There is a feeling as I peruse this section that there is not enough information on the mid range to low end laptops, as I am sure that not all of us are keen on blasting more than RM2500 for an i7 laptop. And judging by the response to the midrange laptop reviews here, I feel that we do need to see what a certain budget can get you on the market today. Not just pricing - heck, you can get those anywhere. But the actual use and feel of the unit themselves, such as the keyboard etc etc.

Without further ado, here is the review on the Pavilion 14-n060TX.

Currently Priced at RM1999 with a two years carry in warranty.

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The midrange laptop fight, which to me is anywhere between RM1600 - RM2500 in pricing is seeing a lot of competitors putting out new laptop models, with Haswell upgrade now going full swing. I have recommended the Acer 473PG in the past, but it does have some gotchas, such as the shallow keyboard feel, no DVD writer and so-so display. HP has suddenly been active in pushing their products on us, giving out good pricing on some models, and today I present to your their 4200U offering, the 14" N060TX.

This is the black color model (there is the white N059TX, the 059 denoting the white), and it comes with the standard Haswell i5-4200U and the NVIDIA 740M with 2GB DDR3 ram.

Essentially, this is the same spec as you would have with the Acer 473PG - so performance wise I don't see any difference between the two in terms of gaming and cpu intensive tasks. Yet. The laptop is so new that HP doesn't even have the driver download pages yet at the time of this writing (which is not really a surprise. They normally do lag in putting up those support pages, since its more detailed than Acer's). Internal wise, it is about the same.

But of course, not all of it.

To clarify - I sell Acers, Asus, HP, Toshiba and Lenovo plus Apple, so any and all comparisons I will make based on and against models coming from the above companies only. I can't compare to Dell or Fujitsu.

The Display
I am a stickler when it comes to laptop displays, mainly because my eyes needs a very high powered spectacles and any quality degradation on the screen really does annoy me to no end. That being said, the display that comes with the N060TX is one of the nice ones to come by, and I have noticed that HP tend to have the better quality screens. It is the same case here, where the color seems more natural as opposed the the muted one on most other models. Colors don't wash out easily as compared to the other models when you view moves around. Of course, being a glossy screen, you can't really use it outside but for all other purposes, HP ranks just below Apple to me in screen quality.

Again, I do hope that they all start using higher resolution screens. 1366x768 still feel so last century, but at least I don't feel like sticking forks in my eye with this one.

The Body
Plastic below. Plastic around the keyboard. Plastic frame around the screen. Metal lid (I think) on the back screen panel. To be fair, around they keyboard, the plastic is structure to give that metal look, but closer inspection reveals plastic. The touchpad is large enough with dot texture on the pad for fiction and it comes with separate left/right mouse keys.

On the right side, you have the DVD writer, 1 standard USB port and the combo audio jack. On the right, you have the power port, kesington lock, Ethernet, heat exhaust, HDMI, 2 USB 3.0 and SD card reader. You would notice that it does not have a VGA port or a Displayport such as the one the 473PG got so you do need to take note on that.

The screen doesn't wobble (wobble means, if you slap your table, and your laptop screen wobble, that is bad. Chief very bad screen wobble is Lenovo.), but it is loose a bit as compared to the Acer, but I have no complaints here. Thanks to the Haswell processor, the laptop is in the thin category, about the same thickness as the Acer 473PG.

Standard webcam on the screen, with dual microphone and 720P resolution. DTS+ sound speakers, which doesn't sound too bad, albeit with not a lot of bass. Guns and Roses Sweet Child sound good on this pair of speakers at their default settings.

The keyboard is the standard Chiclet style with one distinction - better travel as compared to the shallow ones on the Acer 473PG. I got used to it in no time at all and feels as good as the Air in terms of speed and feel. Compared to most other manufacturers, the function keys on the HP is already set to control functions such as brightness and sound volume, not requiring the usual FN + keyboard press. And it does

Another plus is the fact that opening the backplate apparently exposes 2 slots for RAM and memory upgrades, as compared to the soldered ram on the 473PG. I haven't opened the backplate yet - but CPUID report points out the two discreet slots anyway so that is a plus.

All in all, nice, functional design. I like.

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Coming Soon - Performance testing, heat and battery.. Still in the midst of playing around with it..

This post has been edited by mfitri77: Oct 14 2013, 09:27 AM


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nice lappy ^^ body lawa..

nice and look awesome

But gt 740m good or not bro?

From the HP website, the warranty is only 1 year. Your shop selling for RM1,999 too just like on the website? There is three model of the same specs, the 59-61 series, being the 59 the white and the 60 and 61 the black version. What's the difference?

This post has been edited by Michelleng: Oct 15 2013, 05:56 PM

Well, i had been thinking should i get this model or Hp Envy Touchsmart 14 Sleek Book. At last i choose 2nd one, but there is a question i facing now, should i get a screen protector for my lappie? Is it hard to find one which suit to this model? since the screen's edges is a bit round.

it's capable to play at medium setting..if it well optimize maybe can go high witn no AA hehe but it can't handle 1080p gameplay so take note about it

nothing beats inspiron in terms of battery life for this mid range laptop

Nah. I can give lower price than the one on the website. But, COD Seremban.

Believe it or not, the only difference in color. 59 is white, the 60 is black, but all the specs are the same, and I do not have the 61. Need to check on that.

It is all up to how much you would trust how careful you are. We do warn that screen might get scratched, but there is little that we can do, and screen protector manufacturers don't always come up with nice fitting as compared to mobile phones.

Anything with a discrete graphic card will eat battery for breakfast anyway. Runs at least 6 hours wifi + internet browsing. Still in the midst of testing the set I'm using as a demo. So far, so good.

Waiting for the Performance testing, heat and battery ;D

Performance

Intel i5-4200U. NVIDIA 740M. This is among the most popular configuration on the market right now, so the performance of the system here with the same specs is neither better, nor worse. Skyrim and Tomb Raider all can be played with medium graphics settings smoothly on the 720P screen without any noticeable lag, as was the case for Diablo III.

What is different though from the Acer 473PG is the position of the vents. Acer did the smart thing and moved the exhaust vent to the back of the machine, and added an extra fan which took the heat away from the hot processors quickly. The HP still sticks with the left side vent (as the case with most other manufacturers) so the heat during use is vented on the left side of the computer. That meant that during heavy use, the heat coming out from the vent is uncomfortable to the user but the good thing is the vent does do a good job of taking the heat away from the keyboard area. Although there is still heat on the left side of the keyboard area, it is more of the warm/toasty kind rather than the burn your hand kind.

The fan is quite enough at load as to not bother the in game graphics, but those with sensitive ears do hear the droning fan as it works.

The CPU seems to be able to maintain an average 2.1Ghz speed on all 4 threads and the system is still responsive.

With 2 available memory slot, you are able to select your own memory preference, unlike the 473PG that has a soldered ram. The slots are located under a panel, however, should you wish to change the hard drive, that would necessitate opening the whole back panel since the hard drive is not located under the panel. The unit came with 1 slot filled with a 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz low power RAM and adding a second ram bumps the memory performance a bit.
Working with Windows 8 meant that the whole system felt speedy although it does use a standard hard drive with 750GB of storage. In use, there is the HDD lag that one is used to, but it is not that much of a problem.

Battery Life

It’s a 4 cell battery, so don’t expect gaming on the go without being tethered to a wall socket. That said, you do get an average wifi surfing time of about 5-6 hours that I believe you can get more by fiddling with the settings. Then again, not that much of a difference from the Acer at the end of the day, but if you do need the extra hours then this is not the laptop for you.

Value

Again, all boils down to the budget you have. In the case of the 740M, yes, this is one of the cheapest 740M laptops with Haswell processor you can get. Asus has the old K46CB with the old 3rd Gen i5 around this price still, and all the other comparable Lenovo broke the RM2K price barrier already.

Stepping down a notch all goes to the 720M or the AMD 8670M. Both runs almost the same performance numbers but can be bought below RM1700 in price, a good value and come with the OS installed.

This post has been edited by mfitri77: Oct 17 2013, 04:08 PM

Dell 5437 - 14R has similar spec

14.0 inch LED Backlit Display with Truelife and HD resolution (1366 x 768)
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-4200U processor (3M Cache, 1.6 GHz, GT740M 2GB)
500GB 5400RPM
4GB 1 DIMM (1X4GB) DDR3L 1600Mhz
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 740M 2GB DDR3


price almost same

This post has been edited by devour: Oct 17 2013, 04:41 PM

Yep. Running UBUNTU Linux. The HP comes with an actual Windows 8 License.

Nope, this model , 5437-20452G-W8
is with window 8 pre installed

RM2049. http://www.dell.com/my/p/inspiron-14r-5437/fs

yes, u know google now, its with Windows 8 Single Language, English (64bit)

Really? Wow. I mean, I am in the presence of forum master now. I must be an idiot, because apparently I don't know how to Google.

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All jokes aside, Dell used to be good. But you do business in a small town, you tend to pick certain models not only for your convenience but also for your reputation - You do not want problems. We don't exclusively focus on selling online, where you can blow off your customer for weeks or months because in a small town, word tend to go around fast and your reputation could tank very fast and very hard. In the case of Dell, we don't have that support where we do business, so we don't sell Dell.

Which is why I pointed out that when I do reviews, I don't compare with Dell, because I don't sell them. It is in my first post.

i like the fact that this model is kid of thin and it really feels like an ultrabook with light weight also

Dell 5437 - 14r or hp pavilion 14-n060tx better?

mftiri...
u mean this lappy cannot connect to LCD projector eh?

HDMI port. Either find projector that has HDMI port, or use HDMI/VGA adapter (and pray that it work )

This post has been edited by nexus2238: Oct 23 2013, 08:13 PM

i've bought this lappy and very satisfied with it. running on saint row 4 with low setting and i can feel a little bit of heat. but only a bit. its normal i think

Can you share how is the battery life for this laptop wifi browsing?

alright now i'm using battery and the laptop already on for around 1 hour. there's still 88% remaining. i'm using power saver option with average brightness.. will update it later

now it is already past 3 hours and a half but the battery still got 47%. and it said that still can last for 2hr 56mins. so i expected for normal browsing it can stay at least 5 hours.. cannot stay up d already fell sleepy. zzZZzzz

Cekodok, did u purchase ur laptop online or through a retailer?

thanks a lot for the share. Quite good battery life.
I'm surprised.

i bought this laptop through a retailer. Because that shop give extended warranty 2 years. so in total i bought it with 4 years of warranty. the laptop is rm1999 and i need to topup tm69 to add on a 4gb ram. quite good deal i think. huhu

your welcome. I believe this laptop is quite good in terms of battery life, build quality and etc. the only weakness i think is the lack of vga port. it might be troublesome a little bit for student if they want to connect to projector or something like that

battery difference 65w adapter+50whr battery vs 95w adapter +65whr battery
is 6 hours vs 9 hours difference


This post has been edited by roimekoi: Nov 2 2013, 09:53 AM

HP has a student promotion for this notebook.

Same price comes with free printer and 1 orignal PC game, not a bad deal

can it run on mid setting? planning to get a laptop with geforce 740 in it but if this is all it can do I might need to think of other GPU

yes it can run in mid setting

just bought it today at harvey norman IPC ... so far so good

Hello, I'm interested in this laptop, where can I buy it with student promotion? I am in Subang

I go midvalley the other day they said the promotion only available online. I was like wtf? I said im a student if buy this laptop will get printer free, but he said must buy online. U can try go other hp shop retailer. Dont go to midvalley, they really lousy and lazy. Can go to digital mall hp they are one good staff there not sure whats his name tho.

The promotion:
http://malaysia-promotions.com/computers-p...p-22-oct-2013/#

They only give the student promotion thing to the bigger retailers only anyway, so you might just go and check those names listed under the promotion banner.

In any case, I do think that HP is really serious is getting back into the consumer marker. I haven't seen this aggressive price moves from them in a long time. The pricing on this model is beating some of the Lenovo models that comes with only the 720M.

Do note however that HP is a bit laggy on the graphic driver update department. Unlike Acer, where you can pretty much install any driver that comes from NVIDIA, HP laptops are "blacklisted" in a sense that the latest NVIDIA drivers from their website will not install on HP laptops.

got one with 15.6 inch screen? and Full HD?

There is one Envy model, but HP didn't offer any Pavilion 15" with full HD to me. The only one I keep stock is the Lenovo Y510P.

how much Y510P?

very satisfied with this HP laptop ...

previously im using Toshiba m840 laptop .. for 1 and 1/2 years .. this Toshiba keep on overheating , send for warranty and the problem still there .. so decided to let go , and the laptop already sold

so on the 7th November 2013 , i went to harvey norman IPC mutiara damansara and bought this HP pavilion 14-N060TX , 2 years warranty by HP Malaysia plus 5 years extended warranty by harvey norman .. basically 7 years warranty

very impressive laptop and im loving it

I also wondering which one better in term of battery life

How much did you get it for? Cheapest I found is RM1849 http://www.lelong.com.my/25-nov-hp-pavilio...7-01-Sale-I.htm

And mfitri77, may I know whether you can swap the HDD for a SSD or not?

Sounds like a simple task but I need confirmation because I nearly bought the Dell Vostro 5470 but luckily found out that it doesn't support SSD

This post has been edited by -kytz-: Dec 4 2013, 05:42 PM

Btw that is some awesome promotion lol.

Even after getting the cheapest price online (via lelong) @RM1849, that printer has gotta be worth like RM100+ and that game is another RM100!

yezza! but then like i said, not all HP store notice about that promotion. i have ask at midvalley, they said have to purchase online only. lol.

Did you buy it in the end?

Would like to see more reviews

Because of that uneducated seller at midvalley, i didnt buy it, bought Y500 instead. and its much much better than this HP. kekekeke. sorry to say like that.

How much did you buy the Y500?

I'm trying to get a decent laptop at the lowest price possible hehe

Bought 2nd hand bro around 2.3k. But overall really impressive.

Of course it is. A 15.6" laptop, compared to a 14" laptop. Probably not the right comparison to make in this instance. If you were comparing it to the Y400 then maybe you have a call there.

As for swapping the HDD with the SSD, never had the need to do so, but looking at the backplate it is entirely possible. Just that HP tends to fit plastic fasteners that you need to be careful with.

rm1999 at harvey norman

Intel will having a old trade new program for this laptop.................

trade in any workable old laptop in Pikom PC Fair this weekend, rebate RM600 to buy N060TX and N059TX

I hope it can definitely sway the HDD for an SSD. I'm asking this because apparently the Dell Vostro 5470 is unable to support SSD due to motherboard compatibility I even asked Dell and they confirmed this.

Damn, as Dell is my first choice actually

Sounds good but come to think of it, it might be a bit impractical to bring the printer overseas to where I'm studying.

Cheapest price online I can find is RM1849 which is RM150 cheaper than the RM1999 at Harvey Norman. Not sure what's the best prices in Digital Mall or Lowyat Plaza as I have yet to go around hunting for it

This post has been edited by -kytz-: Dec 5 2013, 05:31 PM

rm1999 then i buy the 5 years harvey norman extended warranty ... HP official warranty 2 years + HN extended warranty 5 years = 7 years .. lol

This post has been edited by GamersFamilia: Dec 5 2013, 07:57 PM

Huh? What is so special with the motherboard on the 5470 that you can't fit an SSD? Or are you talking about mSATA? Should be easy to change a HDD with a Sata 3 SSD.

That's what I'm saying. SSDs aren't compatible with the Dell Vostro's motherboard. You can fit one in but it won't be able to boot from the SSD. Dell Malaysia even clarified me on this

But luckily, they still have a mSATA slot and I think I can install the OS on it and make it a boot drive right?

Haha ure right. Should've compared with Y400. Almost bought this laptop if i didnt buy my Y500. This is my first choice laptop, 2nd would be the Dell inspiron 14R. That laptop is a good bargain also.

Hello guys, my friend has this laptop and I have tried it out, anyone noticed a lag when playing Dota? I think it's something with the wifi card. Very poor, could not play at all, planning to replace it, anyone knows if it is replaceable? Thanks!

Are u sure its the wifi card? Im thinking its because he runs dota using intel graphic instead of the nvidia. U can try to use lan cable first to check if its a network problem. But i really doubt that.

Most likely the wifi, playing offline is totally smooth but the moment it goes online it lags.

Have u try to play using LAN cable instead? Still lag?

Haven't tried yet, but when I use an external WiFi adapter it is smooth too. Pretty sure its WiFi card problem.

I see, confirm wifi card then.

Any idea if the WiFi card is replaceable? Or is it always replaceable?

sorry bro, dont have any idea about this laptop wifi card, other laptop can change wifi card, not sure bout this, im pretty sure can also, have to call customer service.

After reading this thread, I'm torn between the Lenovo S410P and this HP Pavilion 14-N060TX...
One has the 1Tb HDD while the other one has 4th gen i5 and Geforce G740...
Can someone help me out please?

Can always get a cheap USB Wireless adapter

Quite a simple decision. The 1TB HDD you can always change it in the future but you CAN'T change the processor and GPU...

You're right... Thanks for the suggestion...
Btw is there any other laptop model that is on par with this HP especially for the price tag factor?

Below RM2k range you have:

Dell Vostro 5470
ASUS K451LB-WX071H
MSI CX61 2OD-078MY

Slightly more than RM2k:

Acer Aspire V5-473PG-54204G50 (RM2.2k)
Dell Inspiron 14R (RM2.2k)

Below RM2k range you have:

Dell Vostro 5470
ASUS K451LB-WX071H
MSI CX61 2OD-078MY

Slightly more than RM2k:

Acer Aspire V5-473PG-54204G50 (RM2.2k)
Dell Inspiron 14R (RM2.2k)

[/quote]

Thanks for the suggestion. appreciate it.
However which is better between these two: HP N060TX or ASUS K451LB-WX071H?

P/S: ASUS K451LB-WX071H has 24GB SSD? -> http://evernew.com.my/webshaper/store/view...ProductItem=977

Both using non-removable batteries

Damn that's bad.

Checked both laptops today, the HP laptop is so damn plasticky whereas the Asus laptop is much better built

This post has been edited by -kytz-: Dec 11 2013, 06:53 PM

and from my own experience, hp customer service in HQ for warranty claiming purposes is much much much better than asus

Haha gotta agree with u, HP so plasticky, asus is nice but when u see the amount of problems they have u sure will think twice. Lol.

ASUS laptops is OK for me because I'll be using it overseas

Anyways, my target now is the MSI GE-60 i5-4200m, GT750M, 15.6" FHD matte, 8GB, 750GB HDD at RM2899

Hmm, is anyone on the latest bios (F.23) running windows 8.1? Seems to have a minor issue, when the button controlling wifi button is pressed, it goes aeroplane mode, but light is still white instead of orange. Can someone please help check bios version that they are running and press to see if it changes?

This post has been edited by Lacus: Dec 12 2013, 01:11 AM

Questions regarding this model:

1) How easy is it to install your own mSATA SSDs in this model? Are the slots accessible just by taking off the back cover, or will I have to completely dismantle it or something?

2) Is it possible to fit in a slim DVD drive HDD caddy like this one?

Fulamak nice target, good spec and nice price. Plus MSI cooling system is a bit better than lenovo y series. Good choice bro.

Non-removable battery? Aiyoh...
In my mind now it's the HP N060TX... but since it has non-removable battery, how leh?

better to look away and maybe to consider dell or asus.

Manage to solve this issue di. Removed the current ralink bluetooth 4.0 driver and installed another Mediatek bluetooth 4.0 driver from HP and voila it's back to normal. So far don't have any much complains on this laptop.

1) The bottom part seems pretty accessible, however i not sure if there is a mSata slot available.

2) This model has a standard size dvd driver, i think it should fit fine

This post has been edited by Lacus: Dec 12 2013, 04:05 PM

Why Dell eh?

For sure it's because of warranty support

yeap..for the warranty reliability and the fact that HP's hinge is plasticky... but spec wise its really attactive

Thanks, any Dell model that has the specs and price like this HP N060TX?

Bought this today.
Everything is good,

my only complaint is the weak wifi card or antenna.

seems like my old laptop can surf the net faster.

I wonder if I can swap them

Anyone else got upgrade the wifi hardware?

where u brought it and what is the price?
any promo? or package come with?
planing to get 1.
Thanks

Cheapest RM1849 at lelong

Is 740 sufficient to play game likr cod,as? Went to checked benchmark but figure doesn't necessary reflect everything..

And 4200u as well, wondering if 1.6Ghz sufficirnt,o perhaps should fine thosr with 4200m?

i5-4200U is probably the best you can get within that price range.

Er..adding additional few hundred for 4200m( lenovo z510/ toshiba l50)
Or 4500U (dell 14R or 15R) is still acceptable for me.the concern is if it is necessary

Er..adding additional few hundred for 4200m( lenovo z510/ toshiba l50)
Or 4500U (dell 14R or 15R) is still acceptable for me.the concern is if it is necessary

RM 1869, Navotech (Stygix) in Melaka.

LOL, I just realised I depend a lot on the "options" key, normally to the right of the space bar.
unfortunately this notebook omitted the button.

-edit-
I just found out two-finger tap will bring out the options menu

This post has been edited by PaulReedSmooth: Dec 21 2013, 04:27 PM

so can anyone share this laptop battery performance?