the 8gb 5600u, 512 ssd, backlit keyboard, on order. $621 all in including tax and free ship and with a free HP mouse and headset. The display has been tested to over 450 nits of brightness by some reviewers, which is a BIG PLUS on a matt screen. It seems to be a lot of laptop for $600.
@@cleatusvandamme716 - The Labor Day weekend sale on the HP website was just too good to pass up. The bright matt display is FANTASTIC and this all-metal build is almost too light to be believed. Took about a month to get, but well worth it IMO.
Defo want to see more videos like this with laptops under $1000. As much as the $3000 laptops are baller and basically tech porn, appreciate hearing your opinion on the affordable range
The configurator was a great add on. But I think a quick Cinnebench run or any fast benchmark would be good to gives us an idea of the cooling/noise of the laptop
4:23: I hate the power button mixed in with the rext of the keyboard. I tried those. I keep pressing the power button and shutting down the PC. I had to deactivate that feature so I could use it.... And, sometime, questioning why I'm pressing and nothing happens (when I want to delete, for example) So.... A framework 13'' look-a-like ripoff competitor with the same price but much worse (except CPU)?
If given choice! I would simply drop W10 for Ubuntu and drop the MS Office, this would save me roughly around ~170-200 dollars and then it would be a much more viable option to consider!!!
This is still more than I've spent on my last 4 laptop purchases combined. Granted, I caught wicked clearance deals, but for what this costs, I could've bought 2 of mine at full price. When you do a review of a laptop that costs ~$300, then you'll be talking budget.
@@DestroyerOff I am in the US, and only elitist attitudes would justify a 4 digit priced laptop as budget, when you can get something with a Core i7 for way less than that.
@@DestroyerOff No 'average family' in NY makes $80k+. Household is $63k at most, and individual is $32k, which is more like what a lot of households actually make. Your attitude about this is very elitist and condescending.
I JUST got this. Pink bronze version. (Rose gold, it turns out) Great multitasker. EXACTLY THE SPEC YOU RECOMMENDED LOL. Funny enough, it's currently being used by my mom to play spider solitaire.
HP Pavilion Aero is the revamp the original Pavilion has needed for years to look smoothly included in the HP laptop line without looking under the top..
It's crazy that laptops are still such low end spec compared to what you could get in a desktop price equivalent, this is why I have a desktop I built instead of a gaming laptop. I have a surface pro 6 which fits all my non gaming needs and that was in the same price range as the Aero 13.
In my experience, hp makes good budget laptops low end and mid tier. When I recommend laptops to family and friends it's often an HP unless they have specific requirements. Personally I like msi for high end laptops but that's largely dependent on personal preference.
The one thing that infuriates me is the eu adapter for the volta charger at 1:43 ... if you plug that into a wall its literally just going to lopsidedly hang and bend the pins probably eventually breaking them
It was really great to see content about some lower cost items. I was a bit sad that I didn't see him do at least a once over on the internal build though.
Been using it for a year , the only drawback i feel is ryzen 5600u is capable of running at 25w power but hp has limited the power limit to 15w, yes the max temp stays around 75° but it would be nice if the user had the choice to choose b/w balance or performance mode.
Could y'all do a review on the Hyte Revolt 3 itx portable case? It's a relatively unknown/new company, but the product seems really interesting and well thought out.
I'd say this thing could easily game. Just because it can't run newer intensive titles well doesn't mean older games wouldn't work flawlessly on this. Which is important to note i think instead of saying you can't game on it. (for example this could easily get this running some amazing games like Fallout New Vegas and Resident Evil 4)
Can you keep going through companies' product pages when you do product pages? It's pretty nice to see where people should spend a bit more or a bit less
Many thanks to the editor. 🙏
Yes! I want this so much!
Did you mean product reviews? This comment has my robot brain in a paradox loop
I have a Ryzen 7 envy laptop with 16gig ram.. 250gig evo.. and 1 tb drive.. and Pen.. outdated before it landed at my doorstep..
If you worry about being at the top of tech.. you are screwed..
@@graemejohnson9025 Yep, why GN's "is it good enough for your use case" philosophy is so underrated. Still using my 3500U/8GB Walmart laptop from a couple years ago. Not planning to upgrade until intel 4/ TSMC N5. Even then, we'll see what I need
We need more laptops like this. It seems competently designed to meet customer needs at a reasonable price. It's sad that that's not more common.
It's not competently designed the hinge was designed by a ham headed oaf
Nope. We need laptops like framework
MacBook Air for 999 is the best you can go
You can also look at the Asus VivoBooks and ZenBooks, are at a pretty reasonable price and pretty good
Companies typically tend to send reviewers flagship units, unless the reviewer specifically asks for stuff in the budget range.
Alex: “I would go for the 16GB of memory. I find that I use up 8 really quickly”
Thats because on the Xbox video we see he never closes a browser tab
He’s probably like me, hate using Bookmarks (don’t know why, I don’t like it), and so leaving tabs open as a way to save important stuff.
@@AnhTrieu90 Because bookmarks aren't easily visible as soon as I open my browser, I forget that I have stuff there lol. Same with the watch later page on yt
Ryzen chips with an integrated GPU also reserves 2gb of system memory for the GPU so it's really 6gb
Integrated graphics use up memory too though, so getting only 8GB is cutting it a little tight (Windows can quite happily run on 4GB with iGPU but that's really cutting it). 16GB is a good choice considering you can't upgrade it after.
LOL!
LTT should do a budget (
imo if your budget is under 500 bucks get a used Thinkpad or another business laptop. There's tons of those on ebay from companies who just had them sitting on a desk for a few years and they're basically like new, and are going to last you ages
I don't think it'd trust it. Imo, Alex was way to generous here. There are other reviewers who actually do in-depth content about laptops, and I'd sooner go to their judgement over LTTs.
@@madness1931 yeah, I hate LTT laptop reviews
@Madness1 He was generous because this isn't a review
Honestly the only non-chromebook sub $500 laptop I would look at right now would be a lower-end Vivobook. Like the i3u/8GB/512SSD.
3:13 - I disagree with what Alex seems to imply or could be incorrectly be taken the wrong way by HP and other manufacturers. That essentially HP should make lower-priced laptops worst so it pushes people to buy the higher price laptop that is better. I give kudos to HP for creating good products at any price point. It doesn't matter if they seem similar in terms of how good their keyboard or screen is. You see many other manufacturers do things such as having a poor screen just because of the price point of the laptop.
Some may argue that why don't the manufacturer just make the higher-priced laptops even better. That's generally not how manufacturers work when they create different price point products. They take the best top of the line as a baseline and work their way down. Exclude certain features and make certain components a bit worst to tempt the customer to buy the more expensive and better version.
I bought a HP Envy..
Ryzen 7 series 2..
Has pen. Has B & O sound system.. still chugging along and creaming friends Apple crap..
While I see your point, I disagree and I can equally take it as a clear fault in their execution. Here's how. Why would HP spend money machining a magnesium chassis with the same hardware as a cheaper Asus Zenbook or even HP's own Envy line?? Sure, you could say they wanted to differentiate, but changing the body is only going to appeal to the layman who reads the specs and will get sold on the feel of the machine. HP is clearly wanting to throw as many cheap variations into the boiling hot market for tech these days, and it's likely they believe that vast sea of models will cover for more areas promoting customers to only consider HP above anyone else. Add on how egregious they and Dell love to wastefully manufacture everything, and how it's destined for a landfill with a relative zero upgrade path. So no, other companies shouldn't follow HP in any way or form. If anyone has earned the top spot that manufacturers need to follow it would be framework.
I feel like he's suggesting hp shld make there higher end laptops better
I wonder... It's about as good as the Framework laptop (although the Framework one is a bit slower due to CPU choice) and it costs about the same...
My take is that they Alex and most at LTT has little idea about budget laptops with price not even half of what he is holding. You already got an all metal CNC build there and he is stressing the magnesium alloy too much already as too premium. :/ At the end of the day it's all about the money for manufacturers and it all depends how much of a sucker I am or anyone else buying into this. When we talk about actual needs for different jobs (except for gaming which not really a job or multimedia production which is mostly a job), I never felt like they really get what laptops really are supposed to and also feel like begging for them to just buy a desktop. I still like and support them though because I get informed of new tech but i just dont agree with their opinions most of the time when it comes to laptops. I just love the facts they present on laptops but not their opinions. And i am always hoping and praying that laptop manufacturers don't take them too seriously or else the form factor gap might only get worse. I can't tell you enough how bad that really feels in this time of shortage. I mean take them with a pinch of salt.
i feel like the flex 5 or yoga 6 would’ve been a good comparison, we need more variety than the often more expensive xps lineup that’s in another class
I think the flex was a pain in the ass to find last year. Not sure how it is thes days
I'm unsure if this is a shitpost looking at the product names...
Or the Asus Zenbook lineup
@@Ikxi Nope. Both are Lenovo products. Look it up, and you'll find them quite easily.
@@mini9503 well i just bought one and i feel the display and the trackpad is amazing haha! But hey each to their own... Cheers!
Every time they bring a XPS to compare the speakers I'm blown away from how powerful those speakers are.
Yet, M1 macbooks are more powerful. I've only got the chance to see the xps in person so it's hard to really imagine that type of sound from a laptop
@@mini9503 Honestly the M1 macbooks are amazing value for the money in general. If you can get away with using one for your day-to-day work (or if your job gives you a work machine anyway) I'd highly recommend it. For what I want out of a laptop there's not been a better machine.
The HP Dragonfly was pretty good though. Sadly it was way too costly.
but watching the webcam off the xps almost made me cringe just as hard as i was amazed by its speakers, you can clearly see some savings/cuts was done there.
@@AdaaDK Laprops always cheapout on Webcams/Mics BUT with the changes to the requirements from Microsoft for FHD webcams for preinstalling Windows 11 they are going to get a bit better even tho yes they are still going to be the worse FHD(1080P) webcams out there but they will look better then the sub 720p webcams that many laptops get saddled with
Why not just call it a mid range 😂
made me chuckle, take my upvote
Big brain
Small pp 😔
that would be too easy
I guess because the Envy lineup is HP's true midrange. Pavillion is technically their budget line of products.
Actually want to see some laptop reviews with hard budget limits as a one of the priority
Love the look at the configurator, please do that more often. It's not always as simple as "buy this laptop, don't buy this one"
HP's pavilion line drives me nuts. Sure you get nicer hardware at the high end but the materials are so cheap. My pavilion 2 in 1 is basically the ship of Theseus at this point. Almost every part had been either swapped or upgraded. Some of it due to the plastic breaking
Yeah, 100% this. They have (or at least for many, many generations had) terrible cooling paired with plastic that disintegrates with heat.
How long have you been using your laptop?
I don't know what model you have but HP did a major redesign last year so 2020 onwards Pavilions are much better built than the previous years'.
@@mini9503 I believe the refresh was somewhere in mid 2019. The build quality on the new ones is much better. Still got some minor issues when dealing with the internals though.
@@ark_knight ive had this one from 2019. Motherboard was replaced from my own stupidity, ram and drives have been upgraded. Keyboard and bottom case have been replaced. (bottom case has a crack in it)
Thanks for highlighting this laptop that seems to provide excellent value.
I know this is going to get buried, but here are a few things I would love to see in budget shortcircuit laptop reviews:
1. Compare to the closest premium version of the same laptop that you have in your inventory e.g. HP Envy 14 instead of comparing to the XPS 15.
2. Gaming benchmarks and fan noise/overheating issues for older games at low settings
3.Sound quality from headphone jack e.g. hiss or other filtering issues
I've used 3 HP laptops for work and I really can't ignore the long term quality issues I've experienced in under 2 years - battery issues, fan issues, and general stability issues (not to mention HP's bad device management software)
The configuration part was lit. Do this more please
I would personally buy a framework for the same price
Seriously waiting for the ryzen version
The cheapest framework laptop is 1k, it's 750 if you get the dyi version (no ram, ssd, windows 10, power adapter)
@@jamesjin9574 They obviously already know that..
@@jamesjin9574 Framework should reduce them bezels though!
@@BahhBahhBrownSheep "same price" now I'm no mathematician but I'm pretty sure 750 =/= 1000
@@jamesjin9574 Also, it looks worse if it's asymmetric!
0:33 “ Yeah your not gaming on this.”
Me playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 at 60fps.......
Hp has used this form factor for the envy, spectre, x360 laptops and I think it's a big winner, they keep improving on it, and it's just great for light, mid-range and premium not gamer laptops. Also, usually it's a good value for the money compsred to other brands. So, I hope they keep going forward with this concept.
At this point, every Laptop(of any budget) video that is hosted by Alex seems more like a promotion for Dell XPS speakers rather than an overview for the laptop whose video it was meant to be.
Great vid though.
The XPS is his benchmark he compares other laptops to. The XPS has some of the best sounding speakers on the windows side.
@@AlzainAli I don't quite get why he brought up the XPS here though, it's literally meaningless.
Edit: I get it now, he brings out the XPS every time because it's easier when you know what it sounds like and can compare it no matter what device or headphones you're listening on (because obviously watching environment would affect how it sounds unless you have a constant benchmark).
@@destituteanddecadent9106 Yeah, he should have brought out the $800 13" MacBook Air speakers instead, much more comparable to this in weight and price.😂 But then this would get PAWNED...which is why he compares everything to XPS 15 I guess, for a _fair_ competition.
@@mini9503 do you mean USD? Where do you live that the MacBook Air is 800 USD?? last I checked it started at 999 or something. Which would justify a difference in speaker quality.
@@destituteanddecadent9106 student deal was 749 on BB a few months ago last i checked
I enjoy these laptop reviews with Alex!! Calm and soothing reviews! sounds more humble tbh 👍
ditto
I came here for the dancing crabs. 🦀🦀
This would be perfect for someone who already has a good desktop and just wants something portable for lite work. I have a good workstation so I never saw much point in having a super powerful laptop so at the moment I just have a cheap $500 Lenovo yoga 6. it is a surprisingly excellent laptop, but It is a cheap solid plastic laptop and it very much looks and feels like it. This laptop would be a great much more premium looking and feeling option.
"Extremely stiff chassis"
Proceeds to make a wobbly jely out of the keyboard chassis.
Seriously, that keyboard looks like wet cardboard
tbh it looks more like the entire laptop body is moving up and down rather than the keyboard flexing, which much better
@gary oak yeah, I used to have a very cheap lenovo. It is just insane how bad the flex is
We need to ban the XPS 15 from these 13-14 inch previews. It started off fine, but now each video is like. Ha, you can't afford or have the upper body strength to use an XPS 15.
In today's video: Alex discovers the diminishing returns on features and quality of premium computing products compared to cheaper items in the stack.
Even if they've completely reimagined it, and this is actually a decent quality machine, I think HP should very strongly consider just dropping the Pavillion branding. It's not the kind of product line you come back to if you've owned one before.
It's the kind of product line where your parents get sold one at the big-box store, and you watch it die an agonising death over the course of a couple of years as it goes through a series of minor hardware failures and literal disintegration of the plastic - never *quite* dying enough to force you to buy a new one, but gradually becoming a more and more terrible experience.
I went in buying this laptop for something not lightning-speeds fast... something that could get the job done on the go, can do some lightweight gaming, had decent battery life... but not slow and sufferable when opening Adobe files. I got it specifically for college (as an animation/graphic design student) and I gotta say... it's SUCH an amazing lifechanger. It's extremely fast and durable for its size and is phenomenal that it actually beat out my previous one (Huawei Matebook D14), which had comparable specs. It also saved A LOT of back pain during my 2 hour commutes unlike its predecessors.
Got the AMD Ryzen 5 + 16GB RAM + Backlit Keyboard + 4K Display at around $749.99. Didn't modify anything else. (including storage, I kept the 256GB since all my stuff can just be stored on the cloud or on my external HDD) Plus I think the one I had is slightly better than the one showcased because I did not have to upgrade my WiFi at all for any additional cost, and the Type-C USB on the left is thunderbolt (which acts as a 2nd charging port) despite being AMD.
Thank you for convincing me to get this gemstone!
you mean 2k? I can't imagine a ryzen 5 running 4k screens and still be fast. Though you can change my mind.
@@Yayaloy9 Yeah 2K, sorry. It is still very much kickass with the resolution boost, and even then, you can just tell Windows to downscale to 1080p if it really bothers. The battery life is still insanely impressive.
@@LimboGene That's still a badass laptop you got there mate
@@LimboGenehell yeah same boat. I’m also a college student and I got the
1600p display
5600u w 16gb ram
512gb
warm gold w backlight keyboard
Upgraded wifi card
All for $682 USD
I have to respect that you're both looking at more affordable machines that the rest of us can reach, and that you recognize that this is still "relatively expensive" by those selfsame standards.
Full kudos.
I would load mine out a bit more conservatively. For a non-gaming machine, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD meet my needs, and I've been using non-backlit keyboards for years.
I'd probably only buy the upgraded WiFi unit above the base device if I was shopping for a laptop right now.
I'm not shopping for a laptop right now because I am happy with my current selection, but seeing this overview honestly makes me happy.
Probably the screen at 1200p is enough for this laptop size. Great review, I'd love to buy something like this to replace my 15" laptop.
I *just* bought an envy x360 15" with a 5700u, it came out to like $1000 and it includes a pen and touch screen, I think there definitely is an argument for this pavilion tho
When you switch to the white color, it comes with the backlit keyboard. So if you prefer that color it costs the same as upgrading the silver one to a backlit keyboard anyway.
But is it readable on that color? Most don't say so
"and have a great day. Specially you David"
Me, another David:
Thank you Alex :)
Cringe
Hi David
Yoou gotta take a look at lenovo's offering at this range... The Ideapad series is truely amazing and not mentioning this while talking about premium budget laptops is not fair..
Just bought an ideapad with an Rtx 3050 ryzen 5 5600h 512ssd 8gb ram for 729🤝
yea ideapad or asuses vivobooks arent bad either
never would I have thought expensive and budget will be in the same sentence.
Can you use that usb c for charging? If yes, why isn't the included charger type c? Makes absolutely no sense at the end of 2021 on a laptop that needs less than 100W...
That was my first thought when I saw the charger. The barrel plug needs to die.
macro costs, they already have a gigantic order of barrel plugs ordered up
I hope we'll get more reviews and showcases on affordable laptops like this one. In my experience many people who already have a powerful desktop get a cheaper laptop. For example my PC was around 1500$ and I bought a 700$ laptop for uni stuff. There is just no need to have similar performance on the go for me, if I have to do something hardware intensive for uni (which is really rare), I will do it at home or on the provided systems on location. Sure, many students don't own a desktop so the laptop has to cover all use cases, but there are already so many reviews out there catering to that kind of consumer
this can actually game, not 60fps on high but more like low 1080p 45fps
Please keep doing budget laptops, love it.
Rips to intel mobile lineups these days
They will come back with big.little architecture
Well a 6-core Core i5/i7 and 3050TI in the same package would be sweet.
i5-1135G7 is decent, and Xe does seem to beat smol Vega. i7 is hard to justify tho unless you're using TB4.
@@Fay7666 TB4 is a game changer for us WFH guys in IT... wonder how AMD's version will be when they get it on market. should make for an interesting affair.
Nah, intel for mobile still good if you're going on anywhere better bought with EVO in it, Ryzen only winning in multi threaded peformance
Damn, HP sure has a lot of options to pick and pretty fair prices at that.
Great video SC!
Loved the first impressions.
But you guys made an extremely misleading title this time around, I feel that $750 is not budget at all. $500 is the max i would say as budget and that too being my *hard* limit not a dollar over that.
750 I’d wager is midrange. Depends on what you want really. In ultrabook-land there’s no midrange.
Just got this thing couple weeks ago (the ryzen 5 5600u + 16 gb ram variant) and I'm super happy with it
Can you charge it over usb c?
In typical Alex fashion: Saying there is not much flex while flexing the shit out of the keyboard.
he's pressing pretty hard, unless you type with that much force you won't notice that while typing
We used to use Microsoft Solitaire as a key benchmark! We'd play it a few times until we won the game and then got to see how the end card bounce performed. It took a good system to not produce a laggy, juddering card bounce animation.
Obviously a good few years later benchmarking software became available...
6:15 nioce
6:56 it says in the configurator that the backlit keyboard is included in the price and not a 20 dollar option. And if you get the laptop without it, it's minus 20 dollars.
If you go back a few frames, you see that the *first* option no backlighting and is included in price, and it says +$20 for backlighting. *After* the second option is selected, that’s when it changes to backlighting being included in price and no backlighting being $20 cheaper.
I bet there's an Acer that has the exact same specs for like 100$ less lol
But at the same weight though?
Acer Swift 3 2021 has Ryzen 5 5500 version tho (i think for 100$ price difference, better bought this hp laptop)
There IS - Acer Swift 3 14". But not at this weight (2 lbs/950g), with this screen (400 nit QHD), with HP's snappy keyboard, using metal build (aluminum top plate).
Acer makes good stuff but their main focus is _accessibility_ outside America like in Asia and EU, where it's hard to get good value on brands like HP, Lenovo, and Dell.
Also in general the quality of HP's low-end budget laptops are MUCH better than Acer's.
@@mini9503But even in Asia, like my country India for example, Acer don't have any authorised service centre which is totally a deal breaker for me, whereas HP, Dell and Lenovo has like service centre in almost all state's town. I live in, almost a village, but we have all three big service centre and after sales support is just undeniably better with friendly employees. Even if I consider from budget perspective, HP, Dell and Yoga laptops gets insanely low on Amazon at a festival season, almost comparable to Acer which makes me shift to it for a productive windows laptop.
2:05 "Extremely stiff feeling chassis" while the deck flexes like it is hollow underneath. We get it that it is sponsored by HP even though you don't mention it is.
That keyboard flex was reminiscent of a bouncy castle
I bought this a month ago - It's fantastic. I purchase the configuration you pitched - battery life is ok but the rest of the experience is quite an upgrade for me
Does it heat up fast?
@@auqoaakiauo9603 No runs quite cool for my daily use
Hi how's the battery backup? How long does it last ?
@@ashsjournal5755 Battery life is okay. I'd like more but overall I get done needed tasks.
by the way, when you choose a color laptop the keyboard backlight comes included, so might as well get the color. thanks for vid!
More budget. And by more budget, I mean LESS BUDGET. I wanna see stuff I can actually purchase without having to put up my apartment for sale
I have that laptop and it is amazing, it works great for simple CAD, but literally no gaming
I have the i5 tho, not amd
This seems like an actual decent competitor to the M1 MacBook Air.
Alex is just great and also shares so much positivity...
Me while writing an essay
Mid range= THE MOST expensive budget option
Lenovo slim 5 gen gen 4 14" and 16" need a video!! Ryzen 5800u 16gb ram, 2.2k screen and about $1200 aud!!!
The 16" even has a 3050 with an and core for a fraction of the cost of a razor or xps 15 💪
You can get Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 for less with the same CPU with touchscreen.
Lenovo often has good deals with their IdeaPad series.
You forgot to mention the Flex has a garbage screen and keyboard...
FINALLY saying the speed of the USB and not just the version and type! Thank you!
Strange times when a $750 laptop is "not exactly budget" but a $750 phone is.
Genuinely impressive.
I got an Asus ZenBook 14 about a year and a half ago. It was on sale for $550.
For that you got an excellent build quality, beautiful 1080p screen, aluminum body, Nvidia MX350 GPU, a Ryzen 5 4500u (at the time it was literally the first time it was in any laptop. "Zen 2.5” people called it haha), 8gb RAM (non-upgradeable, unfortunately) and a 256gb NVME SSD (which I replaced with a WAY-too-nice-for-the-computer 2TB Samsung Evo970 Plus)
But for $550! I can actually do some gaming on the thing. It even runs games like Doom Eternal on low settings.
I was blown away by what you can get these days, and it's only getting better.
Yeah... It's time to stop bringing up the XPS15. Yeah it's a good benchmark to use, but comparing a flagship to a midrange laptop is not really fair
I think Alex's point is to use a known fantastic benchmark to show a more realistic example of what you sacrifice for the price difference. I find it more useful personally but your milage may vary. Not much different than people shopping XPS comparing it to the M1 MacBook tbh. I take it like this: every person compares themselves to what they are beneath to measure their success. Nobody compares themselves often to those at the same level. Humans want to look up to something. Who doesn't want to be the best at something?
i dont know what kind of magic hp puts into some of their laptop keyboards, they feel so good to type on
This in a 15 inch package would be super nice (With 16GB ram that is).
FINALLY you benchmark solitaire. Include FPS in-game next time please.
"A very expensive budget laptop"
... So a mid-tier laptop
Lol
I love how every time they do a speaker test it's that video
Alex: "It's 45 watts. You're not gaming on this."
David: "How about solitaire?"
lol, best comment ever.
Also Alex from LowSpecGamer: "Hold my beer."
If I had not bought the base model M1 Macbook Air, I would have bought this. From time it got announced to the time it released took way too long for me. Looks great though since it's technically the very first "Aero", so I hope they end up making this a new line of laptop.
I feel like the down-firing speakers on laptops in these videos would sound much different if they weren't firing straight into the desk pad.
I've got the 8gb 5600u, 512 ssd, backlit keyboard, on order. $621 all in including tax and free ship and with a free HP mouse and headset. The display has been tested to over 450 nits of brightness by some reviewers, which is a BIG PLUS on a matt screen. It seems to be a lot of laptop for $600.
How were you able to get it so cheap?
@@cleatusvandamme716 - The Labor Day weekend sale on the HP website was just too good to pass up. The bright matt display is FANTASTIC and this all-metal build is almost too light to be believed. Took about a month to get, but well worth it IMO.
@@svshootingstar is the ram upgradable?
If it's not a FRAMEWORK level repairable laptop... I ain't buyin it!
Framework is bigger size
I have HP 15 Ryzen and it is as repairable as framework except for the USBs and you need to search for the parts yourself
Defo want to see more videos like this with laptops under $1000. As much as the $3000 laptops are baller and basically tech porn, appreciate hearing your opinion on the affordable range
Hi
Yes I am
The configurator was a great add on. But I think a quick Cinnebench run or any fast benchmark would be good to gives us an idea of the cooling/noise of the laptop
That's how much I paid for my xps 13 5 years ago. Starting to regret skimping on ram. 8gb is not enough for office work.
4:23: I hate the power button mixed in with the rext of the keyboard. I tried those. I keep pressing the power button and shutting down the PC. I had to deactivate that feature so I could use it.... And, sometime, questioning why I'm pressing and nothing happens (when I want to delete, for example)
So.... A framework 13'' look-a-like ripoff competitor with the same price but much worse (except CPU)?
If given choice! I would simply drop W10 for Ubuntu and drop the MS Office, this would save me roughly around ~170-200 dollars and then it would be a much more viable option to consider!!!
This is still more than I've spent on my last 4 laptop purchases combined. Granted, I caught wicked clearance deals, but for what this costs, I could've bought 2 of mine at full price.
When you do a review of a laptop that costs ~$300, then you'll be talking budget.
That aint budget bro... In the u.s. 1k is budget and 2k is considered the sweet spot for top end while also affordable
@@DestroyerOff I am in the US, and only elitist attitudes would justify a 4 digit priced laptop as budget, when you can get something with a Core i7 for way less than that.
@@sireuchre lol... Lets just say for the average family in ny who make 80k+, a budget laptop is easily 1k. Only broke dudes in usa claim budget is 500
@@DestroyerOff No 'average family' in NY makes $80k+. Household is $63k at most, and individual is $32k, which is more like what a lot of households actually make. Your attitude about this is very elitist and condescending.
@@sireuchre a household of 4 making 80k is not at all elitist lol
I JUST got this. Pink bronze version. (Rose gold, it turns out) Great multitasker.
EXACTLY THE SPEC YOU RECOMMENDED LOL.
Funny enough, it's currently being used by my mom to play spider solitaire.
I dont like the hinges on the lower tier HP models. They are simply not stiff enough, which definitely wont get better over time.
Finally a laptop I may consider buying if I find it in stock.
HP Pavilion Aero is the revamp the original Pavilion has needed for years to look smoothly included in the HP laptop line without looking under the top..
How does it compare with MacBook Air M1? I know it's probably not the best comparison but which one should I choose if I am a CS undergrad student?
It's my first time watching your video and I loved this reviev! You told me about everything that I needed to know. Thank you!
It's crazy that laptops are still such low end spec compared to what you could get in a desktop price equivalent, this is why I have a desktop I built instead of a gaming laptop. I have a surface pro 6 which fits all my non gaming needs and that was in the same price range as the Aero 13.
In my experience, hp makes good budget laptops low end and mid tier. When I recommend laptops to family and friends it's often an HP unless they have specific requirements.
Personally I like msi for high end laptops but that's largely dependent on personal preference.
The one thing that infuriates me is the eu adapter for the volta charger at 1:43 ... if you plug that into a wall its literally just going to lopsidedly hang and bend the pins probably eventually breaking them
6:20 when the site says "onboard" does that mean it's replaceable or soldered?
It was really great to see content about some lower cost items. I was a bit sad that I didn't see him do at least a once over on the internal build though.
Been using it for a year , the only drawback i feel is ryzen 5600u is capable of running at 25w power but hp has limited the power limit to 15w, yes the max temp stays around 75° but it would be nice if the user had the choice to choose b/w balance or performance mode.
no mention of upgradeability or teardown?
just bought this for $600! i had 512 gb, 16 gb ram, and amd 5!!
Could y'all do a review on the Hyte Revolt 3 itx portable case? It's a relatively unknown/new company, but the product seems really interesting and well thought out.
Can you start doing prebuilds unboxing, first impressions etc. would be very helpful
I really liked the review of this laptop! Especially when you demonstrated how lightweight it is!
As a gamer I'd go for the HP Pavillion Gaming 15.6 inch Micro-edge @ $755 on Amazon rn. Or maybe the Acer Nitro 5 for $769
"solitaire beast" is honestly an adorable way to refer to any underpowered laptop lmao
Really like this laptop. Will order one very soon (Ryzen 7, 16 GB, 1 TB SSD). HP has released some really great laptops recently.
I'd say this thing could easily game. Just because it can't run newer intensive titles well doesn't mean older games wouldn't work flawlessly on this. Which is important to note i think instead of saying you can't game on it. (for example this could easily get this running some amazing games like Fallout New Vegas and Resident Evil 4)
0:21 "kinda SPOOKY" yes, my man, tis the season for doot doot references
The reason to get the Envy would be the quad-speaker setup with both down and up-firing speakers.
My dog's profoundly grateful for those 3 last seconds of video