Itโs a $999 package youโll have trouble finding elsewhere.
HPโs Pavilion Plus 14 is an interesting animal. The Pavilion line has traditionally included the companyโs budget computers, which have been a solid step down from its higher-end Envy and Spectre models. Lately, however, HP has been releasing Pavilions here and there that are solidly in the midrange zone, with their major draw being light weight rather than competitive pricing.
The new Pavilion Plus is in that camp. Itโs both the thinnest Pavilion ever released and the first one to include an OLED screen. The $999.99 (currently $819.99) model that I have, with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 2.8K 90Hz OLED display, is a step up from the $600 Pavilions Iโm used to seeing on shelves. This certainly isnโt a budget laptop anymore.
While the Pavilion Plus 14 is not the hands-down best laptop one can buy for $999 (a price point where the M1 MacBook Air also hangs out), and there are some odd flaws left over from its budget roots, it offers a combination of portability, power, and conferencing features that is hard to find below $1,000.
Here are my four favorite things about the Pavilion Plus 14, as well as my two major concerns.
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Itโs oh, so light
My favorite thing about the Pavilion Plus 14 is carrying it around. Itโs only 3.09 pounds, making it super easy to haul with one arm. I put this in my backpack and felt like I was carrying nothing. A few times, I was even worried that I might have forgotten it. Itโs over a full pound lighter than the higher-end Envy x360 15. Carrying it around with two other laptops (which is a thing I often have to do for my job) is no problem. I havenโt gotten to say that about too many laptops with Intel H-series chips in them this year.
The one caveat to this is that the 90W USB-C adapter is oddly large for an ultraportable. I recently reviewed an HP Victus gaming laptop, and the Plusโ charger is close to the same size.
The display is a luxury
This is the second area where the Pavilion Plus really stands out. The 14-inch OLED display is great. Itโs 16:10, with a crisp 2880 x 1800 resolution (a higher resolution than the MacBook Air), and the 90Hz refresh rate delivers a noticeably smoother scroll than youโll find on many laptops at this price point. Deep blacks and bright whites provide excellent contrast that I noticed even while I was just doing boring work in Google Docs and such. It was also quite bright (which is not always a given with OLEDs), reaching 420 nits in my testing. That beats the M1 MacBook Airโs 400 nits of rated brightness and is plenty for most laptop use cases.
The screen is really a dream.
The webcam is unique
This Pavilion Plus has one of the best cameras Iโve used on a laptop this year. The details it delivered were accurate, lighting was well-regulated (especially in my bright office space, where I often look washed out), and noise was minimal.
Moreover, the camera supports a bunch of fancy features that you can toggle in the myHP app. Thereโs auto-framing, which keeps you centered as you move around your camera. (This wasnโt as smooth as Appleโs Center Stage, but it did work.) There are backlight and low-light adjustments you can turn on and off. My favorite feature, though, is โBRB Mode.โ This literally freezes your video feed and puts a banner that says โBRBโ at the bottom to let the folks youโre calling know that youโll be right back. I donโt know how often people will actually use this, but itโs very funny.
Two things to note are that the camera doesnโt support Windows Hello facial logins, and thereโs no physical privacy shutter (though thereโs a kill switch on the keyboard).
Two USB-C, one HDMI, one USB-A on the left (but no Thunderbolt).
USB-A, headphone jack, microSD on the left.
Itโs a strong performer
As raw CPU performance goes, this is likely one of the most powerful thin-and-light laptops you can buy, especially among devices with OLED screens. The 12th Gen Core i7-12700H handled my Chrome-heavy workload with very little chassis heat and no fan noise. Video calls were fine, and even basic photo work in Lightroom was no problem โ I didnโt get impatient while waiting for effects to work, as I sometimes do on budget-oriented competitors like the Acer Swift 3. Performance was certainly on par with that of other top thin-and-lights, such as HPโs own Envy x360 15 (my go-to recommendation in the Envy tier).
Admittedly, an H-series processor is probably overkill for this device. Itโs not marketed as a workstation or content creation machine (and the lack of discrete graphics in this model wouldnโt make it a good choice for those use cases anyway). I would probably rather HP have gone for a more efficient chip that could eke out more battery life.
Speaking of which…
The battery life isnโt great
The Pavilion Plusโ battery life isnโt quite the disaster that some H-series Intel laptops have presented this year, which is a win in itself. But the lifespan I got isnโt quite good enough for a laptop that touts portability as one of its primary selling points. During my testing period, after three and a half hours of use, I was already down to just 20 percent remaining. I averaged about four hours and 38 minutes of total continuous use. I suspect that many shoppers, if they donโt mind being limited by battery life to this degree, may prefer to go for a GPU-powered workstation with better graphical chops.
Familiar HP logo on the lid.
The chassis is a mixed bag
Make no mistake โ the Pavilion Plus 14 is quite well-built as Pavilion models go. Itโs all metal, with a recycled aluminum lid. There is some flex in various parts of the chassis, but itโs far from what I would call flimsy. The keyboard deck is quite comfortable, with a nice texture, and my keystrokes donโt depress it. The vibe, across the board, is professional and premium โ except for the bezels.
The bezels stick out like a sore thumb for me. Itโs not necessarily because of their size (though theyโre more noticeable than they are on many modern laptops). They just look and feel quite plasticky and donโt really fit in with the quality of the rest of the chassis.
Various parts also include recycled materials, as does the packaging. This is all nice, but โ as I am constantly reminding people โ e-waste and energy consumption also have a massive environmental impact. In that respect, recycled aluminum doesnโt, to me, make up for the power-hungriness of this device.
Despite its flaws, I see the Pavilion Plus 14 as a good midrange pick. The chassis is solid and lightweight, the camera is neat, and the screen is hard to beat at this price point. Even the MacBook Air lacks the 90Hz smoothness and OLED contrast the Pavilion can offer.
That doesnโt mean itโs for everyone. The inefficiency of the processor really makes this ideal for a small group of shoppers who are looking for heavy-duty CPU power and a great screen on a really lightweight device. If youโre not among those folks and just want a well-performing ultraportable, there are better picks for you out there.
Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge