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HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U Review

8.5/10

HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U (EY0027AU_01)


Pros

• Wonderful OLED Screen

• All metal chassis

• Light and Thin

• 1440p IR webcam with built in privacy shutter

• Affordable and great value buy when on sale

• Great general performance

Cons

• Speaker Design

• No Thunderbolt 4 support

• No SD or microSD card slot

• RAM is not upgradeable


The HP Pavilion Plus 14 (2023) AMD 7840U is a noteworthy mid-range laptop with integrated 780M graphics. The laptop includes a gorgeous 14” OLED 2.8k 120hz HDR display. This means watching the latest shows, movies, and anime is a blast.

A light and thin laptop, portability is quite good and should last you most of the day. With a 68Wh battery pack paired with an efficient Ryzen 7 U-series chip, expect 6-8 hours of mixed usage.

Great for general work (typing and browsing), photo editing, casual video editing, light to moderate gaming, traveling, and watching videos, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U doesn’t breaking the bank. Perfect for those who move about a lot for work and students, especially when on sale.

HP Pavilion Plus 14 Laptop PC Trio Hero 1

Comes in multiples colours: EY0027AU moonlight blue, EY0028AU tranquil pink, and EY0029AU natural silver

Specifications of Reviewed Unit

Price at time of reviewRM3,699 (Lazada Techmall)
CPU3.3GHz AMD Ryzen 7 7840U (8 cores)
GraphicsAMD Radeon 780M
Screen14 inch 16:10 2880 x 1800 pixel OLED HDR 120Hz
Memory16GB LPDDR5 6400 Mhz (onboard)
Storage512GB SSD
NetworkWi-Fi 6E / Bluetooth 5.3
Inputs/Connectivity2 USB Type-C 10Gbps signaling rate (USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge); 1 USB Type-A 10Gbps signaling rate; 1 USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate; 1 headphone/microphone combo; 1 HDMI 2.1
Operating SystemWindows 11
Battery68Wh cell with 65W Type-C power adapter
Dimensions31.39 x 22.71 x 1.75 cm (front) – 1.88 cm (hinge back) / 12.36 x 8.94 x 0.69 in (front) – 0.74 in (hinge back)
Weight1.4 kg (3.09lbs)

General Usage

HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U 65w power adaptor type-C
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U 65w power adaptor type-C

Coming in at 1.4kg and under 2cm thickness, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7 7840U, is a good thin and light laptop that fits the ultraportable category of laptops. The included 65W power adapter is relatively small and lightweight and is easy to carry. Though it should be noted that you could get away from leaving the power adaptor at home. Easily you should be getting a good 6-8 hours of general continuous usage with simple power management.

One thing to note about battery life, the OLED display is able to handle HDR content and has a refresh rate of 120Hz which can drain the battery when on full brightness of 400 nits. By default HDR doesn’t turn on if on the laptop battery and only turns on when plugged in. With HDR turned on, all screen settings on max, and while streaming hi-res video, battery life was about 5 hours. As for when trying to conserve power, we achieve 10+ hours. We are sure we can push more, but few want an overglorified type writer.

Design & Connectivity

HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U right side ports
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U right side ports
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U left side ports
HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U left side ports

Coming to charging the laptop, the laptop has two USB Type-C ports for charging on the right side. Now we believe it would have been nice if HP had design the laptop with a Type-C port on each side. This would have been easier and convenient charging, but it is a relatively small nitpick. Luckily there is support for battery fast charge. This means the laptop can charge 50% in 30 minutes when the laptop is completely shut down. So no tether unless you are doing long gaming or binge watching sessions. Generally it took 2 to 2 and a half hours to charge the laptop fully when in light use.

Coming to the all metal chassis design, it is pleasant and sleek. We do wish there was a slight recess for easier one handed lid opening. The overall build quality is pretty solid, with good hinges. There was noted ability to flex for the screen lid, but nothing drastic or out of the ordinary. Some minor flex on the base of the laptop while using the keyboard. Nothing most would generally notice in daily usage.

The most notable thing about the connectivity is that the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7840U lacks thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps signaling rate) certification. This is something generally inherent of AMD laptops. The laptop comes with 2 USB Type-C 10Gbp (USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge), 1 USB Type-A 10Gbps, 1 USB Type-A 5Gbps, 1 headphone/microphone combo, and 1 HDMI 2.1 port. If thunderbolt 4 is a must, do look at the Intel variants with i7-1355U or i5-1335U from HP.

Work Usage

With the Radeon 780M, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 can handle most general media creation and light editing tasks. It will also edges out the comparable Intel variants of the HP Pavilion Plus 14 models.

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As for using the laptop included generously large touchpad and keyboard, we found it pleasant. Sadly there is special features and is pretty basic overall. There is no numpad for number entry but does come with dedicated page up and down buttons. The overall typing experience is nice but a bit basic, it gets the job done without any fuss.

Another huge plus point that makes the HP Pavilion Plus 14 a great laptop for work is its 5-megapixel 1440p video resolution webcam. It comes an with IR sensor (facial recognition login) and built-in physical privacy shutter. So not only will your web video calls/conferences be a better experience, but you can also ensure no one can see you when you don’t want them to. Additionally there are function keys on the keyboard to mute your microphone and sound. Both have a small led indicator light to easily see if they are on/off.

Multimedia Usage

For consuming media, this laptop does fantastically well with their gorgeous 2.8K 120HZ OLED display with HDR and 400 nits peak brightness. This basically translates to great vibrant colours, deep blacks and a pretty bright screen for your viewing pleasure. Clearly the star feature of this laptop, watching movies and tv shows is a super enjoyable experience. This does of course come at the expense of battery life. At full tilt streaming movies on max settings you should get about 5 hours out of the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7 7840U. 

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The only two real things that might mar your viewing experience are the reflective glossy screen and downward facing speakers. This is one laptop you can’t put on your lap or in bright lights. You will get muffled sounds and reflective glare easily. This is a laptop best used on a hard surface/table indoors. 

Sound overall is good for a mid range laptop and has good volume but lacks bass. Another issue is that while using the laptops keyboard we were able to feel the speakers vibrate and dampen if we put any weight onto the laptop bottom chassis.

Gaming

20240213 141807.mp4 snapshot 00.34.882 1

As for gaming, the laptop will allow you to play most casual games and older titles without issues. I mean we don’t expect hardcore gamers to buy this laptop, but for integrated graphics, the Radeon 780M is probably the best at the moment. If you must, you can still play the newer graphically intensive games on the lowest settings at 1080P and get a respectful 20-30 fps.

Overall games like Hades will be a blast to play on the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7 7840U with a controller. With the OLED screen the colours really pop and the laptop has no problem playing the game smoothly. While playing Borderlands 3 we also noted that you definitely can’t use your native screen resolution.

20240213 182627.mp4 snapshot 00.07.000

As a side note on heat, we notice significant uncomfortable heating on the right side of the laptop keyboard when under high loads. Luckily for most gamers who need to use the laptop, the left side of the keyboard is unaffected. Using the WASD keys shouldn’t be a problem, just that it is still a laptop keyboard.

Benchmarks

*We are currently standardizing our benchmarking process into two parts. We test both in a controlled setting and via our hands-on experience through daily normal usage. For laptops, we use benchmarking software while plugged in and at max performance settings. We are currently using PCMark 10, PCMark 10 Extended, Time Spy, Wild Life Extreme, Cinebench 2024, and Borderlands 3.

In all the controlled testing, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7 7840U shows great performance as a laptop for general productivity, photo editing, video conference calls, and light video editing. With an average score of 6457 in PCMark10 and 5615 in PCMark10 Extended.

Now in the gaming department, it is totally understandable that the 780M performance is lacking for a laptop. Though as an integrated graphics processor, its performance is top tier. The 780M is essentially the Ryzen Z1 Extreme found in ROG Ally and Legion Go, gaming handhelds running Windows OS.

Note that the Borderlands 3 benchmarking was run at the laptops native screen resolution of 2.8K

Final Thoughts

Overall the HP Pavilion Plus 14 AMD 7 7840U is a great light and thin laptop that has great overall productivity performance. Not a feature rich or gimmicky laptops, but a solid one that gets the job done well. The great OLED screen add much to the experience of this laptop. A highly recommend laptop to keep an eye on, especially when it goes on sale.

[RAZERCON 2022] Razer Announces Razer Edge with 5G to Take on the Steamdeck

The biggest thing that has happened to gaming for the past few years is not really the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X. They are great, they are revolutionary, but they are rather regular and expected. You still need to be sat in one location and get it plugged to a display to fully enjoy them. The most important thing that has happened in gaming over the past few years is portable gaming, or mobile gaming.

What really started this handheld gaming phenomena is not really the smartphone. It is more to do with Nintendo’s Switch. Later, Steamdeck revolutionized the handheld gaming space again bringing the entire strength of Steam’s gaming library for PC games to a handheld device no bigger than a hard cover Harry Potter book.

Then Razer comes along with the Razer Edge. The Razer Edge is unique, not really a Nintendo Switch with exclusive titles. It is not exactly a Steamdeck competitor in the hardware space as well.

Razer Edge 5G render 2
Source: Razer

Where the Steamdeck is powered by a swatch of PC like parts, AMD’s Zen 3 CPU with integrated GPU, for example, the Edge is made more like a smartphone. It is powered by Qualcomm’s snapdragon G3x Gen 1 platform. That is also an exclusive for Razer, the most powerful integrated processing chip that Qualcomm can produce at this time clocking up to 3GHz on it eight-core Kryo design.

It makes plenty of sense though the Razer Edge is not made to be a smartphone. It is made purely for gaming on the go and to be the best at it. But since it is Qualcomm, there is some smartphone qualities about the handheld device. You get to opt for 5G connectivity for example, so you can technically game anywhere you want to game. You also get WiFi 6E, which is technically still a brand-new technology even for the PC space.  

If display quality is what you are looking for, the Steamdeck and Nintendo Switch has nothing on this handheld. It packs a 6.8-inch AMOLED display that refreshes at 144Hz boasting Full HD+ (2400 x 1080). It is technically the most advance display you can find on any handheld device in its class.

Razer Edge 5G render 4
Source: Razer

So, what can a handheld device that is built purely for gaming with smartphone class hardware can do? It can run on Android, obviously. In that case, you can play Android games like PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends Bang Bang. It also comes with Epic Games Launcher app out-of-the-box which also means that it will run games like Fortnite and Rocket League Sideswipe with no issue.

It is not just made for mobile games though. It is designed with cloud gaming in mind too. So, if you have and active subscription on Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming and you want to take them out to the world, you can.

That is not all though. While you will not be able to install PC games directly on your Razer Edge, you still can play them. The Razer Edge is the only handheld gaming device out there that comes with the ability to play Steam games at 144Hz via Steam Link remote play. You also get access to Moonlight, and Parsec. We are guessing that Razer might get PlayStation remote play available on the Razer Edge soon too. Sure, you want to be constantly connected to the internet, that is why you might want to get yourselves the 5G variant.

The Razer Edge is technically just an integrated handheld device that works like a smartphone. You can detach it from the new Razer Kishi V2 Pro that it will come with. That also means that you can even use the controllers with your smartphone, if you like. But then again, you would want to be using your Razer Edge for all your games.

  • Razer Edge Base Model 5G render 7
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  • Razer Edge 5G render 5
  • Razer Edge 5G render 4
  • Razer Edge 5G render 3
  • Kishi V2 Pro render 1
  • Razer Edge 5G render 2
  • Razer Edge 5G render 1
  • Kishi V2 Pro render 6
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  • Kishi V2 Pro render 2

The Razer Edge will be available only in the United States for now January 2023 onward. It will only be available in stores and Razer.com in its WiFi only variant at launch. Yes, there will also be a 5G variant as we mentioned, but it will only be available later and exclusively from Verizon. The WiFi variant of the Razer Edge will retail for US$ 399.99 (MYR 1,885*) at launch. Unfortunately, there are no mentions on its availability and official pricing in other regions currently. More information on the Razer Edge can be found on their website.

*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.71 as of 18/10/2022 on xe.com

SONOS Roam Launches in Malaysia, Available 21 April Onward for MYR 1,099!

SONOS is one of the most recognisable audio brands in the world currently. Considering that they launched this first speaker product in 2005, they are not exactly one of the most history-rich brands in the audio world. They do have a specialisation though, that is home audio systems. In other words, they do smart speakers, and they do it well.

Today they launched their smallest speaker set-up available from their line-up. Today they launched the SONOS Roam.

The SONOS Roam is quite a unique product from SONOS. To be fair, it is not the first time that SONOS launched a portable wireless speaker. They launched the Move back in 2019. This is the first time though that the SONOS speaker was truly portable in the sense that it can actually fit in your backpack with no fuss. You can carry other things besides the speaker as well in your backpack.

The SONOS Roam is a unique product though. It is, if I am not wrong, the first SONOS product that could tune itself to any environment via its own mic. They call the feature TruePlay, which is not necessarily a new technology. On the SONOS Roam though, TruePlay is constantly adjusting itself especially when you introduce it to a new environment. You just need to have SONOS S2 app to get it to work. So, it is clever.

Source: SONOS

It is also SONOS’ first speaker to feature wireless charging. It is Qi compatible as well, so you do not technically need to charge it via SONOS’ own wireless charger. You can buy the magnetic Qi wireless charger separately though for MYR 239 (US$ 49*). If not, you can charge it via a USB Type-C cable. A single charge lasts up to 10 hours according to SONOS.

Like any other SONOS speakers, the Roam features both WiFi connectivity and all-important Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity. The clever part about the SONOS Roam is that it switches seamlessly between WiFi and Bluetooth connection with your smartphone depending on WiFi availability. The only issue with that is pairing with other SONOS speakers can only occur over WiFi. Then again, speaker pairing over WiFi is a lot more stable than over Bluetooth.

The SONOS Roam is also a water-resistant speaker, which also means that you can bring it absolutely anywhere, rain or shine. You can take it to a pool party for example and you should be okay with normal splashes or even a dunk in the water with IP67 rating. IP67 dust resistance also means that you can take it to a beach party and not worry about messing up the speaker with sand.

The SONOS Roam portable speaker will be available in Malaysia 21st April onward. You can head to any SONOS authorised retailers in Malaysia to get the SONOS Roam speaker. It will set you back MYR 1,099 (US$ 169) at launch. You can choose between either Lunar White or Shadow Black colour options. For more information on the SONOS Roam, you can head to their website.

*Official price in US$