Hewlett Packard was a corporation that ran for nearly a hundred years, with their final focus resting on computing technology. Though HP still exists, it is an off-shoot of this original brand called HP, INC.

The reason for this split was mostly due to potential financial gain. The two sides of Hewlett Packard still work together very frequently and operate often as if they have not split at all. This means that HP computers, especially laptops, are the exact same quality that they’ve always been.

The best Hewlett Packard laptops depend heavily on what their primary use will be. Below we’ll be outlining some of the most common usages for laptop computers as of this writing- and which HP products suit those needs the best.

Best HP Laptop for Students

HP Pavilion 17t

1
Price
$900
i7-6700HQ | HD 530 | 16GB RAM | 1000 GB HDD | 6h

For those in need of a grade school or college level laptop, look no further than the HP 17t. Full of potential upgrades and quality parts, the 17t will be a valuable learning tool for years to come.

It’s priced right, settling in far under $1,000 for the base model as of this writing. Additional upgrades may push it past this entry level price, but most of these upgrades really aren’t completely necessary. They just expand the HP 17t’s capabilities beyond a school computer.

The 17t comes in an array of colors, all of which customize for free and give your student a sense of singularity among the many screens. For further aesthetic customization, HP offers a lighted keyboard option for long nights at college when you may not want to wake your roommate up typing an essay at the last minute.

But let’s look at the specs. This is a 17-inch screen, with options to make it a touchscreen. It comes loaded with Windows 10, but it can be offloaded with your preferred operating system at your request. The base model comes with a single stick of 16 GB memory, also known as RAM. This can be upgraded to a maximum of 32 GB.

16 GB is becoming a pretty typical number and it’s plenty for those using a laptop for student activities. 12 GB is often the bare minimum for entry-level gaming laptops, for instance.

The included hard drive is 1 TB, though it can be upgraded to 2 TB at request. The 17t comes with wifi, HDMI and USB ports, a DVD burner drive and, last but certainly not least, an AMD brand quad core processor.

In fact, the single place that this laptop lags behind is in its graphics card department. But you’re getting this for schoolwork, right? If the graphics card doesn’t support most popular multi-player online games, there’s no risk of getting distracted.

Best HP Laptop for Gaming

HP Omen 17

2
Price
$2,100
i7-6700HQ | GTX 1070 8GB | 32GB RAM | 500 GB SSD (PCIe) + 2000 GB HDD | 3h

HP’s OMEN brand has not come as far along in popularity as competitors like MTI and ASUS’s Republic of Gamers (ROG), mostly due to HP’s lack of marketing. Why HP is concentrating their marketing efforts on business and student laptops rather than more heavily at gamers is a little confusing. The world may never know.

The pick for this category ends up in a very close race. Gamers tend to split into two groups: those who prefer the newer solid state drive (SSD) or those who prefer the traditional disc based hard drive (HD). The pros and cons of both of these technologies is well charted across the internet and will not be repeated here.

Ultimately, for the price as of this writing, the OMEN 17 wins out over all of them.

The OMEN 17 is a hefty laptop, right in line with some of the other HP gaming brands. The base model comes with 32 GB of RAM, a NVidia GTX 1070 graphics chip, and an Intel i7 quad core processor. It’s loaded with Windows 10 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit Pro, as you prefer. All said and done, that’s a great little laptop for any gamer to play with.

But it only gets better. This laptop comes with four different hard drive choices. It’s this that put it over the top of its competitors. Whether you prefer a 7200 rpm 2 TB HD or a 1 TB SSD, you have many options readily available on this machine. The base model comes with a 7200 rpm 2 TB HD plus a relayed 500 GB SSD drive for faster loading, among other things.

Even loaded with options, as of this writing, the OMEN 17 runs less than $3,000 USD. With 17-inch screens becoming the “standard” with gamers, the OMEN 17 should last gamers for quite a few generations. That is unless virtual reality machines suddenly become required for professional gamers and their friends.

Best HP Laptop for Office Work

HP Pavilion 15-au158nr

3
Price
$600
i5-7200U | HD 620 | 8GB RAM | 250GB SSD

HP really likes to section out their laptops for various uses, and business laptops are no different. Meet the HP Pavillion, a fine line of lightweight laptops that can be run across the office or across the world at the drop of a hat.

The best laptop in this category is the HP Pavillion 15-au158nr. This tiny 15 inch screen laptop is easily stowed for all sorts of travel. It also folds very nearly completely flat as needed for even easier storage.

Complete with a touchscreen and Windows 10 64-bit Pro, the HP Pavillion 15-au158nr1 does flips around the competition’s offerings at this size and price range. The long lasting 4 cell lithium battery can go all day without being charged if used under low-intensity circumstances, giving you plenty of mobility.

The HP Pavillion 15-au158nr does run into the same problems as the rest of HP’s business line. With only single HDMI ports on most of HP’s business computers, this can find you in a limiting situation when doing presentations on large screens. Most situations like this can be rectified with USB capability, which this laptop does have. But wouldn’t it be nice to have more than one of them on here?

If you are an employer shopping around to buy a large number of computers, every HP Pavillion 15-au158nr does come with a “multiple order” discount that you can get with over the phone ordering only. And with the included graphics chipset on this laptop, you won’t have to worry about your employees spending valuable business time playing games.

Over all, the HP Pavillion 15-au158nr does everything that a businessperson should need their laptop to do, and a bit more. The price is set right at just under $1,000 for an easily mobile laptop, and the touchscreen option is a huge upgrade.

For the professional with a hefty wallet, we recommend the HP Zbook 17 G3. Coming in at just under $4,000, it packs a lot of power into a tiny machine but comes at a relatively high premium for a personal computer.

Best HP Laptop for Home Use

Most laptops for home use need to do a few certain things:

  • They need to let family members interface over social media
  • They need to be able to stream multimedia sites like Youtube
  • And last but not least, they need storage space for research. Whether that research is googling Dad’s crochet patterns or Jenny’s baseball report.

Among HP laptops, those very minor requirements mean that you have about a million choices. However, there is one particular line that does stand out above the rest. The HP Envy runs a conservative price tag for heavy computing power. Our pick within the Envy category is the X360.

HP ENVY x360

4
Price
$700
i5-6500U | Nvidia GTX 930M | 8GB RAM | 1000 GB HDD | 6h

The HP Envy X360 boasts that it has the power of a desktop but stored within a laptop. This isn’t too far off. There’s little reason you’ll touch your desktop again after getting one of these. And with a price tag of under $1,000, this is a space saving upgrade that allows you to toss that bulky old desktop once and for all.

Envy’s X360 comes standard with a 1 TB disc based hard drive, 8 GB of RAM, and a Nvidia 930 graphics chip which will play most entry level games. It will likely play those graphics intense games on less intense settings as well. Though dated, this means that you can game on this laptop, it’s not going to live up to the OMEN’s experience.

Table of Best HP Laptops

LaptopPrice (approx)
HP Pavilion 17t$900
HP Omen 17$2,100
HP Pavilion 15-au158nr$600
HP ENVY x360$700

Other Considerations

The word “laptop” brings to mind the clunky old boxes of the 90’s or sleek, paper thin models with few in-between feelings. Want maximum portability? Look into a convertible laptop.

Convertible laptops are essentially tablet computers with a docking deck that attaches to a very thin keyboard. They are ideal for on-the-go people due to their light weight, their touchscreen capability and their surprising amount of storage. In fact, most of HP’s convertible laptops have at least a 500 GB hard drive included on their standard specifications list. Solid state drives are available on a high number of them, though some of these do require an upgrade fee.

You likely won’t be able to do much high intensity gaming on a convertible laptop, but they are quickly headed that way. People want to be able to move, and they want to be able to bring their laptop or tablet with them. This means that more and more power is being cranked into these tiny systems. Already they’ve surpassed the tiny 8 and 16 GB storage systems of only a few years ago.

The future looks incredibly bright for convertible laptops. Though they may not be what you want now, you should keep an eye on them. They will be soon.

2 thoughts on “Best HP Laptop for Students, Office, Gaming & Home (1 for each)

  1. So, I’ve been looking for a new gaming laptop for a while now and have trouble deciding. A lot of sites, including yours, recommend the Helios and I guess there is a reason for that but I just can’t help but feel it’s not high-end enough to play the newest games on ultra settings.
    Other sites recommend the ROG Strix Scar( https://www.progamerreview.com/best-gaming-laptops/ ) and that makes more sense to me since its a bit pricier.
    Anyway, I guess my final questions is: Do you think the Helios will be able to run something like Assassin’s Creed Origins on ultra? Thanks :-)

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