HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 edition

While it will likely vary from market to market, customers are given the option of either AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce GTX when it comes to the graphics on Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15. The maximum option given to customers are AMD Radeon RX 560X or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q.

HP provides plenty of display options as well for the Pavilion Gaming 15 including 144Hz in full HD as well as 60Hz panel in full HD and 4K. Same case applies for its storage options which are available in the form of 2TB hard drive or 256GB PCIe NVMe solid state drive for single storage setup.

I like this new budget line from HP, looks sleek with thin bezels and while it might be a bit overkill for the hardware the 144Hz screen is a nice touch.

Not sure what happened with the tread title but if a mod can fix it to
HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 edition

 

I remember NBC stating the the keyboard backlight will be toxic green, neon purple and angelic white. I definitely like the non-standard colour options since we are constantly bombarded by the bog-standard "black notebook with red accent colours"

 

Agree 100%.
The red trim and keyboard craze is finally over, for good I hope!
I'm not to crazy about the green or purple either but the standard white looks great.

 

Release date?

 

Looks a lot like the HP ZBook 15v Workstation.
As to release date, they seem to have an estimated shipping date of June 21st, as per the configurator.
I wonder what 144 Hz display HP is using... $70 seems surprisingly/relatively cheap

 

I just received mine in the mail, it has:
Ghost White color
i7-8750H
gtx 1060 max-q
144hz 1080p ips display
8gb ram
1tb HDD and 16GB optane (will probably replace later with an SSD).

I also weighed it on a kitchen scale and it is about 5.388 kgs or 5.26 lbs, more than advertised because the gtx 1060 model comes with a larger, 70wh battery.

So far the screen looks nice, relatively thin bezels, good viewing angles and no back light bleed, but I don't know about the color accuracy. The hinge is a bit stiff and you can't open it with one hand or bend it back super far. Also the speakers are quite loud.

The build quality is quite good for the most part. The outside is all plastic but is quite sturdy although the lid has a bit of flex. The keyboard deck is quite solid as is the handrest area which has a brushed metal finish (still plastic), though it does collect fingerprints. The keyboard is okay, it has little travel but at least isn't mushy. The track pad isn't great it feels like there is empty space below it because it rattles whenever you tap it.

So far I'm happy as it fits my needs and I believe is only laptop in this price range with comparable specs, a high refresh rate screen, and can pass as a normal, everyday notebook.

Here are some photos

https://imgur.com/gallery/vugvsSc

I'll probably do some performance tests later.

 

Link is broken.
Looking forward to the full review!

 

I just ordered this laptop off the slickdeals deal going. Scared because there are very few reviews available, so I feel like I'm throwing the dice.
Configuration I ordered was the 4k panel with the 1060 3gb, Ghost white, 16gb optane with the 5400 hard drive. 8GB RAM. It was included with the price so thought I'd try out Optane. Will throw an SSD in later.
I wanted 16GB RAM but they charge $170 and the 8GB configuration says it's 1x8GB so I can throw a 2nd stick in for about $75 myself.

Getting the back panel off looks a smidge tricky, see video below. I game some but don't play cutting edge games and don't need to game in 4k. Mostly need to do data processing type work loads as I'm a software developer. Wanted the 4k screen and the 8750H for that purpose.

In my searching, I was only able to find 1 or 2 Youtube videos in foreign languages, thought I'd post here in case it helps anyone. Would be nice if google translate worked on these videos.
This one shows a good opening shot of the Ghost White. The guy spends a lot of time trying to get the back panel off. Looks like there are clips all the way around.


This one shows some good camera angles, again, translation would help a lot.


If anyone has any further info, please share. I'm particularly interested in the 4k panel, can't find any info on it.

 

So far, I did cinebench r15 CPU test and 3d mark firestrike

At first, I got scores in the upper 700's for cinebench until I realized that the CPU was thermal throttling, I undervolted with throttlestop and it jumped to 1190, so I would definitely recommend doing that.

In firestrike, I got between 9200 to 9450 with a few different voltage curves, though it seems to do best at stock or close to stock as the GPU does not tend to overheat like the CPU.

I did a battery test by turning the screen to 40%, turning performance settings all the way down, opening 10 tabs and did a mix of word, excel, web browsing, and video watching. I got nearly exactly 6 hours of battery.

Here is a link the the pictures of that laptop the last link I posted is broken. The red smudges are just an issue with my camera.

Here are pictures of the internals.
The back plate is quite difficult to pry off, but after that, everything is easily accessible.

Also there are Fourth of July Coupons available at the moment. Here is one the works for 20% off: JULY4PC18

If you configure here, (the base model doesn't allow coupons) the model I have would be $928 - that's seems like a pretty good deal.

 

does the 1060 model have optimus or not? i have my eye on the omen but at the same time would lean toward something with longer battery life. based on the benchmark it sounds like it does. (you would see both the intel and nvidia graphics adapter in the device manager)

kinda wish it was the 6gb model, otherwise it would be a slam dunk for me...

 

Yes it has optimus

 

Great news on having optimus. How is fan noise and heat? Maybe during normal use and again while gaming?

 

I generally use it with a laptop stand for ergonomics and while its elevated, I didn't notice the heat very much, especially after undervolting the CPU.

On a table under intensive load it can get hot above the speaker area and on the bottom, it got up to 80 degrees celcius for the GPU and 85 on the CPU. At idle they would be around 49-53 degrees.

The fans are about average for this kind of laptop I would say, not super loud but definitely noticable while playing games. While browsing the web, they are somewhat loud if you have performance mode on, otherwise they are very quiet.

 

Thanks. Nearly every review I've seen on the 8750H has recommended an undervolt for heat, so sounds like I will be doing that. Thanks for the info, it is much appreciated.

 

Hey guys, I want to get this laptop but I want to know how good is it? I wanna get the 4k screen and dual drives how does it run and how are the drivers and heat managment?

 

Is there any thread for HP Blizzard gaming laptop. Got one for store. Would like to get some feedback on heating up issues with dedicated GPU and quad core processors.

 

I ordered one with the 4k screen, it is supposed to arrive Thursday .I'll let you know

 

Wonderful!! Do you know the ppi for the 4k screen? I also want to know about the audio. I hope its better than my HP dv6t 7000

 

Any feedback on this laptop? I'm curious to know what the poeple that bought it think of it. Is the screen good quality?

 

My 4k version of this laptop came in, and I am more than pleased and pleasantly surprised with it. The over all form factor of the laptop is much smaller than I anticipated. The 4k screen is fantastic in my opinion. My son just bought the brand new 2018 macbook pro 15" and I did some side by side pictures of a 4k Youtube video. The videos aren't perfectly synced so the exact frames in the pictures aren't the identical frames, but you get the idea. Very impressive for such an inexpensive device.
I have not loaded any games yet so can't speak to that.
Screen has a lot of flex too it. More than any other I've seen, but the device feels great on my lap. Excellent viewing angles. I have the 5400 rpm hard drive with the 16gb optane chip and it's pretty good. Much better than any hybrid drive I have used in the past. I have a 1TB Samsung EVO Nvme I am dropping into it this weekend.

4k screen comparisons to 2018 Macbook Pro 15"
https://photos.app.goo.gl/92dbJ2NQUZ1APsd36

 

DPI is 282 I think. There was zero documentation and I don't know how to check this other than using this website: http://dpi.lv/ I put in the 3840 x 2160 and 15.6" and it gave 282.

Speakers are plenty loud. not much bass. I can crank them to full with no distortion on a typical cold play or weezer song.

 

HI,
Can you please show me how you undervolted the cpu with throttlestop, because i never did that
Thank you

 

Here is a good tutorial

 

Stephen from OWNorDISOWN made three videos about the HP Pavilion Gaming 15 that will probably prove helpful for anyone considering to buy it.

- Unboxing and first impressions:

Spoiler

- Review and comparison with HP Omen 15 and Dell G3:

Spoiler

- Repasting comparison:

Spoiler