The newly launched HP Pavilion Plus 16 caters to creativity, productivity, and entertainment needs… the same philosophy almost every other offering from the Pavilion lineup follows. But, with this particular model, you get a big display, an impressive speaker setup, a dedicated GPU, and more. Under the hood, it has an Intel Core i7-13700H processor, an Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU, up to 1TB storage, and more. But the question arises: can the HP Pavilion Plus 16 truly command a price tag of Rs 1,24,999? We find out in this review.
HP Pavilion Plus 16
Rs 1,24,999What Is Good?
- Big, fast display
- Excellent speaker setup
- Good, balanced performance
- Spacious keyboard and trackpad layout
What Is Bad?
- Thermals could have been handled better
- Average battery life
- Slow charging speeds despite a smaller battery
- Room for more ports not explored
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Despite the 16-inch form factor, carrying it around in a backpack is possible
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The laptop weighs 1.89kg
The iconic silver colour of the Pavilion Plus 16 gives it a professional look. The base and bottom of the laptop are forged in metal, but the lid is covered with post-consumer recycled plastic. While opening the lid with one hand is possible, there’s visible flex and wobble when typing furiously. The thermals are handled by a vent placed under the lid, grilles above the keyboard and on the bottom for adequate air circulation. The coarse texture on the body feels nice to the touch and keeps fingerprint smudges away, but dirt can be easily visible.
The underside of the lid uses two risers for elevation when kept on a table, this painfully digs into your thighs when using the laptop on your lap – quite ironic. The keyboard and trackpad both have a spacious layout. The edges around the wrist rest area have been rounded off for a painless typing experience.
| Ports | Specification |
| Ports (Right side) | USB Type-A port (5Gbps signalling rate), two USB Type-C ports (40Gbps signalling rate, USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge), full-size HDMI, DC port |
| Ports (Left side) | USB Type-A port (10Gbps signalling rate), 3.5mm audio jack |
| Connectivity Options | Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless card |
The port situation on the Pavilion Plus 16 is also quite adequate for most people. The laptop uses a proprietary barrel connector for charging. But, the two included USB-C ports are also capable of charging the laptop. Considering the big chassis and the empty space (on the left side), an SD card reader slot would have been appreciated.
HP Pavilion Plus 16 Review: Display and audio
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The 16-inch laptop is more than adequate for Excel sheets and movie-watching sessions
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The screen refreshes at 120Hz, aiding gamers too
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Display |
Specifications |
|
Type |
IPS |
|
Size |
16-inch |
|
Resolution |
2560 x 1600 pixels |
|
Refresh rate |
120Hz |
|
Screen brightness |
400 nits |
|
Certifications and other features |
Micro-edge, anti-glare, low blue light, 100% sRGB, 89.74% screen-to-body ratio |
The Pavilion Plus 16’s display is bright enough to be legible in all conditions unless it’s being used under direct sunlight. The bezels on all sides are relatively thin except for the top which houses a camera. The faster refresh rate helps in a smoother experience when scrolling through infinite web pages and also while gaming.
The viewing angles are good too. The colours on the panel are neutral and do not go overboard with saturation and vibrancy — so watching movies and TV shows is a pleasant experience. But, if a touch-enabled screen is on your wishlist, you might have to check elsewhere.
The 5-megapixel webcam on the top performs exceptionally well even in poorly-lit environments. There is almost no visible noise in the video stream. It’s also capable of doubling up as a Windows Hello facial recognition system and works flawlessly.
The stereo speaker setup produces excellent sound. It gets quite loud and does not lose fidelity at higher levels. The depth and details are also quite good. Perfect for a movie or YouTube session.
HP Pavilion Plus 16 Review: Keyboard and trackpad
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The keyboard comes with a dedicated numpad, which is always welcome
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The trackpad is quite wide, helping you perform multi-touch functions
The Pavilion Plus 16 has a full-size keyboard, which should aid office work and daily use equally. The function keys are quite accessible with the mute, microphone, and power button displaying a small LED for easy understanding. The keyboard layout is spacious, which means there’s proper spacing between each key, avoiding mistypes.
The backlit keys have two brightness levels and help during late-night work or gaming sessions. The tactile feedback is decent on all keys, but the spacebar could have been a bit less clicky.
The large trackpad on the Pavilion Plus 16 is quite responsive. It gives you enough room to perform thumb acrobatics. The entire area is clickable, but the upper portions need a bit more force, so there is no worry of misclicks. The click feedback is decent too.
HP Pavilion Plus 16 Review: Performance
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The Intel Core i7-13700H sits at the helm
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The Pavilion Plus 16 handles work and game decently
It performs daily tasks quite easily without any stress. Running about 37 Chrome tabs in tandem with Adobe Photoshop was not an issue for the laptop. The Pavilion Plus 16 scores well in benchmarks, beating the MSI Stealth 14 Studio in Cinebench R23’s single-core tests and closing in on the multi-core tests.
In comparison with productivity-oriented laptops such as the Lenovo Yoga 7i (2023), Infinix Zerobook Ultra, and the HP Pavilion x360, the Pavilion Plus 16 beats them in benchmark scores.
| Benchmarks | Score |
| Cinebench R23 | Multi-core: 12011 pts
Single-core: 1824 pts |
| PCMark10 | 5827 |
| CrystalDiskMark | Write Speed: 5304 MB/s
Read Speed:6839 MB/s |
| TimeSpy | 4751 |
| CPU Profile | Max Threads: 6603 |
While it’s not particularly a gaming-focused laptop, the dedicated RTX 3050 GPU inside opens it up to some opportunities. The Pavilion Plus 16 is capable of handling intensive games at medium or low graphic settings. It can play less demanding titles smoothly, but AAA games can be taxing. The new kid on the block — Counter-Strike 2, caused trouble for the laptop at High settings. The frame drops were quite inconsistent, rendering it almost unplayable in most situations.
The games below have been mostly played on High settings (unless mentioned otherwise) and at the highest possible resolution.
|
Games |
Average Frame Rates (FPS) |
|
Apex Legends |
65fps |
|
Valorant |
135fps |
|
Counter-Strike 2 |
85fps (noticed throttling issues) |
|
Dying Light 2 (Benchmark) |
32fps (Medium Quality preset) |
|
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Benchmark) |
51fps |
While the thermals are well-maintained in other conditions, gaming caused the fans to run at full speed. Moreover, the area near the armrest got warm to the touch. Moreover, while testing these games, the armrest area got hot to the touch with the fans running at full speed. HP has also added the Omen gaming hub software along with the MyHP app for users to understand the laptop better.
HP Pavilion Plus 16 Review: Battery and charging
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It packs in a 68Wh battery that can last about 4.5 hours on moderate usage
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You get a 135W charger in the box
To maintain the portability factor of the Pavilion Plus 16, HP turned to a slightly smaller battery. A 72Wh battery pack would have been ideal for such a big screen since the current battery lasts somewhere around 4.5 hours. This is on moderate usage, meaning if you use it intensively, the laptop could die quicker.
The 135W charger takes about an hour and 30 minutes to reach 72 per cent, which in itself is fairly slow. It takes the laptop north of the two-hour mark to fully juice up using the proprietary barrel connector.
HP Pavilion Plus 16 Review: Verdict
For Rs 1,24,999, the Pavilion Plus 16 is a great choice for people who want a big display for entertainment and work. Unlike the 14-inch younger sibling, the Pavilion Plus 16 caters to two sides of the coin — one that needs a business laptop and one that needs to step aside from meetings and indulge in a few gaming sessions.
The laptop performs well for daily use and office work. It can handle games decently when played in medium settings, but the thermal situation is something that could have been better handled.
The keyboard and trackpad layout are neatly executed and the laptop does well in the entertainment section, not only because of the display, but the speaker system too. The battery department is where the Pavilion Plus 16 falls behind. Adding salt to the wound is the slow charging situation, despite a small-ish battery. This is something HP should’ve done well, especially when you consider there is a dedicated GPU inside hogging the energy.
Regardless, the Pavilion Plus 16 is a good and balanced option if you are on the Windows side of things.
