Mobile notebook PC "HP Pavilion Aero 13" review, both portability under 1 kg and high performance of Ryzen 7

HP Pavilion Aero 13

HP Pavilion Aero 13 Performance Model Specifications

Equipped with a 13.3-inch LCD, magnesium chassis weighs less than 1kg

HP Pavilion Aero 13 comes in two colors: pink beige/ceramic white can be selected, but the one I tried this time is the ceramic white model. Thanks to the white color and matte texture, the overall design tone is calm. It seems to match any scene without choosing a user.

As mentioned earlier, one of the features of this product is that it is the first Pavilion series to adopt a magnesium chassis. The metallic parts are hidden by the surface painting, but the top plate surface, the bottom surface, and the hinge part are built with a solid sense of rigidity.

And the coating of the ceramic white model is AED (anion electrodeposition coating) that is resistant to scratches. It is a nice specification for a mobile notebook PC that is often carried around. However, it is undeniable that dirt is easily noticeable due to the white paint. If you hold newspapers or magazines in your hands immediately after touching them, ink stains may stick to them, so this is a point that people are concerned about.

And we can't forget the weight of about 957g, which is worthy of the name "Aero". You don't have to worry about the unevenness of the center of gravity, and you won't feel any burden even when you support it with one hand. In addition, in the range tested this time, even when a load is applied, the bottom becomes slightly warm, and unless you are doing very hard work, it will be uncomfortable even if you put it on your lap. I don't think so.

Aspect ratio 16:10. Surprisingly Large Difference of 120 Dots

Next, let's take a look at the display.

This is the first Japanese HP 13.3-inch notebook PC to adopt an aspect ratio of 16:10 (1,920 x 1,200 dots). You may think that it is only 120 dots wider than the general 16:9 (1,920 x 1,080 dots), but you can ignore it if you think that you can gain a display area for 4 to 5 lines when working with Excel, for example. not the difference. By reducing fine up and down scrolling, work efficiency is improved and stress during work is reduced.

About 90% of the screen occupancy rate is not just a surprise. With a brightness of 400 nits, I felt that the color reproducibility was sufficient to cover 100% of sRGB.

The key pitch is enough, but can you tell what you like about the placement?

The keyboard has a Japanese layout, and uses the entire left and right sides of the main unit, ensuring a key pitch of about 18.7 mm. Thanks to the body's high rigidity, the keystrokes feel solid. Also, although the "-", "^", and "\" keys on the top are slightly smaller than the other keys, the size of the symbol keys around the other "enter" keys is also good.

However, what seems to be divided into likes and dislikes is the layout in which the keys of "delete", "home", "pg up", "pg dn", and "end" are arranged in the rightmost column. Although it is a matter of familiarity, I also touched the "pg up" key with the intention of the "enter" key during the test, or pressed the "home" key when trying to press the "back space" key. there was. For users who are familiar with the layout where the "back space", "enter", and "shift" keys are arranged on the right side, it seems to be a bit difficult to get used to.

The position of the touchpad is in the center of the housing. It's relatively large, so when you put your hand on the home position of the keyboard, the base of your right thumb hits the touchpad. If your palm touches the touchpad and erroneous operations occur, review the sensitivity settings of the touchpad.

Can also operate with power supply from USB-C

The interface is SuperSpeed ​​USB Type-C 10Gbps x 1, SuperSpeed ​​USB Type-A 5Gbps x 2, HDMI 2.0 x 1, headphone output/microphone Equipped with input terminal x 1. The USB Type-C port supports USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, and power off USB charging function, so you won't feel any shortage for general use.

This product comes with a dedicated AC adapter that connects to the round connector, but as mentioned above, it supports USB Power Delivery, so power can be supplied from USB-C. I also confirmed that the 61W USB-C AC adapter I had at hand could power this unit. It is a great place to be able to secure the freedom of mobile use by using a general-purpose USB Power Delivery compatible AC adapter.

Ryzen 7 5800U is a real performance

Next, let's check the performance. The one I tried this time was the highest performance model, and the processor is equipped with AMD Ryzen 7 5800U with Zen 3 architecture. The memory is 16GB of dual-channel 3,200MHz DDR4 SDRAM and the storage is 512GB SSD, so it seems that we can expect sufficient performance even though it is a mobile device. The GPU uses the Radeon Graphics integrated in the Ryzen 7 5800U, and the OS is Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) installed.

PCMark 10 Extended scores are as follows.

Gaming figures are not high due to the use of Ryzen 7's integrated GPU, but sufficient results for mobile laptops. In fact, I didn't notice any lack of performance even when video conferencing, working with Office apps, and web browsing at the same time. Also, the score of CINEBENCH R23 is 7,500 for multicore and 1,374 for single core, which is a figure that feels the power of Ryzen 7 5800U with 8 cores and 16 threads.

Graphics performance was measured with 3DMark and Dragon Quest X benchmark tests. 3DMark results score 2,991 for DirectX 11-based Fire Strike and 12,697 for Direct X 12-based Night Raid. The Dragon Quest X benchmark test scored 9,474 and was rated as "very comfortable". The CPU's built-in graphics are not as good as a PC with an independent GPU, but if you're not a serious gamer, you'll be able to enjoy it.

Finally, I checked the battery life with PCMark 10's Battery Test. In the Modern Office test, which assumes general office work, the drive time was 7 hours and 7 minutes (3% remaining). The nominal spec is a maximum of 10 hours and 30 minutes, so it's less than 70% of that. It seems reasonable to think that it can be used for about one day's activity, but I'm a little worried about carrying around the main unit alone without an AC adapter.

By the way, what surprised me during this test was how quiet the fans were. Even when the load is applied in the benchmark test, I can't tell if the fan is spinning unless I put my ear close to it. And as soon as the load is removed, the fan stops and the sound returns to silence. As mentioned above, the heat felt from the bottom of the housing was not enough to worry about, so the Ryzen 7 5800U seems to be a pretty good processor in terms of heat generation.

A mobile notebook PC that combines high performance and portability that can be recommended to a wide range of users

As we have introduced so far, performance, display performance, design and portability are high. The HP Pavilion Aero 13, which cleared the level, seems to be a fairly attractive product as a mobile notebook PC. When the product was announced, there was a comment that it was strongly conscious of targeting the Z generation born between 1997 and 2001, but I felt that it is a product that can be recommended to a wide range of users, not just the Z generation.