The HP Pavilion 14 is slow to win you over

The average CPU that requires little power and produces little heat makes office and multimedia applications the core competences of the HP Pavilion 14. Which also means that the IPS panel with stable viewing angles and good color display and the Bang & Olufsen speakers should come as no surprise.  

Our test unit, the HP Pavilion 14-dv0357ng is equipped with 16 GB of RAM (Dual Channel) and a generous 1-TB M.2 SSD. The SSD in particular is unlikely to be fully utilized in normal use, while the working memory already pays off during intensive surfing alone. 

Games are something the HP Pavilion 14 is not really made for. Our benchmark tests only resulted in acceptable frame rates for some older titles - and only when played at the lowest possible level of detail. The i5-1135G7 and the Intel Iris Xe 80EUs are very far from the values needed for modern gaming.

Even in the performance tests, the CPU can hardly keep up with the identical cores of other notebooks. However, it makes up for this in the realistic PCMark test and in everyday use. It starts programs and executes typical commands quickly and reliably. The fan is discreet in most situations.

These seemingly paradox results are thanks to the performance limit that HP has set for the processor. The CPU can run at full power for 28 seconds before it is throttled. Surprisingly, this short burst of energy is enough in most situations - and leads to pleasantly good PCMark 10 results.

Find out what other strengths and weaknesses are hidden beneath the white anodized display cover in our detailed review of the HP Pavilion 14-dv0357ng.