HP Pavilion Aero 13-be0017nf review: our full review – The laptop

Premium computers exist to innovate, yes, but also to make buyers dream. For most of us, though, we’ll have to settle for a simpler PC once it’s time to pull out a credit card. This is why many manufacturers have premium ranges, and accessible ranges. On HP, the Pavilion Aero 13 is what it is: a more affordable ultraportable for those who can’t use the Spectra. Which is not to say that it is without the slightest bit of interest.

HP Pavilion Aero 13-be0017nfTechnical sheet

HP Pavilion Aero 13-be0017nfDesign

Not in terms of design, the HP Pavilion Aero 13 will really surprise you. This is primarily in weight, because at 951 grams, it barely feels in the bag as it does in the hand. For the rest, it’s a bit… common. Not to mention a prototype, it stands out as a reference design for the most classic ultraportables expected on the market.

Maybe it’s a light gray shell made from recycled plastic that gives it a deja vu feel, or even the good old HP logo that’s been in use for generations now. A few features still stand out, such as its crescent-shaped back which is hollow and its shape parallel to the front of the device. But from that small touch, the HP Pavilion Aero 13 can only be called a “classic”.

Keyboard and touchpad

The backlit keyboard offered by HP is again standard. There are large and quiet, but slightly soft buttons on the back which underscores that we’re using a good quality PC… but not too premium. Still, we pressed it without a hitch, and the shortcut keys on the right side are decent. We want the Enter key intact, but the American format falls upon us here again. The touchpad, made of plastic, is slippery enough to use without difficulty, but the larger surface area will be appreciated.

Note that the fingerprint reader here is integrated directly into the case in a small rectangular space below the directional arrows. This one works fine for Windows Hello.

connector

Always a bit of a surprise, but quite a meaningful touch: the USB A port on the HP Pavilion Aero 13 has a small flap to slide down to connect peripherals. We can count on the HDMI port, USB A port and USB C port on the right. On the left is the power connector and second USB A port.

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

Decent connectivity, though an additional USB C port will be welcome in 2022.

webcam and audio

A 720p webcam is… what it is. The ultra-basic 720p webcam like those found in all old laptops doesn’t quite do the trick in this regard.

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

Audio level, the placement of the speakers on the bottom of the device makes it very easy to get blocked once the computer is at your feet. The HP Pavilion Aero 13 again makes no effort to stand out: while the highs are crisp enough, it provides a clear sound, the mids lack clarity, and bass is absent. Competition has always been tougher in this area, but this model isn’t really part of a new wave.

HP Pavilion Aero 13-be0017nfScreen

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 features a 13.3-inch 8-bit IPS LCD panel in a definition of 2560 x 1600 pixels, i.e. 16:10 ratio, and limited to a refresh rate of 60Hz. The screen has an anti-reflective coating and is not touch sensitive.

Visually, the slab is very pleasing to the eye. But under our investigation, our measurements made with DisplayCal gave a different picture. We can see a maximum brightness of 350 cd/m² at SDR, but a very good contrast of 1555:1. The panel covers 121.2% of sRGB space, 83.5% Adobe RGB, and 85.8% DCI P3. While the average color temperature at 6275K isn’t too shabby, the Delta E20 measured at a white point of 4.54 and an average of 5.63 isn’t particularly satisfactory.

Overall, it’s a decent screen for the average user, but we couldn’t recommend it to anyone looking to work on graphic production. The maximum brightness however needs to be greater, to guarantee satisfactory legibility in direct sunlight.

HP Pavilion Aero 13-be0017nfSoftware

Just Windows 11. The HP manufacturer hasn’t really put any effort into any software suite that allows for deeper tuning of the behavior of the HP Pavilion Aero 13, which can be considered a positive point for anyone who doesn’t want to add to the already integrated tools. into the OS.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t any extras. Besides the timeless McAfee, there are ads for ExpressVPN, Booking, Dropbox and all these cheerful guys that need to be uninstalled as soon as the PC is unlocked. In the PC owned segment, which remains expensive, this stacks bloatware make you grumpy.

HP Pavilion Aero 13-be0017nfShow

HP Pavilion Aero 13 is equipped with AMD Ryzen 5 5600U, a 6-core and 12 thread processor engraved in 7nm TSMC capable of boosting up to 4.2 GHz. The SoC integrates a Radeon RX Vega 7 GPU. This is coupled with 16 GB of DDR4 RAM at 3200 MHz and a 512 GB NvMe PCIe Gen3 SSD.

General benchmarks

On Cinebench R23, we found scores of 6757 points in multi-core and 1376 points in single-core. This is the expected performance from the 5600U, which is more or less between the 11th Gen and 12th Gen Intel Core i7 in terms of power. We can also note that it is able to overtake the Core i7-1260P when the latter is not integrated to its full power, as is the case with the Galaxy Book 2 Pro. Score from 5494 on PC Mark 10 highlights this, where it sits above the Galaxy Book 2 Pro and Zenbook 14 UX3402Z.

On the storage side, the integrated Samsung SSD falls short of what is expected from PCIe Gen3 storage. However, the Gen4 now installs fine, and we’d love this ultraportable to take advantage of.

Cooling and noise

What’s most interesting about all this power developed is that the HP Pavilion Aero 13 remains remarkably quiet even in more high-end usage settings. When you hear the fans, it’s just a bit of background noise that isn’t very noticeable.

All of this as a bonus keeps the temperature up to 38°C, which is very impressive. AMD chips have a real advantage in this area.

HP Pavilion Aero 13-be0017nfAutonomy

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 is equipped with a 43Wh Li-ion Polymer battery. The latter may seem small enough, but that’s without relying on AMD’s processor capabilities to ensure a certain longevity for their products.

So, on our PCMark 10 autonomy test, the PC only lasted 10 hours with all the battery under mixed use, from 100 to 4%, which is great for an ultraportable of this kind. Genre champions like the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED can add another 2/3 hours, but offer a full day of use without pushing it.

If your PC has a classic power port for 65W chargers, you can use a standard Power Delivery USB-C charger to charge your PC. Hence, we almost prefer him to ditch this power supply port for a second USB-C port.

HP Pavilion Aero 13-be0017nfPrice and availability

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 retails at an official price of 999 euros, in our test configuration. Currently available in France and can be found for less than 600 euros at Darty.

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