HP Pavilion Plus 14 Review

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The Pavilion Plus 14 is appealing, boasting an understated design and subdued chrome HP logo. Available colors include Natural Silver (my review unit), Warm Gold, Mineral Silver and Tranquil Pink.

It offers an impressive range of ports for its price point, with two USB Type-C (10Gbps, DisplayPort 1.4) ports on the right side and one full-sized USB Type-A on its left.

Keyboard

The Pavilion Plus 14 brings premium PC features to HP’s affordable laptop line-up, such as its thinnest chassis ever and stunning 2.8K OLED display, Intel 12th Generation mobile processors and the availability of an NVIDIA RTX 2050 GPU in certain models – making this machine very attractive at this price point. Add in its inclusion of a 512GB SSD storage option and you have yourself an irresistibly alluring package!

The keys feel comfortable, the trackpad is one of the largest you’ll find on a 14-inch laptop, and its centrally located fingerprint sensor works seamlessly. However, one drawback with the keyboard is its use of white backlight on silver keys which makes letters hard to see under most lighting conditions; switching out for something that would be easier on your eyes would have been welcome change.

On the left side of the chassis you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-A port and MicroSD card reader. Furthermore, on the right you’ll find two USB Type-C ports that support power delivery as well as DisplayPort 1.4 connectivity.

Note that the 16GB RAM in this model is soldered directly onto its motherboard, limiting repair or upgrading options. However, its 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD remains upgradable.

Our review unit came preloaded with Windows Home in S mode, which restricts apps downloaded from Microsoft Store as well as background processes. Disabling S mode takes only seconds; once done so, this laptop should run any application smoothly without issue.

The star of this laptop’s show, however, is its 2.8K OLED display. Boasting 100% sRGB coverage and 97% of Adobe RGB for its price point – impressive indeed – as well as 60Hz refresh rate to make animations and videos look smoother on Windows OS and videos more fluid – its main limitation lies with not supporting Dolby Vision/Atmos technology which aren’t typically found in laptops in this price range.

Display

The Pavilion Plus 14 stands out as HP’s mainstream laptop line by featuring two key premium features: an all-metal chassis reminiscent of its more luxurious Envy or Spectre lines and an OLED display. Together these elements should make this PC appealing to multimedia-focused buyers interested in editing photos or videos or light video gaming.

HP’s stunning 2.8K OLED panel (2880×1800) is truly remarkable, and we appreciate their choice of 16:10 aspect ratio for their display. You can configure 60Hz or 90Hz refresh rates – providing more fluid Windows animations – as well as support for 100% sRGB, 97% AdobeRGB, and DCI-P3 color gamut coverage.

Noteworthy in this price range is the Pavilion Plus PC which stands out by featuring an OLED display compared to most competitors which utilize either IPS or P-IPS panels for their panels.

Regardless, this system’s integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics should be adequate to handle even demanding titles; but for optimal performance at an economical price point, consider upgrading with discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050 graphics – they can offer over twice the rendering speed as Iris Xe chip!

Notable specs of the Pavilion Plus 14 include stereo Bang & Olufsen speakers designed to deliver immersive audio, as well as its 1TB SSD storage. There’s also a USB-C port supporting 10 Gbps of throughput, power delivery, and DisplayPort 1.4 connectivity – though unfortunately it does not come equipped with Dolby Vision for display or Atmos for speakers – which would make this device truly stand out.

The Pavilion Plus 14 comes in five colors, Space Blue, Warm Gold, Mineral Silver (dark gray), Tranquil Pink and Natural Silver being our review unit and likely being sold throughout the US market. I expect most units sold here will feature Natural Silver finish.

Audio

At its price range, few 14-inch laptops match HP Pavilion Plus 14 when it comes to features. Its IPS display boasts higher resolution than many competitors while its Intel 12th Gen processor features built-in Iris Xe graphics for superior graphics performance, along with 1TB SSD storage space. Battery life is better than most others and additional features such as the Bang & Olufsen front facing camera allow it to bathe your face in white light for online meetings; unfortunately however HP doesn’t include more helpful utilities like clean versions of Windows or the ability to uninstall its bloatware from this machine.

The HP Pavilion Plus 14 exudes premium style thanks to its sleek aluminium body and slim bezels. The keyboard area feels sturdy without any flex, while its screen boasts generous proportions with bezels measuring only 10mm wide on all sides.

Not quite as sleek as Apple’s MacBook Air, the Pavilion laptop still makes for an attractive piece. I find its mirrored HP logo not particularly distracting; after all, this lightweight 3.09 pound (1.4kg) computer can easily fit in my bag for transporting around campus or out and about.

For our review unit we got an Intel 12th Generation Core i7-12700H processor, 16GB of RAM and Iris Xe graphics – enough power for demanding productivity workflows or light creative endeavors if the dedicated GPU is disabled via Command Center software. Our review unit also comes equipped with 1TB SSD storage for added versatility.

The Pavilion Plus boasts an excellent array of ports at this price, including two SuperSpeed USB Type-C (10Gbps, DisplayPort 1.4) ports on its right side, full HDMI 2.1 video output and standard Type-A (5Gbps) port – in addition to headphone jack and microSD card slot on its left.

Battery

One weakness for this laptop is its battery. Our benchmark test, which involves continuously browsing the web and running OpenGL tests over Wi-Fi at 150 nits brightness, showed that its run time was only 5 hours and 10 minutes compared with 8 hours and 30 minutes for Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 and nearly 11 hours on AMD-powered Asus ZenBook UX430 respectively.

But this is just a minor quibble; otherwise, the hardware makes for an impressive package. Its metal body is both attractive and durable; rarely do Windows laptops open easily with one hand! Plus, its keyboard boasts metal chicklet-style keys with large Precision touchpad – among the largest seen on any 14-inch notebook! There’s even an ingenious fingerprint reader on the back for effortless Windows 11 Home logins; webcam with privacy shutter; webcam backlit in dark gray for enhanced readability; backlit backlighting makes an impressive package overall!

Inside, the Pavilion Plus 14 is powered by an Intel Core i5 12th-gen processor paired with Iris Xe graphics. Additionally, this budget PC features 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD storage – more than enough power for demanding productivity workflows or light creators.

HP’s Pavilion Plus 14 is an outstanding example of HP delivering its best effort for mainstream market. Boasting an ultra-thin chassis and OLED display that make a bold statement without breaking the bank, this laptop boasts multiple ports like two Type-C (not Thunderbolt 4 though) ports capable of handling video out and data in, plus dual bottom-firing speakers tuned by Bang & Olufsen that produce great sound quality tuned by Bang & Olufsen; unfortunately Dolby Vision and Atmos were absent due to prices exceeding budget targets set by HP.

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.