HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop: Racing stripes don’t make you go faster

PC gaming on the go used to be a novelty. Gaming laptops used to be big unwieldy beasts that held lots of power but were very impractical to bring around.

Times have changed and there has been an emergence of more affordable PC gaming notebooks that cater to gamers on a budget. The HP Pavilion Gaming notebook is one such device that offers gamers plenty of bang for their buck. Let’s take a look at see how this gaming machine performs.

Design and build

At first glance, the Pavilion Gaming looks very much like your standard work laptop masquerading as a gaming notebook. It certainly looks like it is trying too hard, using neon green hues that are synonymous with competitor brands.

Open up the lid and you will be greeted by a green honeycomb pattern on the palm rest that extends up to the full-sized backlit keyboard that is also green in colour.

While I can forgive the neon green design, I simply can’t overlook that the top lid of the notebook flexed downwards even with minimal pressure. With that in mind, take care not to stack things on top of the Pavilion Gaming.

Still, the one positive outcome from its mostly plastic design is that the notebook feels very light for its size. Weighing in at 2.3kg, I found the notebook to be very portable for a gaming class notebook and no trouble bringing it around.

Along the left side of the notebook, you will find the A/C charging port, Gigabit Ethernet, a USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 port, SD card reader as well as a DVD drive thrown in for good measure if you still rely on physical media.

On the right side, you will find the headphone/microphone jack combo, another USB 3.0 port and a full sized HDMI.

There is an exhaust port lining up the right that releases heat generated by the notebook. Most times it doesn’t get too hot but it does get uncomfortably warm when playing games and it is annoying if you are a right hander using a mouse.

The cooling fan is near silent most of the time unless you are playing games, though it can get warm if you place it on your lap.

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Hardware & Performance

Within the Pavilion Gaming lies an Intel Skylake i7-6700HQ processor running at 2.6GHz supported by 8GB of RAM and comes with 1TB hard drive for storage.

Suffice to say, the Pavilion Gaming is well equipped for work and play be it opening multiple tabs while surfing the web or using Photoshop to edit pictures.

Powering the gaming insides is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 950M GPU that is able to deliver solid frame rates when the settings are not maxed out.

You get a 15.6-inch full HD IPS display that is very crisp and clear, viewing angles are also very good. On the downside contrast and colour saturation appear to be pretty mute in comparison to other notebooks in its class.

As mentioned earlier, the keyboard is backlit but you can’t adjust the brightness as the button just turns it either on or off. Typing feels fine though I found the keys spaced a bit close together and the ‘O’ button was a little sticky, sometimes not registering when I typed the word “notebook” throughout this review.

The trackpad, for all intents and purposes, is large and feels good when navigating with it. Of course, you will still need a proper mouse if you intend to game seriously.

The built-in Bang & Olufsen speakers feature prominently underneath the screen, just waiting to blast off some tunes.

In terms of practical usage, the Pavilion Gaming feels relatively light for its size when I carried it around. Setting it on the table at the local coffee store on a bright sunny day, I found the screen to be perfectly viewable even when the sun was shining brightly thanks to the anti-glare reflective coating.

One compromise of the HP system is that it uses a standard 5,400rpm SATA drive, though offering a roomy 1TB storage. It is a sacrifice between speed and storage space but at least the drive isn’t noisy when in use.

Talking about gaming performance, the Pavilion Gaming is at best a modest gaming machine. The GeForce GTX 950M is an upper-mid-range class GPU that has its limitations and you definitely won’t be cranking every game up to Ultra settings in Full HD.

That was evident when I played Hitman (2016) with its expansive environments and massive crowds, the frame rate averaged at about 23 frames per second (fps) with the settings set at high. Hardly playable by any standards.

Tuning the graphics down a little to medium or low settings and managed to get an average 30 fps under most conditions. It certainly isn’t prettier than higher end gaming notebooks but it gets the job done.

However, when it comes to big expansive open world games like Gran Theft Auto 5, The Witcher 3 or Middle-Earth: Shadow or Mordor, your only chance at playing the game is keeping the graphics set to low.

I have to commend the Pavilion Gaming’s CoolSense technology that manages to keep the notebook’s temperature at comfortable levels and prevents scorched thighs. The notebook’s fan is also surprisingly quiet even when running games.

The earlier mentioned Bang & Olufsen speakers do a decent job be it for music, videos or playing a game. The only thing that it is lacking in is bass and sense of depth but otherwise, I can get by with these speakers while on the go.

As with most gaming notebooks, don’t expect the Pavilion Gaming to last longer than 3 and half hours, even under normal usage like surfing the web and playing back video. It drains even quicker when playing games, lasting no longer than an hour when we spent some time playing Hitman.

That being said, don’t forget to leave home with the power adapter if you need to use for more than just a few hours.

Verdict

So comes the big question: Is the HP Pavilion Gaming notebook worth your hard earned money? Well, it all depends if you are a hardcore PC gamer then you may be a little disappointed to find that things don’t run smoothly at Ultra settings.

But on the other hand, if you are PC gamer on a budget and don’t mind compromising a little then it is well worth it. Just tune the resolution and settings down a notch and you will find that it is actually a decent laptop for gaming.

There are only a few gripes I have with it. The flexing top lid is definitely not a great indicator of build quality and the keyboard, though backlit, has some keys feel a little unresponsive. Secondly, the battery life leaves much to be desired and certainly could be improved upon.

All in all, the HP Pavilion Gaming notebook is just the kind of solution a gamer on a budget could use. It’s a dependable workhorse that knows how to both work and play at the same time.

Pros:
-Lightweight (2.3kg) for a 15-inch gaming notebook
-Good cooling system
-Decent graphics performance
-Good sounding speakers
-Processor is more than capable of handling most tasks.

Cons:
-Underwhelming battery life
-Build quality isn’t great
-Black and green colour scheme is tacky
-Lacks SSD for quick loading of OS.