HP 17-f113dx Pavilion Laptop Review

HP 17-f113dx Pavilion Laptop Review

17.3 inch HP Pavilion 17-f113dx
via Amazon



Natural Silver / Ash Silver HP 17-f113dx Pavilion is a 17.3 inch screen great value laptop with a 4th generation Intel i5 processor, large and bright HD+ display with beautiful colours, ample storage space, good range of connectivity including a DVD optical drive, USB 3.0 and HDMI ports, Intel HD 4400 graphics for home entertainment with light gaming, for smooth and comfortable functioning of any daily tasks. The speed and processing power of Intel i5 CPU, larger screen with 1600x900 pixel resolution and 750GB hard drive are the three main features that make this PC stand out from the crowd and deserve its price and more.

HP 17-f113dx Pavilion comes with the Haswell dual core Intel i5-4210U processor with a 1.7GHz base speed up to 2.7GHz with turbo boost when needed and power efficiency during basic tasks and hyper threading for great four way processing (2 cores and 4 threads in parallel), 4GB DDR3L SDRAM for moderate multitasking (is not easily upgradeable but would be enough for daily multitasking- just not for advanced gaming), 750GB Serial ATA hard drive at 5400rpm rotating speed as large storage and quick read and write + Cloud based 25GB DropBox free for 6 months and ProtectSmart HDD security to protect from data loss and 64-bit Windows 8.1 operating system. These are great technical specs for the price of this machine, especially the Intel i5-4210U processor is even found in higher level laptops.

17.3 inch WLED-backlit HD+ non-touch display with 1600 x 900 pixel resolution and BrightView technology lets you view your media- photos and videos in great clarity with vivid colours but this is not a Full HD screen and the sharpness will be a little less and remember this is a budget laptop, not a top of the range expensive machine. The integrated graphics card is the Intel HD 4400 with up to 1792MB total video memory for great images, performs 20-30% better than the Intel HD 4000 and can be compared to the discrete Radeon HD 7550M- just don’t expect a lot in terms of advanced gaming, sure you can play some current games at much lower settings but mostly you’ll need to stick to the less demanding low end titles. You will not have any problems when using software like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere video editing. It has a front-facing TrueVision HD webcam at 720p resolution at 30 fps with a built-in dual-array digital microphone to video chat comfortably with friends and family. Sound is quite good too via the Beats Audio and stereo speakers for songs, videos and games.

HP 17-f113dx Pavilion Laptop Review
Silver HP Pavilion 17-f113dx with dark grey metal finish on the palmrest and lined texture lid looks quite stylish and premium with gentle curves and elegant shape despite being made of plastic- after all it is a budget computer. It weighs 6.2 pounds and measures 11 x 16 x 1.10 inches so it is fairly portable for a large 17 inch screen laptop. Battery is a 4-cell user removable lithium-ion battery (2800 mAh) and although we don’t have the info on battery life, our guess would be around 4 to 5 hours, this being a big screen machine it will be using more power and a 4-cell 2800 mAh is not a super impressive one. It has a full-size island style keyboard that is not backlit but comfortable to type on with a 10 key numpad for easier number crunching and an OK one piece trackpad with integrated right and left clicks to use with Windows 8 functions. There is no Bluetooth (and that can be sorted with a USB dongle that can cost as low as a few dollars) but pretty much everything else is covered, including a MultiFormat DVD±RW/CD-RW Dual Layer to create custom DVDs and CDs, Digital Multi-format Memory Card Reader that supports Secure Digital format, 802.11b/g/n wireless, 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector for quick and easy wired internet, 2 x USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port and a VGA port.

Conclusion: Considering there aren’t many budget 17 inch screen laptops on the market, the HP 17-f113dx Pavilion is a decent large screen, fast and powerful machine with a good range of specs and features for its price. You’ll find a 4th generation Intel i5-4210U CPU, 750GB hard drive, 4GB RAM on a single slot (that does not seem to be easy to upgrade as you’ll need to remove ten screws at the bottom and the top panel holding the keyboard and seems to be the weak point of this laptop but yes it supports an 8GB RAM if you wish to replace the existing RAM), DVD Drive, Beats Audio with great speakers, HD+ display with higher resolution than regular budget laptops but not FHD. It comes with software like Cyberlink PhotoDirector, PowerDVD and Power Director as well a 1 month trial of Microsoft Office 365, McAfee AntiVirus and a few programs like on the other HP machines that you may want to uninstall for speed boost and extra storage you may need. Windows 8 is often criticised by computer users but it is not really this computer’s fault and to get it work more like Windows 7 with Start screen you can download Classic Shell and the touchpad can take some time getting used to or you will want to get an external USB mouse. This is a beautiful looking fast machine with a large 17.3 inch display and will help you perform your daily tasks at home, school or work with ease and the best thing about it is all these features are offered with a low price tag.

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