HP Pavilion Plus 14 review: the content junkie’s go-to stylish laptop

Pros

• Unique look and luxe finish
• Vibrant OLED display and excellent speakers

Cons

• The hinge is looser than I would have liked

It might seem utterly frivolous to say this. Yet, I do so unironically: when it comes to laptops, getting the colour right is quite a challenge — safe, neutral yet ‘vibrant’ enough — and the Midnight Blue HP Pavilion Plus 14 will capture your attention in this regard. It has a certain sophistication about its manner that will help it stand out in a crowded market of laptops with similar specs and performance. HP’s choice of features is media-centric, which looks like a decision that should appeal to most people.

Aside from its look, the build quality is pretty impressive and certainly one of the highlights of this laptop. It feels relatively rigid for its form factor, and with the pristine visuals and audio, it sashays with an air of premium goodness. One minor quibble: the hinge feels slightly loose, but no one’s going to see that, and it shouldn’t affect normal use unless, for some reason, you enjoy gripping your laptop by the screen.

Maslow-level priority: display and audio

For most users who enjoy consuming content, having a great display and decent sound is half the battle won. The 14-inch, 2,880 x 1,800, 90Hz OLED, paired with the B&O-powered speakers, makes for a hearty main course. Crisp visuals, vibrant colours with decent contrast, and 99% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage leave you with little to complain about. The down-firing speakers produce enough volume and clarity and have a nice presence. While most people will use headphones for a better quality audio experience, having these speakers to fall back on is great. Not many do well in both departments at this price. 

Features cover all bases

Whereas in the past, I might feel more compelled to say that an Intel Core i5 is plenty, that argument holds less water as the Intel Core i7 becomes more affordable. With Pavilion Plus 14, you get a respectable configuration for the price (Intel Core i7-1355U), coupled with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. There are no dedicated graphics here, so it’s down to the trusty onboard Iris Xe to handle everyday demands.

While I’ve somewhat pigeonholed this laptop as a device for content consumption, it’s certainly powerful enough to be a creator’s tool. Performance-wise, the Pavilion Plus 14 offers a solid blend of efficiency and power; the battery life is somewhat decent, and I can get roughly eight hours of mixed-use, which I think is fair for a laptop with these specs. 

So, as far as daily use is concerned, this is a pretty nice ensemble in terms of the entertainment-centric experience it provides — and it has the hardware to be a proper workhorse. No complaints about the keyboard and trackpad, as they are very tactile and responsive, and the array of ports is decent enough. You get one Thunderbolt 4, one USB-C (10Gbps), two USB-A (one 10Gbps, one 5Gbps), and one HDMI 2.1 port — a reasonable mix of essentials. I like that they labelled the ports subtly so you can differentiate between them. The 5MP camera, while not the best, does the job somewhat, I guess.  

It’s for those who love content

It’s really competitive these days, but the HP Pavilion Plus 14 excels at offering a ‘luxury’ experience at a fair price. To be specific, if you love content, few will do better for the money. Compromises, if any, don’t seem very apparent; certainly, you don’t feel them under normal circumstances.