HP Pavilion Gaming 17-cd1014sa

If you're looking at this laptop, you probably already know that it is a budget offering and that there are some things you will have to accept about the laptop's capabilities before buying. Do not buy this expecting it to run every game on ultra settings at high frame rates. As a guide, expect to use the following settings for 60fps: Brand new AAA titles: 720p / 1080p with medium settings AAA Titles from 2015 - 2018: 1080p with medium to high settings Older or less demanding titles: 1080p with high / ultra settings Positives: - The Ryzen 4600H processor is a total beast and will not hold the GTX 1650 back at all. This processor is an 'entry level' gaming / productivity offering from AMD which still manages to outperform most of Intel's high-end laptop processors. - The included 256GB NVME SSD is lightning fast. - The keyboard is nice to type on and the trackpad is decent. You can set the keyboard backlight to 'always on' in the BIOS if desired. - Accessing the internals is easy. - There is room to install a 2.5" SSD and there are 2 RAM slots. You can easily swap the two 4GB modules out for higher capacity modules, but please read the 'good to know' section further down before buying RAM. - Fan is silent when browsing the internet and other light use. - Screen backlighting is quite even across the screen. Black depth is actually decent. - Charges quickly. - Great performance for the price. Neutrals: - Compared to some other gaming laptops, the fans are mostly bearable when gaming, but you will definitely be aware of them. - The build quality is okay. Nothing special. - Battery life is okay when not gaming (4 - 5 hours at half brightness, browsing the web and watching a few videos) and probably wouldn't last much longer than an hour - The audio is adequate. No real bass to speak of, but it doesn't sound tinny. - Only 2 USB ports, which might be a problem for some people. - Screen brightness isn't anything special, but fine for indoor use. Negatives: - The screen only covers 62% sRGB. Don't expect particularly vibrant colours. - When connected to my router via wifi, the laptop's internet accessibility would drop every few hours. This doesn't happen on any of my other devices. Updating the wireless card drivers did not fix this. I have managed to fix it by assigning the laptop a static IP address outside of the router's DHCP range. Your mileage may vary as this issue might be specific to my network configuration, but I can't be sure. Good to know: - Other people have reported problems upgrading beyond the default 8GB RAM. I put two 8GB 3200MHz modules from Crucial (not the Ballistix type - just the basic stuff) in this laptop and everything works correctly. Some people report that their memory speed is stuck at 2400MHz or 2667MHz - my advice would be to steer clear of RAM that relies on XMP and to go for some more basic RAM with a JEDEC profile onboard. - I haven't listed the small 256GB SSD as a negative since this is an attribute that is made very clear at the point of purchase. However, if you're not too savvy with this kind of thing, then you should not expect to fit more than 3 to 5 current AAA games on it (if the games ranged from say 40 to 80 GB). If this isn't enough for you, then adding an HDD / SSD should be something to consider. - If you're planning on putting a mechanical hard drive into the empty drive slot, make sure it is one of the thinner, more modern 2.5" HDDs as there is very little clearance even with a slim SSD. Overall: Fast all round and capable of playing all games currently on the market at the time of this review - albeit at 720p / 1080p and lower settings for the very latest graphically intensive AAA games. For slightly older games, you'll have a pleasant experience at higher settings / 1080p. At this price point, you won't find anything else that performs better. The sheer power of the Ryzen 5 4600H also makes it difficult to match even in the used market. Recommended - so long as you understand the laptop's limitations as set out above.

I purchased the HP Pavilion Gaming 15.6" Laptop (model 15-dk1007na), and it has been an excellent performer for its price. The Intel i5 processor combined with 8GB RAM and the GTX 1650Ti handles most games smoothly at medium to high settings. The 512GB SSD provides quick boot times and ample storage for games and files. The 15.6" display offers good visuals, and the laptop stays relatively cool during extended gaming sessions. The build quality feels solid, and the keyboard is comfortable for both gaming and general use. While 8GB of RAM is sufficient, upgrading to 16GB could make it even better for multitasking. Overall, this laptop is a fantastic choice for casual to moderate gaming and everyday use. Great performance, solid specs, and good value for money!

Overview/CPU: Been using the laptop on and off for a day or so. So far, I'm happy with the performance of the machine overall, it's fast, had no hitches thus far which is exactly what I expected out of the 4000 series AMD chips. Very nice. GPU: The GPU so far is performing well, i.e. I have Genshin Impact on max settings with the render scale at max too (1.5 at the time of writing), it's getting the full 60 FPS while only utilizing ~80% of the GPU. Not too shabby. Far better than 1050 in my old laptop which could only handle around 30FPS on the lowest settings. Though I am very disappointed that the product listing has NOT stated anywhere that this is the Max-Q design GPU. Screen: The colours seem alright, but a bit washed out, I definitely wouldn't use this for colour sensitive work. I feel the display brightness is also a but lacking too when the room is brightly lit i.e. sun shining in the room, but seems fine for casual gaming. Keyboard: The keyboard is, meh at best. It's not terrible, but I'll always prefer a proper mechanical keyboard which you're just not going to get on a laptop anyway, so my opinion on this should be taken lightly. I mean it's not bad to be fair, I feel the spacing between each key is alright. Battery: I haven't got a proper feel for the battery life yet, I'll update when I've got a good estimate to give. Edit: I get a decent ~4 hours of battery life with a mixture of watching maybe 30 minutes of video i.e. YouTube, listening to Spotify and using remote desktop for the entirety of that time. Shell: The case stays pretty cool even with a game running in the background while typing here, the right side gets a little warm, but not enough to be distracting. Webcam: Camera quality is okay, ideal for work meetings on MS Teams, or Zoom if you prefer that. RAM: The RAM sticks that have with this are 2 x 4GB @ 3200MHz which means it populates all the available slots, so you'll be looking at buying a RAM kit of 2 sticks if you want to upgrade this in the future. Happy to see it's 3200MHz as well because Ryzen loves fast memory! Storage: There's an empty HDD caddy inside too with a plastic insert that can be removed and then populated with a 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD of your choosing. Good to have the option since the 512GB M.2 SSD that comes with the laptop is not a great deal of storage for a device targeted for "gamers". Why not 5 stars: The Max-Q design has sacrificed performance at the cost of energy efficiency. It's nice that's it's been made energy-efficient and all that jazz, but sacrificing performance in the process is a no-no for any gamer. The Max-Q design in my opinion is and should be considered an entirely different product. The 1660 Ti and 1660 Ti Max-Q are NOT the same. Therefore I dropped a star for the inaccurate product listing here on Amazon.