HP Pavilion x360 14

amazon HP Pavilion x360 14 reviews

Not everyone has thousands of dollars to spend on a new laptop, and the new HP Pavilion x360 14 is a prime example of a good-priced laptop that wants more.

The version I received has an 8th generation quad-core processor, although a model with a 10th generation processor is also available. You can get the affordable model I reviewed for $560 with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.

It’s an attractive price, but can a laptop this cheap offer everything you need?

A design that feels like it should be more upscale

The Pavilion x360 is silver but not aluminum. You’ll need to jump to one of the laptop’s pricier cousins, such as the pricey Specter x360 13, if you want to avoid plastic.

The lid gives a little under pressure, as does the keyboard deck. Nothing too big, though, especially when you’ll be spending less than half the amount. However, that doesn’t mean the Pavilion is flimsy or cheap. It’s strong enough that you can confidently throw it around.

The hinge, which is always important on a 360-degree switch that can switch between clamshell, tent, media, and tablet modes, is stiff enough to keep the screen steady but smooth enough when spinning.

The Pavilion x360 is also an attractive laptop, available in various colors, including Natural Silver, Mineral Silver, Warm Gold, Blue, and Light Gold. There’s a $10 or $15 surcharge for all but Natural Silver, but whichever color you choose is appealing with just enough chrome and matching angles familiar to HP fans. That isn’t a gem-cut Specter or even a modern Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-Black Edition, but for half the price, you might not care.

However, I wouldn’t call the Sleek Booth. The side bezels are reasonably thin, and the top bezel isn’t huge – but man, the chin below the screen is huge. Meanwhile, the Pavilion x360 is a bit chunky at 0.8 inches thick and 3.49 pounds.

Budget laptops are usually well-appointed with ports, and the Pavilion x360 is no exception.

That’s pretty heavy for a 14-inch laptop that’s made of plastic. The all-metal Dell Inspiron 2-in-1 mentioned above comes in at 0.63 inches and 3.08 pounds. Of course, the Pavilion x360’s weight is of the utmost concern when you’re using it as a tablet. All that is common with laptops at this price point, so I’m not too surprised.

Interestingly, I’ve noticed that budget laptops are generally well-equipped with ports. The Pavilion x360 is no exception, coming with a nice selection, including a USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 port and an audio jack on the left edge. The right-hand side has another USB-A port, a full-size HDMI port, a USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 port, and a full-size SD card reader. There’s no Thunderbolt 3 support, but that’s to be expected at this price point.

Premium asymptotic input options

No matter how great a laptop looks or how well built, the keyboard should be usable. Fortunately, the Pavilion x360 inherits a keyboard very similar to its Specter sibling. It’s a familiar style, with keycaps that match the system colors, and the writing is light but still legible. The mechanism is a bit shallow and not as sharp as the Specter keyboard – my personal favorite – but it’s better than most other budget laptops I’ve used. That’s a real plus in favor of this machine.

The touchpad is very wide but a bit short; There’s plenty of room on the keyboard for a larger trackpad. Fortunately, HP has switched to Microsoft precision touchpad drivers in its latest laptops, including the 2019 Envy 13, which I like quite a bit. Unlike older HP laptops that use Synaptics drivers, the Pavilion x360’s touchpad is accurate and reliable.

The Pavilion x360’s touchscreen is responsive, another area where you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference from a more expensive premium laptop. My review unit didn’t include the HP Active Pen, but if you configure the 10th gen version at HP.com, the pen comes in the box. Accordingly, I didn’t get a chance to test it.

Finally, Windows 10 Hello passwordless login is provided by a fingerprint reader conveniently located on the keyboard deck, to the touchpad’s right, and off the road. It works well, and that’s a bonus you don’t find on many budget laptops.

Performance is just used.

As noted in the introduction, my review unit used Intel’s 8th Gen Whiskey Lake Core i5-8265U. According to our benchmarks, the Pavilion 360 performed as expected. For example, in the Geekbench 4 synthetic benchmark, HP achieved the same score as the much more expensive Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 4 with the same CPU.

In our more real-world Handbrake test encoding a 420MB video to H.265, the Pavilion x360 finished in just over five minutes, 16 seconds faster than the Lenovo.

In other words, this 2-in-1 is very fast for the typical productive worker. You won’t want to use the Pavilion x360 for high-end video or photo editing, but for Office apps, web browsing, content consumption, and the like, you’ll be fine.

One thing you won’t want to do with the Pavilion x360 is played modern games. Intel UHD Graphics 620 won’t keep up.

where can you get a HP Pavilion x360 14 online

HP Pavilion x360 14” Touchscreen Laptop, 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD Storage, Full HD IPS Display, Windows 10 Home OS, Long Battery Life, Work & Streaming (14-dw1024nr, 2021): Buy it now

HP Pavilion x360 14 Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop, 14” Full HD Touchscreen Display, Intel Core i5, 8 GB DDR4 RAM, 512 GB SSD Storage, Windows 10 Home, Backlit Keyboard (14-dh2011nr, 2020 Model): Buy it now

2020 HP Pavilion x360 14″ FHD WLED Touchscreen 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop, Intel Core i5-1035G1 up to 3.6GHz, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, 802.11ac, Bluetooth, Webcam, HDMI, Fingerprint Reader, Windows 10: Buy it now

HP – Pavilion x360 2-in-1 14″ Touch-Screen Laptop – Intel Core i5 – 8GB Memory – 256GB SSD – Warm Gold – 14m-dw1023dx: Buy it now

Battery life is a disappointment.

So far, so good, at least at this price point. But what about battery life? If you want a laptop that keeps you away from plugs, does the Pavilion x360 qualify?

I ran our usual battery test kit, and unfortunately, this is a 2-in-1 that doesn’t impress its longevity. When browsing the web, the Pavilion 360 lasted for six and a half hours compared to the budget-oriented Acer Aspire 5 at nine hours with its 15.6-inch screen. When iterating over our Avengers test trailer, the HP lasted less than eleven hours than the Acer at 13.

Battery life is not the Pavilion x360’s strong point.

On our most demanding Basemark web benchmark test, the Pavilion x360 barely passed two hours, while the Aspire 5 lasted an extra hour and forty minutes.

Battery life isn’t the Pavilion x360’s strong point, at least when configured with the 8th Gen Core i5. That could improve with the 10th gen chips.

An attractive price, a cheap monitor

One component that often impresses systems is the display, and the Pavilion x360 is a case in point. Five years ago, a Full HD display like this would have been average. Today, it’s trivial.

Specifically, colors are muted. Just 62 percent of sRGB and 48 percent of AdobeRGB, you’re missing some of your colors, and accuracy is off too. Contrast is also below average, at a contrast ratio of 670:1 and brightness at 262 nits, well below our 300 nit threshold.

That isn’t a bad display, but you can get a better one, even on other budget laptops. The Aspire 5 is a great example – it has similar colors, but its higher contrast makes productivity tasks involving black text on a white background more pleasant.

That’s the story here: The Pavilion x360’s display is fine for productivity work, and its gamma at 2.4 is close enough to a perfect 2.2 that media consumption is a good experience. I will note that the sound is a strong point, comes in loud, and doesn’t distort when turned up. The Pavilion x360 doesn’t exceed its weight in this category, but it’s not embarrassing in itself.