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The HP Pavilion 10z ($249.99 as tested) is a basic laptop made for folks who find inexpensive Chromebooks attractive, but really, really need Windows. The Pavilion 10z runs full Windows 8.1, so you won’t ever have to worry if you have an old favorite program you still want to use or are just used to the way it works. On the plus side, the system is one of the least expensive Windows 8 laptops we’ve seen with a touch screen, which counts for a lot. There are some frustrations along the way, like some sluggishness when loading programs and websites, but if you must have both Windows and a minimal price tag, this budget system is worth a look.
Design and Features
Compact is the word that best describes the Pavilion 10z. It measures about 1 by 10.75 by 7.75 inches (HWD) and weighs exactly 2.5 pounds. That makes it easy to carry around or stuff into a purse or small carry-on bag. One plus of the traditional clamshell-laptop design is that the system isn’t top-heavy, as is the case for detachable-hybrid tablets like the Acer Aspire Switch 10($282.37 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). Textured dots molded into the black-colored palm rest and both lids help users grip the laptop, and make the system feel more substantial. The midgrade plastic feels of slightly lesser quality than other entry-level PCs, like the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147)($399.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), our convertible-hybrid laptop Editors’ Choice, but the extra texture helps keep the Pavilion 10z from feeling like a toy.
The 10.1-inch, 1,366-by-768-resolution LCD has a very narrow viewing angle, as expected for such an inexpensive laptop, but the screen is bright and clear when displaying text, pictures, and videos viewed from dead-on.
The most notable feature of the Pavilion 10z is its 10-point touch capability. The laptop hinge has an ample amount of friction to keep the lid from moving when you tap the screen, though it may bounce a bit if you’re playing a game. PC makers now have very few excuses when they leave touch screens off of more expensive entry-level Windows 8 systems like the Acer Aspire E5-471-59RT( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). The glossy screen is reflective in ambient light, so consider yourself warned if you have a sunlight-filled house or you like to surf the Web outdoors. The system has 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi for wireless networking, but Bluetooth isn’t included. It is, however, available as a no-cost option on HP’s shopping website.
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Since the system is so compact, you’ll have to get used to a slightly smaller keyboard. In particular, the up/down arrow keys are tiny, but at least the left and right keys are taller. The row of function keys default to multimedia and PC functions like screen brightness, playback controls, and volume +/-. You’ll need to hold down the Fn key or hit Fn Lock to get the traditional F1-F12 keys. The touchpad is also on the small side, but it has multitouch capability and also has two physical mouse buttons, in case you want to navigate the old-fashioned way.
There is a good selection of I/O ports on the laptop, especially considering that there isn’t a lot of physical room on the sides of the chassis. You’ll find an Ethernet port, a headset jack, an SD card reader, a USB 2.0 port, and a USB 3.0 port. The presence of a full-size HDMI port is remarkable, since larger systems like the Lenovo Yoga 2 11($359.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) use a micro HDMI port that requires an adapter. One nit is that the USB 2.0 port and the USB 3.0 port are both the same black color. On most PCs and hard drives, the USB 3.0 port is colored blue, making it easy to distinguish between the two to aid users.
Extra preinstalled programs on the Start screen include Accuweather, Amazon, Fresh Paint, HP Connected Music, Kindle, McAfee Central, Miracast, Netflix, Office Trial, Pinger, and Wild Tangent Games. Extra icons in Desktop mode include Amazon, HP Connected Drive, HP Connected Music, HP Connected Photo, HP Smart Friend, McAfee LiveSafe, Pinger, Wild Tangent Games, and Cyberlink YouCam. Even though all these programs are already installed, there is still over 420GB of free space left on the 500GB hard drive. Plan on an hour or two to remove the programs you don’t use. The system comes with a one-year warranty.
Performance
To get to its budget price, the Pavilion 10z skimps on system memory and storage; there are only 2GB of memory and a 500GB 5,400rpm SATA hard drive. Most PCs will have 4GB to 8GB of memory, and some will even include speedier solid-state drives (SSDs). While 500GB capacity is a lot more space than you’ll find on any tablet or SSD-equipped laptop in this price range, both will slow the system down.
See How We Test Laptops
The laptop takes over 27 seconds to boot up from an off-state, compared with SSD-powered systems that take about 10 seconds. More serious are the waits that occur when you try to surf the Internet and run the pre-loaded programs on the laptop. The Pavilion 10z also pauses often when loading new websites, which presumably means that it has filled the alloted space in the paltry 2GB of system memory and needs to load new information into memory after first caching the older info to the hard drive. The slowdowns are relentless: click, wait, wait, read, click, wait, etc. Once a website loads, scrolling is speedy, suggesting that the processor is up to the task once everything is loaded into memory. Netflix streaming and 720p HD videos play smoothly for the most part. However, some YouTube videos stop and reload during playback, and changing movies in Netflix invariably is followed by a minute or so of caching before playback can begin.
The system comes with an energy-sipping 1GHz AMD E1 Micro-6200T processor with built-in Radeon R2 graphics. It helped the system garner a good 1,922-point score on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test. This outpaced the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147) and the Acer Aspire Switch 10. However, the Pavilion 10z was much slower on the Handbrake video encoding test, taking 15 minutes 29 seconds, as well as on the Photoshop CS6 test (19:56). Thanks to its faster-clocked processor and larger amount of memory, the Dell Inspiron 11 only took 5:54 for Handbrake and 12:35 for the CS6 test. The Pavilion 10z also lagged behind the Lenovo Yoga 2 11 on the CS6 test (16:08).
The Pavilion 10z lasted a respectable 6 hours 38 minutes on our battery rundown test, but the Acer Aspire Switch 10 (7:39) and the Lenovo Yoga 2 11 (6:53) both lasted longer. The Dell Inspiron 11 lasted almost twice as long as the Pavilion 10z, at 11:20.
The $250 price tag for the HP Pavilion 10z is very attractive, to be sure. But you have to ask yourself: Are you buying a system to surf the Internet, or do you need a full-fledged Windows PC? For Web surfing, the same price tag will get you the similarly priced and highly-rated HP Chromebook 11($130.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window); for $50 more, you can have its Editors’ Choice-winning sibling, the HP Chromebook 11 (Verizon LTE)($249.99 at eBay)(Opens in a new window), which integrates a cellular modem for everywhere connectivity. The HP Pavilion 10z will be a passable Windows PC, and its touch screen is a plus, but it may only feel a bit faster than your old PC while you wait for programs and videos to load. The Dell Inspiron 11-3147 is ultimately a better choice for Windows users, though its list price is $200 more.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/hp-pavilion-10z