Pros: Core i5 CPU, 6 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, competitive price.
Cons: 4th generation processor.
While some people search for a powerhouse laptop and others just look for an entry level notebook to do some basic computing tasks, there's also a set of people who settle on the middle ground and look for a mid-level laptop that won't be powerful enough as to edit 4K vídeo or weak enough that it ends up being a paperweight. It's for these people that HP has developed the affordable HP Pavilion 15 15-ac147cl (check price here).
The HP Pavilion 15 15-ac147cl isn't an entry level laptop, it's Core i5 CPU and 6 GB of RAM can attest to that, but it's not a gamers laptop either, something obvious when you consider it houses an Intel HD 4400 graphics card. Today, we're going to go beyond the simple set of specs and dive right into this model as we share with you guys our detailed review of the HP Pavilion 15 15-ac147cl. Ready to jump in?
HP Pavilion 15 15-ac147cl : The Ultimate Review, pros and cons included
Display and Overall Design
The HP Pavilion 15 15-ac147cl doesn't immediately stand out on first glance. It features a rather "normal" design that isn't too flashy nor to discrete. HP didn't really pull out all the stops when it designed this laptop as the company provided it with a rather standard 15.6 inch LCD backlit display with an HD resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. There truly isn't that much more to say in this regard.
When it comes to the notebooks dimensiones, this laptop weighs in at roughly 4.7 pounds and it's rather slim with just 0.95 inches. Honestly, it doesn't stand out when you simply look at the numbers as it's within the realm of what other models in it's price point will provide us.
That said, the trackpad offers a very comfortable experience and it's keyboard provides some solid ergonomics for those of us who'll spend several hours using it.
How's it fairing on the power department?
As we've stated upon starting out this post, we're not looking at a powerhouse laptop here. That said, the HP Pavilion 15 15-ac147cl does have a bunch of features that grant it a certain "status" when compared to some of it's similarly priced "peers".
Starting off with the processor, the 15-ac147cl comes with a 4th generation Intel Core i5 4210U processor. To clarify, we are currently living through the sixth generation of Core processors so this means we're looking at a 2 year old processor.
However, the fact that it's a bit "old" doesn't mean it's a bad processor, as a matter of fact it's actually quite good and delivers a very good performance on pretty much all fronts. Getting into the technicalities, this CPU runs with 2 cores at a 1.7 GHz speed, ramping it up to 2.7 GHz when Turboboost is activated, it houses 3 mb of cache and is built on a 64 bit architecture to take full advantage of the RAM.
Speaking of RAM, this is one of the laptops signature features since it has 6 GB of RAM, making it an ideal laptop for all those heavy multitaskers such as myself. Basically, if you're one of those people who have several programs and tabs open on his computer at any given time then 6 GB of RAM is something you definitely want to have to avoid crashing the machine.
Is it good for gaming?
Short answer: No, this model is not designed for gaming. It's Intel HD 4400 graphics card can run some basic games but when it comes down to playing heavily demanding games you're in for a big disappointment if you choose this laptop to play.
This model is at it's best when you want to use it to code, watch movies, skype with friends, edit documents, edit pictures, do some light video editing and so forth. For all these things the 15-ac147cl is a perfect match.
How many movies can I save on the hard drive? How long until I'm in need of a charger?
If you're big on saving movies then this model is a pretty good option. You've got 1 TB of Serial ATA storage (Hard Drive not SSD) which as we subtract the space occupied by the OS you'd have space to store roughly 1200 HD movies. Unless of course you're into Leonardo Di Caprio movies in which case the number would go down to around 900 movies (no offense Leo).
In terms of battery life, the manufacturer hasn't given us much info aside from the fact that it houses a 3 cell battery. However, based upon the performance of similar models with a similar battery you should expect roughly 3-4 hours of battery life on this machine, expecting much more than that would probably be a bad idea.
Miscellaneous Stuff worth mentioning
Finally, as we approach the verdict on our review of the HP Pavilion 15 15-ac147cl we should point a few things out in terms of connectivity and such. As far as ports go, this laptop comes with 1 USB 3.0 port, a couple of USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, DVD reader, an ethernet port and an SD card reader. Of course it comes with your standard audio jack as well as a proprietary HD TrueVision webcam for all your skyping needs.
There's also your typical b/g/n WiFi connection as well as Bluetooth 4.0 in case you wanna connect a wireless speaker or a wireless mouse, for example. And that pretty much sums up all there is to know about this affordable as well as interesting laptop.
So what's the verdict? Is the HP Pavilion 15 15-ac147cl a Hero or a Zero?
We conclude our HP Pavilion 15 15-ac147cl review with our inevitable verdict in which we argue that this laptop is most definitely a hero. Of course, it's not a powerhouse laptop but for those users who aren't necessarily looking for such performance this should more than cover the job at hand.
We really like the processor, even if it's a bit old and we love the fact that it comes straight off the box with 6 GB of RAM so as to avoid crashing the machine when we get "in the zone" of heavy multitasking. Battery life is standard and storage is what we've come to expect. All in all, at it's current price point we would have to say that it's a pretty good deal and it will hardly disappoint you unless you're a gamer or an intense graphics user, otherwise you're pretty much covered on all fronts. You can check this laptops price and availability here.