At a time when the prices of laptops continue to increase while purchasing power continues to decline, the usual product categories according to their prices are difficult to read. What still belongs at the entry level? Mid-range? At the high end? Or even worse… Is there now a premium category, which is ever more expensive?
One thing is certain: below the 1000 euros mark, the latest ultrabooks immediately become much more attractive. HP knows this and is counting on its Pavilion Plus 14-ew1001nf to attract the greatest number of consumers with an appropriate price. But what about the quality of the laptop itself?
Technical sheet
| Model | HP Pavilion Plus 14-ew1001nf |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 314 mm x 18,9 mm |
| Definition | 2880 x 1800 pixels |
| Display technology | OLED |
| Touch screen | Non |
| Processor (CPU) | Core Ultra 5 125H |
| Graphics chip (GPU) | Intel ARC Graphics |
| RAM | 16 Go |
| Internal memory | 512 Go |
| Operating system (OS) | Microsoft Windows 11 |
| Weight | 1440 grammes |
| Depth | 227 mm |
| Product sheet |
The machine is on loan from HP for this test.
Design
Imagine a relatively light and modern laptop PC: you have in mind the HP Pavilion Plus 14. The manufacturer has not made much effort to stand out from the crowd, coming out in this very pretty gray green color that we are testing, but this is not a criticism. Far from it. Few manufacturers really succeed in offering the feeling of premium at a lower price, and this Pavilion Plus 14 broadly succeeds in this challenge.
We therefore have a metal chassis throughout for a 14-inch format. So yes, the metal used is not the most premium of the lot, and we feel that the shell is quite thin and could hardly accommodate a corner of a table, but the pleasure of the beautiful material is there in hand. It is also on the back, since the device remains on a weight of 1.44 kilograms, quite suitable for a thickness of 1.89 centimeters which makes it perfectly transportable.
Keyboard and touchpad
The problem lies much more with the keyboard configuration. The keys from A to Z are quite good, the support is a little soft, but the feedback gives the change and we have seen much worse in this price range. No, it’s all the other keys that have a problem. Shift, Enter, Ctrl and this whole group of functions are definitely on lower quality switches, which have no feedback and make a very audible plastic noise when used. A sacrifice that is difficult to justify when 60% of the keyboard is good enough…
The touchpad itself isn’t bad either, as a bonus! Plastic, but very slippery and with a good diagonal and a well-defined click, it really poses no problem on a daily basis.
Connections
On the left, we find a combo jack port and a 5 Gbit/s USB A port. On the right, we have a second 10Gbps USB A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, and a Thunderbolt 4 port. These two ports support charging.
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For an ultrabook, especially in the 14-inch format, this is great connectivity. We will particularly highlight the presence of a Thunderbolt 4 port, a certification which unfortunately tends to be skipped when manufacturers seek to reduce costs.
Webcam and audio
The HP Pavilion Plus 14-ew1001nf integrates a 5-megapixel 1440p sensor that is quite large for this category. But unfortunately, its rendering is quite bad. It must be said that the arrival of Qualcomm has motivated Intel and AMD to take care of their photo algorithms on the new generation, when this computer still provides a noisy and washed out rendering relative to previous generations. At least the facial recognition is effective.
The two speakers placed on the bottom of the device aren’t particularly competitive either. Very nasal, they offer no sound staging nor do they develop a very convincing volume. Bluetooth 5.3 and the jack port are welcome to accommodate speakers.
Screen
The HP Pavilion Plus 14-ew1001nf integrates a 14-inch diagonal OLED panel which supports a definition of 2880 x 1800 pixels, or a 16:10 ratio. The latter offers a refresh rate of 120 Hz.
Under our probe and with the DisplayCal software, we can see that this panel covers in volume 172% of the sRGB space for 122% of the DCI-P3 space. Maximum brightness is measured at 395 cd/m², decent although lacking punch for outdoor use, with an average color temperature of 6338K quite close to the sought-after NTSC standard of 6500K.
The average delta E00 measured is 1.81, therefore excellent, with a fairly high maximum color difference of 7.13 points on royal blue tones. That being said, we must admit: we expected much worse. HP often chooses to sacrifice its panel, but here, it is of excellent quality for this price placement.
Software
Dropbox, Booking, McAfee… The usual suspects of pre-integrated advertising on laptops are here, and still sending you so many cringe-inducing notifications. Don’t forget to delete all that.
Otherwise, HP’s software experience is still quite… messy, compared to its main competitors. The MyHP management software is of limited interest due to the few options it offers, when three quarters of the other pre-installed software is mainly there to advertise the brand’s paid after-sales service. Fortunately, a cleanup is not that complex and Windows handles important computer updates on its own.
Performances
The Pavilion Plus 14-ew1001nf is equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, the old generation of Intel SoC which integrates 14 cores – 4 performance, 8 efficient, 2 ultra efficient – for a maximum turbo frequency of 4.5 GHz. It is supported by 16 GB of LPDDR5x RAM at 6400 MT/s, and 512 GB of RAM in PCIe 4.0
Benchmarks
Under Cinebench 2024, the scores of 726 points in multi core for 100 points in single core show that this SoC still remains competitive with the latest generations on the market. For the most classic office tasks, you won’t really feel any difference between this PC and the latest ultrabooks.
On the graphics side, the score of 3015 points under Steel Nomad Light is still as engaging in theory, but we know that in practice, the performance does not quite follow. This graphic part will remain useful for mobile creation, especially photography, but don’t ask too much for the rest.
The NPU part which was the charm of this generation when it was announced is still the most disappointing point of this architecture. At 504 points under Procyon, it is three times less than the new generations and far from corresponding to the demands of Microsoft’s Copilot label. That being said, truly compelling AI features continue to be a long way off in 2024.
Finally, the storage is convincing. Without being in the end of life performance of PCie 4.0, we are in the heart of the mill so to speak: everything is ok!
Cooling and noise
Even in more intensive use, the Pavilion Plus 14-ew1001nf remains relatively quiet. No more than the sound of a light breeze. And on a maximum synthetic load, the computer only reaches 48°C at the bottom of the chassis, which is slightly lower than the average for ultrabooks in the same exercise. HP hats off!
Autonomy
The HP Pavilion Plus 14-ew1001nf integrates a 68 Wh battery and is supplied with a 100W power supply using the Power Delivery standard. The computer can therefore be recharged with any block also using this standard.
For office use and with the screen set to 50%, we find autonomy of between 9 and 10 hours of use. This is completely within the norm of what is expected for this SoC, and still something very usable in 2024 despite the explosion of these scores over the last generations.
Price and availability
The HP Pavilion Plus 14-ew1001nf is already available in France, at a starting price of 999 euros. It can be found in reduction at the price of 799 euros, especially during Black Friday in 2024.
