HP Laptop 14 review: A stylish, portable laptop for under $500

Price When Reviewed

$449.99

Best Prices Today: HP Laptop 14-ep0865no

$439

$449.99

When it involves laptops, HP is chock-full of manufacturers. They’ve received enterprise laptops such because the Dragonfly and Elitebook fashions, and gaming machines such because the Omen and Victus. However, they’ve additionally received the HP Laptop, which is the producer’s finances line of laptops.

If you’re searching for a horny design and good efficiency for day-to-day duties, the HP Laptop 14 will definitely ship on these fronts. But whereas we just like the low price ticket and lengthy battery life, HP undoubtedly cuts corners with the display and cooling system. Read on to study extra.

Looking for extra choices? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops obtainable proper now.

Mattias Inghe

HP Laptop 14: Hardware and efficiency

The specs are as follows: A easy Intel Core i3 processor of the power-efficient selection, 8GB of RAM RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, a small set of USB 3 ports, an HDMI connector, a headset jack, and a reliably good community connection through Wi-Fi 6.

This is a pc for shopping, workplace work, and maybe easy picture enhancing, until you wish to do one thing extra superior than cutting down and cropping photographs for an internet site. With an unusually low variety of cores for a 13th technology Intel Core processor, solely 6 in whole, it’s not supreme for dealing with the multi-threaded wants of a Windows 11 PC and even the slightest try at energetic multitasking may end up in small breaks in processing.

This is mirrored in my efficiency measurements. Routines that measure efficiency on one core get good outcomes, however multi-core operations are considerably slower than most different computer systems. This contains issues like database jobs, demanding multitasking, and video export. More RAM would have been good in these conditions, too. This particular mannequin solely will get 8GB and no capacity to improve.

HP Laptop 14: Fans and display

The chassis is generally plastic, so warmth from the processor is dissipated solely by followers. This makes them run incessantly, even at low masses, and there appears to be solely two modes, semi-fast with semi-high fan hissing and full blast with extra noise. It can undoubtedly get annoying in the long term. I can’t discover a operate or setting to regulate the cooling and scale back the noise.

Mattias Inghe

If you’ll be able to settle for barely extra reasonable efficiency and annoying followers, there are issues to love concerning the HP Laptop 14. It’s stylishly designed with muted darkish blue surfaces, a sturdy metallic display lid, and a snug keyboard with clear backlighting. It’s mild and skinny and has softly rounded edges that make it comfy to hold round. The mouse pad can be comfy and of top of the range.

The display’s matte end handles reflections effectively and the display panel itself is of excellent high quality for an IPS display in an inexpensive laptop computer. Contrast is sweet and colours are even and impartial. In top, I get clear shifts in distinction and pale black areas if the angle is simply too slim, but it surely’s nothing I discover once I sit and work as common on the pc.

HP Laptop 14: Display, audio

Dimmed brightness produces a slight flicker on the display, suggesting that it’s managed by easy pulse modulation. Some customers could discover this annoying and tiring to observe. Personally, I’m not that delicate. I’m extra bothered by low brightness basically and low colour gamut, which makes the picture pale and in addition tough to see in too vibrant environments. A vibrant window behind your again may be sufficient to make it tough to learn.

In a standard indoor surroundings, nonetheless, it’s arduous to complain. It seems to be nice for working in paperwork and on the internet and for streaming movies. You get clear and tidy sound from audio system hidden within the chassis. They ship loads of quantity, however lose fullness and depth within the midrange and bass. Not shocking for small audio system in a small laptop computer, however I all the time hold my fingers crossed for a bit of extra when testing computer systems. Sometimes they’ll shock you.

HP has its personal sound management program the place I can set the equalizer, and in addition get an efficient noise filter for the built-in microphone. This could also be wanted as it’s normally fairly noisy. The webcam has 1080p decision and is fortunately not noisy in any respect. However, it has pale colours and low distinction. It’s not precisely skilled high quality, but it surely’s adequate for a video assembly.

Mattias Inghe

HP Laptop 14: Software, battery life

As for the keyboard, you’ll discover a few particular buttons. One of these buttons means that you can rapidly open the emoji menu, which may be useful. And there’s one other that may be set to open both My HP or Omen Gaming Hub. These are two applications that in different HP computer systems comprise settings for every little thing from followers to efficiency modes, display and sound profiles, system upkeep and rather more.

Here, neither does a lot in any respect, however they do present {hardware} standing and supply help info. Instead, there are a number of separate applications with completely different capabilities, such because the Audio Centre. In addition to HP’s personal applications, you additionally get a trial model of McAfee safety software program and a few hyperlinks to Booking and Amazon, however no extra intrusive bloatware than that.

Battery life is above common amongst related laptops. I can push the pc arduous for over three hours. If I don’t push it too arduous, it could possibly final a working day. But it’s finest to have the small charger with you as a result of you’ll be able to’t cost the battery through the USB-C port, solely with the charger’s particular spherical plug.

This article was translated from Swedish to English and initially appeared on pcwelt.de.