HP Pavilion Aero 13: Gentle on label and weight, heavy on kind and energy

The staunch Pavilion has reach a long formula. With a magnesium aluminum chassis that looks clear and feels durable and impossibly light, the HP Pavilion Aero 13 looks and feels extra fancy a mannequin from the firm’s higher-quit Envy or Spectre line than a mainstream Pavilion. And yet the Pavilion Aero 13 line starts at a reasonable $750.

Despite its light label and weight, the Pavilion Aero 13 is roomy and worthy. The laptop laptop is based fully fully on a 13.3-creep expose with a 16: 10 aspect ratio that makes the expose in actuality feel extra wide than a archaic 16:9 expose of the same dimension. The keyboard runs from edge to edge and feels wide alongside with the generously proportioned touchpad. Powering this perfectly sized laptop laptop is an 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 processor that’s no lightweight CPU. Our $999 take a look at system is a huge put off for school students or anyone having a opinion for a total bunch kind and portability at a large label.

This overview is section of our ongoing roundup of the last be conscious laptops. Jog there for recordsdata on competing merchandise and the intention in which we tested them.

HP Pavilion Aero 13 specifications

We reviewed the HP Pavilion Aero Computer 13-be0097nr mannequin that charges $999.99 on HP.com.

• CPU: Octo-core AMD Ryzen 7 5800U
• Reminiscence: 16GB
• Graphics: AMD Radeon 
• Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• Cloak: 13.3-creep, 1920×1200 IPS nontouch
• Webcam: 720p
• Connectivity: Left: 1 x SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps Kind-C, 1 x SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps Kind-A (with energy-off charging), HDMI 2.0, combo audio jack. Simply: 1 x SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps Kind-A.
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
• Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
• Battery ability: 43 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.71 x 8.35 x 0.7 inches
• Measured weight: 2.1 kilos (laptop laptop), 0.6 kilos (AC adapter)

The entry-level mannequin within the Pavilion Aero 13 series charges $749.99 and parts a Ryzen 5600U CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Customization alternatives encompass four color choices, a expose resolution toughen, and keyboard backlighting. Our $999.99 take a look at system parts the silver color option, the infamous expose resolution, and no keyboard backlighting.

2.1 kilos soaking wet

Color will worth you. The silver chassis comes with out cost, however the three completely different color choices—Warm Gold, Gentle Rose Gold, and Ceramic White—add $20 to the bill. The Pure Silver option looks spiffy adequate, even when I’d intention shut dark keys with white lettering as in opposition to the Pavilion Aero 13’s silver keys with grey lettering. Particularly light, there’s now not adequate difference between the keys and lettering. And our system lacks keyboard backlighting, which doesn’t benefit the say. Keyboard backlighting ought to reach genuine. As an replacement, it’s a $20 upcharge.

Matt Elliott/IDG

Primarily the most important attraction of the Aero 13 is its crude portability. You’ll be amazed at how light it feels while you first put off it up. It weighs simplest 2.1 kilos, which is considerably now not as much as completely different equally sized laptops, at the side of HP’s top rate 13.3-creep Elite Dragonfly Max that weighs 2.6 kilos and the graceful 13.4-creep Razer E-book 13 that weighs a elephantine pound extra at 3.1 kilos. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano weighs much less at compatible under 2 kilos but it has a a diminutive bit smaller 13.0-creep expose (and a worthy higher label).

You would possibly possibly alarm about the Aero 13 being so light to the level of feeling flimsy. I no doubt turned into once when HP launched the product but now not after I had it in my palms. The laptop laptop feels very sturdy, with a all-metal chassis that’s a long way from flimsy. The lid within the benefit of the expose feels rigid, as does the keyboard deck.

Matt Elliott/IDG

The keyboard feels agency with diminutive to no flex beneath your fingertips when typing. If truth be told, completely different than the color of the keys and the shortcoming of backlighting, I fabricate now not own any complaints about the keyboard. The keys provide fleet solutions, and no keys own been shortened to suit the keyboard on the 13.3-creep enclosure. I admire the column of keys on the a long way-ethical of the keyboard for the Delete, Dwelling, Online page-up and -down, and Stop keys. I worthy intention shut this procedure to squeezing these keys next to the arrow keys or shortening the ethical-Shift key to accommodate them. The left- and ethical-arrow keys are elephantine sized as is the ethical-Shift key. I turned into once straight away elated typing on the Pavilion Aero 13.

Under the arrow keys is a fingerprint reader. The laptop laptop lacks a Windows Howdy-compatible webcam, leaving the fingerprint as the most life like doubtless biometric option for stable logins with out needing to key in a password.

Matt Elliott/IDG

The touchpad, too, made me in actuality feel ethical at home. It’s higher than your common laptop laptop touchpad at 4.5 by 2.6 inches and affords appropriate and refined mousing with a agency and restful click response. 

16: 10 > 16:9

There’s loads to fancy about the expose, from its 16: 10 aspect ratio and skinny bezels to its rated 400 nits of brightness and anti-glare enact. Unless you thought to glance motion photos for your laptop laptop the wide majority of the time, a 16: 10 veil ratio is a higher fit than a worthy wider 16:9 expose. A 16: 10 veil is taller, providing extra room vertically so that you just furthermore mght can scroll much less and on the total own extra room to multitask and juggle windows.

The expose on our take a look at system parts a 1920×1200 resolution, and HP affords a expose toughen to 2560×1600 for $30. That’s a ultimate label for the added pixels, but I don’t focus on extra are significant. Because it is, our take a look at system with the lower resolution turned into once characteristic to scale the image by 150% and lowering it to 100% results in diminutive textual swear material and icons. The 1920×1200 resolution on a 13.3-creep expose is loads keen. 

Matt Elliott/IDG

Skinny bezels frame the expose on all four facets to operate a compact bundle. The added verticality of the expose doesn’t result in an awkwardly deep laptop laptop from entrance to profit. The Pavilion Aero 13 looks successfully proportioned.

One characteristic lacking on the expose is touch toughen, but with out it you rep a matte coating on the expose that does an very honest appropriate job at combating glare and reflections. Colours didn’t pop on the expose, but they regarded appropriate—the veil affords 100-p.c sRGB toughen. Rated at 400 nits, the expose is brighter than many panels discovered on laptops at or below $1,000, which usually lift max brightness within the 250-nit to 350-nit vary.

A archaic 720p webcam sits above the expose. It produces a median image that suffers from some noise and oversaturation. It lacks a physical privacy quilt for peace of mind when the camera is now not in tell.

For this kind of skinny and lightweight laptop laptop, the audio system provide surprisingly ideal sound. They’re tuned by Bang and Olufsen and hearth downward from either aspect of the laptop laptop. They aren’t as muffled as most downward-firing audio system because they’re positioned on a beveled edge on the underside of the laptop laptop, which keeps them from sitting straight away for your desk or lap. Bass response is lacking, and the easy equalizer supplied on the B&O app did nothing to toughen it or any completely different section of the audio output. Peaceable, the sound reaches a ultimate level at max quantity with out sounding too muddied. 

Matt Elliott/IDG

Matt Elliott/IDG

You rep both USB Kind-A and Kind-C ports, but I’d worthy moderately own one in all the used and two of the latter. Peaceable, having both kinds does build you from having to manage with a dongle. For this kind of latest laptop laptop, I turned into once deal surprised to hunt down it uses an extinct-college barrel charger. I’d worthy intention shut USB-C charging and own a USB-C port on either aspect so I’m now not forced to consistently charge from the ethical aspect. The USB-C port doesn’t toughen Thunderbolt 4 thanks to the AMD CPU, but it does attain energy provide and DisplayPort. There’s additionally an HDMI port to spherical out your video-out alternatives. The two ultimate omissions from the port preference are an ethernet port and SD card slot. 

HP Pavilion Aero 13 efficiency

Based on AMD’s eight-core Ryzen 7 5800U, the Aero 13 excelled in sorting out, handing over commendable results on both software program and multimedia benchmarks. Its 3D graphics efficiency turned into once predictably lackluster, alternatively, and its battery lifestyles would possibly possibly possibly leave you looking out.

We when in contrast the Aero 13 in opposition to the Acer Swift X, yet every other skinny-and-light laptop laptop we recently reviewed that parts the Ryzen 7 5800U. You’ll glimpse a trio of 13-creep laptops based fully fully on the Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU—the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano, and the Razer E-book 13. Rounding out the charts is HP’s worthy pricier and trade-centered Elite Dragonfly Max that parts the Core i7-1185G7 CPU. All six laptops characteristic 16GB of RAM, and all however the Swift X characteristic integrated graphics. The Swift X trades out AMD’s integrated Radeon graphics in desire of a GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU.

Our first benchmark is PCMark 10, which measures efficiency on day to day computing work at the side of attach of enterprise productiveness projects, web having a opinion, and video chats. The Intel-based fully fully programs didn’t hit the 5,000 label while the AMD-based fully fully Aero 13 and Swift X topped the 6,000 threshold. Inspire: AMD. Specifically, the Ryzen 7 5800U and its eight cores and 16 processing threads. The competing Core i7 chips own simplest four cores and eight threads.

Matt Elliott/IDG

Next up is Cinebench, a operate of CPU hotfoot that stresses the CPU rather than the GPU and makes tell of all processing cores. The pair of AMD-based fully fully programs win their added processing cores and threads to ideal tell and with out distress outpaced their Intel competition on the multithreaded take a look at.

Matt Elliott/IDG

The two AMD laptops additionally topped the chart for single-threaded efficiency on Cinebench, with the Aero 13 taking the tip attach.

Matt Elliott/IDG

We tell the HandBrake utility to convert a 30GB movie to Android desk layout, an intensive task that taxes the CPU and all of its cores. With double the cores, the Aero 13 and Swift X dominated, ending the take a look at in a section of the time it took the Intel machines. The Aero 13’s multimedia efficiency results indicate that it’s a higher put off for ingenious work than its Intel competition. And I will own to illustrate that the system ran quietly and stayed frigid all over intensive graphics work.

Matt Elliott/IDG

The ideal instances for the Aero 13 came to a screeching quit on our 3D graphics benchmark. It completed within the benefit of the laptops with integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics and successfully off the tempo characteristic by the Swift X and its RTX 3050 Ti graphics. No one likes to enact last, however the puny advantage the Intel programs own over the Aero 13 on 3DMark does not imply worthy. The laptops with integrated Intel graphics don’t appear to be any extra a gaming laptop laptop than the Aero 13 and its integrated AMD Radeon graphics.

Matt Elliott/IDG

The Aero 13 took yet every other L on our battery lifestyles take a look at. It ran for now not as much as nine hours on the take a look at while competing laptops ran for 12 hours or extra. The Aero 13 would possibly possibly possibly rep you thru a total workday on a single charge, but you won’t desire to leave your charger at home. Share of the tradeoff for this kind of compact and lightweight system is a puny battery. The Aero uses a 3-cell, 43 work-hour battery the attach most laptops characteristic no now not as much as a 4-cell unit.

Matt Elliott/IDG

Skinny and lightweight and mighty

Past being extremely light and eminently transportable, the HP Pavilion Aero 13 scores aspects for aloof providing a roomy expose and elated keyboard in this kind of compact bundle. A 13.3-creep laptop laptop can in actuality feel tiny with a 16:9 aspect ratio but when stretched vertically to 16: 10, you rep extra room to work. And the Aero 13 is undoubtedly interesting to work. The Ryzen 7 5800U helped the laptop laptop speak prominent software program and multimedia efficiency that’s a step or two earlier than its Intel-based fully fully competition. You won’t obtain extra energy in a lighter laptop laptop for the worth.

It’s so light no doubt that I’d be interesting to tote spherical yet every other couple of ounces for a 4-cell battery and a longer running time. And let’s be actual: keyboard backlighting will own to reach genuine.

• You won’t obtain extra energy from a lighter laptop laptop at its label than the HP Pavilion Aero 13, a 2.1-pound charmer based fully fully on AMD’s stellar Ryzen 7 5800U CPU.

  Pros

  • Incredibly light.
  • Stable software program and multimedia efficiency.
  • 16: 10 expose feels roomy.
  • Happy keyboard.

  Cons

  • Small battery, lackluster battery lifestyles.
  • Barrel charger feels antiquated.
  • Keyboard backlighting charges extra.