I decided to return mine even though I got an almost perfect unit. I thought the fan noise wasn't bad, but I used it in a quiet bedroom tonight, and it is super annoying. The fan has a whine that is not pleasant.
Also, the OLED display causes noticeable eye strain at low brightness levels compared to my LCD laptops (side by side).
Another thing that annoys me is the little bit of play/rattle when the touchpad is tapped towards the bottom. This seems to be a common problem and I have had multiple laptops with this issue. I know it can be potentially fixed by adding a little bit of tape behind the touchpad.
The biggest issue is the fan though. It is coming on and off every few minutes as I type this, which is really annoying. Unlike my LG Grams, the whine of the fan is much less pleasant. It is more like a whistle compared the "whoosh" that my other laptops make.
I got it an an incredible price and might have kept it if I really needed a laptop, but the above flaws make it difficult to keep as a third laptop. Will put that money towards another toy at some point. I think I might have to steer clear of OLED laptops until they figure out how to get rid of PWM flickering. Just typing this message is giving me a headache at low brightness levels.
On a positive note, the speakers on this laptop are actually pretty decent, at least when compared to my 2021 LG Gram 15 and 2022 Gram 17. I know the Grams are known for their terrible speakers, and based on everything I read about the HP's speakers, I was expecting the same speaker quality, but was pleasantly surprised. They have more bass and get a lot louder than the Gram speakers.
Overall, can't beat this laptop for the $455 I got it for ($490 with tax), but $490 is still a decent chunk of change, so I will have to return it given the above flaws.
Nice. Did it come in the certified refurbished box?
Yes, it was a little sketchy when they took it out. The box wasn't sealed and the cardboard was kind of all over the place - but I assume that's because they did testing and I reserved it before they had time to finish. Grabbed it anyways for family, so probably going to grab another one since another just came in stock for another family member - excellent deal at $400.
The Lenovo has the exact same OLED screen and they're practically the same form factor laptop except for the RTX 4060 in the Lenovo.
I got so much utility from the brief time I got this HP laptop while traveling and the only cons for me were minor: ports only on the side (I can't rest it sideways in bed) and the Radeon 780M does not work with Blender unless you install a buggy Alpha 4.2 version that addresses the specific issue. Otherwise I fell in love with the OLED screen and the speakers are decent enough for when I don't have my headphones with me.
Returned mine yesterday, but I was regretting that decision a bit even with the few flaws that this laptop has. A day later a couple of these popped up as open box units and I reserved both. Turns out one of them was mine (checked serial number), and it was marked down to $407.xx. Couldn't resist it at that price knowing that the one I got was in brand new condition. The other open box had some signs of use compared to mine. So this round trip saved me another $50 or so as I got it for $455 after the $25 off coupon when I first bought it. At $444.xx with taxes and fees, I am just going to keep it even though the fan noise can get a bit annoying and the PWM flickering causes eye strain at low brightness levels. Incredible value at that price.
Returned mine yesterday, but I was regretting that decision a bit even with the few flaws that this laptop has. A day later a couple of these popped up as open box units and I reserved both. Turns out one of them was mine (checked serial number), and it was marked down to $407.xx. Couldn't resist it at that price knowing that the one I got was in brand new condition. The other open box had some signs of use compared to mine. So this round trip saved me another $50 or so as I got it for $455 after the $25 off coupon when I first bought it. At $444.xx with taxes and fees, I am just going to keep it even though the fan noise can get a bit annoying and the PWM flickering causes eye strain at low brightness levels. Incredible value at that price.
Nice! Did you order the open box in store? Because when I reserved online, twice, it automatically set it to "completed" and I think that pretty much means cancelled or no longer available.
I am seriously mindblown each time I look at an OLED screen and see actual black pixels as absence of light. This screen alone makes the HP so much worth it for the price, weight, and form factor, especially with the CPU and iGPU powerful enough for games and casual 3D rendering. Coding on a black background theme is so trippy, the text look like they're floating in midair.
Also my Lenovo Legion Slim 5 14.5" OLED with the exact same screen has the X-Rite Color Calibrator and has different configs for AdobeRGB, DCI-P3, and sRGB calibration profiles and those work with the HP screen as well, I'll try to upload them here but I'll look up available links first.
Nice! Did you order the open box in store? Because when I reserved online, twice, it automatically set it to "completed" and I think that pretty much means cancelled or no longer available.
Really? My open box shows completed also. It's a 1 hour drive for me so I don't want to go there and have them say too sad too bad.
Not really sure how open box reservations work, but for traditional pick up orders it tells you if you're ready right? And I never got any email about my open box reservations at all.
Really? My open box shows completed also. It's a 1 hour drive for me so I don't want to go there and have them say too sad too bad.
Called and the agent said "Status: Completed" means it's reserved for you, for 3 days. I'm still unsure as the contact center is not exactly the store itself but I'll give it a shot
EDIT: I experimented and added a few more open box stuff and it behaved the same way (Processing, then Completed; no emails whatsoever). I am assuming it has something to do with what the Microcenter employees on reddit said about overloaded web orders. The regular orders seem to come through just fine though.
Nice! Did you order the open box in store? Because when I reserved online, twice, it automatically set it to "completed" and I think that pretty much means cancelled or no longer available.
I ordered online and got the ready for pickup emails next morning. Didn't get any "completed" message or email.
Really? My open box shows completed also. It's a 1 hour drive for me so I don't want to go there and have them say too sad too bad.
Completed means it's waiting for you! Just got mine, I thought it was an error so I got two reserved lol I got the exact same I returned but they didn't honor the $25 off 100
Completed means it's waiting for you! Just got mine, I thought it was an error so I got two reserved lol I got the exact same I returned but they didn't honor the $25 off 100
Yeah, I didn't even try using a $25 off coupon on the open box laptop. In the past, I was able to use a $25 off coupon on an open box video card, but they have to manually override that transaction to accept the coupon. That was a one time thing, and I didn't want to try that again. I didn't have another $25 off coupon anyways as I used the last one on the refurbished HP Pavilion Plus that I returned and bought as an open box. $407.xx was cheap enough anyways, and it was a huge plus that I got the one I return, so I know it wasn't abused by someone else for 15 days before being returned. lol.
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Also, the OLED display causes noticeable eye strain at low brightness levels compared to my LCD laptops (side by side).
Another thing that annoys me is the little bit of play/rattle when the touchpad is tapped towards the bottom. This seems to be a common problem and I have had multiple laptops with this issue. I know it can be potentially fixed by adding a little bit of tape behind the touchpad.
The biggest issue is the fan though. It is coming on and off every few minutes as I type this, which is really annoying. Unlike my LG Grams, the whine of the fan is much less pleasant. It is more like a whistle compared the "whoosh" that my other laptops make.
I got it an an incredible price and might have kept it if I really needed a laptop, but the above flaws make it difficult to keep as a third laptop. Will put that money towards another toy at some point. I think I might have to steer clear of OLED laptops until they figure out how to get rid of PWM flickering. Just typing this message is giving me a headache at low brightness levels.
On a positive note, the speakers on this laptop are actually pretty decent, at least when compared to my 2021 LG Gram 15 and 2022 Gram 17. I know the Grams are known for their terrible speakers, and based on everything I read about the HP's speakers, I was expecting the same speaker quality, but was pleasantly surprised. They have more bass and get a lot louder than the Gram speakers.
Overall, can't beat this laptop for the $455 I got it for ($490 with tax), but $490 is still a decent chunk of change, so I will have to return it given the above flaws.
The Lenovo has the exact same OLED screen and they're practically the same form factor laptop except for the RTX 4060 in the Lenovo.
I got so much utility from the brief time I got this HP laptop while traveling and the only cons for me were minor: ports only on the side (I can't rest it sideways in bed) and the Radeon 780M does not work with Blender unless you install a buggy Alpha 4.2 version that addresses the specific issue. Otherwise I fell in love with the OLED screen and the speakers are decent enough for when I don't have my headphones with me.
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Also my Lenovo Legion Slim 5 14.5" OLED with the exact same screen has the X-Rite Color Calibrator and has different configs for AdobeRGB, DCI-P3, and sRGB calibration profiles and those work with the HP screen as well, I'll try to upload them here but I'll look up available links first.
Really? My open box shows completed also. It's a 1 hour drive for me so I don't want to go there and have them say too sad too bad.
Not really sure how open box reservations work, but for traditional pick up orders it tells you if you're ready right? And I never got any email about my open box reservations at all.
I'll try to call them
EDIT: I experimented and added a few more open box stuff and it behaved the same way (Processing, then Completed; no emails whatsoever). I am assuming it has something to do with what the Microcenter employees on reddit said about overloaded web orders. The regular orders seem to come through just fine though.
I ordered online and got the ready for pickup emails next morning. Didn't get any "completed" message or email.
Completed means it's waiting for you! Just got mine, I thought it was an error so I got two reserved lol I got the exact same I returned but they didn't honor the $25 off 100
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Yeah, I didn't even try using a $25 off coupon on the open box laptop. In the past, I was able to use a $25 off coupon on an open box video card, but they have to manually override that transaction to accept the coupon. That was a one time thing, and I didn't want to try that again. I didn't have another $25 off coupon anyways as I used the last one on the refurbished HP Pavilion Plus that I returned and bought as an open box. $407.xx was cheap enough anyways, and it was a huge plus that I got the one I return, so I know it wasn't abused by someone else for 15 days before being returned. lol.