HP pavilion series has been the flagship gadget that represents Hewlett Packard since a very long time. HP is the leading laptop and hardware manufacturing company that has spread its wings in laptops, printers and computer hardware and accessories industry. We received a brand new HP pavilion 15-e034TX (E4X57PA) at our office and we got plenty of time to play with this sleek beauty.
We are pleased to get our hands on this awesome gadget. Going through the general routine to test a laptop, we found it very impressive and value for money.
See Also: [Review] Dell Inspiron 15R 5521 Laptop – 3rd Gen Core i5 3337U, 2GB dedicated Graphics and more
The specs and overall performance is something that you can only find in the premium laptops. It sports considerable build quality and design. Let’s find out what we found out about this laptop while going through the various aspects.
Build Quality
Being a mid-range laptop, it is firmly built. The material used in the body doesn’t appear to be cheap considering the price range. It surely beats the other laptops in the same category. The laptop hinge, back cover and side panels are strong enough to bear the day-to-day usage.
When I unpacked the laptop from the box, I was amazed to see a silver back cover – traditionally we usually find the laptops with black back covers, unless it is from Apple. The back cover is polycarbonate with darker tiny polka dots all over the silver back and around “HP” logo at the center. Side panel carries the same silver color all over the laptop. Rest of the laptop’s body is painted black, which seems very nice while working on it.
The palm rest area and polycarbonate casing along the display bears the black color with similar polka tiny dots that we saw on the back panel. I really like how HP pavilion is built and packed with the premium casing.
The laptop is slightly thicker at the rear side and slimmer at the front. It has round corners and curved bottom, which adds to the sleekness of the body when viewed from the side. The curves and round corners make it appear slim and trendy.
Rating: 7.5/10
Display and Graphics
The laptop screen appeared to be bright enough while writing this article. The HP Pavilion 15-e034Tx sports 15.6-inch HD BrightView LED Backlit Display with 1366×768 pixel resolution. We can’t expect Full HD display with this mid-range laptop, but the BrightView technology used on the laptop does the job and keeps everything on the screen bright enough.
You’ll need to tweak the display settings of integrated “Intel 4000 HD graphics card” a little, to obtain the best output. The screen appears to be little dull at default settings. I had to increase the contrast and minimize the brightness in graphics setting to achieve the best result.
The display is bright enough to be used under the sunlight and looks good at 10-30% brightness indoors. We didn’t experience and issues with the screen brightness while working on it. Playing games on the big screen is fun and it performed well.
HP took care of the gaming needs of the user with 1GB DDR3, AMD Mobility Radeon HD 8670M graphics card. The hardware acceleration and dedicated graphics card allows users to run almost any modern games on the laptop without experiencing any glitches.
I played MW3, Crysis 3, Need for Speed Most wanted and Skyrim at their optimal settings. You need to manually tweak your onboard graphics card and dedicated graphics card because they are initially optimized for a balance between the battery life and performance.
Rating 6.8/10
Hardware and ports
HP pavilion 15-e034TX (Model No. – E4X57PA) is packed with powerful 3rd Gen Intel core i5 processor (3230M) with Mobile HM76 Express, which is clocked at 2.6GHz with Turbo Boost Technology Upto 3.2 GHz. This ensures the optimal user experience and multitasking.
It has 500 GB SATA Hard disk Drive with max 5400 RPM (could be 7200 RPM). The overall read/write speed is feasible. We noticed low transfer speed when we copied/moved the file from one partition to other. Transferring files from another media is fast and up to expectations.
The laptop sports 4GB DDR3 RAM out of the box, which helps you play high-quality modern games on your laptop without any issue. While playing games, I didn’t notice any lag or glitches at moderate settings.
It has HP TrueVision HD webcam for video conferencing or video call with built in mic. The test shots from the webcam were considerably good enough and video output was bright and clear during our test call.
The Multitouch gesture touchpad is a real wonder, You can pinch to zoom, scroll pages at the edge, slide page with three fingers and zoom-in to zoom-out using two fingers.
The Gadget also features SuperMulti DVD RW Drive with Dual layer support with 8x Read/Write speed. The DTS Sound+ produces High-Quality audio and appears to be loud enough for entertainment purpose. The dual speakers boost the sound output and provides considerable volume for usual requirements.
It has basic/standard communication ports – Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps, Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth v4.0.
It has 1xUSB 2.0 and 2xUSB 3.0, RJ45 LAN, 1xHDMI port, 1xVGA port, Multi-Card slot and 1x Headphone out/Microphone-in Combo Jack.
HP pavilion 15-e034TX features standard Island Keyboard, which has well-spaced keys. The keyboard is perfectly designed for typing. I am using the same laptop for composing this article so that I get to know about the keyboard layout and how it fits well when it comes to typing a long content — so far it proved to be a good aspect.
If you have been using the smaller laptops before, you might have to get used to the key spacing and a different key placement. The Caps Lock, Wifi on/off and Audio Mute button has an LED indicator that turns itself on/off depending on the current state. It is a very useful feature because you don’t always want to check whether your Wifi/audio/caps lock is on/off.
Rating: 8/10
Software and Features
The laptop doesn’t comes bundled with any software with it. The HP pavilion 15-e034TX is shipped with Free DOS operating system, which is pretty much unuseful for general users. You’ll have to spend some extra cash to buy Windows7/Windows 8 or you can go with any of the Linux Distro ( we would recommend Ubuntu), which is free and performs all the basic tasks that you might wanna perform on your laptop.
I don’t have to mention that you can download the premium OS from the internet? mmm! I shouldn’t have written this. Well, I think you are not dumb enough to know.
Just because the laptop isn’t shipped with any OS, it cuts down the overall price by 15% when compared to the similar model with 500GB extra HDD and Windows 8 (HP pavilion 15-E015TX).
Because the original version is shipped with Windows 8, you won’t find the Windows 7 drivers on the official website of HP support. However, you can ask for the same from your sales person and he will be happy to hand you over all the software and drivers for the preferred OS.
Considering you know how to manage the OS and drivers on any system, the laptop won’t bother you much. I am using Windows 7 and Ubuntu 13.04 dual boot and haven’t noticed any issues.
The battery backup of the device is little disappointing when used at the highest performance settings (Full brightness, power saving mode off and playing games/ watching video). It lasted only ~2hours 15 min while surfing the internet and playing songs simultaneously.
Rating: 7.5/10
Verdict:
HP Pavilion 15-e034TX is packed with some powerful features and hardware specs, which can only be found in mid-to-high range laptops. The notebook is optimal for general purpose usage, but it won’t disappoint the casual gamers.
The display is little dull at default settings, but it can be fixed with a little tweak. It proved to be good at delivering performance and peace of mind when we talk about multitasking. Battery backup is little disappointing, but again you can’t expect groundbreaking performance with Intel M series processors.
The Notebook is well built and material used doesn’t make it look a cheap product. If you are looking for a budget laptop, just go for it.
Overall Rating: 6.8/10
| INPUT | |
|---|---|
| Pointer Device | Touchpad with Multi-touch Gesture Support |
| Web Camera | HP TrueVision HD Webcam |
| Keyboard | Island Keyboard |
| POWER | |
|---|---|
| Power Supply | 65 W AC Adapter |
| Battery Backup | Upto 3 hours |
| Battery Cell | 6 cell |
| WARRANTY | |
|---|---|
| Warranty Summary | 1 Year Accidental Damage Protection Warranty on registration on HP Website |
| DISPLAY | |
|---|---|
| Resolution | 1366 x 768 pixels |
| Screen Size | 15.6 inch |
| Screen Type | HD BrightView LED Backlit Display |
| COMMUNICATION | |
|---|---|
| Ethernet | 10/100 LAN |
| Bluetooth | v4.0 |
| Wireless LAN | IEEE 802.11b/g/n |
| PORTS/SLOTS | |
|---|---|
| Mic In | Yes |
| VGA Port | Yes |
| Multi Card Slot | Yes |
| USB Port | 1 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0 |
| HDMI Port | Yes, HDMI Port with HDCP Support |
| RJ45 LAN | Yes |
| Other Ports | 1 x Headphone Out/Microphone-in Combo Jack |
| STORAGE | |
|---|---|
| HDD Capacity | 500 GB |
| RPM | 5400 |
| Hardware Interface | SATA |
| SECURITY | |
|---|---|
| Lock Port | Kensington Lock Slot |
| GENERAL | |
|---|---|
| Brand | HP |
| Model Name | Pavilion |
| Model ID | 15-e034TX |
| Lifestyle | Entertainment |
| Color | SIlver & Black |
| MEMORY | |
|---|---|
| Expandable Memory | Upto 8 GB |
| System Memory | 4 GB DDR3 |
| Memory Slots | 2 (Unused Slot – 1) |
| OPTICAL DISK DRIVE | |
|---|---|
| Optical Drive | SuperMulti DVD RW Drive with Dual Layer Support |
| Read/Write Speed | 8x |
| MACHINE DIMENSIONS | |
|---|---|
| Weight | 2.35 kg |
| Dimension | 381 x 246.3 x 32 mm |
| Color | SIlver & Black |
| GRAPHICS | |
|---|---|
| Dedicated Graphics Memory Capacity | 1 GB |
| Graphic Processor | AMD Mobility Radeon HD 8670M |
| Dedicated Graphics Memory Type | DDR3 |
| AUDIO | |
|---|---|
| Internal Mic | Digital Microphone |
| Sound | DTS Sound, HD Audio, Dual Speakers |
| Speakers | Yes |
| PLATFORM | |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Free DOS |
| System Architecture | 64 bit |
| PROCESSOR | |
|---|---|
| Brand | Intel |
| Chipset | Mobile HM76 Express |
| Cache | 3 MB |
| Variant | 3230M |
| Processor | Core i5 |
| Clock Speed | 2.6 GHz with Turbo Boost Upto 3.2 GHz |
| IN THE BOX | |
|---|---|
| Sales Package | Laptop, Battery, AC Adapter |