HP Pavilion Power 15-ec0006na 15.6 inch full HD gaming laptop

HP Pavilion Power comes in two flavors: a 15.6-inch model and a bigger 17.3-inch offering. Is HP Pavilion Power 15-ec0006na 15.6 inch full HD gaming laptop worth buying? Can you do HP Pavilion Power 15-ec0006na ram upgrade? The difference is that you’re obviously getting a larger screen with the latter, but equally obviously the 17-inch model has a bigger footprint, and is somewhat heavier, so is less portable (it also has room to include a hard disk alongside the SSD for extra storage). There are variations in other hardware components, as well – not just between these different-sized models, but also through the separate ranges. You can pick up a more powerfully specced 15-inch or 17-inch model, although the cheapest models tend to be the smaller form factor, as you might expect.

Price and availability – HP Pavilion Power 15-ec0006na 15.6 inch

The HP Pavilion Gaming 15 was announced at Gamescom, and will be hitting store shelves in the next couple of months. It will launch for $799 (about £630, AU$1,140). This will get you an AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor, 8GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 and a 512GB SSD. So, definitely not going to be the most powerful gaming laptop on the street – but at that price, it doesn’t need to be.

Unfortunately, if that isn’t enough power for your gaming needs, you’ll have to opt for another laptop. At the time of writing, this is the only model available. 

HP Pavilion Power 15-ec0006na 15.6 inch full HD gaming laptop specifications

HP Pavilion Power 15-ec0006na 15.6 inch full HD gaming laptop review

Color

Like Dell’s G series gaming laptops, this Pavilion is relatively thin and light for a budget-minded gaming laptop and is more angular than the rest of the Pavilion line, especially at the rear where the fan vents jut out beyond the lid’s bottom. Beyond that, there’s a subtle green tint to the HP logo on top and the acid green backlit keyboard to help give it a “gaming laptop” look.

If you don’t like green, it comes in white and violet versions, too. The former would be a nice option if you need your gaming laptop to be less conspicuous in an office environment. The green does look nice, though, and it’s a nice change from all the red typically used on entry-level gaming laptops. The keys remain easy to read with the backlight off. Even the font choice is interesting. 

Design

Unlike a lot of other budget gaming laptops, the HP Pavilion Gaming 15 is kind of a looker. While it doesn’t have the ultra-premium design that something like the Razer Blade or MSI GS65 Stealth, it is thin and light enough to game on the go without throwing your back out. 

This gaming laptop is under an inch thick, and comes in at just 4.96 lbs. That’s not the lightest gaming laptop we’ve ever used, but you should be able to handle the HP Pavilion Gaming 15 in your backpack without much problem at all. 

Build

And, while the HP Pavilion Gaming 15 is made of plastic, it manages to pull off an aesthetic that won’t cut people with its edge. The laptop has an angular, black design, with a green HP logo on the back. This logo isn’t backlit, but that’s to be expected with a laptop like this. 

Once you open the notebook, you’ll be greeted by a green backlit keyboard that honestly feels better than it looks. There’s a speaker grille above the keyboard, and while we didn’t get a chance to pump out the jams, we do know that HP tends to pack some respectable speakers in its laptops – and at least the speakers aren’t on the bottom. 

HP Keyboard Designers: Adopt the T!

The keyboard (backlit all in one color; no varying zones or per-key RGB backlighting here) has an HP trademark that always makes me gnash my teeth: cursor-arrow keys in a row instead of the proper inverted T, with hard-to-hit, half-height up and down arrows stacked between full-height left and right arrows.

On the positive side, you’ll find dedicated, albeit small, Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys above the numeric keypad. The typing feel is adequately snappy, though I found the space bar making an audible click to mark the end of each word. The buttonless touchpad glides and taps smoothly, but clicking its left or right lower corners feels and sounds a bit hollow.

Trackpad

The trackpad is especially surprising, however. Not only is it large, but its responsive and doesn’t feel cheap. Gaming laptops are notorious for having lackluster trackpads (why put a great trackpad in when gamers use a mouse anyways), but we are happy to see a competent trackpad here. 

The display is probably the least noteworthy thing here, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You’re getting a 1,920 x 1,080 display at 60 Hz, with 250 nits of brightness. Nothing especially to write home about, but it’ll get the job done. 

Connectivity

The Gaming Pavilion 15 has a good selection of ports, with four USB 3.2 ports including one Type-C Gen 2, which also supports DisplayPort out with an appropriate adapter. By contrast, the three Type-A ports operate on the slightly older Gen 1 standard. There is also an HDMI 2.0 port, a 3.5 mm combined headphone and microphone jack, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a cable lock slot. HP has positioned all the ports along the right and left-hand sides of the device, but no cables should obstruct you while using a wired or wireless external mouse.

Our only gripe is that HP chose not to include a Thunderbolt 3 port. While its use is essentially limited to hooking up an external GPU, Thunderbolt 3 has become a standard among modern gaming laptops, so its exclusion seems rather odd here.

Webcam

The 720p webcam is a grainy, generic component that captures fairly well-lit but noisy images. There’s neither a face-recognition camera nor a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello. The speakers forward of the keyboard have no trouble filling a room with sound that isn’t buzzy or distorted even at top volume; there’s not much bass (although drums drowned out vocals with a few of my MP3’s), but you can distinguish overlapping tracks well enough.

Other feature

The Windows 10 Home system carries a one-year warranty. In addition to Dropbox and Booking.com promotions and the spammy WildTangent Games, HP preinstalls a handful of utilities. One of them, Bang & Olufsen Audio Control, lets you specify music, movie, or voice modes and tinker with bass and treble sliders and an equalizer, as well as optimize the noise-reduction microphone for single or multiple voices.

HP CoolSense, meanwhile, sounds as if it should offer the detailed fan controls of some other gaming laptops, but it merely makes adjustments if it detects the notebook is not stationary, lest you find its surface uncomfortably warm. Also onboard: HP JumpStarts and Privacy Settings, respectively, are a welcome tutorial and a menu about information collection and email subscriptions.

Can you do HP Pavilion Power 15-ec0006na ram upgrade?

For most HP and Compaq notebooks, new memory is installed through the memory module compartment on the bottom of the computer. Review the following steps to confirm they work for your computer. For steps for your specific model, check your User Guide or enter your computer model number and replace memory in the search field at the top of this page (Example: RQ877AS replace memory).

NOTE: If you are not confident performing the installation yourself, contact an HP authorized service for assistance. If a person or service other than an authorized HP service upgrades the memory, any damage is excluded from coverage under the product warranty. The customer assumes all risk and liability for memory upgrade-related damages.

1. Shut the computer down and disconnect the power cord.
2. Turn the notebook over and place it on a firm surface.
3. Remove the battery.
4. Locate the memory module compartment cover, and then use a Phillips screwdriver to open it.
5. Before touching the memory, ground yourself to discharge any static electricity. Place one hand on the case of the computer and touch the other hand to a metal surface or grounded object, such as the metal part of a lamp.
6. If you need to remove existing memory before installing new memory, spread the clips holding the module outward to release it, and then grasp the module by the side edges to remove it.   CAUTION: To prevent memory module damage, do not touch the metal contacts.
7. Place any removed modules in an anti-static bag for protection.
8. Holding the new memory by the side edges, gently insert the memory module at an angle into the slot.
9. Gently but firmly press down on the module to seat it into place. The clips click when the memory is properly installed.
10. Reinstall the memory module compartment cover.
11. Reconnect the power cord.
12. Reinstall the notebook battery.
13. Turn on the notebook to complete the memory upgrade configuration.

HP Pavilion Power 15-ec0006na 15.6 inch full HD gaming laptop customer review

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