HP - HP Pavilion 13-an0999nf

HP

HP Pavilion 13: a PC with restrained capabilities

Aprox. 789€

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The Pavilion 13 seeks to give the user an experience worthy of an ultraportable at an affordable price. For this, HP had to make many concessions. May be too much?

Our review

Presentation

A few weeks ago, we tested a 14-inch HP Pavilion laptop, which offers excellent value for money. Today it's the 13-an0999nf model's turn. Its main difference is to be equipped with a 13-inch screen, and therefore a smaller chassis. But the differences are also technical and sometimes hide unpleasant surprises ...

With this model, HP wants to offer a PC focusing on mobility at a reasonable price, that is to say less than 700 €. Bet taken for the American brand?


Presentation

Construction

Like the 14-inch model, the HP Pavilion 13 has a visually successful brushed aluminum chassis, which has the advantage of not attracting fingerprints. This finish is more and more present on the HP Pavilion. We also find all the design codes of the range on the keyboard part, especially at the level of the stylized speakers.

This HP Pavilion offers two interesting design ideas. The first is the notch formed by the keyboard and the screen when the computer is closed, their angular shape offering enough room for the fingers to open it easily. The second is the slight elevation of the keyboard when the Pavilion is open, like what is done at Asus, the base of the screen resting on the surface on which the PC is placed in order to make it lift, which provides more typing comfort.

The strike, however, deserved to be more worked, the keys having a long strike with unpleasant softness, despite good resistance at the end of the race. It should also be noted that the chassis bends with each press, which does not help to make it better. An observation that we had already made on the 14 inch model. The keyboard, however, has the merit of being backlit on three levels. Finally, a series of keys is located to the right of the Enter key (long and therefore not intuitive) with the consequence of causing the user to type constantly on it. Often annoying. The trackpad is, on the contrary, very pleasant to use. Relatively extensive, it reacts to the finger and the eye. A success.

The computer connection is very complete with a USB Type-C 3.1 port, two USB Type-A 3.0 ports in addition to an HDMI port and a mini-jack port. In addition, the PC offers an SD card reader, which is always useful for this type of product. On its right edge, the PC also offers a fingerprint reader, an unusual location on a computer. If it is not ideally located (it would have made more sense on the facade), it works perfectly well.

Using a precision screwdriver, it is possible to open the PC. Be careful, two screws are hidden under the pads and they will need to be peeled off slightly to access the innards of the computer. The latter unfortunately does not offer much flexibility for those who would like to change the configuration of the PC. Indeed, it is only possible to change the M.2 Nvme SSD, the RAM being directly soldered to the motherboard. We will therefore not be able to extend the storage capacity unless the SSD is completely changed. Regarding memory, it will be enough to 8 GB.

The heating of the PC is controlled, but it penalizes the power of the product (see the Performances section). During our usual test protocol (benchmark Unigine Heaven for one hour), the temperature rose to 45 ° C on the ventilation grille and to 40 ° C on the keyboard, which is correct. This heat is counterbalanced by a slight breath of fan, measured at 40 dB, which can be heard slightly but remains discreet. In normal condition, that is to say during office work or Internet browsing, the PC does not heat up at all.


Construction

Screen

The HP Pavilion Laptop 13-an0999nf has a 13.3 inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 px. The vertical edges of 5 mm are relatively thin, which is not the case of the horizontal edges, and this gives a screen / facade ratio of 79%, which places it in the current average located between 75% and 80%.

contrast 1,170: 1 Delta E 6.3 temperature 6,645 K

We can note a certain consistency in the calibration of the screens at HP, the pavilion of the Pavilion 13 delivering substantially the same results as that of the 14 inches. The contrast was measured at 1,170: 1, which is a correct score. Blacks have the advantage of being relatively deep, thanks in particular to the shine of the slab. The temperature is almost perfect. Measured at 6,645 K, it is very close to 6,500 K of the video standard. The screen thus does not draw towards red or blue. Respect for the colors displayed leaves something to be desired. The average delta E, calculated at 6.3, is very high. It is especially the blues, greens and purples displayed on the screen that are not respected compared to the original colors. The HP Pavilion laptop 13-an0999nf is therefore to be avoided by those, such as photographers, who absolutely need a faithful screen.

The maximum brightness is 276 cd / m², which is not high enough to work outside, especially with a shiny panel causing reflections. The remanence of 18 ms is a little above the average which amounts to 15 ms, but it is low enough not to make appear "fuzzy streaks" on the screen when it displays movements.


Screen

Performances

The HP Pavilion laptop 13-an0999nf has an Intel Core i7-8565U processor (4 cores, 8 threads, base frequency of 1.8 GHz, turbo frequency at 4.8 GHz), 8 GB of RAM in dual channel (soldered motherboard) as well as a 256 GB M2 SSD.

During our usual test protocol (photo editing, video editing, file compression or 3D calculation), the PC reached the index of 62 on our test scale, which is very disappointing for a Core i7 of this generation. It is therefore even less powerful than the 14-inch version with a Core i5-8250U. This poor performance is explained by HP's choice to limit the power of the processor (1.5 GHz in work and 2 GHz at most, which is not much) so as not to heat the chassis (which rises to 45 ° C like the 14 inch) . Result? A PC with restrained capacities, but sold at full price. We can not advise too much to move towards a Core i5 for this model, which will be cheaper by bringing the same power. The Core i7 still provides enough power to run relatively demanding applications without too much difficulty.


Performances

Mobility / Autonomy

With the Pavilion laptop 13-an0999nf, HP is betting on ultra mobility. The 13-inch format comes with a weight of 1.27 kg and dimensions of 31 x 21 x 1.5 cm, which places it in the average of PCs of this type. It has a relatively light charger - in two parts - which weighs 290 g, but which will still have to be packed in a bag.

In terms of autonomy, the Pavilion delivers a correct result, without sparking. During our usual test protocol (Netflix in Chrome, backlight off, headphones plugged in and brightness set to 200 cd / m²), the PC shut down after 6 h 21 min, which corresponds to the average of 13 inches, located between 6 am and 8 am During an office work, the user can hope to keep double the time, and can therefore forget his charger at home for a day of work.


Mobility / Autonomy

Audio

The HP Pavilion 13 has speakers located on the front, between the keyboard and the screen, the best possible positioning on a laptop. The sound delivered by the computer is clean and balanced, despite a hint of distortion in the midrange which can especially be heard on human voices - the joints becoming slightly acidic. Note that B&O offers extremely well hidden audio software, since it is located in a sub-tab of the HP software: Audio Control. However, the thing is far from dramatic since we strongly advise to leave it activated with the default settings, or simply by lowering the bass to level 40 for optimal sound. Overall, the performance produced is very satisfactory given the format of the computer.

The headphone jack also provides a signal of excellent quality, although it should be noted a problem of current handling when the volume is above 90%, which could lead to problems in terms of distortion, energy or frequency response depending on the headphones used. However, we already measure 150 mV RMS output at this level, which should be enough for the vast majority of headsets, with the exception of the most demanding hi-fi models.


Conclusion

The HP Pavilion Laptop 13-an0999nf certainly has qualities, such as a correct chassis, an honest screen and good autonomy, but it is served by pitfalls that are really disabling. Difficult indeed to accept a flanged CPU because of a bad management of the heat, the displayed colors little respected or a keyboard a little missed. A barely average PC that doesn't spark. We recommend opting for the 14-inch model, better mastered by HP.


Specifications