HP Pavilion 16 review: Budget AMD CPU in a stylish laptop

In the sub-€1,000 price range, numerous all-round laptops compete for buyers' attention. With the Pavilion 16, HP aims to attract potential customers with a sleek and stylish design. The well-crafted chassis looks great in any setting and proves to be surprisingly sturdy, thanks in part to its metal construction. However, there’s room for improvement when it comes to connectivity—there’s no card reader, for instance. On the plus side, the ports are positioned towards the rear of the side panels, preventing plugged-in devices from getting in the way. The keyboard and touchpad are generally very good; apart from minor issues, such as occasional key rattling, they provide comfortable and reliable input, suitable even for heavy users.

The Pavilion 16 also has plenty to offer under the hood—aside from the soldered RAM and the lack of a second M.2 slot. The Ryzen 5 8540U delivers impressive performance for its power consumption (more on that later) and features the Radeon 740M iGPU. While it falls well short of the 760M or 780M, it’s still capable of handling less demanding or older games. Thanks to its efficient CPU, the Pavilion 16 boasts excellent battery life, lasting over 11 hours in our Wi-Fi browsing test. However, HP could certainly improve the display. Although the IPS panel offers decent contrast, its limited color gamut means visuals aren’t quite as crisp as on some competing laptops.

In Germany, the HP Pavilion 16-ag0057ng was available from around 730 euros at the time of testing.

For comparison, we selected the Lenovo Yoga Slim 6 14 ,which features the previous-generation CPU Ryzen 5 7540U alongside Intel-based alternatives: Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 16 (Core 7 150U), Yoga 7 2-in-1 16 (Core Ultra 5 125U) and ThinkPad E16 G1 (Core i5-1335U). Each of these models also features a different integrated GPU.

The Pavilion 16 model we tested goes by the name ag0057ng and houses the aforementioned Ryzen 5 8540U as well as 16 GB LPDDR5 6,400 RAM and a 1 TB NVMe SSD. The screen has a 16:10 format and a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. HP pre-installs Windows 11 Home as the operating system.

As mentioned at the beginning, the chassis is very stable. Even with stronger pressure, most areas hardly give way. As the lid and the top of the base unit are made of metal, the 16-inch model generally feels very high-quality, which is not a given in this price segment. Thanks to the light coloring, the surfaces hardly attract fingerprints. However, the hinges are adjusted so that the lid can be opened with one hand, but a certain amount of swinging of the base unit cannot be avoided. The maximum opening angle of 130° is rather modest.

With a weight of around 1.7 kg, the Pavilion 16 is the lightest 16-inch tablet in the test field. The competition weighs between 1.8 and 2.1 kg. With a height of just under 1.9 cm, it only achieves a mid-table position.

Ports

HP has equipped the all-rounder with an audio jack and a USB-A 3.0 port on the left-hand side, while the right-hand side features a USB-A 3.1 Gen 2 port and two USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 ports including DisplayPort 1.4. The package is rounded off by an HDMI 2.1 output.

The built-in Wi-Fi 6 chip from Realtek (RTL8852BE) only achieves mediocre results, although this also applies to some competitor devices (see table).

The image quality of the webcam (2 MP) is slightly above the (poor) notebook standard, although you shouldn't expect miracles in terms of sharpness and color fidelity here either. Top: HP installs a physical shutter.

The notebook comes with a fairly compact 65-watt power supply unit, which weighs just over 300 grams including the power cable.

Maintenance requires both strength and dexterity. Even after loosening the four small Phillips screws, the base plate is extremely tight. Inside, the picture is relatively unspectacular, with the exception that a secondary fan slot is available but not occupied (presumably intended for more powerful configurations). Unfortunately, the RAM cannot be expanded or replaced, and the mass storage could be replaced if necessary.

HP has put more thought into the issue of sustainability. All packaging materials are made of paper or cardboard, which is still rarely seen at the moment.

The warranty is only valid for 24 months.

The touchpad is also relatively unspectacular in a positive sense. Precision, gliding properties, and gesture support are good, but not outstanding. The dimensions of 12.5 x 8 cm are more than appropriate for a 16-inch device. Left and right clicks in the lower area are reliably accepted, although the casing sometimes tends to rattle.

The picture quality leaves mixed feelings. The good black value of 0.2 cd/m² - at least from an IPS perspective - should be emphasized positively, which leads to a solid contrast of just under 1,600:1.

In the current configuration, the Pavilion 16 belongs to the entry-level range (iGPU) and tends towards the mid-range (CPU). 16 GB of RAM should be enough for most users for a while, and 1 TB of SSD capacity is also typical in this price range. The existing (and already occupied) M.2 slot can be fitted with full 2280 models.

The Ryzen 5 8540U is a six-core processor based on the Zen 4 architecture (4 nm), which can process up to 12 threads simultaneously via SMT. In power mode, HP allows the 8540U up to 30 watts PL1 and PL2, which guarantees more than solid performance. Although the old 7540U is not really left behind, the AMD chip can hold its own against the Intel competition in the form of the Core Ultra 5 125U or Core i5-1335U, for example.

The system performance does not have to hide behind the comparison devices either, be it in PCMark 10 or in other benchmarks. The operating system reacts pleasantly quickly in everyday use, apart from the loading times of modern games (keyword: compiling shaders).