The Pavilion line has always represented the mid-range mark for HP consumers, and this 15-inch slots right in; it’s an ultrabook laptop that doesn’t really have much going for it. The model we have here is absolutely bursting with high-spec hardware, from 16GB RAM to a speedy 512GB SSD, from the touchscreen 15.3-inch FHD display to the fourth-generation AMD Ryzen 7 processor. This is a strong contender for a place on our best laptops list.
The result is a truly trustworthy, if not quite up to the high standards set by Intel’s top-of-the-range 11th generation mobile processors. All this guts is packed into a handsome, defiantly attractive chassis, a slim enough shape that makes it look more expensive than it actually is, and more than enough ports (literally to the point of bursting) to make this useful enough for whatever you do.
[content-egg-block template=offers_logo hide=price]The keyboard is full-sized and comfortable to type on, and the trackpad is large and easy to use. It is suitable for everyday desktop tasks such as photo editing, web browsing and watching movies, and doesn’t get too hot or loud.
The right-hand side features a memory card reader, Kensington security slot, two standard USB Type A ports and a charging port with LEDs.The USB ports are all USB 3.1 Gen1, so support up to 5Gbps rather than the more recent Gen2 10Gbps, but The SD card slot is handy, but unfortunately seems to be limited to the slower speeds of generic USB 2.0.
The lid opens to reveal a chiclet-style keyboard and numeric keypad. The keyboard is not backlit. The trackpad measures 115 mm x 60 mm and is wider than most, but narrower. The notebook measures 361 mm x 246 mm and is 20 mm thick, taking the feet into account; the sides are slightly chamfered and carved deeper towards the front, making it appear thinner. Weighing 1.7 kg, it is lighter than its specifications.
Transfer speeds from the spring-loaded MicroSD reader are relatively fast, at around 70 MB/s. Moving 1 GB of photos from a UHS-II test card to the desktop takes around 15 seconds, compared to around twice that with the older Pavilion 15 Gaming. intel Like many other Tiger Lake-U laptops, the AX201 comes standard with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity; we paired it with a Netgear RAX200 test router and the connection was stable and problem-free. The camera’s image quality has not changed between generations. At the very least, we would like to see a camera kill switch or privacy shutter, as with many other laptops these days; there is no IR camera with Windows Hello support; and the camera is not compatible with the Windows Hello system.