Designed to look like a gaming device but actually an all-rounder: The HP Pavilion Gaming 15-ec1206ng

The Pavilion Gaming 15 series offers gaming laptops in the 15.6-inch format with a focus on good value for money. At a price of almost 800 Euros (~$947), our test device belongs to the category of budget gaming laptops. High-quality case materials are usually not to be expected at this price range. HP has gone with a matte black plastic case. Color accents are set with green elements (key lighting, power LED, HP logo on the back of the lid).

With the Ryzen 5 4600H APU and the GeForce GTX 1650 graphics core, there is modern mid-range hardware inside the laptop that brings all the latest computer games smoothly onto the screen. Full HD resolution and medium to high quality settings can usually be used, and more is possible in some cases.

Despite the high computing power, you don't have to give up long battery life. In our WLAN and video tests, the HP laptop achieves battery runtimes of 9 to 11 hours with one battery charge - many office laptops don't reach these values. In combination with the decent keyboard (backlit), the laptop also cuts a fine figure as a mobile typing and web-surfing device.

If the 512 GB NVMe SSD runs out of storage space, the SSD can be replaced, and/or a 2.5-inch storage drive can be installed in the laptop. The SATA slot and mounting frame are available. Moreover, you can also increase the amount of memory. The device comes with 8 GB (2x 4 GB, dual-channel mode) of RAM, and up to 32 GB is supported. Since the laptop has no maintenance hatch, the case would have to be opened to carry out the upgrades.

Much more information and benchmark results can be found in our review of the HP Pavilion Gaming 15-ec1206ng.