HP Pavilion Plus 14 (2023) Review

HP Pavilion Plus 14.. An ultraportable laptop running Windows in the midrange is the HP Pavilion Plus 14 (2023). A range of Intel 13th Gen CPUs, including those from the U, P, and H series, are compatible with it. You have the option to purchase the laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce MX550 or RTX 2050 discrete GPU in addition to integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics.

There is a 16GB memory limit and a 1TB storage limit, respectively. A 2.8k (2880 x 1800) 90Hz OLED screen or a 2.2k (2240 x 1400) IPS panel are your options for the display. It has a 51Wh battery, a fingerprint sensor, and Wi-Fi 6E wireless connection. Two USB-As, two USB-Cs, an HDMI, a MicroSD card reader, and a headphone jack are among the ports. Thunderbolt 4 is compatible with just Core i5-1340P and H-series CPU models.

The Specifications of our unit and the possible configuration choices are listed in the section under “Differences Between Variants.”

HP Pavilion Plus 14 (2023) Review

The HP Pavilion Plus 14 from the previous year impressed us with its affordable pricing and all-metal body, along with its OLED display. But a short battery life threw off the whole experience. This year’s version keeps the same chassis and display, but adds a larger, longer-lasting battery and the necessary 13th-generation Intel Core and AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs. Even though it costs a little more than the model from the previous year, the most recent Pavilion Plus 14 is more well-rounded and has longer battery life, making it one of our best laptops for 2023.

Our test model, the $1,220 HP Pavilion Plus 14, has a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display that is driven by a four-cell, 68-watt-hour battery and an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U CPU. Compared to last year’s model, which had a smaller battery and a more powerful Intel CPU, the bigger battery and efficient Ryzen 7 U-series processor provide much longer battery life. Even with the larger battery, this year’s model is exactly as light and thin as the one from last year, with minor upgrades to the camera and keyboard. It is simple to suggest the Pavilion Plus 14 as a laptop for use at home, at business, or at school.

Configuration as tested

An AMD Ryzen 5 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB solid-state drive, and a full-HD IPS LCD display are included in the base price of the HP Pavilion Plus 14. Our test model costs $1,220 more than the base model since it has a Ryzen 7 CPU, 2.8K, 120Hz OLED display, and 1TB SSD storage, which is an additional $370. A $1,200 laptop today may only cost $1,000 tomorrow since HP also often offers discounts on their computers. All of them, however, come with built-in AMD Radeon graphics, and adding a separate GPU is not an option, no matter which configuration you choose.

Although there are no AMD-based Pavilion Plus 14 variants available in the UK, £1,099 gets you a 13th generation Intel model with an OLED display. In Australia, the AMD-based model we examined is offered for AU$2,199.

Our Pavilion Plus 14 test system demonstrated good performance throughout testing. The thin, little laptop performed very well in our application tests, outperforming an Intel Core U-series laptop and matching, if not surpassing, laptops with more powerful Intel Core P- and H-series CPUs, as you can see in the performance charts at the conclusion of this review. AMD’s integrated Radeon 780M graphics outperform Intel’s Iris Xe graphics, according to its excellent 3DMark performance. Though it’s not a gaming laptop, the Pavilion Plus 14’s Radeon graphics should allow you to complete media production and editing jobs a little faster than with rival Intel-based devices.

Though the OLED display still drains the laptop’s battery life, this year’s Pavilion Plus 14 has longer battery life than the previous model. In our test of streaming video battery loss, it lasted about eight hours. When you’re not continuously streaming videos, you can anticipate a somewhat longer battery life, so with some power management, the Pavilion Plus 14 should be able to last you through a workday on a single charge. The model from the previous year, which had an inadequate three-cell, 51-watt-hour battery and a more demanding 45-watt Core i7 H-series CPU, failed to survive even five hours in our battery test.

The bigger battery is a plus

The inclusion of AMD processors in addition to Intel CPUs and the switch to a bigger, more powerful battery are the two main updates to the most recent Pavilion Plus 14. The Pavilion Plus 14 is still a sleek 3.1 pounds, which is identical to the model from last year, which is fantastic. It weighs less than other 14-inch laptops that we have recently examined, such as the 3.6-pound Lenovo Slim Pro 7, the 3.4-pound Acer Swift X 14, the 3.4-pound HP Dragonfly Pro, and the 3.5-pound MacBook Pro 14.

There are three colors available for the all-metal chassis, which feels sturdy. We tested it in silver, but for an extra $19, you can get it in blue or pink. The Pavilion Plus 14 in silver has a conventional appearance that is identical to the variety of other laptops with brushed aluminum and silver finishes.

I welcome HP’s decision to replace the silver keyboard on the Pavilion Plus 14 with dark gray keys as a cosmetic update. HP’s low-contrast silver keyboards have always struck me as a prime example of design above functionality. There are circumstances when it is simply plain hard to discern the white icons against the bright silver keys. Not only did I often have to switch on the keyboard backlighting (an additional drain on the battery), but I also frequently encountered situations when the room was very bright and the keys seemed blank. The big key legends on the dark gray keys make them simple to see in any lighting condition. Double-level keyboard illumination is also included for use during dark and on red-eye flights.

The 14-inch OLED display is fantastic, with superb contrast and color reproduction. It’s certainly worth the additional $110 that you pay. It’s really a $240 upgrade since selecting the OLED option also requires you to pay an additional $130 to move up from the Ryzen 5 basic model to the Ryzen 7 processor. (This upgrade also gives you a four-cell, 68-watt-hour battery instead of the standard three-cell, 51-watt-hour battery.) The Pavilion Plus 14’s OLED boasts excellent coverage with 100% of both sRGB and DCI-P3, and 92% of AdobeRGB, according to tests using a Spyder X Elite colorimeter.

The 2.8K (2,880×1,800 pixels) resolution produces crisp text and graphics. In addition, the display operates quicker than a typical 60Hz screen. With its variable refresh rate that ranges from 48Hz to 120Hz, it displays movies with fluid movement. I tested a peak brightness of 400.5 nits, confirming that the 400 nits that the OLED screen is rated for is an appropriate evaluation.

The laptop webcam achieves the Triple Crown. It’s a 5-megapixel camera with an infrared sensor, a physical privacy shutter, and a 1440p video resolution. An even sharper and cleaner picture is produced by the 1440p resolution than by a 1080p camera, which is an upgrade over the previous (and grainier) 720p cameras. Without entering a password, you may quickly and securely log into the laptop using face recognition thanks to the IR sensor. Furthermore, because the Pavilion Plus 14 does not have a fingerprint reader, the IR webcam is a crucial feature. Finally, the privacy shutter ensures that, even when you’re not using the camera, nobody is spying on you. A tiny LED lights orange to indicate that you are on mute, and one of the function buttons on the keyboard also serves as a microphone mute button.

Beyond merely the crisp, 5-megapixel camera, HP’s Enhanced Lighting software enhances your image on video conferences by turning a portion of your display into a ring light. The ring’s location, shape, and color may all be changed to suit your preferences. Bloatware from WildTangent Games and Booking.com is less helpful and should be removed.

Two things, nevertheless, make the Pavilion Plus 14 fall short of perfection. Its laptop is AMD-based, thus Thunderbolt 4 is not supported, and its stereo speakers have poor sound quality and little power. You are stuck with 10Gbps data transfers with two USB-C connections and one USB-A connector, rather than having access to Thunderbolt 4’s 40Gbps transfer speed. An additional USB-A port with a 5Gbps speed is also included.

HP added a larger battery for the OLED display, a privacy shutter, and a mic mute for the camera to allay our main complaints about the last year’s edition. The Pavilion Plus 14 is one of our favorite mainstream laptops, with a runtime that is no longer horrible and at least average. We like that the AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and integrated Radeon GPU provide great overall performance in addition to an all-metal casing and an OLED display at this pricing. Furthermore, the Pavilion Plus 14 strikes a nice balance between being very portable and having a screen big enough for productivity.

How we test computers

Two steps make up the review process for laptops, desktops, tablets, and other computer-like devices: rigorous hands-on usage by our professional reviewers and performance testing in the CNET Labs under controlled settings. This involves assessing the features, ergonomics, and appearance of a gadget. A final review verdict combines assessments that are objective and subjective.

The devices we evaluate lead to changes in the list of benchmarking applications we employ over time. The primary benchmarks we are now doing on all computers that meet the requirements are Primate Labs Geekbench 6, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10, and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra.

You may find a more thorough explanation of each benchmark and its application on our How We Test Computers page.

System Configurations

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