HP Pavillion Laptop: i5-10300H, 16.1" 144Hz, 8GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, GTX 1660 Ti Expired

I bought this unit for my 13 year old son and I'm now the 'best Dad in the whole word!' We'll see how long I can hang on to that title...

But I'm genuinely impressed by this laptop, starting with its delightful 144Hz 300 Nits 16.1" screen. In the BB store I compared it along side of 15.6" alternatives and it was noticeably bigger (without looming like the 17.3" laptops do). It allowed the keyboard to be a bit larger and less cramped to type on. Secondly the acid green lightning is very cool, kinda neon-ish. Very distinctive (as most other mono-color keyboard laptops tend to use either red, blue or white back lightning). I like that it's modern with a tenth generation CPU, not ninth as others in this price range resort to, all the USB ports are 3.0 with USB-C included. Meanwhile, as an old school guy I like the hard drive activity light (though I wish it wasn't tucked away on the side but at least the bean counters allowed it to exist). And best of all the sound is strong with upward firing speakers on the keyboard deck. Biggest weakness: providing an internal 2.5" Sata drive bay which then only allows for a 53 Watt battery. Meanwhile the new Omen 15.6" provides for up to two M.2 SSDs which in turn allows for an 80 Watt battery even though it's a smaller laptop! But Omens are priced much higher so there you go.

In the end if you need a modern gaming this laptop is a friggin' steal! Don't let the 8GB of RAM be a distraction as it's sufficient for most games and easily upgradeable. Helpfully, with two sticks installed, the 8GB is also running in DDR2 mode. And regarding the screen hinge: it seems strong enough, especially since it's now a bit longer. But never leave home without the power charger; you'll always need it. In a way the laptop should be viewed as a portable budget gaming desktop.

IMO, the next best laptop is the Lenovo Legion 5 15.6" with it's superior keyboard for typing, more robust cooling, bigger battery and overall better build (but then with weaker sound, smaller 120Hz dimmer 250 Nits screen) and from a teenager's perspective "less cool.". And from the person paying perspective also more expensive.

To transport it and the charger I also bought this backpack, in green naturally:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Nylo...1670986053

I don't know what to tell you - I doubt outside of synthetic tests you'll see a real world difference between equivalent Ryzen and Intel CPUs for the majority of commons tasks one would be doing on a $750-range laptop.

An i7 with a 1660ti sounds nice until you run into thermal throttling and short battery life, and if you can't get it for the right price it's out the window anyways.

With Windows 10 I've had very little problems with my PCs and I think with any brand you could get a lemon. If you're really worried about longevity there's plenty of optional extended warranties. Even HP has one that you can get refunded 100% at the end of the term if it goes unused. I went with Upsie's 3 year with damage protection for <$150. I would get this with any laptop I spend over $600 on that I plan to take with me places, since that's about one screen repair alone.

This was $750 a few weeks back I believe as an introductory price and it might be back up again since it's the end of the month, unemployment boost is ending and Best Buy may be trying to move stock before consumer confidence falls completely flat..

If anything it might be $50 less on BF. If you want, there's open box for about $680 you can get shipped. That's a pretty great price with these specs and screen.

Best bang for buck here got one a few weeks ago no regrets