Summary
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review.. This evaluation of the MacBook Air with M1 has shown how the device’s incredible speed and endurance work together to propel it to new heights. The new MacBook Air might be a five-star device if it had a few extra connectors and thinner bezels.
Although the Dell XPS 13 has much reduced bezels than the MacBook Air, it performs worse and has a shorter battery life. A similarly equipped $999 Asus ZenBook 13 may save you $650 and include a few ports, but you would lose out on performance and around an hour of endurance. However, if you work and live in the Apple ecosystem, purchasing a MacBook Air is among the simplest purchases you’ve made in a long time. However, the MacBook Air M2 is now available if you want the newest model.
HP Pavilion Aero 13: Price and configuration options
Both HP’s website and independent dealers carry the HP Pavilion Aero 13. For a mere $839, our review device was fully loaded with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 13.3-inch (1920 x 1200) screen. This laptop comes in silver by default, but you can customize it with HP’s white, warm gold, or pale rose gold color schemes for an additional $10 to $15.
Check out the $749 entry-level model if you’re looking for a less expensive option. It comes with a 256GB SSD, an AMD Ryzen 5 5600U CPU, and 8GB of RAM. In the meanwhile, a more powerful variant with the same CPU and RAM as our testing machine is available for $1,099 MSRP. It replaces the SSD with a 1TB drive and boosts the display’s resolution to 2560 x 1600 pixels.
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Design
The HP Pavilion Aero 13 may have a svelte and elegant appearance, but that pales in comparison to how it feels. With its weight of a just 2.2 pounds, this beauty seems like a paper weight in my hands. It looks good with the simple metal hood that has the shiny HP logo engraved in the middle.
When I opened her up, I saw a clean, little keyboard deck with a fingerprint reader next to the smooth glass touchpad on the bottom. In the meanwhile, the display’s bezels welcomed me with their very slender curves.
With its weight of 2.2 pounds and dimensions of 11.7 x 8.2 x 0.7 inches, the HP Pavilion Aero 13 is lighter than its rivals. While most of them are slimmer than the Aero 13, the Asus Zenbook 13 OLED (2.5 pounds, 12 x 8 x 0.6 inches), Lenovo ThinkPad X13 (AMD) (2.8 pounds, 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches), and Dell XPS 13 OLED (2.8 pounds, 11.6 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches) are all heavier.
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Ports
The HP Pavilion Aero 13 has an amazing amount of ports for a laptop of its size.
The power jack and one drop-jaw USB Type-A port are located on the left side, while the HDMI port, one USB Type-A port, one USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack are located on the left.
Still, having a microSD card slot would have been excellent.
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Display
The 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1200 display on the HP Pavilion Aero 13 is surprisingly beautiful considering its low cost because to its vivid and brilliant screen.
The way the Aero 13’s screen handled contrast in nighttime scenes amazed me while I watched the teaser for Marvel’s Shang-Chi movie. In the heartwarming moment between Shawn and his father, the images were so bright and vibrant that even in the dead of night, I could clearly see the father’s wrinkles. Furthermore, Shawn looked amazing with the clarity and sharp glitter of the water droplets around him in the room.
The Aero 13 is more vivid than usual, as measured by our colorimeter, which registered 119.5% of the sRGB color spectrum. Generally speaking, we want our screens to show at least 100% sRGB. The Aero 13 outperformed the ThinkPad X13 and XPS 13 OLED, which came in behind at 102.1% and 117.3%, respectively. Nonetheless, 132% of the sRGB color spectrum can be seen on the Zenbook 13’s OLED screen.
For a laptop under $1,000, the Aero 13 is a remarkable small device with a brightness of 451 nits. It outperformed the ThinkPad X13 (278 nits), XPS 13 OLED (417 nits), and Zenbook 13 OLED (396 nits). Who says having a brilliant display means spending a premium?
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Keyboard and touchpad
The tiny deck of the Aero 13 may take some getting used to, but it boasts one of the most comfortable keyboards I’ve ever used.
On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I only scored 48 words per minute, which is less than my average of 53 words per minute. The keys are nonetheless crisp, snappy, and well spaced. The little deck is essentially the only obstacle you need to overcome. You should be OK if you’re used to the feel of a 13-inch laptop. Allow time if you’re downsizing.
This touchpad is amazing. It’s not the largest touchpad—it measures 4.5 by 2.5 inches—but it’s among the smoothest, allowing my finger to glide over it with the ease of glass. Additionally, it offers those deep clicks that give you a sense of authority while making choices.
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Audio
The bottom-firing Bang & Olufsen speakers on the HP Pavilion Aero 13 aren’t very powerful, but they’re quite balanced, and throughout my use of the device, I only occasionally heard some harsh tones.
When I listened to GAYLE’s “abcdefu,” the bright guitar and melodious opening vocals kept pace, but they were both too mild and lacked punch. I could not hear the audio in my little workplace, not even during the chorus. The speakers made do with the little bass by focusing more on the treble with the percussion.
The B&O audio control program that comes with the laptop helps to alter the sound quality, but it doesn’t significantly improve audio performance. A complete EQ and presets for music, movies, and voice are available for audiophiles to experiment with.
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Performance
Our evaluation sample, the HP Pavilion Aero 13, has an AMD Ryzen 7 5800U CPU and 16GB of RAM, as mentioned above. I threw 36 Google Chrome tabs and three 1080p YouTube videos at it, and it didn’t even flinch.
The Aero 13 received a strong 5,876 total performance score on Geekbench 5.4, which is good considering its price. It even outperformed the ThinkPad X13 with a Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U (4,935) and the XPS 13 OLED with an Intel Core i7-1185G7 (5,420). But the Aero 13 was defeated by the Ryzen 7 5700U CPU (6,411) of the Zenbook 13.
Our HandBrake benchmark test revealed that the Aero 13 required 9 minutes and 5 seconds to convert a 4K movie to 1080p. That beats the time of the XPS 13 OLED in the same test (18:12), but it is not as fast as the ZenBook 13 OLED, which finishes in under nine minutes (8:22).
We gave the Aero 13 the chore of transferring 25GB of multimedia files in order to gauge how quickly it transfers things around. The Aero 13’s 512GB SSD has a transfer rate of 503 megabytes per second, which is slower than the 512GB SSDs in the ZenBook 13 (873 MBps), Dell XPS 13 (742 MBps), and ThinkPad X13 (747 MBps) notebooks.
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Graphics
Even though the HP Pavilion Aero 13 only has an integrated AMD Radeon graphics processor, gaming is still possible. When it comes to gaming, the Aero 13 is really more capable than a lot of ultra-light ultraportables.
The Aero 13 averaged 39 frames per second on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark (Medium, 1080p), which indicates that it is playable and even has respectable visuals. In the same benchmark test, the XPS 13 produced 22 frames per second whereas the ZenBook 13’s integrated GPU could only accomplish 24.
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Battery life
When we tested the HP Pavilion Aero 13’s battery life by having it continually browse the web over Wi-Fi with the screen brightness set to 150 nits, it lasted an astounding 10 hours and 27 minutes. The ZenBook 13, which lasted an absurd 15 hours in the same test, is superior than the ZenBook 13, even if 10+ hours on a single charge is still amazing. The Aero 13 did, however, outperform the ThinkPad X13 (7:53) and the XPS 13 (8 hours).
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Webcam
Although laptop cameras are seldom excellent, the Aero 13’s 720p webcam doesn’t seem to be that outstanding.
My green clothing seemed more yellow in my test shot, and there was a section of my skin that was entirely washed out from the low contrast. There was also a lot of blurriness around my face. Additionally, I had extremely blotchy complexion, which was unprofessional for someone heading into a work meeting in the morning.
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Heat
Throughout our testing, the Pavilion Aero 13 remained surprisingly cool. The bottom reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit after 15 minutes of streaming video, which remained below our 95-degree comfort threshold.
In the meanwhile, the touchpad reached 79 degrees and the keyboard’s center barely reached 88 degrees. At a point on the 2 key, the machine reached its highest temperature of 93 degrees.
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Software and warranty
HP includes an abundance of useful applications, such as HP Support Assistant, which assists with battery life, storage, warranty issues, and security settings. Additional features include HP Smart for printer connection, HP Privacy Settings to control what data you provide HP, HP System Event Utility for system information, and HP Quick Drop for wireless file and picture sharing.
Sadly, bloatware programs like McAfee, Simple Solitaire, and WildTangent Games still exist on Windows 10. The HP Pavilion Aero 13 comes with an additional one-year limited warranty from HP.
HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: Verdict
If mobility is your first priority, the HP Pavilion Aero 13 is a great option. excellent performance, as well as a cozy keyboard and a lovely display. Who am I to fool? An excellent ultraportable all around is the Aero 13. Well, apart from the fact that it lacks a microSD card slot and has a quite tiny deck.
There’s always the Asus Zenbook 13 OLED, which costs the same as the Aero 13 but has a more vibrant display and a longer battery life. It falls short of the Aero 13’s incredible lightness, however. Should that be your top concern, the HP Pavilion Aero 13 is a great, reasonably priced ultraportable.
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