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It can be difficult to find a suitable laptop for office usage, especially one that is worth every penny. Most (decent) laptops don’t exactly come the cheapest these days, which is why we understand the one you choose must be truly a powerful machine.
The HP Pavilion Plus 16 takes on this challenging task, and we set out to test if it was capable of being an essential office companion. Here’s what we thought of it:
HP Pavilion Plus 16 Specifications
- CPU: Intel Core i7-13700H
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050Ti
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- Display: 16-inch, WQXGA (2560 x 1600), 48-120 Hz, IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, Low Blue Light, 400 nits, 100% sRGB
- Weight: 1.9kg
- Ports: 2x USB Type-C, 2x USB Type-A,1x AC smart pin; 1x HDMI, 1x headphone jack
- Dimensions (W X D X H): 14.06 x 9.98 x 0.7 inches
Design & Display
With its solid aluminium build, the HP Pavilion Plus 16 is a sturdily designed laptop, one that ensures durability while adding a touch of sophistication.
However, its sturdiness comes with a trade-off — it's a little on the heavy side, which might not appeal to those seeking lightweight portability. However, its slim profile manages to even out the weight to some extent, making it relatively easy to carry despite its size. The 120Hz refresh rate also ensured smooth visuals, though the display ratio might require a period of adjustment for some users.
One of the notable features is the backlit keyboard with adjustable brightness, a plus for users who work in various lighting conditions, whether it’s in low light or bright sunlight. There’s also the inclusion of a number pad on the right, which might take some getting used to, especially for those accustomed to more compact layouts.
Lastly, the 16-inch display offered a generous viewing experience, complemented by the Eyesafe-certified technology, significantly reducing eye strain during long work sessions.
Performance
Powered by the Intel i7 core processor, the HP Pavilion Plus 16 is well-suited for both casual office tasks and mildly intensive activities. It ensured smooth and efficient multitasking capabilities, and there was no noticeable lagging.
The presence of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPU further enhanced the laptop's versatility for different applications. As it’s primarily designed for gaming purposes, this graphics card provided a significant boost in performance for tasks such as photo editing. It also made the overall visual experience much better when paired with the rest of the laptop’s display hardware.
With a sufficient 16GB RAM and processing power, the Pavilion Plus 16 excelled at multitasking, allowing us to run multiple applications simultaneously without experiencing slowdowns or performance degradation.
WiFi connectivity is also seamless and reliable, and we didn’t encounter or worry about any won't overheating issues throughout using the laptop.
Other features
In terms of additional features, the HP Pavilion Plus 16 impressed with decent B&O speakers for conferencing and entertainment. The speakers were capable of providing clear and sufficiently loud audio output for most applications.
What stood out was the HP Enhanced Lighting feature, which provides customizable colour settings and adjustments, allowing us to optimize the display's lighting conditions according to their preferences and ambient lighting conditions.
When paired with the 5MP webcam and auto-framing abilities, it delivered excellent video quality that is ideal for conferences. For the privacy-concerned users, we also noted the addition of a manual webcam slider that blocked out the webcam when not in use, giving us peace of mind whenever using the laptop.
Battery life was also very commendable, as it offered more than enough power to last through half a workday of non-intensive work when unplugged. The variety of ports also provided ample connectivity options for various types of inputs, although the distribution of ports was slightly uneven.
