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HP Chromebase All-in-One 22: Two-minute review
The HP Chromebase All-in-One 22 is helping usher all-in-one PCs into the mainstream market, and it’s about damn time. Even now, most AIO PCs on the market are pricey and tend to target professionals who need a minimalist yet powerful solution for their demanding computing workloads.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t all-in-one computers on the market that are affordable enough to the general public. But, you also have to dig deep to find them, as the likes of the iMac (24-inch, 2021) and the HP Envy 34 All-in-One tend to outshine them all.
Also, anything under $800 / £800 tends to feel slightly underpowered, especially when running a full-fledged operating system like Windows 11.
SPEC SHEET
Here is the HP Chromebase All-in-One 22 configuration sent to TechRadar for review
CPU: Intel Core i3-10110U (2.1 GHz up to 4.1 GHz, 4 MB L3 cache, 2 cores)
Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics
RAM: 16 GB DDR4-2666 MHz
Screen: 21.5" diagonal, FHD (1920 x 1080), touch, IPS, BrightView, 250 nits, 72% NTSC
Storage: 256 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
Ports: 2x SuperSpeed USB Type-C (with Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.2), 2x SuperSpeed USB Type-A, 1x headphone/microphone combo
Connectivity: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX 201 (2x2), Bluetooth 5 combo
Camera: HP True Vision 5 MP privacy camera and integrated dual array digital microphones, 1.4 ųm camera sensor
Weight: 15.37 lb (6.97 kg) tablet, keyboard and mouse included
Size: 19.98 x 6.87 x 17.89 in (507.5 x 174.5 x 454.4 mm, WxHxD)
The HP Chromebase All-in-One 22 fixes all that by using similar specs, but utilizing the lightweight Chrome OS instead. Bridging the gap between the popular (and usually affordable) Chromebooks and the minimalist appeal of AIOs, it offers a snappier performance than its Windows 11 counterparts – not to mention, an attractive design – while keeping its price within easy reach of most consumers.
Among its many notable features are its 21.5-inch touchscreen display with portrait mode, a 2,592 × 1,944-resolution webcam with impressive noise reduction, a two-step privacy cover, and a pair of 5W speakers with plenty of volume.
There are some compromises here – unsurprising considering its price – but there excellent premium features as well, namely its beautiful compact design and its browser multitasking prowess. Finally, users whose daily needs largely involve browsing, streaming, and sending emails now have a budget-realistic AIO option.
If you're looking for an all-in-one for everyone in your household, your work-from-home setup, or the matriculating member of your family, the HP Chromebase All-in-One 22 is a tough contender to beat.
HP Chromebase All-in-One 22: Price and availability
- Several configurations on offer
- Limited availability in the UK
How budget-friendly is the HP Chromebase All-in-One 22 exactly? At the moment, it’s available in several configurations in the US, starting at $629 / £629. This base configuration comes with an Intel Pentium 6405U, Intel UHD graphics, and 8GB of memory as well as 128GB SSD. While that might sound a little underpowered, remember that it’s also running a lightweight operating system that doesn’t need robust specs.
If you do need something more robust, the most kitted-out configuration – the same configuration that was sent to TechRadar for testing – will provide you an Intel Core i3-10110U, 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and the same integrated graphics for $699 / £699.
Unfortunately, consumers in the Australia would have to wait to get their hands on an HP Chromebase as it’s currently unavailable in the region. It's also currently unavailable in the HP UK store, but you should be able to find some configurations available at some UK online retailers. On the bright side, the UK HP store suggests that it will soon become available.
Value: 4 / 5
HP Chromebase All-in-One 22: Design and features
- Beautiful, premium design
- Thoughtful design details
HP doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the HP Chromebase All-in-One 22’s design. This is meant to be a space-saving, minimalist, and appealing all-in-one, and it succeeds in that regard with its 21.5-inch display, compact conical stand that stores all the innards, ports, and speakers, and beautiful white finish that makes it look pricier than it is.
The display size might not be ideal for power users and multi-taskers, but it’s certainly enough for this computer’s target market. Plus, its touch capability is beautifully responsive, something you’d expect from pricier models.
There’s also a decent port selection that’s more than enough for the average user. Not that you’d be needing peripherals as it does come with its own Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, both of which get the job done.
The keyboard is comfortable to type on, despite lacking some keys, including media keys (apart from the volume buttons). The mouse could be better – there’s a little more resistance on its buttons than we’d like – but it also does what it’s supposed to do. Users who aren’t very particular with their peripherals will be satisfied.
There are thoughtful design features as well, some of which even the iMac 24-inch doesn’t have, namely the pivot-capable display that will let you switch from landscape to portrait mode with just, quite literally, a finger.
There aren’t any swivel or horizontal adjustments here, but if you require that vertical space to read news articles, work on your book, or help the kids with their essays, you’ll appreciate the fact that portrait mode is on hand and just a push of a finger away. There’s also some up and down tilt for more comfortable viewing.
Another thoughtful design feature is its webcam’s privacy shutter, which allows you to block any video feed and turn the mic off completely when not in use.
Having this feature prevents hackers and other malicious people on the Internet from using your webcam and mic to spy on you, or worse.
Design: 4.5 / 5
HP Chromebase All-in-One 22: Performance
- Browser performance is ace
- Speakers loud but not the best sounding
BENCHMARKS
Here is how the HP Chromebase All-in-One 22 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
Kraken JavaScript: 895.3ms
Octane 2.0 JavaScript: 43,565
Jetstream 2: 134.5
The Chrome OS doesn’t need powerful specs to run smoothly, so it isn’t surprising that when paired with an Intel Core i3-10110U and 16GB of memory, it runs snappier than ever. The HP Chromebase All-in-One 22 scores high in the Kraken JavaScript benchmark test, giving us a lofty 895.3ms, and a decent 134.5 in the Jetstream 2 test.
It proves that in practice as well. On test, we often have it run 20 or more tabs at the same time, several of which have Google Docs Editors suite pages and online publications open, as well as shopping sites and streaming services, and it handles those without signs of a slowdown. This is an all-in-one made for demanding browser needs and multitasking.
Meanwhile, the built-in 5W stereo speakers, which again are housed in the stand, are good as well. They aren’t as crisp and detailed as the speakers you’d find on pricier all-in-ones, but they get pretty loud with decent bass response to fill a room… or at least a small- to medium-sized one.
Fair warning, however: pump that volume up to 100%, and they’ll sound as if tiny little ice picks are stabbing at your eardrums. So, best keep that volume under 90%.
Performance: 4 / 5
HP Chromebase All-in-One 22: Webcam and mic
- Excellent noise reduction
- Crisp and clear mic
If you plan on using the webcam and mic for work meetings and video calls with loved ones, you’ll be happy to know that you’re getting a decently high 2,592 × 1,944 resolution here. It’s not the most detailed webcam we’ve used, and there’s not a lot of contrast or dynamic range. However, it excels in noise reduction, keeping that luminance and chromatic noise well-controlled even in low lighting.
The mic is also great, although it comes with its own compromise. Your voice will come out crisp and clear, but as will any background noise since there isn’t any noise rejection – not surprising since this isn’t a premium all-in-one PC.
Webcam: 4 / 5
Should I buy the HP Chromebase All-in-One 22?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Also consider
HP Chromebase All-in-One 22: Report card
| Value | All-in-ones tend to be pricey, but this AIO brings that price back down closer to the ground in Chrome OS form. | 4 / 5 |
| Design | It has adopted that minimalist AIO design and premium feel without upping the price. Thoughtful design features are also on hand. | 4.5 / 5 |
| Performance | Excellent browser and multitasking performance allows this Chromebase to stand out, despite more powerful rivals. Its built-in speakers are plenty loud as well. | 4 / 5 |
| Webcam | With a resolution higher than 720p and great noise reduction capabilities, its webcam is deserving of praise. Especially with that two-step privacy cover. | 4 / 5 |
How we test
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
The HP Envy Inspire 7220e is a relatively quick and fairly priced multi-function printer. However, you’ll only get decent long-term value by paying for an ink cartridge subscription,
Pros
- Good set of features
- Solid print and scan quality
- Cheap ink – with subscri
Cons
- Default PC scan interface is basic
- Expensive ink outside of subscription
Availability
- UKRRP: £120
- USAunavailable
- EuropeRRP: €145
- Canadaunavailable
- Australiaunavailable
- Good paper handlingThis MFP supports automatic double-sided printing, plus it has a dedicated photo paper tray
- Colour touchscreenHP’s excellent colour touchscreen offers easy controls and configurable shortcuts
- Instant inkGet ink when you need it, starting with six months free
Introduction
If you’re going to call your inkjet printer the ENVY Inspire 7220e, it ought to be rather good. On paper, HP’s high-end home multifunction peripheral (MFP) looks like it is.
It’s bristling with useful features such as automatic duplex printing and a dedicated photo paper tray. It also has touchscreen controls to make everyday jobs easier.
But while it also offers cheap ink through HP’s Instant Ink scheme, you’ll need to accept certain restrictions in order to benefit. Here are my thoughts on how it stacks up against the best printers available.
Design and features
- Recycled materials, but still lots of plastic
- Brilliant colour touchscreen controls
- Useful photo paper tray
The HP ENVY Inspire 7220e sits towards the top end of HP’s range of home MFPs. It can print, scan and copy, but it has no fax modem or automatic document feeder for multi-page scans or copies.
All the same, this is a well-specified device, supporting wireless networks, offering automatic duplex (double-sided) printing, and being controlled via a smart colour touchscreen.
While rivals Epson and Canon are extending their refillable ink tank printer ranges, HP seems instead to be focusing on lowering the cost of cartridge printing. The 7220e is compatible with HP’s Instant Ink subscription service, which sees the printer order new cartridges as your existing ones get low on ink.
This printer also supports HP+. Sign up for that and you’ll get Instant Ink free for six months, after which monthly subscriptions range from 99p for up to 10 pages per month, to £22.49 for 700 pages. Pick the recommended 100-page plan for £4.49, print all 100 pages every month, and that’s 4.5p per page – about half what you’d pay to run a typical, cartridge-based inkjet.
There are a couple of catches, however. To use Instant Ink you’ll need an internet connection, and you must agree to provide HP with certain information on your printer use. And if you also enable HP+, you agree to firmware updates that may prevent you using third-party (i.e. non-HP) cartridges.
Don’t like the sound of that? You’ll have to buy HP’s 303XL cartridges instead, which will work out at an expensive 12p per page.
Whether you’re buying the cartridges or having them sent through Instant Ink, your running costs will be higher than with an ink tank printer, which typically cost less than 1p per page to run. However, the Envy Inspire 7220e is significantly cheaper to buy than its ink tank rivals. If you only print in small volumes, it could prove better value.
HP’s cartridges can be returned for refilling, and the printer itself is made from a claimed 45% recycled plastic. That’s better for the environment, but it’s disappointing that the 7220e arrives in plastic shrink wrap, and is cushioned by non-recyclable plastic foam. HP is by no means the only offender among printer manufacturers, but I do wish everyone would use only cardboard buffers, which have been around for decades.
This is an easy printer to set up on an Android or iOS device. It’s easy to set up on a PC, too, but only if you stick with the default HP Smart package – and this only includes a WIA scan driver, which offers limited control and functionality.
We need better for our tests, so I searched Google to find the HP Easy Start software, which includes a full TWAIN scan driver. HP’s latest printers are protected by an eight-digit PIN, which you need to find and enter to finish the Easy Start install, or make any configuration changes via the printer’s web interface.
With the cartridges and software installed, all that remains is to load plain paper in the main tray, and optionally add 10x15cm (6×4″) or 13x18cm (5×7″) photo paper to the second tray.
Print speed and quality
- Good plain paper print quality
- Swift performance, especially printing
- I experienced some connectivity issues
It’s not unusual to encounter problems when installing a printer, but the Envy Inspire 7220e saved up a bout of misbehaviour for the day after I first set it up. When I returned to begin our timed tests, I immediately noticed that print jobs were spooling very slowly, with the printer taking more than 30 seconds to even begin printing a first page of text. Then it would stall, failing to complete the job.
After the usual round of reboots, I tried installing the printer on a different PC only to experience the same problem. Repositioning the 7220e closer to our wireless router didn’t appear to help, either. I’ve previously encountered an issue where two recent HP printers wouldn’t work happily with WPA3 encryption, but switching this off didn’t help this time.
Eventually I found that this MFP worked perfectly from my Chromebook, which I used to perform our timed print tests. I couldn’t scan from the Chromebook, but by the next day the problems had magically resolved themselves and I was able to make our timed scan tests from a PC as usual. Unfortunately by this point the 722e was too low on ink to repeat our print tests. While frustrating for me, I’d be wary of drawing any firm conclusions from this – it’s possible there’s just something specific about my network that recent HP printers don’t like.
Issues aside, the Inspire 7220e proved to be a reasonably quick printer. It needed 17 seconds to produce a first page of text, and went on to complete five pages in 39 seconds – a rate of 7.7 pages per minute (ppm). On our 20-page job it reached 10.2ppm.
Unusually, it wasn’t much slower in colour, hitting 6.4ppm over five pages, and an impressive 8.1ppm over 20 pages. The 7220e printed six postcard-sized photos in just over seven minutes, but I couldn’t set the usual high quality options using my Chromebook – I’d expect each print to take around two minutes at the very highest quality available on a PC.
This MFP has a quick enough scanner. It could preview a document in 10 seconds, and get a 150 dots-per-inch (dpi) A4 scan in just 11 seconds. At a more detailed 300dpi, the same job took 20 seconds.
At 600dpi, I captured a 10x15cm photo in 47 seconds, which isn’t bad, but at the maximum 1200dpi the same job took two and a half minutes. In black only, photocopies were quick: a standard A4 job took 21 seconds. This printer needed 40 seconds for a colour page, but the quality of both tests was good.
The HP ENVY Inspire 7220e uses a pigmented black ink, which helps it produce crisp and dark text on plain paper. To the naked eye, printed type is almost as good as you’d get from a laser device. This printer’s cyan, magenta and yellow colour inks are dye-based, but they still deliver strong colour graphics.
It’s a bit more of a mixed bag on photo papers, given that pigment inks tend to sit on top of the paper’s gloss coating. While pictures from the 7220e looked good, they had an inconsistent finish on darker subjects, with the darkest shades noticeably less glossy.
The Envy Inspire 7220e is a perfectly good document scanner, making nicely balanced, crisply focused copies of our magazine page test. I was also impressed by its dynamic range: it could distinguish all but the darkest couple of shades in our challenging test target.
Photo scans also looked good at a glance, but HP’s scan interface seems to apply some digital sharpening which can’t be turned off. Zoom in and you might notice colour boundaries looking artificially strong, with the loss of some fine detail elsewhere.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You want a competent MFP that’s easy to use:
The HP Inspire 7220e is fairly quick, produces decent results, and can be quite cheap to run
You want more than competence:
Save for its touchscreen, this MFP doesn’t really do anything brilliantly
Final Thoughts
This is a fairly priced MFP that ought to cover the requirements of the typical home. It’s relatively quick, and generally produces decent results. It has reasonable running costs, too, but only if you embrace the idea of paying a subscription to print. While Instant Ink works well for many, I generally prefer the idea of buying ink for myself when I need it, particularly if it’s cheaper still and comes in big bottles.
How we test
Every printer we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key things including print quality, speed and cost.
We’ll also compare the features with other printers at the same price point to see if you’re getting good value for your money.
Tested printing with monochrome and coloured ink
Measured the time it takes to print with various paper
Compared print quality with other printers
FAQs
Yes, the HP Envy Inspire 7220e has a scanner.
Yes, it even has a dedicated photo tray.
Trusted Reviews test data
Jargon buster
MFP
MFP stands for 'multi-function printer'. This refers to printers that have more functions beyond printing, which includes copying and scanning.HP Pavilion Plus 14: Two-minute review
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is an upgrade from the original Pavilion 14 and is meant to be a decently priced low-ranged laptop for those who need a dedicated work machine.
It comes with a pretty solid screen size, which is complemented by the thinner bezels that provide you more screen real estate. Its OLED touchscreen display is responsive and features an impressive picture quality that makes anything displayed through it crystal clear and sharp, which alone is worth the slightly higher price tag.
This feature shines when paired with the webcam, which is crisp and clean when sitting through Zoom meetings, but it’s a shame the webcam doesn’t come with a mechanical privacy shutter though, since nowadays its pretty much a necessity.
The keyboard and touchpad are quite good as well, one of the few work laptops that have wide keys suited for those with thicker fingers or shaky hands. We found it extremely rare to have typos thanks to the wide spacing between keys, and the touchpad provides you with more than enough space to comfortably move around, making it very accessible for those who might have more limited mobility or coordination in their hands.
Thanks to the 12th-gen Intel Core i7 CPU, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 has some impressively high performance compared to many other budget-to-midrange laptops, consistently outscoring them by sometimes wide margins.
It’s an incredibly fast laptop that balances multiple CPU-intensive tasks like a champ. It even ran Sid Meyer’s Civilization VI benchmark well, netting over 60 FPS on the highest settings. Of course, it won’t be able to play titles like Hitman 3 smoothly but you’re not buying this laptop for that purpose anyway; as a general performance machine, this might have easily qualified as one of the best HP laptops going – or even one of the best Ultrabooks overall.
However, the worst aspect of this laptop by far is the battery life, and it absolutely drags this laptop down. At most, while running our HD movie test, it lasted just under 5 hours, and lasted a little while longer in our productivity test. For a gaming laptop this would be ok, but for a low-end machine whose job it is to last a full day of work or school? This is atrocious, especially considering that for the price, we're expecting something far more substantial.
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Price and availability
- How much does it cost? MSRP is $799 (about £640 / AU$1,120)
- When is it out? It is available now
- Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, and Australia, though not all configurations are available in all regions.
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is available now in the US, UK, and Australia and starts at $799 / £829 in the US and UK, and at AU$2,699 in Australia.
HP Pavilion Plus 14 Key Specs
Here is the HP Pavilion Plus 14 configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H
Graphics: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
RAM: 16GB
Screen: 14-inch diagonal, 2.8K (2880 x 1800), OLED, 90 Hz
Storage: 1TB PCIe SSD
Ports: 2 USB Type-A ports, 2 USB Type-C, 1 headset (headphone and microphone combo) port, 1 HDMI 2.1 port, 1 SD-card slot
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Camera: HP True Vision 5MP
Weight: 3.09 pounds (1.4 kg)
Size (W x D x H): 12.34 x 8.83 x 0.72ins | 313.4 x 224.3 x 18.3mm
Battery: 51WHr
The entry-level configuration for the US will get you an Intel Core i5-1240P processor with integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB RAM, 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage, and a 14-inch 2240 x 1400p IPS display, with a max brightness of 300 nits. The UK starting configuration is essentially identical, though it gives you a 512GB PCIe SSD.
The starting configuration in Australia, which is also the only configuration, is identical to the one we reviewed, specs listed at right. It will set you back $1,219 in the US and AU$2,699 in Australia.
The highest-spec configuration costs $1,329 in the US will get you an Intel Core i7-1255U, an Nvidia RTX 2050 GPU with 4GB dedicated video memory, 16GB RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD and a 2.8K OLED display with 400 nits brightness and Wi-Fi 6E instead of Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6.
In the UK, the highest spec is slightly different, in that it reduces the SSD to 512GB and, strangely, comes with Windows 11 Home in S Mode.
For the hardware on offer, this is pretty decent, especially at the low end, though the more expensive OLED display, as pretty as it is, is a big driver of the increase in price here. HP's main rival, Dell, has a new Inspiron 14 Plus (opens in new tab) that comes in at $1,299 (about £1,040 / AU$1,820), and it has more or less the same specs as the HP Pavilion Plus 14 model we reviewed.
There are some key differences, though, in that it comes with a 2240 x 1400p IPS display instead of an OLED panel and only has 512GB SSD storage. What it does have over the Pavilion Plus 14, though, is a 64WHr battery, which means that it will likely get a much longer battery life than the Pavilion Plus 14 — especially if it doesn't have an OLED panel to power — though we haven't reviewed the Inspiron 14 Plus so we cannot say for certain.
That said, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 would seem to win out on specs here, making it a pretty decent value, but as we'll get to later, the battery life is really this laptop's Achilles' heel and keeps it from competing with the best laptops on the market.
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Design
- Fantastic OLED screen
- Excellent, wide keyboard
- Great port selection
The chassis is lightweight but feels surprisingly sturdy for a lower-end work laptop, and reasonably has some heft to it despite the lower weight. It’s still thin and light enough to be comfortably portable in most bags. The silver color is common among even the best laptops these days but is still appealing and sleek.
Opening it up, the OLED screen really shines, giving anything displayed through it a gorgeous high-quality picture. This makes sense, since it complements the 2.8k display and even sports some nice and thin bezels that grant some roomy screen real estate.
Its port selection is quite good, with two USB Type-C and two Type-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, an SD card slot, and one headset jack. The HDMI 2.1 is a pleasant surprise in particular, as normally it’s a 1.4 on work machines. The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is clearly a well-balanced machine that can handle most tasks and connect to a wide range of devices.
It even enhances what would be an otherwise average webcam image, pairing well with the program that augments your image based on lighting. The latter is a handy little feature that lets you adjust how you look through the webcam in real-time, a feature that we didn’t know we needed until now.
The keyboard is one of our favorites so far in a work laptop, with a well-sized trackpad and wide and well-spaced out keys that make typing a breeze with barely any typos. There’s also a toggle for backlighting, another great feature for those late-night work sessions. It was a joy using it and having to switch back to normal-sized keys felt like a huge downgrade.
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Performance
- Great for work and casual-to-light gaming
- Sound quality is fine
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is in a very weird niche, as it functions incredibly well as a work machine. It has an excellent screen that’s perfect for video calls, a great roomy keyboard and trackpad, all complemented by the powerful i7 CPU and 16 GB of RAM that supports it.
Benchmarks
Here's how the HP Pavilion Plus 14 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark Night Raid: 14,892; Fire Strike: 4,201; Time Spy: 1,690
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 12,430 points
GeekBench 5: 1,741 (single-core); 8,856 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 5,641 points
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 4 hours and 34 minutes
PCMark 10 Battery Test: 5 hours and 10 minutes
Civilization VI (1080p, High): 67 fps; (1080p, Low): 22 fps
But these same features also make it well-balanced for some casual gaming, at least with lighter games. When running various benchmarks, we found that this laptop scores higher (sometimes significantly higher) than other similar laptops in its class running comparable hardware. For a dedicated work machine, the Pavilion 14 Plus clearly has the chops to game in a more-than-normal capacity for this sort of computer.
When we ran the Sid Meier's Civilization VI benchmark test, we found the game ran at an impressive 67 FPS on max settings. Playing it, the title ran incredibly smooth with no noticeable hiccups or hangs. Other casual-to-light-duty games ran just as well, making it a work laptop well-suited for play at the end of the day.
The CPU can also adjust itself to the task that needs the most attention. While we didn’t always explicitly notice the switch in performance between every single task, it did feel like every task was optimized.
The sound quality for the HP Pavilion Plus 14 is good but not great, despite the fact that it comes with dual speakers. Still, it’s quite good for the kind of laptop it is, though it doesn’t have the most complex sound. But when it comes to voice and video chat, the sound quality is more than high enough. Ventilation is a bit below average; it tends to warm up quickly but the heat doesn’t progress into an uncomfortable range.
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Battery life
- Absolutely terrible
- Rival laptops in its class last much longer
This battery is the worst battery we’ve tested for a work laptop in a long time. As we said before, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 has unusually high benchmark scores compared to its competitors and even performs well with some modern games.
But it seems that this tricked the Pavilion Plus into thinking it’s a gaming laptop or something and so it spiked its own battery life in response. This battery cannot last past the four-and-a-half-hour mark in our HD movie test, and PCMark 10’s battery test showed a five hour and 10 minute result, which makes it extremely difficult to perform as a work laptop unless you keep it charged up at an outlet regularly.
This is owing to the two-fold problem of high-end hardware, like an OLED display and Intel Alder Lake Core i7, and its rather meek 51WHr battery, which is almost guaranteed to run dry in no time flat.
Sacrifices have to be made for price, size, and weight, sure. But a work laptop is supposed to last, and this one does not. Having such a poor battery life for a machine that’s meant to carry you through a work day is rather inexcusable.
Should you buy an HP Pavilion Plus 14?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Also consider
HP Pavilion Plus 14: Report card
| Value | This laptop, as reviewed, is just under the overpriced mark, though there are cheaper models available at least. | 3.5 / 5 |
| Design | Has a lovely OLED screen that brings out the beauty in every image, and the keyboard and trackpad are nice and roomy as well as backlit. | 4 / 5 |
| Performance | This laptop works like a racehorse, galloping through every task like a total pro. It even can play a good number of games and maintain a good FPS. | 4.5 / 5 |
| Battery Life | The battery life is extremely low, which defeats the purpose of a work laptop in the first place. | 1 / 5 |
| Total | While the Pavilion Plus 14 is an otherwise excellent laptop for work and play, it's battery life makes it hard to recommend. | 3.5 / 5 |
- First reviewed August 2022
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
HP Victus 15
MSRP $850.00
“The HP Victus 15 provides modest performance, but ceratin configurations make it worthwhile.”
Pros
- Solid productivity performance
- Decent 1080p gaming performance
- Good keyboard and touchpad
- Conservative good looks
- Affordable
Cons
- Confusing configurations
- Poor battery life
- Ho-hum screen
Gaming laptops tend to be expensive, and the chip shortage has only made that situation worse in recent years. HP’s new Victus 15 slides in with options well under $1,000 that attempt to provide a fix to that problem.
While the larger Victus 16 gets you up to an RTX 3060, the Victus 15 tops out at an RTX 3050 Ti — and starts at a budget-tier GTX 1650, which is what my review unit included. Despite having the latest 12th-gen CPUs, we don’t normally recommend gaming laptops with graphics that are quite that bottom of the barrel. While our unit lacked in performance, there are some configurations in the lineup that could make the Victus 15 a solid purchase — especially considering the alternatives.
Design
Like the Victus 16, the Victus 15 has a design that carries over a few elements from HP’s Omen lineup but maintains a more conservative aesthetic. The Victus logo shares the Omen logo’s basic geometry, cutting off and retaining the bottom portion. The logo shows up on the lid and in the venting above the keyboard. Otherwise, the Victus 15 has simple lines and few gamer-oriented elements. The rear vent has a bit of a fighter jet look, but from the front and sides, you wouldn’t be blamed for mistaking the Victus 15 for a mainstream budget laptop. That perception extends to the thin side bezels and reasonably small top bezel that contrast with the massive chin at the bottom of the display.
There are three available colors, Mica Silver (dark gray), Performance Blue, and Ceramic White. The Victus 15 doesn’t look exactly like a smaller version of the Victus 16 — the rear edges are more rounded, giving a sleeker look. It’s not unusual for gaming laptops to strike a more mainstream look. Other examples include the Razer Blade 15 and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. If you want a laptop that looks like a gaming machine, you’ll want to consider something like the Asus ROG Strix G15 that’s a gamer through and through.
HP didn’t set out to make a thin and light gaming laptop, but it didn’t make the thickest or heaviest either.
The Victus 15 is made of all plastic, just like the Victus 16. Also like that laptop, it has a lid that’s quite bendable. The keyboard deck also comes with a bit of flex, although the smaller model is a bit more solid. The hinge works well, allowing the lid to be opened with one hand and avoiding any serious wobble during intense gaming action. Overall, the Victus 15 is slightly improved over the Victus 16, but it falls well short of more expensive machines like the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro and the Razer Blade 15.
Even given the large chin on the bottom of the display, the Victus 15 is sized like the typical 15-inch gaming laptop. It’s fractions of an inch narrower and shallower than the Lenovo Legion 5, for example, and just as thick at 0.93 inches. The HP is slightly lighter at 5.06 pounds compared to 5.3 pounds. The Acer Nitro 5, a similarly priced gaming machine, is about the same size, but thicker at 0.94 inches and lighter at 4.85 pounds. HP didn’t aim to make a thin and light laptop, but it didn’t make the thickest or heaviest either.
Connectivity is robust, with one exception. There’s a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, an Ethernet connection, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a full-size SD card reader. The one glaring omission is Thunderbolt 4, which we’ve seen on laptops at this price point. Wireless connectivity is either Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 or Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, depending on the configuration.
Price and configurations
Affordable gaming laptops are tough to come by these days, especially ones that are actually worth buying. As with all cheap laptops, though, digging into the configurations is key — and unfortunately, HP has created a confusing lineup with the Victus 15, offering preconfigured models via retailers that utilize different Intel CPUs than you can buy via HP’s configure-to-order (CTO) system.
The preconfigured models range from a $600 (on sale from $880) configuration with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an Nvidia GTX 1650. My review unit was similar, though it cost $800 and includes a Core i5-12450H and a 144Hz Full HD display. At the high end is the $1,000 (on sale from $1,100) model with a Core i7-12650H, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and the Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti. Other options include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H and the RTX 3050. These higher-end options will provide you far better performance.
You can configure the Victus 15 at HP.com, which lets you spec out your laptop in finer detail, ranging from $870 on the low end to $1,230 on the high end. There are two primary competitors that price out closely to the Victus 15: The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 and the Acer Nitro 5. The Nitro 5 is $50 more expensive when configured similarly, while the IdeaPad Gaming 3 comes with the latest Ryzen processor for $900.
Performance
The most important distinction is that the Core i5-12450H is a 45-watt, 10-core (four Performance and six Efficient), and 12-thread CPU, compared to the 45-watt, 12-core (four Performance and eight Efficient), 16-thread i5-12500H. The Core i7-12650H is a 45-watt, 10-core (six Performance and four Efficient), 16-thread CPU, compared to the Core i7-12700H, a 45-watt, 14-core (six Performance and eight Efficient), 20-thread CPU. We’ve only benchmarked the Core i7-12700H, but looking at the Geekbench 5 database, the Core i5-12450H and Core i7-12650H are (as expected) slower than their higher-core and higher-thread counterparts.
We haven’t tested a 28-watt P-series Core i5, but again, looking at the Geekbench 5 database, it seems to be faster than the Core i5-12450H in my review unit. It’s worth noting that the Victus 15 couldn’t quite keep up with laptops running the 28-watt Core i7-1260P with its 12 cores (four Performance and eight Efficient) and 16 threads, of which we’ve reviewed quite a few. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800H is also faster than the Core i5 in my review unit.
Accordingly, the Victus 15’s productivity and creativity performances were mixed. It had the second-slowest Geekbench 5 results in our comparison group, well behind the Core i7-1260P in the MSI Prestige 14 and the core i7-11800H in the HP Victus 16. The same held with our Handbrake test that encodes a 420MB video as H.265, although the differences weren’t as significant. At the same time, the Victus 15 was more competitive in the Cinebench R23 benchmark, producing the third-fastest single-core score and beating the MSI Prestige 14. The Victus 15 was again behind most of the pack in the PCMark 10 Complete test that runs through a range of productivity, multimedia, and creative tasks.
The Victus 15 can handle demanding productivity workflows and some low-end creative tasks.
Finally, in the Pugetbench Premiere Pro benchmark that runs in a live version of Adobe’s Premiere Pro, the Victus 15 again fell behind the MSI Prestige 14. That laptop was configured with the RTX 3050, a faster GPU than the GTX 1650 in the Victus 15, and the Pugetbench benchmark is heavily influenced by GPU performance. However, it wasn’t GPU performance that held the HP back. In fact, the Victus 15 tied the Prestige 14 in the GPU section of the benchmark, and it was in the CPU-dependent video playback section that the HP was much slower.
Overall, mainstream performance was still solid for an $800 laptop. The Victus 15 can handle demanding productivity workflows and some low-end creative tasks. But you’ll see faster results by ordering via the CTO system. Interestingly, the Omen Gaming Hub app has a performance tuning section, but the GTX 1650 version of the Victus 15 doesn’t have a performance setting, which is disappointing.
| Geekbench (single/multi) | Handbrake (seconds) |
Cinebench R23 (single/multi) | Pugetbench for Premiere Pro | PCMark 10 Complete | |
| HP Victus 15 (Core i5-12450H) |
1,450 / 6,699 | 118 | 1,670 / 9,521 | 441 | 6,059 |
| HP Victus 16 (Core i7-11800H) |
1,594 / 9,141 | 93 | 1,510 / 10,145 | N/A | 6,808 |
| MSI Prestige 14 (Core i7-1260P) |
1,505 / 10,041 | 114 | 1,553 / 8,734 | 553 | 6,201 |
| Samsung Galaxy Book Odyssey (Core i7-11600H) |
1,478 / 5,366 | 152 | 1,501 / 8,571 | N/A | 5,989 |
| Lenovo Legion 5i Pro (Core i7-12700H) |
1,625 / 11,543 | 72 | 1,725 / 14,135 | 793 | 7,430 |
| Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (Ryzen 7 5800H) |
1,460/7,227 | 99 | 1,430/11,195 | N/A | n/a |
Gaming
Gaming performance was mostly in line with expectations given the GTX 1650 GPU. These are the lowest-end graphics cards you can find in a gaming laptop, so your expectations should be low when firing this up. First, the Victus 15 had the lowest 3DMark Time Spy test in our comparison group, as expected. It was considerably lower than the MSI Prestige 14’s RTX 3050, also as expected.
The Victus 15 performed OK in most of our benchmarks at 1080p and higher graphics settings. It managed playable frame rates in Civilization VI and Fortnite, but just barely in the latter case. You’ll need to drop down to a lower setting to play Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The results aren’t listed in the table below, but the Victus 15 managed to hit 45 frames per second (fps) in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p and Ultra graphics with DLSS turned off.
Overall, the laptop averaged greater than 30 fps in most of our benchmark titles. Of course, that’s the bare minimum fps for gaming, so you’ll want to configure the RTX 3050 Ti to get more comfortable frame rates at higher graphics.
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (1080p Ultra High) | Civilization VI (1080p Ultra) | Fortnite (1080p Epic) | 3DMark Time Spy | |
| HP Victus 15 (GTX 1650) |
25 fps | 60 | 39 | 3,653 |
| HP Victus 16 (RTX 3060) |
59 fps | 118 | 99 | 7,341 |
| MSI Prestige 14 (RTX 3050) |
20 fps | N/A | 26 | 4,438 |
| Samsung Galaxy Book Odyssey (RTX 3050 Ti) |
15 fps | 61 | 54 | N/A |
| Lenovo Legion 5i Pro (RTX 3070 Ti) |
80 fps | 177 fps | 103 fps | 1,0623 |
| Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (RTX 3070) |
61 fps | 114 fps | 101 fps | 9,175 |
Display and audio
There are three display options for the Victus 15, all non-touch 16:9 Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) IPS. They include a 250-nit 60Hz panel, a 250-nit 144Hz panel, and a 300-nit low blue light panel. My review unit was equipped with the 144Hz display, and it seemed OK to me when I powered on the laptop and used it during my testing. The colors were muted, but the contrast seemed deep enough, and the display didn’t get terribly bright.
That’s pretty much what my colorimeter confirmed. Brightness was indeed low at 236 nits, below our 300-nit threshold, while the contrast was good at 1,150:1, above our preferred 1,000:1. Colors weren’t very wide at just 65% of sRGB and 49% of AdobeRGB, and accuracy wasn’t great at a Delta-E of 3.04 (2.0 or less is considered the minimum for creative work). The Victus 16’s display was brighter and had wider and more accurate colors, and only the Samsung Galaxy Book Odyssey‘s display was worse.
These results aren’t terrible for a laptop that’s $800 or less, but they become less palatable as you approach $1,000. The display is fine for productivity work and gaming, primarily thanks to the high contrast, but creators will find it lacking.
| Brightness (nits) |
Contrast | sRGB gamut | AdobeRGB gamut | Accuracy DeltaE (lower is better) |
|
| HP Victus 15 (IPS) |
236 | 1,150:1 | 65% | 49% | 3.04 |
| HP Victus 16 (IPS) |
375 | 1,120:1 | 100% | 79% | 1.86 |
| MSI Prestige 14 (IPS) |
317 | 1,820:1 | 97% | 72% | 3.67 |
| Samsung Galaxy Book Odyssey (IPS) |
350 | 800:1 | 65% | 48% | 2.37 |
| Lenovo Legion 5i Pro (IPS) |
502 | 1,330:1 | 99% | 76% | 1.35 |
Two downward-firing speakers provide the audio, putting out plenty of volume with just a hint of distortion at the top end. Mids and clears were high, but there was zero bass, meaning you’ll want to wear some headphones for intense gaming and binging sessions.
Keyboard, touchpad, and webcam
There’s no per-key RGB lighting with the Victus 15, as HP is apparently reserving that for its Omen gaming lineup. Instead, there’s just a single, rather bright backlight setting. There’s plenty of spacing, and the keys with their gamer-oriented font are large enough. I found the switches to be ligh, with a nice click at the bottom, which should work nicely for gamers even if it’s not a mechanical keyboard. Overall, the keyboard felt much like the one on the Victus 16, which shouldn’t be a surprise.
The touchpad was large and had a surface that offered a touch of resistance. It was responsive and reliable for Windows 11’s complement of multi-touch gestures, and the clicks were solid and confident without being too loud.
The webcam is a 720p version, and it performed about as well as the typical laptop webcam. That is, it was OK with good lighting but lost details in low light.
The Victus 15 doesn’t support Windows 11 Hello passwordless login. There are no fingerprint reader or infrared camera options, which is disappointing.
Battery life
My review unit packed in just 52.5 watt-hours of battery, which isn’t a lot for a 15-inch laptop with a discrete GPU. If you order a higher-end model via HP’s CTO system, you can get a 70 watt-hour battery. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of battery life.
Unsurprisingly, the Victus 15 didn’t do well. It managed just 4.25 hours in our web-browsing test that cycles through a series of popular and demanding websites, and it only managed five hours in our video test that loops a local Full HD Avengers trailer. In the PCMark 10 Applications test that’s the best measure of productivity battery life, it couldn’t quite make it to five hours. The average laptop in our database at least doubles those results.
The Victus 15 performed similarly to most of the gaming laptops in our comparison group. Only the Samsung Galaxy Book Odyssey and the Razer Blade 14 with its AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX had meaningfully longer battery life.
| Web browsing | Video | PCMark 10 Applications | |
| HP Victus 15 (Core i5-12450H) |
4 hours, 18 minutes | 5 hours, 7 minutes | 4 hours, 50 minutes |
| HP Victus 16 (Core i7-11800H) |
4 hours, 25 minutes | 6 hours, 25 minutes | 5 hours, 7 minutes |
| MSI Prestige 14 (Core i7-1260P) |
5 hours, 11 minutes | 6 hours, 2 minutes | 7 hours, 2 minutes |
| Samsung Galaxy Book Odyssey (Core i7-11600H) |
10 hours, 30 minutes | 14 hours, 19 minutes | 11 hours, 47 minutes |
| Lenovo Legion 5i Pro (Core i7-12700H) |
4 hours 32 minutes | 7 hours 9 minutes | N/A |
| Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (Ryzen 7 5800H) |
7 hours 10 minutes | N/A | N/A |
| Razer Blade 14 (Ryzen 9 5900HX) |
8 hours 17 minutes | 11 hours 7 minutes | N/A |
Our take
Rating the HP Victus 15 is challenging given its wide range of configurations. The $600 configuration (on sale from $870) with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H and a GTX 1650 provides a lot of value and will likely provide similar performance to my review unit. Speaking of that, the configuration I reviewed justifies its $800 price, but barely.
In the end, the Victus 15 performed well enough and is built solidly enough to make it a solid new entry in the budget gaming arena. You’ll just want to compare the available options before making your choice.
Are there any alternatives?
The best alternative to the Victus 15 is the Victus 16. It’s a little larger, but it can also be configured with a much faster GPU, and its display is slightly better. For just $100 more, you can get a configuration with an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H and RTX 3050 that’s probably faster than my review unit.
There aren’t many other gaming laptops under $1,000 that have made the switch to Intel 12th-gen CPUs. One that has is the Acer Nitro 5, which has a more aggressive gaming design and similar configuration for a couple of hundred dollars more.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 is another alternative, offering a similarly conservative design and similar components for just a bit more money than the Victus 15. You’ll want to look for the newest AMD Ryzen 6000 models.
How long will it last?
Despite a little bending in the lid and flexing in the keyboard deck, the Victus 15 is a well-built budget gaming machine. It should still last for years of hard gaming. The industry-standard one-year warranty remains as disappointing as ever.
Should you buy it?
Yes. The Victus 15 is a good value as long as you make your selection carefully from among HP’s confusing purchasing options.
Editors' Recommendations
Printers and scanners have become a part of a household in today’s time- we get our tickets printed, our pictures scanned and printed, and we get out projects, assignments and everything which needs an extra copy without any hustle.
With the rising demand, there are a number of brands which have been competing for the same, and out of the large market of printers, we got our hands on HP LaserJet Tank 1005 Printer which is available in the market.
We reviewed the printed for some time (almost 2 months), and here is our 10-pointer review below:
Looks:
It indeed is a good-looking and handly printer. It could take up some space in your room, but not much of it. It has the scanner on the top, and printing space just below it. And below is the tray to keep your sheets- which could be chosen according to the need.
Installation: I do have to mention that initially, connecting with Wi-Fi needs a little time, to understand- and a manual could be of great help. Also, you have videos from HP on YouTube, so you can get easy instructions to install.
But, if connecting to wifi seems like a task, you can certainly connect with the provided cable, which is very simple and clickable to install (just like you do for any software).
Once connected, you can send any picture which you need to print and it will be a job of a couple of seconds. Only thing is, you have to follow the step-by-step process if there is some trouble in connecting the printer with your device.
Printing Experience
This is an A4 Black and White Laser Multifunction Printer which means, it could help you print out texts, projects, written assignments, air tickets and more, which does not need any specific colour besides black ink.
But if you are a mother/father, or someone who needs print out in colours, for your diagrams, and paintings copy, then, unfortunately, you will have to rethink before buying LaserJet Tank 1005 printer. The printer could bring out 22 papers per minute as claimed, so delivered.
Printing Quality
Well! I have an impressive experience on this front. The ink had this instantly drying ability which enables the paper to be printed and be ready to use for whatever use, you would want. This LaserJet Tank 1005 printer comes with a cartridge which can print up to 5000 pages, as per the company’s claim. I printed around 20 to 60 pages- in black and white on various paper quality- for A4 rough, to glossy pages as well, and the printer to was good enough to deliver dark and clear prints, without any leakage of the ink or anything which could create image quality which might look disturbed. Hence, a good quality
This is a printer which could be used for office and personal use easily and could be bought easily from the online store. All you have to do is to get a good set of A4 size sheets.
Overall Verdict for LaserJet Tank 1005 Printer:
- This printer is an ideal one for workplace and office purposes or for senior education and could be bought
- You can get the print bright, clear and faster
- Installation is simple if steps are being followed properly.
Price and availability
- Priced at Rs 21,116, the HP LaserJet Tank 1005 printer is an official website of HP along with the Chroma store as well.
- Competition: I need to mention that HP is known for the quality and price of its products. And at this price range, the company is going to face some cutthroat challenges from Canon which also offers printers with coloured ink and long life.
But for work purposes, LaserJet Tank 1005 is a fit for sure and could be invested in easily.
HP Pavilion Plus 14
MSRP $1,000.00
“HP Pavilion Plus 14 offers a 90Hz OLED screen at an unbeatable price.”
Pros
- Spectacular 90Hz OLED display
- Class-leading build quality
- Excellent keyboard and touchpad
- Solid productivity performance
- Strong value at sale prices
Cons
- Review unit performance limited by throttling
- Poor battery life
HP’s Pavilion line carries its budget to mid-range laptops, and it’s offered some solid options over the years. For 2022, the company decided to upscale the line with the Pavilion Plus 14, a laptop that’s the thinnest Pavilion yet and the first with an OLED display. And it’s a 90Hz display, offered at an extremely attractive price.
It’s a competitive market, though, and HP has its job cut out.
My review unit is currently on sale at HP.com for $850, down from $1,000. That’s a compelling price for a 12th-gen Intel Core i7-12700H CPU and a 14-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED display running at 90Hz. In fact, it’s one of the least expensive OLED laptops around, and it’s a step up from most, thanks to the display’s faster refresh rate. There are other excellent deals available, and if you can get the Pavilion Plus 14 at one of its sale prices, you’re getting an outstanding laptop for a fantastic price.
Design
The Pavilion Plus 14 is constructed of all aluminum, and you can tell. The chassis and lid evoke confidence in the laptop’s durability thanks to a lack of twisting, bending, or flexing. The Pavilion Plus 14 is as robust as some laptops I’ve reviewed lately that cost significantly more, such as the $1,500 MSI Prestige 14. Like that machine, the Pavilion Plus 14 isn’t quite as solid as the Dell XPS 15 or the MacBook Pro, but it’s close, and those two are much more expensive.
Even the Pavilion Plus 14’s hinge is well-designed, allowing the lid to be opened with one hand while holding the display firmly in place. The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 and Asus Vivobook S 14X retail for around the same price as the Pavilion Plus 14, and neither are as rigid in their construction.
The laptop’s design is simple and streamlined, with five available colors — Natural Silver, Tranquil Pink, Mineral Silver (dark gray), Warm Gold, and Space Blue. My review unit was the silver model, sporting a minimalist but attractive aesthetic. That’s common among laptops today, with few standing out, particularly at budget and mid-range prices. For example, the Asus Vivobook S 14X is another similarly priced and conservatively designed laptop.
The Pavilion Plus 14 has been slimmed down compared to other Pavilion laptops, coming in at 0.72 inches and 3.09 pounds. The plastic display bezels are small for the class, with an 87% screen-to-body ratio that’s higher than most similarly priced laptops. That’s partly thanks to the switch to a 16:10 display, which makes the laptop narrower than previous Pavilion 14 models and slightly deeper. The Vivobook S 14X is wider and deeper while marginally thinner at 0.70 inches and considerably heavier at 3.59 pounds. The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 is wider and deeper, again thinner at 0.65 inches and heavier at 3.23 pounds.
There are plenty of ports, with two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports, 2 USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a microSD card reader. The most significant omission is Thunderbolt 4 support, which isn’t a shock at this price point but still a bit disappointing. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 provide wireless connectivity.
Price and configurations
As of when this review is being written, most configurations of the Pavilion Plus 14 are heavily discounted. The best deal is the entry-level model that’s $550 at Staples (on sale from $780) with a 12th-gen Intel Core i5-1240P CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 14-inch 2.2K (2240 x 1400) IPS display. The Core i5-1240P is a 28-watt 12-core (four Performance and eight Efficient) and 16-thread processor running at a max frequency of 4.4GHz.
My review unit retails for $1,000 but is on sale for $850, with a Core i7-12700H (see the performance section), 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display. Spend $1,130 (on sale from $1,310), and you get an Intel Core i7-1255U CPU, 12GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050 GPU, and the 14-inch OLED display. Oddly enough, the Core i7-1255U is a 15-watt 10-core (two Performance and eight Efficient), 12-thread CPU. You can mix and match more CPU and GPU options using the configure-to-order tool at HP.com.
The Asus Vivobook S 14X is similarly priced at retail, $1,100 for a Core i7-12700H, 12GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, Intel Iris Xe graphics, and a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display at 120Hz. For $900, you can get a Core i5-12500H, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and the OLED display. Another laptop that’s priced around the same is the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1, which is $1,050 for a Core i7-1255U, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14-inch Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) display. Although the Pavilion Plus 14’s configuration options are complex and sometimes confusing, the laptop is a great value at its various sale prices.
Performance
My review unit was built around the 12th-gen Intel Core i7-12700H, a 45-watt CPU with 12 cores (four Performance and eight Efficient) and 16 threads. It’s a processor that we don’t often see in thin-and-light ultrabooks like the Pavilion Plus 14, which typically equip 28-watt Intel P-Series or 15-watt U-Series CPUs. Also unusual is that the Pavilion Plus 14 is limited to Intel’s integrated Iris Xe graphics. Usually, the 45-watt CPUs are paired with discrete graphics.
We have one comparison machine that also used a Core i7-12700H and Iris Xe graphics, the Asus Vivobook S 14X. Looking at our benchmarks, the Pavilion Plus 14 had a similar performance. In Geekbench 5, its single-core scores were lower but its multi-core scores were higher. It was essentially tied in our Handbrake test that encodes a 420MB video as H.265, and it was slower in Cinebench R23. Both laptops were below other machines with the same CPU, such as the Dell XPS 15, and depending on the benchmark, both were closer to laptops with the 28-watt Core i7-1260P. Unfortunately, the Pavilion Plus 14 wouldn’t complete the PCMark 10 Applications test, which is a good test of general productivity performance.
Another similarity between the two laptops was that both demonstrated significant throttling. I used each laptop’s thermal control utility to test in balanced and performance modes, and I noted that each hit 95 degrees C or higher and throttled in our CPU-intensive benchmarks. That clearly limited their performance. As I pointed out with the Asus, it’s not that the Pavilion Plus 14 is slow; it’s that it’s not benefiting from the more powerful CPU given its very thin chassis.
The biggest difference is that the Pavilion Pro 14 can be configured with the 28-watt Core i5-1240P, which could provide similar performance if it throttles less, and the 15-watt Core i7-1255U, which would presumably offer improved efficiency. And, the HP is significantly less expensive than the Asus in most of its configurations.
Ultimately, my review unit performed well for an $850 laptop and okay for a retail price of $1,000. It’s going to keep up with demanding productivity workflows, and it can do some very lightweight creative tasks as well. As I just mentioned, though, the 45-watt CPU is wasted on the thin chassis, and HP might have been better off going with the Core i7-1260P.
| Geekbench (single / multi) |
Handbrake (seconds) |
Cinebench R23 (single / multi) |
|
| HP Pavilion Plus 14 (Core i7-12700H) |
Bal: 1,462 / 8,531 Perf: 1,472 / 8,531 |
Bal: 104 Perf: 102 |
Bal: 1,523 / 8,358 Perf: 1,716 / 10,915 |
| Asus Vivobook S 14X (Core i7-12700H) |
Bal: 1,595 / 6,692 Perf: 1,681 / 7,175 |
Bal: 113 Perf: 102 |
Bal: 1,757 / 10,339 Perf: 1,792 / 12,051 |
| Dell XPS 15 9520 (Core i7-12700H) |
Bal: 1,470 / 9,952 Perf: 1,714 / 11,053 |
Bal: 100 Perf: 77 |
Bal: 1,509 / 11,578 Perf: 1,806 / 13,313 |
| Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (Core i7-1255U) |
Bal: 1,703 / 6,520 Perf: 1,685 / 6,791 |
Bal: 153 Perf: 141 |
Bal: 1,729 / 6,847 Perf: 1,773 / 7,009 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 7 (Core i7-1260P) |
Bal: 1,650 / 8,080 Perf: 1,621 / 8,544 |
Bal: 116 Perf: 120 |
Bal: 1,587 / 7,682 Perf: 1,611 / 8,078 |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 7 (Core i7-1260P) |
Bal: 1,717 / 9,231 Perf: 1,712 / 10,241 |
Bal: 130 Perf: 101 |
Bal: 1,626 / 7,210 Perf: 1,723 / 8,979 |
| Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (Ryzen 7 6800U) |
Bal: 1,417 / 6,854 Perf: 1,404 / 7,223 |
Bal: 112 Perf: 111 |
Bal: 1,402 / 8,682 Perf: 1,409 / 8,860 |
The Pavilion Plus 14 can be configured with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050, but my review unit used Intel Iris Xe graphics. It scored slightly below average in the 3DMark Time Spy test, but its Fortnite performance was around average at 15 frames per second (fps) at 1200p and epic graphics. It’s not a gaming laptop unless you limit your library to older titles and eSports games.
| 3DMark Time Spy |
Fortnite (1080p/1200p Epic) |
|
| HP Pavilion Plus 14 (Intel Iris Xe) |
Bal: 1,520 Perf: 1,577 |
Bal: 15 Perf: 16 |
| Asus Vivobook S 14X (Intel Iris Xe) |
Bal: 1,251 Perf: 1,253 |
Bal: 6 Perf: 7 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 7 (Intel Iris Xe) |
Bal: 1,899 Perf: 1,886 |
Bal: 17 fps Perf: 16 fps |
| MSI Summit E14 Flip (Intel Iris Xe) |
Bal: 1,740 Perf: 1,959 |
Bal: 15 fps Perf: 19 fps |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 7 (Intel Iris Xe) |
Bal: 1,658 Perf: 1,979 |
Bal: 12 fps Perf: N/A |
| LG Gram 16 2-in-1 (Intel Iris Xe) |
Bal: 1,746 Perf: 1,919 |
Bal: 15 fps Perf: 20 fps |
| Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (AMD Radeon) |
Bal: 2,110 Perf: 2,213 |
Bal: 19 fps Perf: 19 fps |
Display and audio
One of the most important recent advances in display technology is the widespread adaptation of OLED panels. They provide brighter and more accurate colors and deeper blacks, making for excellent productivity, creativity, and media consumption displays. If you can get an OLED display for less than $1,000, that’s a terrific value proposition, and when that display runs at 90Hz, it’s even better. Higher refresh rates help make Windows 11 a smoother experience, not to mention allowing games to run tear-free at higher frame rates (not that we’re panic about that with integrated graphics).
My review unit was configured with the 2.8K (2880 x 1800) 90Hz OLED display, and it was beautiful out of the box. If I’d spent $850 on the laptop, I’d be tickled pink with the bright and accurate colors, inky blacks, and smooth Windows 11 experience.
According to my colorimeter, HP didn’t cut any corners with the display. Brightness was excellent at 398 nits, well above our threshold of 300 nits for working in all lighting conditions except direct sunlight. Colors were wide at 100% of sRGB and 95% of AdobeRGB, and they were extremely accurate at a DeltaE of 0.78 (1.0 or less is indistinguishable to the human eye). And, of course, the contrast was extremely deep at 27,830:1, making for inky blacks.
This is a spectacular display at any price; it’s a steal at $1,000 or less. It’s a display that will please everyone, from productivity workers to creators to hardcore media consumers.
| Brightness (nits) |
Contrast | sRGB gamut | AdobeRGB gamut | Accuracy DeltaE (lower is better) |
|
| HP Pavilion Plus 14 (OLED) |
398 | 27,830:1 | 100% | 95% | 0.78 |
| Asus Vivobook S 14X (OLED) |
403 | 27,930:1 | 100% | 99% | 1.07 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 7 (IPS) |
386 | 1,900:1 | 100% | 81% | 0.78 |
| MSI Summit E14 Flip (IPS) |
516 | 1,320:1 | 100% | 89% | 1.10 |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 7 (OLED) |
406 | 28,380:1 | 100% | 95% | 0.87 |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7i Pro (IPS) |
369 | 1,340:1 | 100% | 80% | 1.65 |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon (OLED) |
397 | 27,590:1 | 100% | 96% | 0.88 |
Two downward-firing speakers on the front bottom of the chassis provide the audio, putting out very low volume sound. What they lacked in loudness, the speakers made up for in quality, with clear mids and highs and a surprising amount of bass. You’ll want some headphones for music and serious binging, but for watching a video every now and then, the audio quality is fine.
Keyboard, touchpad, and webcam
The Pavilion Plus 14 enjoys a nicely sized keyboard with large keycaps, and its switches are light with a precise bottoming action. It’s almost as good as the keyboard on HP’s Spectre line and has the same row of navigation keys on the right-hand side. As I was writing this review, I found the keyboard very comfortable for longer typing sessions.
The touchpad is large and has a smooth surface that makes for precise swiping with support for the full complement of Windows 11 multitouch gestures, thanks to Microsoft Precision drivers. The buttons are responsive and quiet. You won’t find a better touchpad on many laptops costing twice as much. The display isn’t touch-enabled, unfortunately.
Windows 11 Hello passwordless support is provided by a fingerprint reader on the palm rest, which isn’t as convenient as those built into the power button. Nevertheless, it was quick and reliable during my testing.
HP built a 5MP webcam into the Pavilion Plus 14 along with some technology to Improve image quality. The video was smooth and detailed, much better than the average, and good enough to make for excellent videoconferencing.
Battery life
The Pavilion Plus 14 has 51 watt-hours of battery capacity, which is a little on the low side for a 14-inch laptop, and my review unit equipped a 45-watt CPU and a power-hungry high-res OLED display. I wasn’t expecting miracles in terms of battery life.
I didn’t get any. The Pavilion Plus 14 demonstrated below-average battery life in all our tests, starting with our web browsing test that cycles through a handful of complex websites, where it hit 4.5 hours. That’s around half of what we like to see in this test. In our video test that loops a local Full HD Avengers trailer, the HP managed just 7.5 hours, again well under average. And in the PCMark 10 Applications test that’s the best indication of productivity battery life, it hit just 4.75 hours, again significantly less than average.
Overall, the Pavilion Plus 14 is unlikely to get you through a full day of productivity tasks. You might be lucky to make it to lunch. The other configurations with lower-watt CPUs may do better, but my review unit configuration will need its charger kept handy.
| Web browsing | Video | PCMark 10 Applications |
|
| HP Pavilion Plus 14 (Core i7-12700H) |
4 hours, 29 minutes | 7 hours, 29 minutes | 5 hours, 48 minutes |
| Asus Vivobook S 14X (Core i7-12700H) |
6 hours, 20 minutes | 8 hours, 18 minutes | 7 hours, 1 minute |
| Dell XPS 15 9520 (Core i7-12700H) |
9 hours, 38 minutes | 12 hours, 40 minutes | 11 hours, 14 minutes |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 7 (Core i7-1260P) |
10 hours, 10 minutes | 16 hours, 12 minutes | 10 hours, 33 minutes |
| Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 7 (Core i7-1260P) |
9 hours, 10 minutes | 12 hours, 45 minutes | 8 hours, 32 minutes |
| Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (Ryzen 7 6800U) |
8 hours, 4 minutes | 13 hours, 13 minutes | N/A |
| Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon (Ryzen 7 5800U) |
10 hours, 6 minutes | 11 hours, 12 minutes | 9 hours, 22 minutes |
Our take
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 isn’t the first thin-and-light laptop I’ve reviewed with a 45-watt CPU and, apparently, thermally limited performance. However, it’s much more forgivable at an $850 sale price with a spectacular 90Hz OLED display. The battery life is disappointing, but the build quality is excellent, as are the keyboard and touchpad. And as this review is being written, you can buy the Pavilion Plus 14 with a Core i5-1240P CPU and a 2.2K IPS display for as low as $550, which is a tremendous value.
The Pavilion Plus 14 is an attractive mid-range laptop even at full retail prices. And I can’t stress enough how nice it is to get such a great OLED display at such a low price.
Are there any alternatives?
There aren’t many laptops in the same price range offering 12th-gen Intel CPUs. I’ve reviewed a couple of them, and neither offers quite the same overall value as the Pavilion Plus 14.
However, if you can spend a bit more, then Lenovo’s Yoga 9i Gen 7 is a solid option. It has its own incredible OLED display and a stunning new design, it performs similarly, and it has better battery life. As a convertible 2-in-1, it offers a more flexible form factor.
You could drop down in display size slightly and consider the Apple MacBook Air M2. Although it’s $1,200 with less RAM at 8GB and storage at 256GB, it will be significantly faster and will offer considerably better battery life. And its display should be more than good enough.
How long will it last?
The Pavilion Plus 14 is exceptionally well-built for a budget to mid-range laptop, and it should last for years of productive service. Its components are modern, although the lack of Thunderbolt 4 does hold it back. Its industry-standard one-year warranty is okay at these prices.
Should you buy it?
Yes, if you can get it at a sale price. Performance is good if limited by the thin chassis, and the build quality, keyboard, and touchpad are all excellent. Battery life is a disappointment, though, with the review configuration. Other configurations with lower-watt CPUs might last longer.
Editors' Recommendations
A medium-volume document scanner that's a combination of a sheetfed and a flatbed, HP's $599 ScanJet Pro 3600 f1 replaces the model 3500 f1 that we reviewed way back in early 2016. Scanning hardware and software have both matured a lot since then, and the new ScanJet Pro is faster, leaner, and more reliable, and it converts pages to editable text in a fraction of the time of its predecessor. The 3600 f1 also boasts an automatic document feeder (ADF) that holds almost twice as many pages as our current entry-level Editors' Choice winner, the Xerox Duplex Combo Scanner. We'd like it even more at a somewhat lower price, but the ScanJet Pro 3600 f1 is a more-than-capable document manager for busy small offices and workgroups, earning our Editors' Choice award honors for midrange combination sheetfed/flatbed document scanners.
A Merger of Two Types of Scanner
The 3600 f1 is one of four new HP scanners, led by the $1,499 ScanJet Enterprise Flow N6600 fnw1 and descending to the ScanJet Pro 2500 f1 scheduled for review soon. While they vary widely in speed, capacity, and volume ratings, the four machines look very much alike. They don't, however, look much like their predecessors, as the shot of the 3500 f1 and 3600 f1 below illustrates.
The ScanJet Pro 3600 f1 measures 5.2 by 19.4 by 12.8 inches (HWD) and weighs just under 12 pounds. Most of the recent competing sheetfed/flatbed combos are similarly sized; the Epson DS-1630 Flatbed Color Document Scanner is slightly smaller and lighter, and the Xerox Duplex Combo is close in size to today's HP but weighs about half as much.
Some higher-end combination scanners, including the HP N6600 and the Raven Pro Max, come with touch screens for setting up and initiating scans. (The Raven lets you edit scans and assign them multiple destinations directly from the control panel.) This ScanJet, by contrast, has a much more modest control panel with several buttons and status LEDs.
From left to right, your options are Cancel, Shortcut Select (for selecting workflow profiles), Scan to PDF, Scan to JPEG, Scan to Email, Scan to Cloud, Scan to USB, Simplex/Duplex Toggle (for one- or two-sided scanning), Scan (Start), and Power. While this control panel may be limited, the Epson DS-1630's and Xerox Duplex Combo's are even lesser-endowed.
The file formats and destinations correspond with profiles that you setup and manage via HP's Scan Pro software, which we'll get to in a minute. The 3600 f1 supports Windows versions 7 through 11 and Windows Server, macOS versions 10.14 Mojave and above, and Linux. You can scan from the ADF at resolutions of up to 600dpi and from the flatbed at up to 1,200dpi. Color bit depth is 24-bit external and 48-bit internal, and the maximum document size is 8.5 inches by just over 10 feet. There are USB and power cables in the box.
The ScanJet Pro 3600 f1's automatic document feeder holds up to 60 pages, and the unit's daily duty cycle is 3,000 scans. Those specs put this HP in the middle of the arena, below the higher-volume ScanJet N6600 and Raven Pro Max (100-page ADFs with 10,000 and 6,000 respective scans daily) and the entry-level Xerox and Epson (35- and 50-page ADFs respectively, each 1,500 scans daily).
Limited Connectivity, Excellent Software
The 3600 f1 has two USB ports, one for scanning to flash drives and one for connecting to a single computer. The scanner isn't networkable, so other PCs on your network can't access it, and excludes connections to most handheld mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
By plugging a thumb drive or other USB storage device into the back of the scanner, you can use the ScanJet autonomously without a computer. As mentioned, the scanner relies on the bundled HP Scan Pro software and a set of workflow profiles (HP calls them shortcuts) that contain all setup and configuration data such as scan resolution, file format, and destination. You can edit shortcuts or create your own in Scan Pro; it's all straightforward and simple to set up and use.
In addition to Scan Pro, you get industry-standard WIA, ISIS, and Twain drivers for connecting the ScanJet to the scores of applications (such as Adobe Acrobat, Corel Draw, and Microsoft Word and Excel) that support scanning into them directly.
Testing the ScanJet Pro 3600 f1: Snappy, Highly Accurate Scans
HP rates the ScanJet Pro 3600 f1 at 30 one-sided pages per minute (ppm) and 60 two-sided images per minute (ipm, where each page side is counted as an image). The Xerox and Epson scanners are both rated at 25ppm/50ipm, while most higher-end models including the Raven Pro Max (60ppm/120ipm) and Fujitsu fi-8270 (70ppm/140ipm) are at least twice as fast.
For real-world results, I tested the HP over a USB 3.0 connection from our Intel Core i5 testbed running Windows 10 and HP Scan Pro. The first test entailed clocking the 3600 f1 as it scanned our 25-page one-sided and two-sided (50 sides) Microsoft Word text documents and converted and saved them as image PDFs. The device scanned the single-sided document at 33.7ppm and the duplex pages at 63.8ipm, slightly exceeding its rated speeds. As mentioned, the more costly Raven, HP, and Fujitsu workhorses beat this midrange machine hands down, while the lower-end Epson and Xerox combos trailed by 5ppm to 9ppm.
Next, I timed the ScanJet and the HP Scan Pro software as it captured our two-sided 25-page text document and saved it to the more useful searchable PDF format. The stark difference between this scanner's text conversion time (48 seconds) and its 2016 predecessor's (5 minutes and 44 seconds) shows just how much optical character recognition (OCR) has matured over the past half-decade. The Epson DS-1630, reviewed in early 2017, took just under five minutes, while the more recent Xerox Combo did the job in 58 seconds. In the past three or four years, only a few portable scanners have taken more than a minute.
As for OCR accuracy, the 3600 f1 proved error-free down to 6-point type in both our sans-serif (Arial) and serif (Times New Roman) font tests. That's frankly about as good as it gets; converting text smaller than 6 points is, well, pointless, as it's counter-productive to create documents with text that tiny in the first place. For the record, the higher-end sheetfed/flatbed combos managed accuracy down to 5 points in Arial and to 6 points in Times New Roman, while the less expensive Epson and Xerox combos settled for 6 points in Arial and 8 points in Times New Roman.
Achieving scan accuracy at 8 points error-free isn't half bad, either; you won't run into many documents with text that small. To be fair, I should add that the Epson and Xerox were reviewed in 2017 and 2019 respectively; it's a good bet that their bundled OCR software has been updated several times since.
Test Scans: The Flatbed
Another area where scanners and scanning software have matured is in capturing colorful photos and multicolor documents. We don't typically run speed tests on flatbed scanners, but I put several photos of varying sizes as well as colorful drawings, business graphics, and full-color brochures on the glass to evaluate the HP's scanning accuracy and detail rather than speed.
The flatbed's 1,200dpi resolution and 48-bit color depth reproduced nearly everything I threw at it with impressive detail and brilliant color accuracy. It's always nice when you don't have to make many color corrections or rescans. Between the HP's precise sensors and the exactitude of the interface software, I've no complaints about the flatbed's performance.
An Excellent, if Expensive, Document Churner
As we said, an MSRP of $599 feels a little high for this HP, though we wouldn't be surprised if a price cut or at least a sale happens soon. That said, the ScanJet Pro 3600 f1 is a superb midrange scanner with a wealth of features; an easy-to-use, robust interface; and decent document archiving. For its extra cost, it gives you an ADF with almost twice the capacity of the Editors' Choice-winning Xerox Duplex Combo's, along with higher scanning speeds and double the daily duty cycle. If your home-based or small office demands more than entry-level speed and volume, the ScanJet Pro 3600 f1 is our new favorite midrange combination sheetfed/flatbed scanner.
