The 2-in-1 laptop trend has gained traction in the market. Manufacturers such as Dell, Lenovo, Asus, HP, and others are now releasing them like hotcakes. 2-in-1 laptops can be divisive, as they attempt to appeal to a broad audience by providing multiple use cases. These laptops are designed to offer an ideal mix of productivity, entertainment, and practicality, thanks in part to the various positions they can be set in. HP recently strengthened their portfolio with the HP Pavilion x360 (2023), an expensive product from the company that boasts a recycled outer shell, a good keyboard, and a touch-enabled high-resolution display paired with Intel’s latest 13th generation ‘U’ series processor. The total cost of the package is INR 79,990. How does the HP Pavilion x360 perform in our testing, and should you buy it for work? Let’s check
Design and Build Quality
With more companies focusing on environmental sustainability, HP is also doing its part with an outer shell made of recycled materials. This only has a minor impact on the appearance of the laptop. While it is unlikely to turn many heads, it gets the basics right by opting for a more professional appearance ideal for its target market. The 14-inch chassis is made of high-quality aluminium and is rigid. It’s quite sturdy and should withstand a few knocks in your bag.
The all-silver colour scheme is ideal for a boardroom, with a glossy HP logo in the centre that attracts fingerprints at the drop of a hat. If you prefer something different, HP also sells a Rose-coloured variant. The hinges on the laptop are quite visible, especially when the lid is opened. Speaking of which, the laptop lid is quite heavy, and opening it by yourself is a difficult task. Nonetheless, the laptop weighs 1.51kg and has a well-balanced weight. When opened, the Pavilion x360 features a well-spaced keyboard and a reasonably sized trackpad.
We spent the majority of our time on writing reviews, and we noticed the keys to be very responsive, with good tactile feedback. Remember that, due to the small size of the chassis, it does not have a full-size keyboard, but it does have individual page up and down buttons, which is extremely useful for writers. However, the Home and Backspace buttons are crammed together, and we frequently mistook the former for the latter.
Display
The HP Pavilion x360 features a 14-inch touch-enabled IPS display with a 19201080 pixel resolution that refreshes at 60Hz. It has thick bezels, with the bottom chin standing out more. We had no problems using the laptop indoors, however the peak brightness of 250 nits is insufficient in bright sunlight. The screen has a 16:9 aspect ratio and covers 45% of the NTSC colour gamut. The panel’s viewing angles are adequate, and the touch response is excellent.
The Pavilion x360 can also be used as a tablet, but due to the weight of the display, it can also be used to sculpt your biceps without going to the gym. Nonetheless, HP includes a stylus in case you want to express your artistic side. The Pavilion x360’s bottom-firing speakers were quite average in our opinion. They lack bass and clarity and are best suited for tent mode use.
Performance
The HP Pavilion x360’s Intel i5-1335U processor has 10 CPU cores, which includes two performance cores and eight efficiency cores. It features a total of 12 threads and a maximum processor frequency of 4.6GHz.
The ‘U’ in i5-1335U denotes a power-efficient chip that consumes only 15W of power under normal workloads. It can, however, be turbo-ed up to 55W if desired. There is no discrete GPU here, only integrated Iris XE graphics. To save money, HP chose previous-generation 16GB DDR4 RAM over beefier DDR5. Given the use case, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker, especially since it includes 1TB of NVMe M.2 SSD storage to save face. WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 are also supported.
Day-to-day Tasks
With that foundation, it can handle day-to-day tasks like juggling multiple Chrome tabs fairly well without stuttering or lags. Furthermore, despite its small size, there were no heating issues, with its fans whirring at well-below-uncomfortable decibel levels.
On Cinebench R23, the HP Pavilion x360 scored 1558 and 6115 points in single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. While this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, here are a few numbers to put things in context. First, in single-core and multi-core tests, the Infinix Zero Book Ultra with an i9-12900H processor scored 1721 and 11924, respectively.
Battery
A 43Wh battery is tucked inside the rear shroud and can be charged with the included 65W proprietary barrel charger. The ‘U’ series of Intel processors are more concerned with providing a long battery life when combined with a 60Hz display. As a result, the screen-on time on the Pavilion X360 is six and a half hours. We spent our time watching YouTube videos, creating documents, as well as casually browsing the internet.
The included charger takes about two hours to fully charge the laptop from dead. This data was collected while simultaneously using the laptop. In case you leave the charger at home, the USB-Type C port can also be used to charge the laptop.
Verdict
While the HP Pavilion x360 costs INR 83,999 in the HP store, it costs Rs 79,990 on Amazon. The 2-in-1 laptop represents good value for money at this price. Furthermore, the sturdy build quality, as well as the spacious keyboard and trackpad layout, should be beneficial for office workers who spend the majority of their time on Excel spreadsheets. Furthermore, the slim form factor and ability to use it in a variety of positions make it ideal for productivity and entertainment. However, in tablet mode, it may be too heavy for some users. Overall, the Pavilion x360 is a good option if you want a laptop that can serve multiple functions while also performing consistently well.
, an expensive product from the company that boasts a recycled outer shell.){kind=link}