HP Pavilion 15: A well-priced, all-purpose laptop

Price: Rs 54,990

Ratings: ****

Specifications:15.6-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels), Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, Nvidia 940M graphics (2GB dedicated memory), 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 2.0, Ethernet, HDMI, DVD-RW, Windows 8.1, 2.29kg

Right on time for the yearly product refresh, HP has launched an updated line-up of Pavilion series notebooks. Apart from upgrading hardware and features, HP has also focused on improving the sound quality by associating with Bang and Olufsen for premium audio. As part of the tie-up, you get B & O Play audio control setup to adjust your listening experience. There are preset modes for music, voice and movie as well as a graphic equalizer to adjust various frequencies. As expected, the audio quality from the notebook is better than what you get on most other notebooks.Output from the dual speakers is loud and clear even at maximum volume -impressive. At full volume, the speaker output is good enough to use the laptop as a bedside music player.

Hardware includes a 5th generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive and dedicated Nvidia 940M graphics with 2GB dedicated memory.These specs not only make the notebook great for multimedia consumption but also for gaming. We were able to play games like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Bioshock Infinite at high settings without any frame drops. There was no issue in playing 4k videos or for editing high-resolution images in Adobe Lightroom. Battery life came out to be roughly 5 hours in our usage not great, but not bad either for these kind of specs.

With a brushed silver finish on the top and on the palm rest, the Pavilion 15 looks stylish. You get a full size chiclet-style keyboard and a large trackpad -both work great. One letdown was that the keyboard is not backlit.Ports are laid out neatly on the sides along with an optical drive.

One of the good things about the notebook is the display . The 15.6-inch screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (many at this price are 1366 x 768 pixels).Plus, the viewing angles are great and the colours, vibrant.Most laptops have a glossy finish on the screen and the bezels that reflects light making it difficult to work at times. The Pavilion 15 has an anti-glare finish on the display and matte finish on the bezels that makes it easy to use regardless of ambient lighting.

Overall, we feel the HP Pavilion 15 is a well-priced, all-purpose laptop. It is one of the few laptops at this price range to offer highend specifications along with a full HD display.