HP Pavilion Aero 13 review: the strict definition of ultraportable

The ultraportable experience without spending 2000 euros: this is the promise of the HP Pavilion Aero 13. But is it successful? Find out in our test.

Premium computers are there to innovate, yes, but also to make buyers dream. However, for the vast majority of us, we will have to settle for a more modest PC once the time comes to get out the credit card. This is why many manufacturers have a premium range, and an accessible range. At HP, the Pavilion Aero 13 is it: the more affordable ultraportable for those who can’t push Spectra. Which does not mean that it is devoid of the slightest interest.

HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2022)Technical sheet

HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2022)Design

It’s not in terms of design that the HP Pavilion Aero 13 will really surprise you. It is especially on its weight, since at 951 grams on the scale, it is barely felt in a bag as in the hands. For the rest, it is a bit… common. Not to mention a prototype, it stands out as a reference design for the most classic ultraportable expected on the market.

It may be its light gray shell made of recycled plastic that gives this impression of deja vu, or even the good old HP logo that has been used for generations now. Some features stand out all the same, such as its back formed in a hollow crescent moon and whose shape is placed in parallel with the front of the device. But out of that little touch, the HP Pavilion Aero 13 can only be described as “classic”.

Keyboard and touchpad

The backlit keyboard offered by HP is again standard. There are large and silent keys, but a bit soft on the back which underline that we are on a PC of good quality… but not quite premium. Still, we hit it without a hitch, and the shortcut keys on the right side of it are appreciable. We would have liked the Enter key to be whole, but the American format falls on us here again. The touchpad, made of plastic, is slippery enough to be used without difficulty, but a larger surface would have been appreciated.

Note that the fingerprint reader is here integrated directly into the shell in a small square space at the bottom of the direction arrows. This one works great for Windows Hello.

connectors

Always a bit surprising, but appreciable touch: the USB A ports of the HP Pavilion Aero 13 have a small flap to lower to connect its peripherals. We can count on an HDMI port, a USB A port and a USB C port on the right. On the left, there is a power connector and a second USB A port.

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

Decent connectivity, although an additional USB C port would have been welcome in 2022.

webcam and audio

The 720p webcam is… what it is. An ultra-basic 720p webcam as found in all laptops that have not made an effort on this point for a long time.

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

Audio level, the placement of the speakers at the bottom of the device makes them very easy to block once the computer is placed on your legs. The HP Pavilion Aero 13 again does not make a lot of effort to stand out: if the highs are quite clear, giving well-defined voices, the middle lacks a lot of definition and the bass is absent. The competition is always tougher in this field, but this model is not really part of the new wave.

HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2022)Screen

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 is equipped with a 13.3-inch 8-bit IPS LCD panel in 2560 x 1600 pixel definition, i.e. a 16:10 ratio, and limited to a refresh rate of 60Hz. The screen has an anti-reflective coating and is not touch sensitive.

Visually, the slab is very pleasing to the eye. But below our probe, our measurements made with DisplayCal paint a different picture. We can see a maximum brightness of 350 cd / m² in SDR, for however a very good contrast of 1555:1. The panel covers 121.2% of the sRGB space, 83.5% of Adobe RGB and 85.8% of the DCI P3. While the average color temperature at 6275K isn’t too bad, the Delta E20 measured at 4.54 white point and 5.63 average isn’t exactly satisfying.

All in all, it’s a decent screen for the average user, but we can’t recommend it to anyone looking to work on graphic productions. The maximum brightness should however be greater, to guarantee satisfactory readability in direct sunlight.

HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2022)Software

Simply Windows 11. The manufacturer HP does not really make an effort on any software suite which would allow to regulate more deeply the behavior of the HP Pavilion Aero 13, which could be considered as a positive point for anyone who does not want to add to the tools already integrated into the OS.

Which doesn’t mean there aren’t additions. In addition to the eternal McAfee, there is advertising for ExpressVPN, Booking, Dropbox and all these merry men who will need to be uninstalled as soon as the PC is opened. On the segment to which the PC belongs, which remains expensive all the same, this heap of bloatware makes you grumpy.

HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2022)Performance

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 is equipped with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600U, a 6-core processor and 12 threads engraved in 7nm TSMC capable of boosting up to 4.2 GHz. This SoC integrates a Radeon RX Vega 7 GPU. It is coupled with 16 GB of DDR4 RAM at 3200 MHz and a 512 GB NvMe PCIe Gen3 SSD.

General benchmarks

On Cinebench R23, we find a score of 6757 points in multi core and 1376 points in single core. This is exactly the performance expected from the 5600U, which is more or less between the 11th Gen Intel Core i7 and the 12th Gen in terms of power. We can also note that it is able to overtake the Core i7-1260P when the latter is not integrated at its full power, as is the case with the Galaxy Book 2 Pro. The score of 5494 on PC Mark 10 highlights this, where it sits above both the Galaxy Book 2 Pro and the Zenbook 14 UX3402Z.

On the storage side, the integrated Samsung SSD is in the shackles of what is expected of PCIe Gen3 storage. However, the Gen4 is now well installed, and we would have liked this ultraportable to take advantage of it.

Cooling and noise

The most interesting thing about all this power developed is that the HP Pavilion Aero 13 remains very quiet even in more advanced use settings. When you hear its fans, it’s just a little background noise that isn’t really noticeable.

All this as a bonus of keeping temperatures going up to 38°C, which is very impressive. AMD chips have a real advantage in this area.

HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2022)Autonomy

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 is equipped with a 43Wh Li-ion Polymer battery. The latter might seem quite small, but that’s without counting on the ability of AMD processors to ensure a certain longevity to their product.

Thus, on our PCMark 10 autonomy test, the PC simply lasted 10 hours with all batteries on mixed use, from 100 to 4%, which is very good for an ultraportable of this kind. Champions of the genre like the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED can add 2/3 more hours to it, but it does offer a full day of use without forcing it.

If the PC has a classic power port for a 65W charger, you can use any Power Delivery standard USB-C charger to charge your PC. We would therefore almost have preferred that he remove this power supply port for a second USB-C port.

HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2022)Price and availability

The HP Pavilion Aero 13 is sold at the official price of 999 euros, in our test configuration. It is currently available in France and can be found for less than 600 euros on Darty.