We wasted $1000 on a HP Pavilion x360 15 so you don't have to
(February 12, 2020 update: The Sam's Club product page includes two years of warranty and accidental damage protection which HP charges $229 for. The mandatory warranty inflates the price of the Pavilion x360 15 to $1000. Even if you account for the difference, however, we still think you would be better off investing $800 on a higher-end HP Envy or Spectre.)
A few weeks ago, we found a HP Pavilion x360 15 at a local retailer selling for $1000 USD. It caught our attention not only for its exorbitant price tag for what was supposed to be a budget laptop, but also for its low resolution 1366 x 768 TN touchscreen. Tablets and convertible laptops very rarely come with TN panels because of the limited viewing angles when compared to IPS, so we wanted to see just how bad this particular HP laptop can be.
To put simply, this is one of the worst laptop displays you can find for $1000.
The comparison table below illustrates everything wrong with the display. The low resolution, the shallow contrast ratio, the narrow color space, the dim backlight, the presence of pulse-width modulation on nearly all brightness levels, the overly cool color temperature, and the limited viewing angles all contribute to an ugly visual experience even for the low standards of a budget laptop. Tablet mode is made essentially useless because the viewing angles are especially egregious.
We're not opposed to cheap displays, of course. What we are opposed to, however, is the four-digit price tag. This is a panel fit for laptops retailing for $500 or less. If we were a customer not in the know, we would have felt robbed as HP's mid-range Envy series retails for about the same while offering significantly better hardware than a low-end Pavilion.
HP should reserve the 768p TN panel for its lowest-end configurations only or even drop it altogether for a baseline 1080p IPS panel across the entire lineup. Until then, we absolutely recommend avoiding this overpriced SKU.
See our full review on the HP Pavilion x360 15 to learn more about the system.
HP Pavilion x360 15-dq0065cl BOE076E, TN LED, 15.60, 1366x768 | Asus VivoBook Flip 15 TP510UA-E8073T AU Optronics B156HAN02.1, IPS, 15.60, 1920x1080 | Lenovo Ideapad C340-15IWL-81N5004QGE BOE CQ NV156FHM-N48, IPS, 15.60, 1920x1080 | HP Envy x360 15-bq102ng Chi Mei CM15E9, IPS, 15.60, 1920x1080 | Dell Inspiron 15 3585 (2300U, Vega 6) BOE0802, TN, 15.60, 1920x1080 | Dell XPS 15 7590 i5 iGPU FHD LQ156M1, IPS, 15.60, 1920x1080 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Display | 1% | 0% | 7% | 1% | 70% | |
Display P3 Coverage | 38.65 | 39.19 1% | 39.05 1% | 41.36 7% | 39.22 1% | 66.5 72% |
sRGB Coverage | 58.2 | 58.9 1% | 57.3 -2% | 62.2 7% | 58.9 1% | 98 68% |
AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 39.93 | 40.49 1% | 40.35 1% | 42.74 7% | 40.52 1% | 68.4 71% |
Response Times | -25% | -53% | 792% | -3% | -27% | |
Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 68.8 ? | 44 ? 36% | 57 ? 17% | 40 ? 42% | 39 ? 43% | 52.8 ? 23% |
Response Time Black / White * | 15.6 ? | 29 ? -86% | 33 ? -112% | 26 ? -67% | 12 ? 23% | 32 ? -105% |
PWM Frequency | 1000 ? | 352 ? -65% | 25000 ? 2400% | 250 ? -75% | 1020 ? 2% | |
Screen | 71% | 64% | 81% | 13% | 118% | |
Brightness middle | 195.7 | 229 17% | 266 36% | 221 13% | 225 15% | 588 200% |
Brightness | 186 | 221 19% | 251 35% | 207 11% | 213 15% | 555 198% |
Brightness Distribution | 88 | 76 -14% | 81 -8% | 87 -1% | 88 0% | 89 1% |
Black Level * | 0.68 | 0.15 78% | 0.165 76% | 0.15 78% | 0.535 21% | 0.4 41% |
Contrast | 288 | 1527 430% | 1612 460% | 1473 411% | 421 46% | 1470 410% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 11.99 | 5.03 58% | 6.33 47% | 4.35 64% | 10.37 14% | 2.5 79% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 21.31 | 8.89 58% | 21.03 1% | 8.98 58% | 19.75 7% | 6.3 70% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 4.63 | 5.23 -13% | 3.89 16% | 0.6 87% | ||
Greyscale dE 2000 * | 12.8 | 5.56 57% | 3.81 70% | 3.09 76% | 12.09 6% | 4.5 65% |
Gamma | 2.15 102% | 2.64 83% | 2.38 92% | 2.23 99% | 2.72 81% | 2.2 100% |
CCT | 14252 46% | 7015 93% | 6057 107% | 6068 107% | 13335 49% | 6836 95% |
Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 36.7 | 37 1% | 37 1% | 56 53% | 37 1% | 63.2 72% |
Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 57.8 | 59 2% | 57 -1% | 86 49% | 59 2% | 98 70% |
Total Average (Program / Settings) | 16% /
44% | 4% /
32% | 293% /
201% | 4% /
8% | 54% /
84% |
* ... smaller is better