^HP's Pavilion Gaming Laptop may look like a relic from years past, given the increase of HP's Omen line. Given, the Pavilion line does not have Omen's "For Gamers, By Gamers" cred, yet ... well, what's in a name, really? The Pavilion Gaming Laptop is truly just an Omen in disguise, an entry-level peer with mainstream branding.
Variations
The pricing is mainstream, too. The Pavilion Gaming Laptop starts at simply $640 for a base Pavilion 15t model on hp.com, with Intel Core i5-9300H and also a last-gen GTX 1050. The version we got is basically HP's "premium" system, the poetically named 15-dk0045cl, a $1,250 variation sold at Costco as well as equipped with an Intel Core i7-9750H, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 256GB M. 2 SSD, and a 1TB HDD. It's a bargain. If you're not a Costco member, a the same model based on the Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15t at hp.com costs $1,440. The comparable Pavilion 15-dk0046nr is available for $1,300 on hp.com with a Core i7-9750H, 12GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, and a step down in graphics to Nvidia's GTX 1650.
HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop
IDG/ Hayden Dingman
Storage space is a location you can cut corners, depending on your needs. On hp.com, opting for just the 256GB SSD conserves $100, though you'll be loading video games in like sardines then. A 512GB SSD may be the better alternative-- still little by contemporary requirements, but sufficient to maintain a couple of games installed in all times, and you'll still conserve $50 over the 256GB SSD/1TB HDD combination.
[Further reading: Our choices for best PC laptop computers] Purpose low, or you might too have a look at Omen, which is just a little more expensive. For instance, you can configure a Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15t on hp.com for $1,490 with a Core i7-9750H, GTX 1660 Ti, a 512GB SSD, and a 144Hz screen. The exact same setup in an Omen Laptop 15t on hp.com is $1,550. It's just a $60 distinction, yet the Omen line is arguably slightly much better, as you'll see when we look into the design.
Design
*The difference remains in the information-- some little ones, yet also some very crucial ones. Allow's start with the appearances.
The Pavilion Gaming Laptop looks equally just as good as HP's Omen schedule. It features the same focused joint as the Omen 17 we evaluated in November, the same almost-rectangular form. However where the Omen selected a brushed-metal appearance inside and outside, the Pavilion selects a matte-black surface-- and a correct HP logo design, rather than Omen's demon-face.
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HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop
IDG/ Hayden Dingman
Truthfully? I choose the Pavilion Gaming Laptop to the Omen relative. It's a go-anywhere laptop computer, an everyday workhorse that additionally plays games on the weekend breaks. Also the "Acid Green" variation we examined is rather unobjectionable. The electric-green keyboard backlighting welcomes Razer contrasts, yet HP opted for a jewel-tone emerald accent for the cover logo design that's eye-catching however not eye-searing, a fine line to stroll. I advise paying $10 for the white logo design and also backlighting if you really want to assimilate, but I have no worry with the Pavilion Gaming Laptop visually.
Unfortunately most of the various other distinctions between the Pavilion and also the Omen enter the latter's support. First and foremost, the 15.6-inch screen. This is an area where lower-cost laptop computers frequently cut corners, because the display is just one of the most expensive components.
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The Pavilion Gaming Laptop defaults to a conventional 1080p IPS display with a 60Hz refresh rate. Not every laptop computer requires to be 144Hz or 4K resolution-- yet it does need to be brilliant sufficient to see. I'm irritated because I just applauded HP for outfitting the Omen with a bright 362-nit display, a rarity for budget-conscious suppliers. The Pavilion Gaming Laptop peaks at 250 nits plugged in, our baseline for seeing convenience. However, it lowers to 200 nits unplugged, much except that standard, which we utilize for battery benchmarking.
HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop
IDG/ Hayden Dingman
What that indicates for you depends on your use case. The Pavilion Gaming Laptop is plenty brilliant with the lights out, so late-night pc gaming sessions are great. Also a single expenses light suffices to rinse the Pavilion Gaming Laptops's display screen, however, as well as window glare can be a genuine trouble throughout the day, specifically unplugged. Image: Those big glass panes at the airport terminal, and also you scrunching up your eyes to see your display.
*HP does use two added display options: 1080p at 144Hz, and 4K. Presuming the 144Hz version is the same made use of on the Omen however, it's probably worth the $100 upgrade. That alone would add a half-star to our rating here.
Below the display screen, you'll discover a row of upward-firing audio speakers. This, as well, differs from the Omen, and I don't always dislike the change alone. The Pavilion Gaming Laptop gets loud, and the audio result is fairly clear. These audio speakers are good for watching YouTube, penalty for listening to some slightly tinny music, and also ... well, pretty unpleasant for video gaming. Utilize a headset.
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The larger concern, though is that the audio speakers came with the expense of a bigger trackpad and also devoted computer mouse switches.
HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop
IDG/ Hayden Dingman
I've said it again and again, yet I believe specialized left- as well as right-click switches are a should for video gaming laptop computers. Sure, you'll plug in a real computer mouse for anything major, but there are a lot of times when I'm on the roadway without a mouse, or where a computer mouse isn't possible (i.e., airplanes). In those circumstances, having trusted left- as well as right-click buttons is crucial to playing even basic journey games. Tap-to-click isn't sufficient, and also it's an embarassment HP performed with the Pavilion Gaming Laptop. It's the one facet where head-to-head the Omen definitively triumphes.
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You can likewise say the Omen keyboard's zone RGB lighting is far better than the flat single-color lights on the Pavilion, though that's less essential. Just make certain to get the shade variant you choose, either green or white. No matter, HP's laptop key-boards remain to impress me. They're rigid, but with a rewarding click.
Lastly, ports. As I stated in our Omen evaluation, "Accolades for placing all the ports on the side." A lot of pc gaming laptop computers placed crucial I/O on the back-- terrific for maintaining cable televisions out of the way on a desk, yet a pain to accessibility when driving. The Pavilion Gaming Laptop consists of power, two USB 3.0 ports, as well as a 3.5 mm jack on the appropriate side, plus HDMI-out, an additional USB-A 3.0 port, ethernet, an SD card visitor, and also a USB-C port on the left.
Efficiency
Don't anticipate record-setting criteria below. Yes, we tested the "premium" Pavilion 15 with a Core i7-9750H, GTX 1660 Ti, and 16GB of RAM, however the quote marks are there for a factor. What's premium for the Pavilion line is sturdily mid-tier somewhere else, the trustworthy family sedan of gaming laptops.
With both the Omen and Pavilion lines, HP selected Intel's familiar Core i7-9750H component, enabling us to do some head-to-head screening. And also you know what? The Pavilion Gaming Laptop truly is an Omen in camouflage. Below you'll see the outcomes of our HandBrake examination, where we make use of the free energy to encode a 30GB MKV documents down to the "Android Tablet" pre-programmed.
HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop- Handbrake
IDG/ Hayden Dingman
We've tested and also checked and tested the Core i7-9750H and also the Core i7-8750H before it, so any kind of inconsistency protrudes. Notification that the Pavilion Gaming Laptop drastically underperforms contrasted to the Dell G7 as well as MSI GS65-- with the Omen 17 resting best together with. Both dealt with this task, taking nearly five mins longer than the standard.
As I stated in our Omen 17 review, it doesn't actually matter. Most games are constricted by the GPU, not the CPU. Everyday usage is unlikely to tax a CPU as hard as HandBrake, and also short-burst efficiency is less affected, as confirmed by our Cinebench screening listed below.
HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop Cinebench
IDG/ Hayden Dingman
The HandBrake results are interesting, though, so because there's a clear relationship in between the Omen as well as Pavilion lines. These really are 2 tastes of the exact same laptop computer, one aimed low-end and one premium, with some minor overlap between.
I do want we would certainly examined an HP Omen with a GTX 1660 Ti so we could do even more straight contrasts. Unfortunately, the Omen 17 we checked in November consisted of a full-size RTX 2070, a high-performance powerhouse.
The GTX 1660 Ti is a humbler card, someplace in between the power of the last-gen GTX 1060 and also the RTX 2060, and without the ray-tracing abilities offered by the last. It conveniently vanquishes the GTX 1650, though-- crucial, considered that it's a lower-cost alternative for the Pavilion Gaming Laptop. You're far better off with a GTX 1660 Ti, as evidenced by our 3DMark screening.
HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop- FireStrike Extreme
IDG/ Hayden Dingman
Is the GTX 1660 Ti worth the added $270 HP charges? That's a high price, however I think so. The GTX 1650 jobs, however hardly. With new gaming consoles following year, the GTX 1660 Ti is a slightly more future-proofed choice. It's still going to have a hard time to run newer games with all the bells and whistles, however it ought to continue to be sensible an additional 2 or 3 years much longer than the GTX 1650-- as well as by then we'll be well right into the next hardware cycle, and also upgrading will not really feel as volatile.
The performance space is much more apparent in real-world testing, where the GTX 1650 struggles to run Shadow of Mordor at Ultra-- a six-year-old game-- while the GTX 1660 Ti winds past the 100-frames-per-second mark. Surge of the Tomb Raider is less excellent as that video game is more CPU-constrained, but there's still a dive in between the GTX 1650 and the GTX 1660 Ti.
HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop - Shadow of Mordor
IDG/ Hayden Dingman
HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop - Tomb Raider
IDG/ Hayden Dingman
Per common, we end on battery. Based upon our chart below, the Pavilion 15 easily defeats the Omen-- as well as a number of other video gaming laptop computers as well. Long-term well over five hours, battery life is in fact very respectable.
HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop (2019) - Battery
IDG/ Hayden Dingman
Remember that the numbers do not inform the whole story. We commonly do our battery screening at 250 nits, yet as I stated previously the Pavilion Gaming Laptop lowers to 200 nits when unplugged. Therefore our result right here features a huge asterisk, due to the fact that the screen might be as well dark for you to really utilize the Pavilion Gaming Laptop, despite for how long it lasts. That stated, the Omen 17 we examined had a much better display yet dreadful battery life. It's a concession either way.
Bottom line
I entered this reasoning I 'd find a battle royal in between HP's Pavilion and also Omen lines. Truly, they're just two sides of a coin. The Pavilion's your entry-level Omen, whether HP's happy to call it that or not.
As such, I believe the Pavilion Gaming Laptop that we examined is a high-pressure salesmanship. It's enclose cost to an in a similar way configured Omen, but with a disappointing display and no computer mouse buttons. You would certainly be better off spending extra for the Omen, I promise.
The Pavilion Gaming Laptop nevertheless punches well above its weight in the entry-level array. If you're looking for a below-$1,000 pc gaming laptop computer, HP's built one every bit as strong and also refined as its high-end equivalents-- because at the core, they're the exact same laptop. Branding is funny in some cases, eh?
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