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HP Pavilion G4 review: HP Pavilion G4

HP Pavilion G4

Scott Stein Editor at Large
I started with CNET reviewing laptops in 2009. Now I explore wearable tech, VR/AR, tablets, gaming and future/emerging trends in our changing world. Other obsessions include magic, immersive theater, puzzles, board games, cooking, improv and the New York Jets. My background includes an MFA in theater which I apply to thinking about immersive experiences of the future.
Expertise VR and AR, gaming, metaverse technologies, wearable tech, tablets Credentials
  • Nearly 20 years writing about tech, and over a decade reviewing wearable tech, VR, and AR products and apps
Scott Stein
7 min read

If you're going to make a budget laptop, you'd better get your price right. That's the best thing about the HP Pavilion g4-1215dx: a $379 price that makes this easily one of the most wallet-friendly 14-inchers we've come across.

7.5

HP Pavilion G4

The Good

The <b>HP Pavilion g4-1215dx</b> has a great price, an attractive-for-the-price design, and better-than-average speakers, as well as enough graphics performance to play basic games.

The Bad

A slower-performing AMD A4 processor is better than other bargain-basement processors, but less powerful than Intel's Core i3; screen colors look washed out; battery life is merely average.

The Bottom Line

Budget shoppers take note: the extremely aggressively priced HP Pavilion g4-1215dx is a worthwhile laptop pick for those who want a basic, cheap computer. It's hard to find a decent laptop for less--and we've seen lesser laptops that cost more.

Of course, price is meaningless if what's included doesn't stack up. Thankfully, HP's redesigned Pavilion g4 delivers enough on this front, too. Its 1.9GHz AMD A4 processor won't ever be confused for an Intel Core i3, but it's fast enough for most basic purposes and can even handle some basic gaming. A 320GB hard drive and 4GB of RAM are nothing to sneeze at, either.

The package is wrapped in a clean, unassuming, but very functional body, adding up to a laptop that cuts corners but offers you a lot for a practically Netbook-level price. Compared with laptops like the Toshiba Satellite L745D-S4220, which is over $100 more and features a slower processor, HP's new Pavilion g4 comes up smelling like a computer bouquet. Anyone looking for a spare computer or a simple machine for some basic video viewing or photo storage on a very limited budget should add it to the consideration list.

Price as reviewed $379
Processor 1.9GHz AMD Dual-Core A4-3300M APU
Memory 4GB, 1,333MHz DDR3
Hard drive 320GB 5,400rpm
Chipset AMD ID 1705/780E
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6480G
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Dimensions (WD) 13.4x9 inches
Height 1.2 - 1.4 inches
Screen size (diagonal) 14 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter 4.5 pounds / 5.3 pounds
Category Midsize

The new HP Pavilion g4 is an evolution of the design we saw on the Pavilion g6 when we reviewed it earlier this year, but in a more glossy variant. Very shiny plastic is the order of the day on the back of the lid and the keyboard tray. The standard color is charcoal gray, but HP offers pink, blue, or red versions for $25 extra. The glossy coat seems like it would be a fingerprint magnet, but the finish hides prints well. This Pavilion g4 isn't svelte, but the 4.5-pound chassis is about the same weight as most other midrange 14-inchers.

The Pavilion g4's interior looks a little generic, but at this price it's really hard to quibble. The good news is that the whole interior has a clean-cut look that's attractive, especially for the price. It reminds us of previous-generation Dell Inspirons.

The flat keyboard has semiraised keys, meaning the raised surfaces feel a little like Chiclet keys. Last-gen Dell Inspirons and the recent Toshiba Satellite L745D have similar keys. We found the experience surprisingly comfortable, because the keys weren't as mushy as those on other similar flat keyboards. Volume control and other settings mapped to the top row of function keys work without the Fn button being pressed at the same time. We appreciate that.

A flush multitouch touch pad shares the same material as the palm rest, but it's textured in a grid. The previous HP g-series laptops had similar flush touch pads. It's usable, but not spectacular. The buttons beneath are well-designed, flush but slightly rounded.

The 14-inch 1,366x768-pixel-resolution glossy display isn't going to turn heads, but it does a fine job if you're watching videos, surfing the Web, and doing whatever you normally do on a laptop. Colors looked washed out at maximum brightness, however, and that lack of vivid color (Netflix's iconic red page looked muddy) could make a difference to some. Off-axis viewing angles are, as we would expect, not good, either--this is strictly a head-on viewing experience.

Front-firing Altec-Lansing stereo speakers with SRS are better than expected, and a big step up from the disappointing stereo speakers on most laptops in this price range. They're loud enough for comfortable listening, although we'd still prefer to use headphones.

The included 640x480-pixel Webcam is generic in feel and image quality, but at least it's there for those who want to Web chat. It's lesser-quality than more commonly seen HD Webcams.

HP Pavilion g4-1215dx Average for category [midsize]
Video VGA, HDMI VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data 3 USB 2.0, SD card reader 2 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0, SD card reader, eSATA
Networking Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive DVD burner DVD burner

True to form for what you'd expect from a sub-$400 laptop, the port selection is fair but limited. HDMI and three USB 2.0 ports are included, but this laptop lacks USB 3.0 and Bluetooth.

The HP Pavilion g4-1215dx comes with 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive. It's a fair deal for this price, and better than what you'd get with a similarly priced Netbook. The 320GB of storage is less than the increasingly common 500GB, but it's plenty for even a generously sized music/photo/video collection. This particular configuration is exclusive to Best Buy, but you may find similar models elsewhere at other retailers. We have to admit, this price/configuration combination is highly appealing.

We'd be lying if we said that the 1.9GHz AMD A4-3300M APU processor in this HP Pavilion provided a speedy computing experience. Loading programs, multitasking, and general computing all felt more sluggish than on an Intel Core i3- or i5-equipped computer. The benchmarks confirm this: it's at least half the speed of an Intel Core i5 in our tests. For a sub-$400 machine, however, it's a good value, and has better performance than we're used to from budget processors. It was, however, significantly faster than the AMD E-350 and E-450 found in many 11-inch ultraportables, and a few larger systems, many of which are more expensive.

This particular A4 is on the lower end of AMD's new midrange Fusion line of processors, but here's the funny thing: on single-task tests, it's not much different from the quad-core A6 and A8 processors we've seen in the Toshiba Satellite P745D-S4240 and Gateway NV55S05u, both of which cost significantly more money. Multitasking takes a bit more of a hit on this HP Pavilion g4, but it's a performance reduction most people could live with for these savings. Honestly, this is the price where AMD's Fusion A-series processors should be thriving: as significantly lower-priced (and lower-performing) alternatives to Intel's second-gen Core i-series processors.

Part of the advertised appeal of AMD's Fusion APUs is the onboard graphics on a chip, purported to be as good as low-end discrete graphics. The AMD Radeon HD 6480G graphics included on the AMD A4 processor are as good as entry-level discrete graphics, but not much more so. Street Fighter IV ran at 20.1 frames per second in our tests, supporting that claim--the average Core i5 laptop with integrated graphics tends to run the same test at somewhere around 10 to 15 fps. It's good enough for basic gaming, and the graphics acceleration in certain Web browsers like Internet Explorer 9 could be a boost for browser-based games, but it's hardly what we'd call "impact" graphics.

Juice box
HP Pavilion g4-1215dx Average watts per hour
Off (60 percent) 0.73
Sleep (10 percent) 0.78
Idle (25 percent) 7.58
Load (5 percent) 33.37
Raw kWh 35.74
Annual energy cost $4.06

Annual power consumption cost

The HP Pavilion g4-1215dx has a six-cell battery that ran for 3 hours and 31 minutes in our video playback battery-drain test. That's mediocre for a laptop, but fair for a budget machine, provided you're ready to recharge throughout the day when necessary. A more power-efficient system, such as HP's 11-inch Pavilion dm1z, lasts for about 5 hours and 19 minutes in the same test.

HP includes a standard one-year warranty on parts and labor with the HP Pavilion g4-1215dx. HP's Web site is reasonably well-organized and it's easy to locate documentation on particular laptop models, and the 24-7 support phone number as well.

Sure, you could find a $499 laptop with better performance out there, but it'll be nearly impossible to beat the $379 HP Pavilion g4-1215dx for sheer value this holiday season. Its AMD processor is a step below what you'd find in the average Intel Core i3 laptop, but this is a computer that can handle basic needs and then some, in a solid, neat package, all for less than an entry-level iPad and about $80 more than the average Netbook.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Find out more about how we test laptops.

System configurations
HP Pavilion g4-1215dx
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 1.9GHz AMD Dual-Core A4-3300M APU; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6480G; 320GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Toshiba Satellite P745D-S4240
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 1.4GHz AMD Quad-Core A6-3400M APU; 6GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6520G; 640GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

Gateway NV55S05u
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 1.5GHz AMD Quad-Core A8-3500M APU; 6GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 512MB AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6620G; 640GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

Samsung Series 3 NP300U1A
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 1.3GHz Intel Core i3-2357M; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 3000; 320GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Asus U31SD-A1
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.1GHz Intel Core i3-2310M; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce 520M / 64MB(Dedicated) Intel GMA HD; 640GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

7.5

HP Pavilion G4

Score Breakdown

Design 8Features 7Performance 7Battery 7Support 7