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The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is an interesting productivity laptop. The Pavilion line has traditionally included HP’s budget computers, which has been a notable step down from its top-tier Envy and Spectre models. Recently, however, HP has been releasing Pavilions here and there that sit tightly in the midrange zone, with their main appeal being lightweight rather than competitive pricing.
The new Pavilion Plus 14-eh1299nr is one such machine. It’s both the thinnest Pavilion ever released and the first one of its kind to include an OLED screen. Our review model arrives with a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1355U, 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, Nvidia RTX 2050 graphics, and a 2.8K 90Hz OLED display (14-inch, 2240 x 1400 resolution). This is a step up from the ~$600 Pavilions I’m used to seeing on the shelves. Of course, this isn’t a budget laptop anymore.
While the Pavilion Plus 14 isn’t the hands-down best laptop you can buy with around one grand in your pockets (the Apple MacBook Air with M2 chip hangs up there), there are significant features like a combination of power, portability and conferencing abilities that are hard to find at this price point; which make it a great productivity machine for the office.
HP Pavilion Plus 14 (2023) Specs
- 13th gen Intel Core i7-1355U 10-core processor
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050 graphics
- 16GB ram
- 1TB SSD
- 14.5 inch 2.8K resolution 120hz OLED display
- VESA DisplayHDR True Black certified display
- HP True Vision 5MP camera
- 2x USB Type-C ports
- 2x USB Type-A ports
- 1x HDMI 2.1 port
- 90W USB Type-C power adapter
Design and Features
The Pavilion Plus 14’sdesign is undoubtedly HP, everything from the aluminum silver exterior to the chassis styling, looks every inch like every other Pavilion we’ve reviewed recently, only that the sides are now squared off rather than slightly concave. That’s about the only stylistic change you’re getting on this laptop, but the result is a more premium-looking Pavilion. At 4.89 pounds and 0.65 inches thick, it isn’t the lightest in this class, but you can certainly throw it in a backpack and almost forget that it’s in there.
Opening the lid, you’re welcomed by a gorgeous LED screen that shines, giving anything displayed through it a fantastic high-quality picture. This makes a lot of sense since it complements the .8K display and even rocks some nice and thin bezels that add some roomy screen real estate.
Port selection is pretty 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 addition in particular, as normally it’s 1.4 on most business machines. The Pavilion Plus stands out as a well-balanced machine that can handle most tasks and connect to a wide range of devices.
Since the Pavilion Plus is meant for the office/business more than anywhere, HP packs in a fairly strong webcam (5MP) and pairs it with a program that augments your image based on lighting. The latter is a very useful feature that lets you adjust how you look through the webcam in real time, a feature that we never thought we needed until now.
The keyboard remains the most important aspect of a work laptop, and the Plus gets it right. It’s comfortable with a well-sized trackpad and has well-spaced-out keys that make typing a breeze with barely any typos. It also gets a toggle for backlighting, another handy feature for those who work late into the night. It’s a joy to use, and switching back to the normal-sized keys feels like a huge downgrade.
Performance
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is in a rather unique niche, as it functions incredibly well as a work machine. It has an excellent screen that makes for a perfect machine for video calls, a comfortable keyboard, and a trackpad, all backed by the powerful 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1355U CPU, 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD storage, all running Windows 11 Pro.
But these same features are complemented by Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2050 graphics card, which makes this laptop well-balanced for some casual gaming, at least with lighter games. When running various benchmarks, this laptop scores higher (sometimes significantly higher) than other similar laptops in its class running comparable hardware. For a dedicated work laptop, the HP 14-eh1299nr has the muscle to game in more-than-normal capacity for this sort of machine.
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The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050 is a fast mid-range gaming graphics card for laptops, based on the modern Ampere GA107 chip (similar to the RTX 3050), and it offers Raytracing and DLSS support. While its gaming performance is lower than the mobile RTX 2060 due to a reduced graphics memory bus, it’s still better on a work laptop than the usual Intel Iris graphics cards found on comparable laptops. At 1080p, you’re getting over 30 fs on games like Cyberpunk 2077, Forza Horizon 5, and Far Cry 6, which is rarely possible on office-based laptops.
On the other hand, the mid-tier Intel Core i7-1355U CPU is a decent performer, released in 2023 and designed for mainstream home and office laptops, especially the thin-and-light ad 2-in-1 convertibles. It can easily handle daily home and office duties, and can as well handle more demanding stuff like video editing However, for heavier tasks, you might need the high-performance HX series processor like the Intel Core i7-13650HX packed into the Asus ROG Strix G16 gaming laptop I reviewed recently.
The Core i7-1355U processor can also adjust itself to the task that needs the most attention. While you won’t readily notice the boost in performance between every single task, it does feel like every task is well optimized, thanks to the generous 16GB of RAM and fast 1TB SSD storage.
Finally, the sound quality on the Plus 14 is good, but not great even though it comes with dual speakers. Still, it sounds quite good for the kind of laptop it is, though it doesn’t have the most acoustically immersive sound.
Battery Life
Intel’s latest chips including the Core i7-1355U used on the Plus 14-eh1299nr are designated as energy efficient, but there’s a catch somewhere. The HP Pavilion Plus 14 has an unusually high benchmark score compared to its competitors and even performs well with some modern games.
But it seems the gaming chops tricked the Pavilion Plus into thinking it’s a gaming laptop or something close so it spiked its own battery life in response. This battery lasts past the five-and-half-hour mark PCMark 10’s battery life, which shows seven hours and 10-minute results, which makes it usable as a work laptop, but competitors are clocking over 12 hours and some more on a single charge.
The underwhelming battery life is owed to the two-fold problem of high-end hardware, like an OLED display and Raptor Lake Core i7, and its rather meek battery capacity, which can’t compete with the latest Apple MacBook Air M2 which last well over 17 hours on a single charge.
Sure, sacrifices have to be made for price, size, and weight. But a work laptop is expected to last, and this one does struggle a bit. Having such an uninspired battery life for a machine that’s meant to carry you through a workday is rather painful.
Overall – Should you buy the HP Pavilion Plus 14?
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is a fantastic professional machine for office and creative endeavors; you can even run some games here – as long as you don’t expect all-day battery life. Our review unit runs fine, handles file transfers speedily better than competitors, and isn’t insanely expensive. It has a slim build but doesn’t sacrifice any ports you’d need to stay productive at the office. The keyboard is comfortable and responsive, the touchpad offers satisfying feedback, and the OLED display is bold and beautiful.
Sure, the Pavilion’s design isn’t the most stunning around, but it’s the steal for folks that need a truly powerful machine with a great screen without breaking the bank. Just keep the compact power brick close- and maybe buy an extra one to keep at the office. Beyond that, you’re getting an HP Pavilion Plus 14 with an OLED screen that’s able to elevate any image to near crystal-clear perfection.
The Review
HP Pavilion Plus 14
The HP Pavilion Plus 14 14-eh1299nr is a well-balanced, professional laptop with enough power and connectivity for creative and office workloads, along with a gorgeous OLED display and a competitive price. However, competitors are offering better battery life.
PROS
- Great at both work and gaming
- Gorgeous 2.8K OLED screen
- Decent selection of ports
- Great keyboard
CONS
- Middling battery life
- Average sound quality
Review Breakdown
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EDITORS RATING
Last update on 2023-09-27 at 20:03 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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