With the “Pavilion Gaming” range, HP tries to offer portable PCs at a reduced price that are powerful enough to perform properly in the game. The latest addition to the series is original if there is a 16.1-inch screen. Powerful but not too much, it turns out to be a bit hesitant in between.
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Gaming products from HP often carry the “Omen” label, but this is not the case here. The pavilions are usually mid-range laptops that have been specially developed for office automation. However, the name “gaming” means above all that we are using a dedicated graphics card that allows current games to run correctly in full HD. Warning: We are not dealing with top performance here and should not expect an exceptional level of performance. The Pavilion Gaming 16 is thus presented as a laptop that is mainly intended for office tasks, but can also function as an additional slot machine.. If you’re an avid PC gamer, the configuration presented here remains too tight to make it your primary video game tool. But you will see, this Pavilion Gaming 16 is no less interesting.
A manufacturing quality at the rendezvous
Above all, make sure that the workmanship and finish are flawless. The chassis is made almost entirely of plastic, but appears very robust and has a very successful matt finish that prevents fingerprints. The general design is sober and nothing or almost nothing reveals the “gaming” identity of the product.
You shouldn’t even rely on RGB for the keyboard, it still benefits from a two-level green backlight. Good news : The chiclet type keyboard is of excellent quality
In terms of connectivity, the Pavilion Gaming 16 offers everything you would expect from this type of PC, nothing more, nothing less: two USB-A 3.1 ports, one USB-C port (DisplayPort compatible), one HDMI 2.0 -Connection, a Gigabit Ethernet port. We also point out the welcome presence of an SD card reader, something that is becoming increasingly rare on laptops. However, we would have been happy about the presence of an additional USB-A port.
Another good point to note: The Pavilion Gaming 16 fits easily into a medium-sized bagthanks to more contained measurements. It is 37 cm long and 26 cm wide and has a thickness of 2.3 cm. The set only weighs 2.2kg, which is still acceptable. The charger is also small. In short, it can be taken anywhere.
A high-contrast screen, but lacking fidelity
The Pavilion Gaming 16 is no frills and opts for a classic screen in this price range. with the exception that the diagonal is 16.1 “instead of the usual 15.6” for this type of format. In practice, we have to admit that not much is changing. We are also dealing with an IPS panel that displays Full HD definition (1920 x 1080 pixels). The screen is matte and therefore reflections are limited. On the other hand, you have to be satisfied with a refresh rate of 60 Hz, which is becoming increasingly rare with Full HD.
Our measurements also show pretty good screen quality, which, however, fish in terms of color fidelity. We actually find a Delta E at 5.9, which turns out to be relatively high. Remember that the Delta E indicates the difference between the “real” colors and the colors displayed and must be as small as possible. We think it’s well under 3 and we’re pretty far from that here. However, the color temperature is satisfactory (6736 K, a value close to the good balance at 6500 K), a sign of the lack of colorimetric drift (the rendering is not too “hot” or too “cold”). . Apart from this risk of respect for colors, we can determine a satisfactory maximum brightness (329 cd / m2) and a good contrast ratio of 1635: 1. The legibility is therefore quite good.
A good screen is therefore served by its refresh rate limited to 60 Hz and the lack of fidelity of the displayed colors.
Sufficient to play “average” in Full HD
Regarding “gaming” laptops, The HP Pavilion 16 remains quite modest, but offers the essentials to play correctly in 1080p. The configuration that we are testing here consists of an Intel Core i5-10300H processor (4 cores / 8 threads, frequencies from 2.5 to 4.5 GHz), 16 GB RAM (DDR4 2933 MHz) and a Toshiba SSD 256 GB, a 1 TB hard drive from Western Digital (7200 rpm) and a GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics card (4 GB).
The kind of configuration that allows you to work with greedy software in good conditions, except of course when you are into heavy video editing or very advanced photo editing. But for the vast majority of so-called “office” tasks, the Pavilion Gaming 16 does the job very well.
On the gaming side, the observation is a bit more nuanced and It will be difficult to play with all the details set to the max while hoping for 60 FPS. The fault lies essentially with a GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, whose performance remains limited, especially since it only integrates 4 GB of video memory. However, our various tests show that it is possible to start current games in good conditions, provided that the level of detail is reduced. Borderlands 3 and The Division 2 will thus reach or exceed 60 FPS with a “medium” or “normal” setting, while the final episode of Assassin’s Creed will reach almost 50 FPS. Only Control fails to achieve the average 40 FPS here. It still remains playable.
You would have understood: The Pavilion Gaming 16 certainly won’t be powerful enough for those who don’t want to compromise on the settings of their favorite AAA, however, works fine if you’re looking for a “booster” gaming laptop to keep your game playing on the go.
It doesn’t heat up much, but it has a tendency to bubble
On the noise and heat side, the Pavilion Gaming 16 does quite well, but the fans are more likely to be heard in the game. The PC remains very quiet when idle or during pure office use, but a greedy game. In 3D (tested here on Metro Exodus) our sound level meter is raised by 48 dB (A) (50 cm away from the keyboard). The breath is therefore audible and can potentially disturb a person who is in the same room as you.. However, the case heats up very little, as you can see from the pictures taken with our thermal imaging camera attached to this paragraph. Indeed, it is difficult to exceed 40 ° C except from below.
In terms of autonomy, don’t expect a miracle, however It is still possible to use it on battery power for 6 to 7 hoursas part of a purely office-automated use. In the game, as usual, it will be necessary to use Nvidia’s Battery Boost feature in order to hope to pass the two hours of a not-too-greedy title. We also started a streaming battery test (Netflix on Chrome, keyboard backlight turned off, screen brightness at 70%) that ran 6:03.
The notes
+Good arguments
- Quality construction
- Simple and efficient design
- Comfortable keyboard
- Good contrast screen
– –Negative points
- Set it up a little tight to play with a lot of detail
- A little too loud in the game
- Lack of color fidelity on the screen
- A bit expensive compared to the on-board configuration
The HP Pavilion Gaming 16 is a good laptop, but it’s still a limited slot machine due to a somewhat tight graphics card. However, it is possible to start current games in Full HD, provided you are satisfied with an “average” level of detail. However, its sober and successful design, very comfortable keyboard, high quality screen and full connectivity make it a preferred machine for working and relaxing from time to time. The price remains a bit high, however, as we regularly find more powerful laptops for less than 1000 dollars. Keep an eye out for the next sale or Black Friday.
Journalist igamesnews.com
January 08, 2021 at 12:14:41 PM
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