HP Pavilion Plus 14 OLED Review: Sights and sounds

There are several similarities between this and the Acer Swift Go 14, which is our current favourite laptop. They both have brilliant 14in screens OLED screens and powerful processors. However, the Pavilion Plus is cheaper to the tune of £ And there are reasons for this. Read our HP Pavilion Plus 14 OLED Review.

Instead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, you’ll find in the Swift Go, this comes with a more modest AMD Ryzen 7 7840U chip. This can’t quite keep up in terms of power, running at around 86 percent of the speed of the Intel processor in our benchmark tests.

It has cost-cutting trade-offs, but an excellent screen and stunning speakers

Any comparison of these two laptops only highlights how far Intel has progressed with the Ultra range’s built-in graphics hardware. The Pavilion Plus can only manage around 78 percent of the Ultra’s performance in graphics tests. None of this is surprising, however, given the price difference.

Where it lags more significantly is in the amount of RAM. Here we only get 16GB – half of what’s in the Swift Go. While 16GB is probably enough at the moment, over the life of the laptop you may end up wishing you had a bit more. You can replace the SSD at some point in the future – there are only four screws and

a bit of prizing required to access the laptop’s internals. However, the RAM itself is soldered to the motherboard and there’s no way of adding extra.

The Pavilion Plus also struggled in our battery tests, lasting only 5 hours 48 minutes when browsing the web. That’s a long way behind the Swift Go’s 10 hours.

But there are plenty of plus points. The 2880×1800-pixel OLED screen covers all the DCI-P3 standard, providing excellent colour accuracy. It’s also bright, reaching 381cd/m2 in our tests, so will be perfectly visible outside even on a sunny day.

Its built-in webcam comes with all the features you’d want, including a 1440p resolution, infrared sensor and a physical privacy shutter. However, the image it produces doesn’t quite live up to the impressive specs, with soft focus and slightly disappointing detail.

We were genuinely taken aback by the quality of its Bang and Olufsen speakers, though. There was no distortion even when we cranked the volume to 100 per cent. Bass was lacking, which is to be expected, but otherwise this is one of the best sounding laptops around.

We found typing on the keyboard was a comfortable and responsive experience. One downside is that the keys produce an audible click when you type, and while we didn’t find this annoying, others around us did.

The large, responsive touchpad is hinged at the top, meaning if you press it at the top section it won’t register the action. You need to move your finger down a few millimetres, at which point each press will be greeted with another loud click.

SPECIFICATIONS

8-core AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor • 16GB RAM • AMD Radeon 780M graphics • 14in 2880×1800-pixel OLED screen • 1TB SSD • 5-megapixel webcam • Wi-Fi 6 • Bluetooth 5.3 • 2x USB-C ports • 2x USB3.0 ports «1x HDMI port • Windows 11 Home • 17.5x314x227mm (HxWxD) • 1.4kg • One-year warranty

ALTERNATIVE

Acer Swift Go 14

More expensive, but its powerful Intel Ultra 7 processor and superior battery life make it worth the extra money

Verdict