HP Pavilion Touchsmart 15-D097
via Amazon
Regal purple HP Pavilion Touchsmart 15-D097 is a touchscreen notebook with a reliable entry level quad core AMD A4 processor, large 8GB memory and 1000GB hard drive as storage space, an intuitive touch display that supports multiple gestures- pinch, tap, swipe and more, a DVD optical drive that is not common these days, Bluetooth 4.0, an HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port and a good selection of connectivity ports.
HP Pavilion Touchsmart has the quad core AMD A4-5000 accelerated processor at 1.5GHz base speed and no turbo boost function or hyper threading, 8GB DDR3 SDRAM on 1 DIMM, 1TB Serial ATA hard drive at 5400rpm rotating speed with HP ProtectSmart for data security to keep them safe in case of accidents and Windows 8.1 English 64-bit version with its customisable tiles and more familiar features. The A4-5000 is an entry level mid-2013 release processor that is more than adequate for daily multimedia and office tasks when its four cores are in action and the generous 8GB RAM gives it an overall performance boost as well as decent multitasking capability.
15.6 inch diagonal high definition BrightView LED-backlit touchscreen with a max resolution of 1366x768 pixels and AMD Radeon HD 8330 graphics means decent picture quality, HD sound through stereo speakers and a good quality HP TrueVision HD Webcam for clear and sharp videos in live face-to-face chats even in dim light and with built-in digital microphone. The power of HD 8330 is more or less equal to an Intel HD 4000 so you really won’t be able to play those modern day 3D games but you’ll be fine with the older titles. Radeon HD 8330 is not a discrete graphics card with its own VRAM but will access and share the system memory and supports two external displays using the VGA and HDMI.
Glossy finish unique regal purple Pavilion Touchsmart has a full-size comfortable island style keyboard with a 10-key numpad to enter data easily and a trackpad optimised for Windows 8.1 functions and that supports multiple gestures and without the on/off button. Laptop will stay cool and comfy to touch even after hours of working on it with the HP CoolSense feature. Connectivity options include 802.11 b/g/n wireless WLAN, fast 10/100 Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connectivity, Bluetooth 4.0 to link with other Bluetooth enabled devices without wires, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x USB 3.0 port for faster data transfers, a VGA port, an HDMI port, a headphone/microphone jack, Super Multi DVD+/-RW optical drive with double layer support and the Multi-Format Digital Media Card Reader.
Conclusion: HP Pavilion Touchsmart 15-D097 looks good with its glossy regal purple colour and offers modest performance overall but does well in daily simple tasks- stuff that most people use the computers for on a day-to-day basis with its entry level AMD A4-5000 CPU and the multitasking power of generous 8GB RAM, but it won’t do very well in super demanding applications or the latest game titles. It feels solid and durable and seems to be built to last for a while. When quad cores are in use, the performance level of this AMD A4 processor is reported to be equal to an Intel i3-2377M processor. It is quite a low voltage processor with a Thermal Design Power-TDP of 15 watts which would mean more economical use of battery but we don’t have the information on battery life. Definitely a good value computer with decent performance, nice design and touch display.
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