The HP Pavilion 17-e113dx is a 17.3-inch Laptop that comes with a interesting design and decent specifications. Read the full review to see how good it is.
HP Pavilion 17-e113dx 17.3″ Laptop Review
The Exterior
On the outside the HP Pavilion 17-e113dx comes in a classic chassis shape and size with a textured shiny silver top cover. The cover has the chrome HP logo right in the middle. The shiny finish makes the top cover a magnet for fingerprints and small scratches.
On the inside we find a very similar pattern on the shiny black palm rest. The HP Pavilion 17-e113dx features a full sized keyboard with numerical pad and a generously sized touchpad slightly off-center for better typing comfort. On top of the keyboard we find a mesh grill underneath which the two built-in speakers are located. The power button is located just left of this mesh.
The sides of the body have a silver border that contain all the connectivity features.
The HP Pavilion 17-e113dx comes with a 17.3″ LED-backlit high-definition display surrounded by a shiny black border. In the middle of the top border we find the 720p Webcam and the integrated microphone. Centered on the bottom border we find a silver HP logo.
For future upgrades HP has kindly provided a large panel on the back of the device which you can open to gain access to the HDD, RAM and WiFi modules.
The overall exterior of this HP looks very stylish and elegant but as a downside I can foresee many scratches and fingerprints in the future of all its shiny surfaces.
The Connectivity
A VGA-port, HDMI-port, 2 USB 3.0 ports, a combo mic headphones port and a card reader are the connectivity options for the HP Pavilion 17-e113dx left side. The right side features a Kensington lock port, power port, Ethernet LAN port, one USB 2.0 port and the multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive.
To this we add WiFi 802.11 B/G/N Wireless connectivity. The only thing missing from the package is Bluetooth connectivity.
The Performance
The HP Pavilion 17-e113dx comes equipped with a AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M processor running at 1.9 GHz (up to 2.8 GHz w/ Turbo Core). The performance of this processor is comparable to Intels Core-i3-series processors. The integrated Radeon HD 7640G will outperform any Intel HD 4000 graphics card. This combination of processor and GPU makes this device capable of running most of todays games without problems.
The 4GB of DDR 3 RAM is the only thing pulling this configuration down. Considering the abilities of the AMD A8-4500M processor I think 8GB of RAM is more suitable if you intend to use it to its full capacity.
Thankfully HP has provided easy access to the RAM of the HP Pavilion 17-e113dx making the upgrade easy to make.
The 750 GB HDD spinning at 5400rpm completes the configuration. The available storage space is higher than available on most devices in this price range.
The performance specifications of the HP Pavilion 17-e113dx are very good for a 17.3-inch laptop in this class and with an upgrade to 8GB of RAM it can become a very well balanced package.
