HP Pavilion Gaming 17-cd1014sa

If you're looking at this laptop, you probably already know that it is a budget offering and that there are some things you will have to accept about the laptop's capabilities before buying. Do not buy this expecting it to run every game on ultra settings at high frame rates. As a guide, expect to use the following settings for 60fps: Brand new AAA titles: 720p / 1080p with medium settings AAA Titles from 2015 - 2018: 1080p with medium to high settings Older or less demanding titles: 1080p with high / ultra settings Positives: - The Ryzen 4600H processor is a total beast and will not hold the GTX 1650 back at all. This processor is an 'entry level' gaming / productivity offering from AMD which still manages to outperform most of Intel's high-end laptop processors. - The included 256GB NVME SSD is lightning fast. - The keyboard is nice to type on and the trackpad is decent. You can set the keyboard backlight to 'always on' in the BIOS if desired. - Accessing the internals is easy. - There is room to install a 2.5" SSD and there are 2 RAM slots. You can easily swap the two 4GB modules out for higher capacity modules, but please read the 'good to know' section further down before buying RAM. - Fan is silent when browsing the internet and other light use. - Screen backlighting is quite even across the screen. Black depth is actually decent. - Charges quickly. - Great performance for the price. Neutrals: - Compared to some other gaming laptops, the fans are mostly bearable when gaming, but you will definitely be aware of them. - The build quality is okay. Nothing special. - Battery life is okay when not gaming (4 - 5 hours at half brightness, browsing the web and watching a few videos) and probably wouldn't last much longer than an hour - The audio is adequate. No real bass to speak of, but it doesn't sound tinny. - Only 2 USB ports, which might be a problem for some people. - Screen brightness isn't anything special, but fine for indoor use. Negatives: - The screen only covers 62% sRGB. Don't expect particularly vibrant colours. - When connected to my router via wifi, the laptop's internet accessibility would drop every few hours. This doesn't happen on any of my other devices. Updating the wireless card drivers did not fix this. I have managed to fix it by assigning the laptop a static IP address outside of the router's DHCP range. Your mileage may vary as this issue might be specific to my network configuration, but I can't be sure. Good to know: - Other people have reported problems upgrading beyond the default 8GB RAM. I put two 8GB 3200MHz modules from Crucial (not the Ballistix type - just the basic stuff) in this laptop and everything works correctly. Some people report that their memory speed is stuck at 2400MHz or 2667MHz - my advice would be to steer clear of RAM that relies on XMP and to go for some more basic RAM with a JEDEC profile onboard. - I haven't listed the small 256GB SSD as a negative since this is an attribute that is made very clear at the point of purchase. However, if you're not too savvy with this kind of thing, then you should not expect to fit more than 3 to 5 current AAA games on it (if the games ranged from say 40 to 80 GB). If this isn't enough for you, then adding an HDD / SSD should be something to consider. - If you're planning on putting a mechanical hard drive into the empty drive slot, make sure it is one of the thinner, more modern 2.5" HDDs as there is very little clearance even with a slim SSD. Overall: Fast all round and capable of playing all games currently on the market at the time of this review - albeit at 720p / 1080p and lower settings for the very latest graphically intensive AAA games. For slightly older games, you'll have a pleasant experience at higher settings / 1080p. At this price point, you won't find anything else that performs better. The sheer power of the Ryzen 5 4600H also makes it difficult to match even in the used market. Recommended - so long as you understand the laptop's limitations as set out above.

I purchased the HP Pavilion Gaming 15.6" Laptop (model 15-dk1007na), and it has been an excellent performer for its price. The Intel i5 processor combined with 8GB RAM and the GTX 1650Ti handles most games smoothly at medium to high settings. The 512GB SSD provides quick boot times and ample storage for games and files. The 15.6" display offers good visuals, and the laptop stays relatively cool during extended gaming sessions. The build quality feels solid, and the keyboard is comfortable for both gaming and general use. While 8GB of RAM is sufficient, upgrading to 16GB could make it even better for multitasking. Overall, this laptop is a fantastic choice for casual to moderate gaming and everyday use. Great performance, solid specs, and good value for money!

Overview/CPU: Been using the laptop on and off for a day or so. So far, I'm happy with the performance of the machine overall, it's fast, had no hitches thus far which is exactly what I expected out of the 4000 series AMD chips. Very nice. GPU: The GPU so far is performing well, i.e. I have Genshin Impact on max settings with the render scale at max too (1.5 at the time of writing), it's getting the full 60 FPS while only utilizing ~80% of the GPU. Not too shabby. Far better than 1050 in my old laptop which could only handle around 30FPS on the lowest settings. Though I am very disappointed that the product listing has NOT stated anywhere that this is the Max-Q design GPU. Screen: The colours seem alright, but a bit washed out, I definitely wouldn't use this for colour sensitive work. I feel the display brightness is also a but lacking too when the room is brightly lit i.e. sun shining in the room, but seems fine for casual gaming. Keyboard: The keyboard is, meh at best. It's not terrible, but I'll always prefer a proper mechanical keyboard which you're just not going to get on a laptop anyway, so my opinion on this should be taken lightly. I mean it's not bad to be fair, I feel the spacing between each key is alright. Battery: I haven't got a proper feel for the battery life yet, I'll update when I've got a good estimate to give. Edit: I get a decent ~4 hours of battery life with a mixture of watching maybe 30 minutes of video i.e. YouTube, listening to Spotify and using remote desktop for the entirety of that time. Shell: The case stays pretty cool even with a game running in the background while typing here, the right side gets a little warm, but not enough to be distracting. Webcam: Camera quality is okay, ideal for work meetings on MS Teams, or Zoom if you prefer that. RAM: The RAM sticks that have with this are 2 x 4GB @ 3200MHz which means it populates all the available slots, so you'll be looking at buying a RAM kit of 2 sticks if you want to upgrade this in the future. Happy to see it's 3200MHz as well because Ryzen loves fast memory! Storage: There's an empty HDD caddy inside too with a plastic insert that can be removed and then populated with a 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD of your choosing. Good to have the option since the 512GB M.2 SSD that comes with the laptop is not a great deal of storage for a device targeted for "gamers". Why not 5 stars: The Max-Q design has sacrificed performance at the cost of energy efficiency. It's nice that's it's been made energy-efficient and all that jazz, but sacrificing performance in the process is a no-no for any gamer. The Max-Q design in my opinion is and should be considered an entirely different product. The 1660 Ti and 1660 Ti Max-Q are NOT the same. Therefore I dropped a star for the inaccurate product listing here on Amazon.

This is my first proper gaming laptop and I have to say I'm very impressed with it for the money the quality and feel of the laptop feels excellent, the green backit keyboard looks awesome and it is very good to type with , yes the battery is OK when in normal use but i keep it plugged in when playing games, it is very fast with loading games like forza horizon 4 and call of duty and plays them very well, id say it gets only warm at best when playing top end games and I've had no issues with it at all , The speakers are ok and loud for light use but lack bass so for gaming id recommend headphones so you can really enjoy your content, with my headphones it really transforms watching films and playing games I upgraded the ram to 32gb and install a second 500gb 2.5 inch ssd as this model already has a second blank slot ready. The 60hz screen is very clear also and everything I have played games videos etc look fantastic, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a decent gaming laptop which is under 1k , although they have now dropped the price since I bought it so its even more of a bargain 👍 dont think about it get it bought and you won't be disappointed

Been thinking about gaming laptop for a while so used sale of xbox to purchase this stunning machine. Found it easy to set up and then jumped straight in. Machine starts up so fast and is ready from power on to full ready in about 10 seconds and powerful internal hardware with great graphics card and processor. Love the overall design and finish and feels very light in my opinion. Sensitive good touch pad but use a good mouse as a personal preference. Enough storage 512GB SSD but also added an external 1TB Hard Drive for for purchases. WiFi connected and stayed strong during time on machine. Battery life is not the best but rather use it with mains power to be honest so not an issue for me. Screen is excellent,clear and sharp and very responsive. Upgraded RAM to 32GB to make the laptop more powerful and work better with high end games,my personal favourite feature is the green back-lit keyboard, can be switched on/off to personal taste. Overall am very pleased and would definitely recommend this item to anybody thinking of moving into gaming laptops.

I bought mine for 570€ off amazon warehouse and it was a great deal, they are built well and everything is great for that price. I probably would not want to pay the full price for this spec as you can get a better built lenovo legion or something for the same money but if you manage to get a decent discount like i did it is more than worth it, there is nothing that will provide the same performance, a keyboard and a screen for the price i got it for. Performance, performs great, streaming in 1080p to thich with h264 encoding and playing dayZ or R6 the cpu usage was never more that 50%, the 4600h is truly a beast in its own world, i couldn't imagine anyone needs more than this cpu, main limitation on this laptop is the gpu, plays games decently at 1080p but you do have to turn down some settings and manage your expectations as the 1650 i got is not really a powerhouse Overclocking (advanced users): overclocked the gpu 144mhz on the core and 950mhz mem, the main limitation i found is HP's power delivery, it hits a power limit before anything else on my unit, 4600h boosts like a beast on its own so no need to worry about that.

So I hated the thought of buying a new laptop and after searching and reading reviews, I went with this! And, I'm super happy I did. Okay, so the bad first - Battery life ain't so great. Lasting 5 hours on normal stuff and 3 on gaming. Would like to have seen longer battery life, but the laptop does charge up quickly. Also only two USB ports .... not three? Well there are three but two are standard and one appears to be a C style port. But oh well, you can plug in an external USB port I guess! Now the good! So this is really good for gaming and considering the price, it's a steal. I played RE 2 Remake, RE 3 Remake and Succubus preview all on high/ultra and it ran perfectly with no problems. It does get a little warm but not as hot as some other laptops I've seen. Best get a cooling mat which I did thankfully (just in case). Also did try out some next gen stuff (I do reviews and previews) and played Observer Redux on Medium-high settings and ran absolutely fine. Tried some benchmarking stuff for Gears 5 and ran beautifully on high settings. Overall, very good. Battery life ain't so great and could have used another port or two (but has everything as expected) but for gaming and everyday stuff, it's amazing for the price! Also, it's thicc!!! Which is a great thing :D

I'm not a gamer, but when shopping for a new laptop to replace my 8-year-old Toshiba, decided to focus on gaming machines with the Normie logic that these will generally be among the best for power and display. I was not disappointed with my choice. I went for the 17.3-inch/144Hz model, which comes as standard with no less than FOUR usb 3.1 ports, three of which are Gen 1 (5mbps) and one of which is a usb-C Gen 2 (10mbps). It also has ports for HDMI, ethernet and SD card. And a headphone mini-jack socket. Storage is a 476GB SD plus a 931GB hard drive, to quote the honest capacities (official sizes are 500GB and 1TB respectively). This thing, equipped with a 10th Gen i7 is FAST - it boots from cold in about 5 seconds when new, although expect this to get a bit longer as more programs are installed. One of the first things I did was to strip off the bloat - a handful of "free trial" softs, like Express VPN, Avast security suite, Netflix offers, etc, etc. I installed CCleaner and used that to quickly uninstall everything that wasn't needed. I also changed several Windows 10 settings to decrease its impact on resources (animations, transparency, speaking guide), and installed a Win7-style shell - it's now pretty close to a Win7 set-up in appearance and behaviour. I also disabled going into Sleep mode whenever it's shut, essential as it's used for streaming to my Squeezebox. Wi-fi strength is excellent. My previous laptop had to be connected via ethernet to my router in order to stream high-res audio (DSD and DXD) without buffering. No such issues with this. The display is very easy to look at for long periods, possibly due to the high refresh rate. It handles 2160p video playback without breaking a sweat (obviously rendered in 1080p). I did find the screen's factory setting to be just a little bright right out the box, but a quick tweak to reduce brightness a couple of notches has made it perfect and relaxing. Good that it has brightness to spare rather than not enough. Sharpness and contrast are excellent for a laptop, and the screen maintains good contrast from a wide range of viewing angles. Sound is not bad but is typical of laptops. I just don't understand how anyone can leave a negative review about lack of bass from laptop speakers - these machines are about an inch thick, give or take, so what would you expect? A built-in subwoofer?! The sound is perfectly clear and audible for functional purposes, but if you want better sound for your games get a BT speaker, or use cans. The trackpad is flawless, IMO, with a smooth sensitive response, and a nice gentle click. Good size, too - just over 5" on the diagonal. I personally use a mouse, so will rarely touch this, but it's nice to have as a backup. The keyboard has a nice feel, too, with a nice gentle but solid click to each key. It has a numeric pad as well. The green backlight turns off after 30 seconds inactivity, and comes back on as soon as a key is pressed. Battery life is apparently not great, depending on activity, but mine is constantly plugged in, so this wasn't ever a deciding factor for me. The only downside I can think of is the thin plastic construction of the lid together with a slightly stiff hinge. Not a good combination, so be gentle when opening to reduce strain. I know this machine is overkill for my needs now, but it's probably futureproofed for the next decade or more for my needs. Highly recommended.