HP Pavilion 15.6 15t Business Touchscreen Laptop Review

Are you in the market for a brand-new laptop with considerable power under the hood? And if possible, will you prefer something that can handle intensive working sessions?

Well, you’ve come to the right place because we are about to review a fairly high-performance laptop that won’t break the bank. We are talking about the HP Pavilion 15.6 15t Business Touchscreen Laptop.

HP Pavilion is one of the most prominent lines of laptop that enjoyed a great deal of popularity among the consumers. So, is this a worthy addition to the HP Pavilion line?

For this HP 15.6 Touchscreen Laptop review, we will try to go in-depth as possible and discuss some of the most noteworthy aspects of this system.

HP 15.6 Touchscreen Laptop Review

First, let’s take a look at the general specifications of the HP Pavilion 15t Business​ 15.6​​​​" Full HD IPS Touchscreen Laptop.

Display and Audio

The 15t comes with a 15.6-inch, 1366 x 768 display, although there’s a FullHD version that supports up to 1920×1080 resolution. The 720p display isn’t the brightest or the sharpest but we have to say that it gets the job, especially if you’re planning to use it for everyday entertainment.

The system did a fine job of handling various high-quality trailers that we’ve thrown at it. In some instances, the bright scenes do look blown out but many key details were preserved. Overall, the display performed well when it comes to HD media.

When it comes to brightness, the performance of the display does dip a bit. That’s one way of saying that it’s not the brightest entry-level screen in the market. In our brightness test, the 15t registered 162 nits which is way below for the average 192-nit for most sub-$400 laptops.

You can’t talk about this system without mentioning the optional touchscreen. It’s a non-convertible laptop which doesn’t really need a touchscreen but what was provided here is pretty good. Pinching to zoom in and out of web pages works surprisingly well. Performing Windows touch functions like swiping in to switch apps feel good and snappy.

If you have games that support touchscreen like Cut the Rope, you should give it a try.

As for the audio, the HP Pavilion 15t comes with a basic stereo speaker. It will not give you some thunderous sounds but it has enough oomph and punch when playing music. We have thrown in some hip-hop tracks and it surprisingly sounds competent. Not much to expect here but it could really use some tweaks like an improved bass.

Keyboard, Touchpad, and Webcam

One of the first things that grab my attention with the 15t is the touchpad which looks great. However, we think that the touchpad design itself is not very practical. The touchpad is situated in a way that it’s in a slight depression with the similar glossy makeup as the rest of the keyboard. This makes it hard to navigate the touchpad.

Unlike the touchscreen, there were some challenges when I used the touchpad. Pinching to zoom feels kind of wonky and some common Windows gestures just refused to work. Also, the two-click buttons on the pad felt cheap and stiff. I’m really disappointed with the touchpad. Even though I’m not much of a touchpad user, HP could have at least made it a bit more functional.

Fortunately, my disappointment with the 15t’s touchpad was quelled by its keyboard which is excellent. The notebook’s keyboard feels great while typing and is appropriately snappy. It includes a full number pad and volume/brightness controls on the side which are definitely nice touches.

I did some speed typing tests and I was able to register a pretty good score with about 96% accuracy. During the duration of the test, I never felt any discomfort whatsoever. I am certainly pleased with the keyboard and this is a good thing if you’re going to use it for type-heavy tasks.

The webcam is also there but it’s not really going to blow anyone away. The 15t’s webcam is perfectly serviceable and was able to take some pictures with it. As expected, the photos were quite blurry with an orange glow in them. I’ve also tested the webcam with Skype and the feedback from the people I’ve video called were generally good.

Performance

Powered by Intel Core i5-7200U with 6GB of RAM, the 15t offers a pretty good performance.

The system really shined when I was using web browsers. I’ve had three different windows for Firefox and about 10 tabs in each window, and there was no noticeable slowdown. I was working with numerous web pages and some Google Documents, and the 15t held up pretty well.

However, when I started streaming video from websites like Twitch and YouTube, there are some occasions of lag. There was one time that the browser froze but that can be attributed to the web browser itself. After all, I was streaming videos in 1080p which might have caused the lag.

When opening apps, the 15t was able to launch them quite quickly. I was opening apps like Steam, MS Word, OpenOffice, etc., and the performance was pretty stellar.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with the performance of the 15t and I can say that it’s a good machine for multi-tasking.

Battery Life and Heat

Don’t expect that the battery will run all day but for the price, the 15t has provided a good battery life with a single charge. During our battery test, the notebook was able to last for 7 hours and 5 minutes while web surfing and HD video streaming via Wi-Fi. I’m happy to report that it was able to outlast the Dell Inspiron that I am also currently using.

The battery life is pretty close to the 9 hours with HD display and 7 hours and 15 minutes with FHD that HP has promised.

As for the heat, the 15t stays cool enough for comfort. Even after several minutes of streaming HD videos and playing some indie games, the heat registered 85 to 88 degrees which is really good. I’m planning to get a laptop cooling pad to keep things even cooler.

Software

Or rather the bloatware.

Personally, I don’t really want my new laptop preloaded with these so-called free software and apps.

Unfortunately, HP insists on populating their new computers with dozens of software and throwaway games. Sure, they’re free but I don’t find myself very grateful since 98% of the time, I have no use for these apps. And even I find a useful pre-installed app, I could always install a better alternative (I’m looking at you McAfee).

First up, as per usual, my laptop came with a fleet of first-party HP programs like the HP Wireless Button Driver, HP Connected Drive, and many others. I don’t really mind most of these first-party apps but they can get rather annoying.

The worst, however, is the phenomenal amount of third-party apps that came with my machine. The laptop came loaded with Dropbox, Netflix, CyberLink Media Suite, Amazon, Spotify, Snapfish, Twitter, and many others. Also, let’s not forget the games like Bubble Witch Saga 3, Hearts Deluxe, Minecraft, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, and tons more.

Most of these apps and games are harmless but they do add to the ugly clutter on a brand-new machine.

Pricing

The HP Pavilion 15t is available for the price range of $589.99 to $849.99, depending on the specs.

The machine that I’ve got had almost like high-end specs and it cost me about $700, and this is the touchscreen version. The hardware packs a punch and the other features are not so bad as well. I really loved what they did with the touchscreen and the keyboard.

The touchpad leaves a lot to be desired and the bloatware can be quite jarring. Other than that, there’s not much to complain about the HP Pavilion 15t, especially considering the price. If you’re going for the quad-core Pavilions, then the price will even be lower.

What Other Customers Think

There are numerous versions of the HP Pavilion 15t over at Amazon. However, when it comes to reviews, I have to say that the laptop is generally well-received regardless of the model.

Most of the customers were impressed with the performance of the 15t, especially when it comes to multitasking. Many buyers thought that the notebook is very versatile. In relation to that, many appreciate the value offered by the laptop. For a very decent list of specs, the reviewers thought that the machine is quite budget-friendly.

The keyboard is another aspect that the reviewers enjoyed. They said that it gives a good feedback while typing and is quite responsive and snappy. The touchscreen also gets some praise because it surprisingly works well.

As for the negatives, many customers thought the display is quite so-so, especially with the lower resolution models. A few buyers thought that the display fell short in the brightness department. Overall, many customers were underwhelmed with the display.

Some reviewers also mentioned that the machine came with a lot of bloatware which they had to uninstall during the first day. There are also a few reviewers who mentioned that there are some issues with charging which can be attributed to a hardware problem.

The Verdict

This is a bit of a tough call but I have to say that the HP Pavilion 15.6 15t Business Touchscreen Laptop is the best of its class in this price range. It’s simply a great all-around machine that will serve you well even with intensive usage.

The 15t is really a gorgeous machine and with the guts to match. Under the hood, the performance of the laptop has met expectations. Even with some serious multi-tasking, the 15t has managed to keep up which is impressive for a laptop. The display has its ups and down but it’s still a good machine for streaming or watching high definition videos.

There’s also a few standouts here like the keyboard and touchscreen. I don’t have that much good experience with touchscreen laptops but the 15t has made me change my mind. Surprisingly, the touchscreen worked great even with more advanced gestures. It didn’t take too long for me to integrate touch gestures while working.

The keyboard is another sweet spot as well. The tactile feedback feels good and the snappiness has added to the overall typing experience. Even after hours of typing, my fingers didn’t feel tired at all.

So the verdict for this HP 15.6 Touchscreen Laptop review is a 4 star out of 5. This is one of the best-valued touchscreen laptops that you can get in the market.