Skip to main content

HP refreshes budget Pavilion with eco-friendly materials and Intel 11th-gen CPUs

HP’s latest Pavilion refresh boasts a number of new features that will appeal to eco-conscious shoppers who don’t want to sacrifice performance. Available in 13-, 14-, and 15-inch screen sizes, the latest HP Pavilion laptops are designed with sustainability in mind, with post-consumer recycled and ocean-bound plastics used in the construction of the speaker housing, the company claimed, which helps to keep approximately 92,000 plastic bottles out of our oceans.

Recommended Videos

And even though the environment is a big part of the upgrade, the new Pavilions still deliver on the technology front — all these laptops come with Intel’s 11th-gen processors alongside stronger integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

In our 11th-gen review, we found that Intel’s Xe graphics performed favorably, so this will allow students and those on a budget to do more things, like play casual games and perform basic creative edits, without having to splurge on a more expensive laptop model equipped with a discrete GPU.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

“When it comes to PCs for the newest generation of users, we want to help power their fun not only during the pandemic but in the years to come,” said HP global leader and general manager of personal systems Kevin Frost in a prepared statement. “HP packs powerful performance features and a youthful, colorful premium design into its newest Pavilion clamshells, making them accessible to everyone to stay connected, entertained, and learning.”

The laptops boast a two-piece metal chassis construction with what HP calls its hourglass edge design along with a 3D manufacturing process that eliminates the parting lines to make the laptop feel sleeker and more premium. The screens have also been upgraded to feature a three-sided micro-edge bezel that delivers an 86% screen-to-body ratio.

The 13-inch Pavilion 13 model comes with a Full HD or Ultra HD display, while the two larger models are equipped in either HD or FHD screens, depending on configuration. All the laptops support Microsoft HDR streaming and HEVC codecs.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The laptops come in a range of five colors — natural silver, luminous gold, ceramic white, tranquil pink, and fog blue — and an edge-to-edge keyboard and larger precision touchpad. HP boasts a full work day of battery life with at least 8.5 hours of juice on each charge.

All notebooks come with USB-C support and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity for even faster Wi-Fi speeds. B&O audio tuning and an optional fingerprint scanner for password-less logins round out the feature set.

AMD and discrete GPU options, too

Image used with permission by copyright holder

HP is offering plenty of choices when it comes to the latest Pavilion notebooks. You can even order a configuration with a discrete GPU if you need more power. Both the Pavilion 14 and Pavilion 15 can be configured with an Nvidia GeForce MX450 GPU alongside the Intel 11th Gen CPU. HP claimed that the jump from integrated Intel Iris Xe to Nvidia’s discrete GPU provides approximately a 20% boost in graphics performance.

And if you’re a fan of AMD’s Ryzen 4000 mobile processor, you can even swap out Intel’s silicon on the Pavilion 15.

All the laptops will be available starting in October. Prices start at $679 for the Pavilion 13, $579 for the Pavilion 14, and $599 for the Pavilion 15 AMD edition. The laptops will be sold through HP’s website, Amazon, Costco, and other retailers, according to the company.

Chuong Nguyen
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
Nvidia’s Resizable BAR explained: What is it and how can you get a gaming boost?
An RTX 3060 GPU installed in a PC.

Laptops and desktops running Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3000 graphics just got a new feature this year called Resizable BAR (base address registers). The feature arrived with the debut of the GeForce RTX 3060, and through software drivers coming in March, it will work across Nvidia's line of 3000 series GPUs on desktop and mobile.

For GeForce gamers, the added support for Resizable BAR means you'll get a performance boost in select games without having to upgrade to a more expensive GPU, which is definitely good news.
What is Resizable BAR?

Read more
Upgrading to Intel’s new 11th-gen processors might require a new motherboard
Promotional image of an Intel Core desktop processor.

Though Intel's upcoming 11th-gen Rocket Lake desktop processors will use the same socket design as their 10th-gen predecessors, upgrading may not be as straightforward this year. The chipset won't work with certain older motherboards, with Intel confirming that boards B460 and H470 will not be compatible with Rocket Lake.

An Intel product support page captured by Videocardz reveals that unlike the B460 and H470 boards, the Intel Z490 and H470 boards will be compatible with 11th Gen Intel Core desktop processors. The CPU maker states on its product support page that although the Z490 and H470 motherboards "may not boot with the upcoming 11th Gen Intel Core desktop processors," a BIOS update will remedy the problem.

Read more
HP’s new Elite Dragonfly G2 and Max models feature Intel 11th-gen vPro
A person using the HP Elite Dragonfly G2 to video conference.

HP's Elite Dragonfly is our favorite business laptop, a convertible 2-in-1 that's lightweight, great-looking, and offers a host of business-oriented features. Now, HP is announcing two new variations at the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show, the Elite Dragonfly G2 and Max.

Both utilize the same physical chassis as the previous model, but the insides have been retooled to bring the class-leading business machine up to date.

Read more