HP Pavilion 15.6", Ryzen 7 5825U, 24GB, 512GB SSD, Grey

A weirdly powerful budget laptop with a screen that'll make your eyes sad and a battery that'll make your backpack heavier with the charger. Great specs, rough compromises.

The Ryzen 7 5825U is a solid mid-pack performer, landing around the 57th percentile for CPUs in our database. It'll chew through browser tabs, Office apps, and light photo editing without breaking a sweat. The 24GB of DDR4 RAM is the real surprise here, sitting above average and giving you headroom most budget laptops don't offer. But the integrated Radeon Graphics is nothing special, and the 512GB NVMe SSD is just about average. Don't expect to game on this thing beyond indie titles or very old AAA games at low settings.

Against the ASUS Zenbook UX3405CA, the Pavilion wins on raw RAM but loses badly on build quality, screen, and portability. The Lenovo Legion 5i absolutely destroys it for gaming, but costs way more. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition has a far better display and battery, though you'll pay a premium for it. Honestly, the Pavilion's real competition is other budget 15-inchers, and in that arena, the 24GB RAM is a genuine differentiator.

At $599, this is a weirdly compelling deal if you need RAM and CPU power on a budget. You're getting specs that would cost $200-300 more from most brands. But you're also getting a screen that makes Netflix look like a foggy window and a battery that'll die before your workday does. If you can live with those trade-offs, it's a steal. If not, save up a bit more.

The HP Pavilion 15.6 is a budget-friendly workhorse that punches above its weight in RAM and CPU muscle, but it's held back by a mediocre screen and a tiny battery. At $599, you're getting an 8-core Ryzen 7 and a generous 24GB of RAM, which is honestly a weird and wonderful combo for this price. The catch? That 45% NTSC display and 41Wh battery feel like corners were cut where you'll notice them most.

If you care about screen quality, battery life, or build quality, skip this. Go grab a used MacBook Air M1 or a Lenovo IdeaPad with a better panel instead. This Pavilion is for people who want maximum RAM and CPU per dollar and are willing to squint at a mediocre display while tethered to a wall outlet.

Buy this if you need a cheap machine for school, office work, or general multitasking and you don't care about screen quality or battery life. The Ryzen 7 and 24GB RAM combo is genuinely impressive for $599. But if you watch a lot of video, work outdoors, or need all-day battery, this isn't your laptop. It's a desktop replacement that's pretending to be portable.