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Anyone in the market for a budget laptop, either as a general use machine for the family, or as a machine that will handle school work, should certainly consider the likes of the HP Pavilion 15 simply because on the surface it offers such great value for money.
It is worth considering carefully what you want from such a machine before you splash out though, as the range of systems you can get for this sort of money or less defines much of the mainstream market these days - from budget tablets all the way through to full Windows 8 laptops.
We liked
The battery life is nothing to be sniffed at, and while this is a 15.6-inch laptop, and as such intrinsically not the most portable of machines ever invented, the fact that you can expect a full day's work out of it without much issue is to be commended. Even five hours under heavy load should be applauded, and if you need to travel away from a power connector for long periods, then this alone could well decide things for you.
The general performance of the machine feels responsive. You're not waiting around for the operating system to complete simple tasks like you are on the Lenovo G505, and while the specification is incredibly similar, HP has tweaked things just enough here to make a difference. The processor and graphics performance aren't stellar, but if you set your expectations a little lower than normal, you'll be pleased with what is on offer here.
The general styling is to be commended too. While there's not a lot of budget for flourishes at this price point, the fact that HP has seen fit to design an interesting looking laptop is great.
We disliked
The screen is bright, but shift your head slightly and you'll lose colour reproduction and contrast will go out of the window. With the likes of the Apple iPad redefining what we expect from portable devices thanks to their IPS screens, it's this one aspect that is holding budget laptops back.
The chassis doesn't feel as solid as plenty of more expensive machines, or indeed as well constructed as Lenovo's identically-priced G505. There's a surprising amount of space inside the machine, and when you're typing on it, the hollow sounds that respond to your working fingers show up the machine for its budget origins.
The fact that HP has populated only one of the machine's memory channels frustrates, as it does mean that the APU is going to be waiting for data and code unnecessarily. Our advice here is to upgrade the amount of memory the machine has the moment you buy it.
Final verdict
The HP Pavilion 15 isn't a machine for everyone. In fact we'd suggest that it's best as a second machine for the home that everyone can grab as needed. Even so, if you're looking for a straightforward laptop on a tight budget, it does more than its pricing would have you believe. Admittedly you won't be playing the latest games on it, and anything that is too processor-intensive is going to take a while, but overall it's not a bad little machine at all.
