# [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beats]



## bhvm (Sep 5, 2015)

[Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beats Audio]

Hello Friends,
I am pleased to present a short review of Budget Gaming Laptop from HP.

*Overview-*
I am using this as my primary Laptop since 4 months. The Machine is a great one for its price. Especially, With the looks, it appears much more premium than it is.

*Design and Looks-*
This laptop continues along the lines of my earlier reviewed HP G009AX or G002AX.
HP is making some of the worst designs I've ever seen recently and this laptop is no exception.

 >The power and HDD LEDs are off to side rather than upfront. 

 >There is no Basic LED indicator for Num Lock!!

 >NO VGA PORT! 

 >Whole laptop is made like single piece and Upgrading the HDD , RAM or even CMOS battery needs one to Rip out the Keyboard, Back cover, Top cover, then Motherboard and what not!! Yuk!

 >Only one Combo Headphone/Mic port. So those using old fashioned headsets will need to buy new ones.

 Really HP?Why did you do this?



*Fit and Finish-*
Laptop is slimmer than you'd expect. The top of laptop has Rubberized, White Milky finish. Looks very unique. It does not get any Fingerprints either. Open the lid, and you shall be greeted with a very large Touchpad. The keys are finished in White and Rest of the bezel is Matte Aluminum. The display bezel is simple matte Black. Overall the Fit and Finish is Far more better than my previous G009AX.


 The Caps lock key has a small indicator built onto the key itself. My Samsung and Acer both missed these.  A small LED near charging port is also present (yellow when charging, White when charged). Unfortunately, The LEDs are much to small to clearly be seen in Daylight.

 There are a row of function keys with the Fn key combo and also include Media player controls and volume. These keys work directly without pressing FN by default. There is a Card reader upfront.
 The touchpad is extra large and supports gestures which actually work. However, The Touch pad is extra sensitive and causes issues when typing. Just one mistaken hit and you will end up typing somewhere else!. Even after 4 months, I have not learned how to type without disturbing the touch pad. Another gripe is uni-piece touch pad without regular Clicky buttons. It is very weird to precisely click or drag with this behavior. Forget trying to Crop Pictures or make other adjustments with this one. It always shifts the “Aim” a few inches off.

*Display*-
 Oh How bored I am with these 1336x768 screens! Even my Rs.16k cellphone now has FULL HD display with IPS quality. The Display is glossy and generic quality.
 However keeping in Mind the low price and Low end graphics chips, Half HD display should be OK OK. There’s a 720p webcam (with indicator LED) and Mic above the display for those Skype calls.

Luckily, I have the laptop Hooked to a 24 Inch, FULL HD LED TV set. The HDMI output works wonders, even the sound is carried over the same cable. You get an Option to set TV speakers or Laptop speakers as primary Output source; However you Can't run Both at once.

The Sound form TV speakers is excellent, So is the Display quality. There is a stark difference between the overall color Gamut, Viewing angle, Contrast ratio of Inbuilt display and the LG LED display. The LG LED TV is vastly  better than regular laptop displays!


*Performance-*
Performance is Snappy and boot-up is fast. Running multiple applications alongside poses no problems at all. I am running a dual screen configuration and I can surf and play on both screens no problem.

The RAM is only 4 GB in reality which maybe limiting in the future. Worst part its, RAM is non-Upgradeable so you're stuck for a lifetime. There is only one RAM slot. The Supplied RAM is DDR3-L or Low Voltage type. Thats another hurdle.

However the GPU Nvidia 830m has its dedicated 2GB RAM so its atleast not eating away the Main RAM. However the Inbuilt Intel 4400 seems to be eating about 1GB of main ram. There are no settings to change this.

*CPU-*
 The CPU included here is Intel i3 4030u. Now “U” means its a More of Net-book style ULV processor with TDP of around 15w. The CPU has 2 Cores running at 1.88 GHZ (Advertised 1.9 Ghz). Each core supports HyperThreading so OS appears to notice 4 cores. The cores constantly adjust speeds from 1.1Ghz all the way to 1.88 depending on power and load.

In regular tasks, The CPU feels just as fast as my Earlier AMD A8 Beema 6410 which is a 2Ghz true Quad Core counterpart. And that is not slow at all. In certain Technical Benchmarks, The AMD A8 shows a slightly Higher score, But there is no difference in Practical use.



*Gaming-*
The star of the show here is Nvidia 830m. Which is a relatively High-end graphics solution for the price. The 830m Takes a very serious jump from its Junior, Having a full 256 Shader cores with turbo support. On the other hand, The Nvidia 820m in most of the competition only Supports 96 Shaders at a Much lower performance.

No Doubt about it, The 830m will zoom past Nvida 820m, 630m, 740m, AMD 8570M and AMD R5 230M based graphics solutions with no sweat!

Most of the Modern games can be enjoyed at highest settings on 720p resolution-
 Crysis 2
 COD 4, COD MW2, COD MW3, COD black ops
 Split second
 battlefield bad company 2
 Battlefield 3
 Left 4 dead 1 & 2
 Sniper ghost warrior
 NEED for speed (All series)




*Accessories-*
 There are no accessories supplied. Not even a Driver CD. Everything needs to be downloaded (over 1.5 GB) from the HP website (3G rates have just increased) and even then there can be issues. I remember when buying a new laptop 5 years ago means a box or two, full of accessories and over a dozen CDs! Look how the companies are cutting corners. A CD costs what today? 10 rupees?

However, I got a cool looking and very Functional back-pack alongwith.

*Ports & Ergonomics-*
The laptop comes with the usual bandwagon of HDMI, and USB ports. There are No E-Sata or Express card slots. NO VGA PORT. There are only 3 usb ports out of which , Thankfully, The Left 2 are USB 3.0 Speeds. I would have expected all ports to be 3.0 Speeds for such a large notebook. The USB 3.0 Copy speeds are 65~70 MB/s

 For the good things, We have full size keypad with numeric inputs (these are the norm anyways), But arrow keys are too small. 

Speakers actually had me stunned. These are among the best speakers in laptop. Total Thumbs up!

*HEAT-*
Thanks to the Low power 15W Intel ULV CPU, During surfing, the laptop stays cool at about 31~45.C. 
After half Hour of COD MW3, I saw temperatures of 72.C on Pirifom Speccy. There is a single fan at the bottom for cooling. I will Strictly suggest going for a Laptop Stand (with fans) when gaming. I am using Zebronics ZEB-1000 With oversized fan for the laptop.

I am pleased to note that overall  Temps are about 10.C lower than my AMD based- A8 6410 Laptop. Especially, The Nvidia 830m GPU runs much cooler than AMD 8570m Counterpart, despite the  830m's Superior Performance.

*Battery-*
The laptop comes with only 4 cell battery which is a tad small for large laptop. Usual 6 cell would have done better. However due to low Consumption Intel ULV 15w CPU, it still gets about 3 hours. Another cost cutting by HP. 

I also Miss the settings named AMD power play, that allows you to set your CPU max speed anywhere from 1 Ghz to 2 Ghz on battery mode. It really works and saves battery on My HP G009AX

*Software-*
The First Time I booted the laptop, It Pissed me with the usual Pre-loaded windows 8.1, Loads of Bloatware and stuff. I took a bold step and simply wiped the HDD Clean of everything. The Factory HDD was Formatted in GPT, which I brought back to MBR and NTFS. After Disabling UFEI from Bios, I was able to “UPGRADE” this beast to windows 7.

BOOM !!

And Boy! I am impressed. If you are running your laptops in Win 8.1, Please do a favor and check performance in Windows 7. Its not only much easy to use, its also much faster. Win 7 was able to install most of the drivers by itself (If Windows update is enabled). Few drivers I was able to get from the laptop retailer (WIFi and BT)
*
Pricing-*
 I got the laptop Offline, From a HP Retailer for 38.5k. It may appear that online shops are offering cheaper rates, but there is no support and there are horror stories about HP denying warranty etc on those. Buy from an Authorized store and stay in peace.

*Driver Download-*
HP Pavilion 15-p028tx Notebook PC Drivers and Downloads | HP® Customer Support

*
Specs at a Glance-*

Product Name 	HP Pavilion 15-p028tx Notebook PC
Product Number 	J2C47PA
Microprocessor 	1.9 GHz Intel Core i3-4030U with Intel HD Graphics 4400
Microprocessor Cache 	 3 MB cache
Memory 	4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3L SDRAM (1 x 4 GB)
Video Graphics 	NVIDIA GeForce 830M (2 GB DDR3 dedicated)
Display 	15.6" diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit (1366 x 768) 
Hard Drive 	1 TB 5400 rpm SATA
Multimedia Drive 	SuperMulti DVD burner
Network Card 	Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN
Wireless Connectivity 	802.11b/g/n (1x1) and Bluetooth 4.0 combo
Sound 	Beats Audio with 2 speakers
Keyboard 	Full-size textured island-style with numeric keypad
Pointing Device 	HP Imagepad with multi-touch gesture support
PC Card Slots 	1 multi-format SD media card reader
External Ports 	2 USB 3.0
 1 HDMI
 1 RJ-45
 1 headphone/microphone combo
Dimensions 	38.45 x 26.02 x 2.39 cm
Weight 	Starting at 2.27 kg
Power 	65 W AC power adapter
4-cell (41 WHr) Li-ion
What's In The Box 	HP TrueVision HD Webcam (front-facing) with integrated dual array digital microphone


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## SaiyanGoku (Sep 5, 2015)

*Re: [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beat*

^ Those games you mentioned are 4-5 year old games not at all recent. If you want recent, run Crysis 3, GTA V, Far Cry 4 or even AC: Unity at max settings/resolution and post screenshots of the framerates 

COD 4 can be played on an Intel GM965. 

40k for 830M and no FHD screen = money wasted IMO.


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## seamon (Sep 5, 2015)

*Re: [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beat*



SaiyanGoku said:


> ^ Those games you mentioned are 4-5 year old games not at all recent. If you want recent, *run Crysis 3, GTA V, Far Cry 4 or even AC: Unity at max settings/resolution and post screenshots of the framerates *
> 
> COD 4 can be played on an Intel GM965.
> 
> 40k for 830M and no FHD screen = money wasted IMO.



What did the laptop ever do to you that you must treat it in this way?


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## bhvm (Sep 8, 2015)

*Re: [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beat*



SaiyanGoku said:


> ^ Those games you mentioned are 4-5 year old games not at all recent. If you want recent, run Crysis 3, GTA V, Far Cry 4 or even AC: Unity at max settings/resolution and post screenshots of the framerates
> 
> COD 4 can be played on an Intel GM965.
> 
> 40k for 830M and no FHD screen = money wasted IMO.


Goku,
The laptop was brought 6 months ago. It was a very good deal back then. I am just a little late to post the review.

My primary use is not gaming.
I mostly use it for my Hobby (Photography) and Video rendering.

I don't know which 40k Laptop offers FHD with 840m or better, even today.

BTW, COD4 CAN NOT be played on 965GM. I still own a 965 powered laptop today. Even COD2 is a stretch.


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## SaiyanGoku (Sep 8, 2015)

*Re: [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beat*



bhvm said:


> Goku,
> The laptop was brought 6 months ago. It was a very good deal back then. I am just a little late to post the review.
> 
> *My primary use is not gaming.*
> ...



Even then you went ahead and said 


> Most of the Modern games can be enjoyed at highest settings on 720p resolution



You should've tested Arkham Knight on it before WB released a patch. 

Lenovo Z50 was for 40k with 840M and FHD screen months ago.

I had a Lenovo R61 and completed COD4 on it 5 years ago, don't remember at what settings.


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## bhvm (Sep 8, 2015)

*Re: [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beat*

Goku,
Can you share a link where i can actually buy FHD laptop with decent GFX for 40K? I mean right now.
All machines i've seen along those lines are 50~65K.


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## SaiyanGoku (Sep 8, 2015)

*Re: [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beat*



bhvm said:


> Goku,
> Can you share a link where i can actually buy FHD laptop with decent GFX for 40K? I mean right now.
> All machines i've seen along those lines are 50~65K.



Prices have hiked for no reason. Normally one would expect them to go down but I don't know if its the OEMs or the sellers who are responsible for the hike.


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## Nerevarine (Sep 8, 2015)

*Re: [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beat*



SaiyanGoku said:


> Even then you went ahead and said
> 
> 
> You should've tested Arkham Knight on it before WB released a patch.
> ...



Arkham knight is unplayable even on a GTX 960 pre patch, I do not know what you are getting at, but showing off that extended e-peen on EVERY laptop suggestion thread is really really annoying..
Not everyone wants a laptop exclusively for gaming, gaming can be a tertiary requirement, for it's price OP's laptop is average, but nothing to laugh at..
OP is giving an honest review, that is all.. He isnt even asking for a suggestion.
Right now, TDF really really lacks these review threads, every laptop suggestion threads are filled with the same crap over and over where people bring out facts from their butthole without ever trying out the product


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## SaiyanGoku (Sep 8, 2015)

*Re: [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beat*



Nerevarine said:


> Not everyone wants a laptop exclusively for gaming, gaming can be a tertiary requirement, for it's price OP's laptop is average, but nothing to laugh at..



Then why mention that the laptop can run most *modern* games at highest settings in 720p resolution in the review? Isn't that misleading 


COD 4:MW is not modern even though its title contains the word "modern"


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## Nerevarine (Sep 8, 2015)

*Re: [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beat*

agreed, but he did list the games he tested.. the wording may have been a little misleading but he's not trying to overcompensate for his purchase and he's honest..
All in all, im glad he posted this review, always good to read an honest opinion


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## bhvm (Feb 22, 2016)

*Re: [Honest Review] HP P028TX Laptop Review [Core i3 1.9Ghz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 830M 2GB, Beat*

Just presenting a Long term Update-

1> I have it as my primary Laptop. Running Fine in dual screen via HDMI.
2> Added an HDD caddy and Set up 1tb x 2 RAID 0!. YES PEOPLE! I have 2TB Raid in my laptop now. The Read speeds are 216~416 MB/s (SSHD)
3> Nvidia 830m Can actually Beat newer 930m. You can read online regarding this.
4> Gaming on Nvidia 830m Is actually more Efficient and colder than Onboard 4400. 4400 keeps hogging and overloading CPU.
5> I can overclosk 830m Successfully by 125 Mhz on Core and mem clocks with MSI afterburner.
6> Laptop is Rock solid and can handle 3 Days+ of substained Data Transfer, Encoding and Processing Stuff (rendering)
7> Overall Daily performance, Stability and satisfaction is far better than my earlier HP g009AX with HP A8 6410 & 8570m. (long term)


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## bhvm (Jul 7, 2018)

Presenting 3 years Long term Update-
1. The laptop is still my primary desktop replacement machine and handles all tasks with an Aplomb. My useage pattern is not too heavy though. But It handles 20+ Tabs in Firefox, Various youtube videos, HDR baking & Processing in background all really well.

2. No Qualms Regarding 2 TB Software RAID 0. Never had a problem with it. Zips fast as day 1.

3. No issues with overheating or locking up. I don't remember if this laptop had a hard lock ever.

4. The Uni-body touch pad is a pain. its impossible to type without hitting it. I have installed a small software that disables touch-pad when I type. Oh! How i miss regular touch pads with clicky buttons. Ghetto Gaming is also impossible on this one.

5. For some reason, Bluetooth on this machine never worked. Tried a zillion drivers, Updates and messing around. Nada. Perhaps it won't work in Windows 7. On both of my HP machines there is the same issue.

6. Thinking to drop in another 8GB Ram stick just for the sake of future. However, HP website service manual has really confusing information regarding. At some places it says RAM is not up gradable. In some places it says there are 2 slots. HELP NEEDED ON THIS.

7. Thinking to upgrade 2x 1TB HDD RAID 0 into 2x2 TB RAID. Which means both HDDS will have to be swapped out. I have already used about 75% of RAID storage on this laptop.


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## bhvm (Oct 6, 2020)

An updated setup Tour in Video format has been Made here. The Videos are in Hindi and English


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