HP 15-R011DX 15.6 inch Laptop Review

15.6 inch HP 15-R011DX Notebook
via Amazon

HP 15-R011DX is a 15.6 inch budget category laptop with an entry level Pentium processor and 4GB memory for handling day-to-day things at home or work, but not for advanced multimedia editing or serious gaming as it comes with the integrated Intel HD graphics card as well- is still a relatively powerful PC, especially for its price and gets the job done smoothly.

HP 15-R011DX has the power efficient quad core Intel Pentium Processor N3520 at 2.17GHz speed with turbo boost up to 2.42GHz, 4GB DDR3L for standard multitasking, 750GB at 5400rpm hard drive and the 64-bit Windows 8.1. Pentium N3520 CPU is not super powerful but still works faster than Celeron and Atom processors and has a Passmark benchmark score of 1888 as of today but do not be misled by it being a quad core CPU, you can’t compare it to Intel i5 or higher processors. It is adequate for daily multimedia tasks, net surfing and Microsoft Word and Excel kind of stuff.

Glossy 15.6 inch LED-backlit high-definition non-touch display with 1366x768 pixel resolution offers good quality picture, OK sound quality through the HD Audio with stereo speakers- nothing amazing but a bit hard to get everything the way you want at such low price. It has a front facing HP TrueVision 720p webcam with integrated microphone for those live chats with family and friends. It doesn’t come with Bluetooth connectivity nor VGA port but 802.11b/g/n WLAN, Ethernet LAN, DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x USB 3.0 port for much faster data transfers, an HDMI port, a Multi-format Media Card Reader and 1 x Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack. Bluetooth USB dongles start from only a few dollars.

Black solid plastic HP 15-R011DX weighs just under 5 pounds- 4.9 lbs to be exact and is 1 inch thick (with dimensions of 10.20 x 14.90 x 1 inches)- lighter than average 15.6 inch laptops, is quite portable and the 3-cell 31WHr lithium ion battery offers decent battery life- around 6 hours in average usage. It has the full-size island style comfy non-backlit keyboard with touchpad with left and right click buttons and 10-key numpad for easy number crunching. Touchscreen would have been nice to have with Windows 8.1 OS apps but again a bit of luxury at this level, the screen supports 720p HD playback but not 1080p and don’t expect it to be as crystal clear as a Full HD screen with IPS feature (wide viewing angles).

Conclusion: HP 15-R011DX is a decent entry-level laptop if you’re buying the computer for preparing school assignments, browsing the net, listening to songs, watching Youtube videos, chatting on Skype- daily tasks- low demand multimedia, entertainment and business applications. Depending on how you will feel with the touchpad- if it doesn’t feel very comfy you can get a mouse. It is a decent notebook for its price- more like a good entry level laptop, even cheaper than upper class tablets. Speed of the processor goes up to 2.42GHz dynamically depending on tasks at hand and at the base speed of 2.17GHz for less power usage- offers adequate processing power for daily tasks. 750GB is ample storage space for an entry level laptop. Although it is not a gaming PC, you can still play some of the current games at low settings and less demanding games at higher. Recommended at the current price level- good value for money!

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