HP Pavilion 15-p214dx 15.6 inch Laptop Review

15.6" HP Pavilion 15-p214dx Notebook
via Amazon

HP Pavilion 15-p214dx is a great mid-range 15.6 inch laptop with a Broadwell Intel i7 processor, good amount of memory and hard drive, modern design, a good range of connectivity including a DVD drive and two USB 3.0 ports, longer battery life, better sound quality than most and only small flaws like lack of keyboard backlighting and louder fans. It is a decent computer for home, school or office for daily and demanding applications and some light gaming.

HP Pavilion 15-p214dx is offered with the dual core Intel i7-5500U (4MB L3 cache) at 2.4 GHz speed up to 3.0GHz with Intel Turbo Boost for extra speed and stays at the minimum speed to save on power and hyper threadng for smart 4 way processing, 6GB DDR3L SDRAM memory for multitasking power, 750GB SATA HDD hard drive at 5400rpm rotating speed as spacious storage with HP ProtectSmart + Cloud based 25GB Dropbox free for 6 months and 64-bit Windows 8.1 operating system which still doesn't really have a lot of fans but your free upgrade to Windows 10 is on its way with two new releases over Summer and Autumn.

15.6 inch diagonal WLED-backlit Brightview high definition display with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution for sharp and clear images (but obviously not as well as FHD with IPS panel- this one has TN panel and viewing angles are so so) when you're browsing the net, watching movies and playing games and the graphics card is the Intel HD 5500 with up to 3GB total available video memory and that performs better than both the previous generation Intel HD 5000 and 4000 but you can still play the latest games only at low settngs. It has the front-facing HP TrueVision high definition webcam with integrated dual array digital microphone to chat on Skype. Sound is very good with Beats Audio and front facing stereo speakers according to some of the customers and they only need to turn it up half way for proper sound so it is that loud and clear.

Natural silver exterior/ ash silver interior HP Pavilion 15-p214dx looks nice and modern with HP texture linear finish- has a sleek design, weighs 5 pounds and measures 10.12 x 15.14 x 0.97 inches, build quality is fine as it is made of solid plastic- just dont't expect a Macbook like premium feel which would be impossible at this low price level anyway. It has a 4-cell lithium ion battery that should offer at least 4-5 hours on average use (more than 7 hours in theory) as the CPU's TDP is only 15 watts. Non-backlit island style keyboard is full size with a 10-key numpad on the side and you can both enter numeric data easily and type comfortably- keys feel quite solid and it also has the functional Imagepad that supports multiple gestures. Connectivity options include the Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW, 802.11 bgn wireless, 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector for wired internet access, an HDMI output so you can enjoy Full HD videoson your HDTV, Media Card Reader- SD, 2 x faster USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 2.0 port and 3.5mm audio combo jack.

Conclusion: Although not a high end PC despite having an i7 processor with a Passmark benchmark score of just under 4000 on the day of this review HP Pavilion 15-p214dx is still great value for money and will serve most purposes as a powerful package except for advanced multimedia editing and demanding games. You will get the CyberLink Suite and Microsoft Office 365 trial version for 30 days and unfortunately comes with a bit of junkware that you may need to uninstall for snappier performance. It boots up and works fast thanks to the i7 processor despite the lack of SSD and is built to be portable with the right components so you won't have any problems carrying it around. It doesn't have that much of a premium feel as it is made of solid plastic but without the weak spots rather than aluminium which you certainly can not expect, you can sometimes hear the fan a little but is not that disturbing. RAM is upgradeable but not very easy as you may need to disassemble the whole thing and for better speed and performance you can swap the 5400rpm speed hard drive with an SSD.

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