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HP Pavilion – 15-cc102tx review

6.5/10
8.0/10
7.0/10



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Intel’s 8th generation of processors are here and we’re finally getting to have a crack at one, with the new HP Pavillion-15-cc102tx. The laptop comes with the 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor with a clock speeds of 3.4 GHz. Based on what Intel says, it’s designed to offer better performance and battery efficiency, something everyone demands of their notebooks.   Along with the latest processors, the HP Pavilion has other things to boast about as well, starting with a premium design, an NVIDIA GeForce 940 MX graphics card, 1TB of SSHD storage and B&O speakers. All of this for around Rs. 63,000* doesn’t seem like a bad deal. It fits perfectly for a beginner in the media space, who needs that extra bit of punch, but doesn’t want to spend much for it. How well does it actually perform though, let’s do a quick review and find out.  

Design

HP has changed the design of their Pavilion series. They no longer carry the monolithic design on the outside. The new laptop carries a matte grey finish lid and a glossy silver bottom. The matte finish feels nice and comfortable to hold. With the HP logo embossed in the centre, it looks simple yet solid. Things don’t look very subtle when you open the lid though. On the inside, HP has decided to go with a shiny silver finish for the keyboard deck. Even the keys carry the same colour. It looks good from a distance, but upfront, it just feels a little too much. The reflective surface can be a bit distracting in brightly lit rooms. The keyboard feels a bit cramped with just about enough spacing between the keys. They are of a soft touch kind and offer good travel, making them tactile for simple tasks. For intensive gaming though, we didn’t find them responsive enough. The keyboards are backlit so you won’t have any problem using it at night.   The trackpad is rectangular and wider horizontally. It does not support Windows precision drivers but still feels pretty responsive. The smooth metallic surface makes it easy to use. There is no discretion between the two buttons, so you have to be pretty accurate with the keys. To select something on the screen, you have to place your finger on the far left corner. A little off towards the centre, and the right-click options will keep popping up. This can get a little annoying after the first few times. Besides that, we don’t have any major issues with the design. You can see the speaker grill right above the keyboard, which is good placement in our opinion. The laptop also feels reasonably sturdy. The chassis feels solid and there is no flex on the screen. Overall, it’s also slim and feels light to travel. It weighs about 2.12kg.  

Performance

Intel claims that their 8th generation processors can be 40 per cent faster than its predecessors. What we’re more interested to see is if the new Intel i5 can outperform last generation’s i7 processor. The best way to do that is to run benchmarks. We used Cinebench to compare the new Intel i5 with a 7th generation Core i7-7700. Both processors are quad core models. We recorded the following scores. Both laptops were kept on Performance mode. The Core i7 managed to get a much better score. There is a 30 per cent performance gap between the two. When it comes to practical performance, we didn’t have much trouble with the laptop. It managed to run most mundane tasks with ease. There were no issues running a web browser, Netflix and Office applications side-by-side. Playing movies through the hard drive was also no problem. Full HD videos ran easily, but 4K videos showed little stutter when skipping scenes. The performance with 3D software and heavy games like Grand Theft Auto V was also a little sluggish.Of course, it was only momentary and laptop got back to speed after a few seconds. That said, heavy applications and games perform seamlessly only when run alone. The laptop features a 1TB SSHD storage unit. SSHD are hybrid storage drives that uses both an SSD and a conventional hard drive. To give you an idea of how it works, the SSD is primarily used as a buffer for the hard drive and is not accessible to users. This results in better booting and in-game loading times. The SSD component on this drive is just 8GB.   Needless to say, the SSHD didn’t make a lot of difference on the HP Pavilion cc102tx. We did notice slightly better boot times, but nothing compared to a laptop with an actual SSD. Simple applications like Chrome, Netflix, and Office loaded much faster because of the SSHD. Transferring small amounts of data from one drive to another also happened faster. The overall performance is more or less like a conventional hard drive and that shows in the CrystalDiskMark test. The scores are similar to other laptops. HP claims the laptop to offer a battery life of 9 hours, which seems a bit over exaggerated. On everyday use, we managed to about 3 to 4 hours of the battery life from the laptop, which is still good. While gaming though, you’re barely going to get about an hour with the HP- 15-cc102tx’s battery.  

Audio and video performance

One of the most disappointing bits about the laptop is its 15.6-inch HD screen running a resolution of 1366 x 768. For a laptop priced around Rs. 60,000, that’s pretty disappointing. For some, it might even be a deal breaker. It feels like the one thing missing from making the HP-cc102tx a solid mid-range laptop. The screen has good brightness levels, but the viewing angles are pretty bad, especially when you look from the top. You’ll see colours fade even when you adjust the lid to its extents. Above that, the reflective surface hampers the experience even more in brightly lit rooms. You have to be sitting right in front of the screen to get a good experience.   Black levels are low so movies look a little washed out. Colours look reasonably balanced. It’s what makes the experience of watching videos a little pleasurable. However it’s not enough to get you that immersive experience that we look for in games.   The B&O designed speakers at the top are loud enough for you to play videos even when you’re outdoors. It’s clear, especially in the mids. You don’t really need headphones while watching news or YouTube videos. We even found the speakers pretty good for playing music. There is not enough punch but we weren’t expecting much anyway.  

Specifications  

The HP comes with all the hardware one needs on a notebook. You get one HDMI 1.4, two standard USB 3.0 ports one USB Type-C 3.1 port. It’s a good feature to have but we’d rather have a full HD screen than a Type-C port that might not be used that often. On the wireless part, the phone comes with Bluetooth 4.2 and Wi-Fi 802.11ac, which is good to see. Windows 10 is kept clean for the most part. HP has only included their service application HP Jumpstart, their ePrint software.

Design

The HP Pavilion sports a premium design. It features a nice matte grey finish at the top and silver finish on the keyboard, the blend of which makes the laptop look a little peculiar but overall well-polished. The keyboard looks a little flashy because of the silver monotone, but it works well and offers a comfortable typing experience. The trackpad is also pretty responsive. Overall the laptop is pretty light and has a solid build quality, which makes it a good notebook to travel with.


6.5/10

Features

On paper, the HP Pavilion 15-cc102tx seems like a great mid-range laptop. It even has a few tricks that give the laptop a slight edge over its competition. One of them is the SSHD storage unit, which offers great benefits for somebody running everyday software like Google Chrome or Microsoft Office. It’s also one of few mid-range laptops we’ve seen that comes with the latest Wi-Fi 802.11ac standard, offering better wireless connectivity and data transfer speeds. The USB 3.1 Type-C port is also an advantage for someone who uses a smartphone with the same port – it makes connectivity simpler. We’re only disappointed with the HD screen. It’s of a lower quality and can be a deal breaker for many people.


8.0/10

Performance

The HP Pavilion 15-cc102tx can handle multi-tasking with ease, with simple software. Thanks to the 8th generation processor and the NVIDIA graphics card you can also run 3D software and heavy games, but the performance can be sluggish from time-to-time. The 1TB SSHD helps with in-game loading times, but the overall benefit is too tiny to notice. The low resolution screen doesn’t live up to the mark. It lacks sharpness and offers bad viewing angles. The B&O speakers on the other hand are loud and eliminate the need of a small Bluetooth speaker.


6.5/10

Verdict

Even with the 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor, the HP Pavilion 15-cc102tx doesn’t quite reach the likes of a high-end laptop. Though it can run demanding applications and some games, we would only recommend it to somebody who wants that additional boost with everyday tasks. We just feel that this laptop needed a better quality display with a higher resolution to be a good recommendation.


7.0/10