HP Pavilion X2 - Review

Cutting to the chase, the Pavilion X2 is an affordable (£249.99), fast and portable laptop-come-tablet. It's nippy and can be upgraded to Windows 10 - if you're looking for a good device to edit Word documents and run fairly low-key programmes then HP's offering is certainly a laptop you'll want to consider.

Screen
It's a small and portable device and thus the 10.1" screen is very appropriate. The screen looks sharp and seems to work well in sunlight - though if you have bright light behind you then glare may be an issue and you'll have to put the brightness up to full which can drain the battery. The screen quality is good; it appears sharp and colours come across well. However, it isn't full HD (so no point buying HD films to play on it) with a resolution of 1280x800. Still, though, video comes across well and on a screen this size I'm not sure if 1080p resolution (an anyway, you won't miss what you don't have!) In terms of graphics, inside is an 'Intel HD graphics' card. It works fairly well, but don't mistake this for a gaming device.

The touch screen is as good as any - it works as any good tablet should meaning it's fine for Angry Birds and tapping buttons when it's easier/ quicker than using the keyboard. If you want to be drawing pictures, however, then this not the device to you.

Processing
It's an Intel Atom inside, which is to be expected given the price. If you wan't to pay more then similar devices contain i3/i5/i7 processors, but if you're just using the device for word documents, browsing the web and playing small games then the Atom is up to the job. I'm writing this wile running a video in the background and it all works fine. I tested the Minecraft Windows 10 version earlier and it worked well; everything was very smooth and ran properly. Clearly the Atom can cope, but I wouldn't run programmes that use too much processing power - it'll drain the battery and might make the device run slower. There's also the fact that it just has 2GB of RAM - not much for a laptop device and more in the region of similar-priced tablets.

Battery
It's supposed to last 12 hours (there's a 33W battery inside)- which it pretty much does, though this obviously depends on how much you use it. For word documents and simple internet tasks it will last the whole day without a problem. If you're constantly gaming and playing videos then I'd imagine you could drain the battery life in a few hours. I'd say the battery life on the X2 is just as good as anything else on the market - even more expensive devices don't do much better, in fact they often do worse.

Design and Aesthetics
The design of the device is quite nifty. It looks good and is fairly thin. As a laptop it looks pretty good and as a tablet it also looks pretty good. There's nothing amazing about it, but there's nothing really wrong with it either. The only thing I would point out is that when you're using it as a laptop it can be a bit top heavy. This isn't noticeable when on a flat surface, but is just something to bear in mind.

Sound is good. There are speakers on the front of the device (check out a picture to see) which work very well up to a pretty loud volume. If you wan't to play music then it'll work well - same for videos and films - but if you're very picky about sound quality I'm sure you have a speaker you can plug it into.

Keyboard is easy to type on. The keys are a bit small but the buttons are distinct which helps. It took me a a few minutes of typing to get used to it.

Memory - It comes with a small 32gb hardrive however you can extend this with a micro SD card. What is a bit annoying with using an SD card is that you have to save files to that card which comes up separately to the rest of your memory - you can't use the extra space to save files to 'My Documents'. You can, of course, use a USB stick for documents though.

Verdict

The Pavillion X2 runs well, is portable and enjoyable to use. As a small laptop it's great for running simple programmes, editing Microsoft office documents, browsing the web and watching videos. As a tablet it does also work well - though I wouldn't buy this as a tablet-first device as there are better tablets available (Android or an iPad would be preferable). As a laptop which handily converts into a tablet it's great. It feels like quality device and is well-built, especially for the price.
Should you buy it?
Compared to similarly priced devices - yes. But if you have £500 to spend then it would be worth considering devices such as the Surface 3 or Pro 3. If not, the X2 is more than fine.

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