HP Pavilion 15-ec1000nv Review • Affordable gaming laptop!

Tech Week Score
5.0
- Jonas Müller

First, let’s focus on design. The dimensions of HP Pavilion 15-ec1000nv are 36×25.7×2.35cm and the device weighs almost 2 kg (1.98kg). The chassis is simple and unpretentious, with imposing corners and an elegant, chrome green HP logo on the back. The connection of the screen to the main body is made by a centered joint with gaps towards the edges. When you open it, you will notice that the side bezels are very small, which helps the screen to “show” more, while a relatively small margin is at the top. Therein lies the HP TrueVision HD camera framed by a dual-array microphone. For everyday use, in a well-lit area without much noise, it is more than a satisfactory combination.

The screen extends for 15.6 ”and has Full HD resolution, anti-glare IPS panel with a brightness of 250 nits and 45% NTSC color accuracy. As it is a budget gaming laptop, it performs at satisfactory but not impressive levels, mainly due to the low brightness that does not help either in color rendering or in simple, everyday use. Still, it does the job well enough that it is not a hindrance to fun, but it is not the most impressive part of the device.

On the opposite side, you will find a full-size keyboard with green backlight, a color that the company prefers for Pavilion Gaming models and looks beautiful in combination with the black body. Below the keyboard is the large touchpad while at the top are two speakers, tuned by Bang & Olufsen to accompany the action. The sound is quality in proportion, without any noticeable cacophony – the opposite, in fact, for someone who enjoys music, movies and videos on a regular basis. It may not be entirely satisfactory for someone who is mainly involved in gaming, as as expected for a laptop, the bass does not “kick” as much as it should in the middle of an intense battle.

On the right side of the body are an Ethernet port, an HDMI 2.0 output, a combination headphone / microphone port, an SD card slot and two USB ports (one USB Type-C, the other USB 3.0), while the left side has another USB 2.0 port and charging socket. For wireless connectivity, use the Realtek 802.11 b / g / n / ac (2×2) adapter for networking and Bluetooth 5.0 for connecting to other devices. In addition, wireless transmission via Miracast is supported.

Features – Performance

Going to the specifications, things become clearly brighter. The AMD Ryzen 5 4600H six-core processor (base clock 3.0 GHz, max boost 4.0 GHz) is the driving force behind the laptop, framed by 8GB DDR4 3200MHz (2x4GB, occupies both available slots) and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card 3GB, with a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD 256GB completing the core of the system.

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From the six-core processor (12 threads), we have only positive notes, as it impresses both in benchmarks and in practical, everyday use. Compared to the Intel Core i5-9300H that existed in the corresponding series last year, the transition to Ryzen 5 “Renoir” was a leap that, as we will see below, unfortunately did not happen in every sector. The main use that was made during the time we had it was the daily life of a professional who works via internet / browser, so we always had open tabs with everything from Google Sheets to YouTube videos and often in parallel with one of the MS Office programs open . With these data, the speed remained at high levels both in use and in boot or off, with zero grips.

The “bottleneck” of the system is undoubtedly the graphics card, as despite its combination with an excellent CPU, it simply can not cope for someone who has not very high requirements. Specifically, in games like The Witcher III Wild Hunt it ranges between 40-50fps in High settings, with Medium being the option that delivers at 60fps – again, in some more demanding phases (multi-enemy battles or intense effects / magic ) we detected a noticeable drop. Some newer games, such as Forza Horizon 4 and Gears 5 that have been optimized for even weaker systems, have managed to perform at a decent, consistently satisfactory level with Medium graphics.

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Therefore, this is a graphics card that will easily “pick up” games such as DOTA 2 and CS: GO, may well support some recent releases, but it is not worthy of the remarkable processor with which it is combined. For purely gaming use, Medium graphics seem like a “ceiling” in many cases and it is doubtful that the situation will improve in future releases. It should be noted that HP has the machine in several variants, one of which is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti. Since it is within budget, this is an option that should be made without a second thought, for anyone who ends up preferring this particular laptop.

When it comes to cooling, fans do not make noise when used or running office applications. When the games start, of course, the speed goes up and with them the noise. It’s not something that can be overstated by speakers, but that is not their purpose. The good thing is that even in this case, the temperature remains at normal levels without any noticeable overheating or drop in yield.

For the end, one of the best features of the machine remained, which is the autonomy. The laptop is equipped with a 3-cell battery with a capacity of 52.5Wh. The official HP website states that the battery lasts up to 8 hours and 15 minutes, which through daily use (office, not gaming) we found that it is valid with a small deviation – up to half an hour less, as the intensity of use was not constant for 8 hours. This is a pleasant surprise that will surely be appreciated by those who want it for something other than gaming, such as work. With a design that is far from exaggerated and dimensions that are not prohibitive for daily transport, it could easily be the laptop from which one works on a daily basis, in which he also plays games.

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If the battery runs out, the HP Fast Charge can charge it from 0% to 50% in about 45 minutes, provided it is switched off during the charging process. If with 45 minutes of charging one gains about 4 hours of operation, it is again autonomy that some of today’s laptops have as a maximum duration, so it remains an impressive number. The charger surprised us with its small size that does not resemble the “bricks” we have seen in other gaming laptops.

Conclusion

The HP Pavilion Gaming 15-ec1000nv is for anyone who really knows what their PC is asking for. This is because it has a highly capable processor that harmonizes with high-frequency RAM, fast SSD and impressive autonomy, giving an office professional a great choice for a work laptop. We would like the screen to be a little higher in brightness, but that is not the problem.

For a gamer, the only black spot is the mediocre graphics card that complements the above system, as not only does it not guarantee a carefree future but it just performs satisfactorily in recent releases. If it is intended for use with lighter games or it is assumed that the graphics will remain at lower levels of detail, then it can cope, but it is difficult to suggest for more than that.

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