Shootouts

Affordable 2-in-1 detachable notebooks triple threat: Acer vs. ASUS vs. HP

By Kenny Yeo - 25 Sep 2015

HP Pavilion x2

HP Pavilion x2

Decked in all white, the HP Pavilion x2 is easily the funkiest machine of the lot.

Depending on your source, HP is either the number one or two PC manufacturer in the world. Regardless, HP has often placed a great emphasis on design, as evidenced by the new Spectre x360, and this focus on design can be seen and felt in their new Pavilion x2 2-in-1 detachable notebook too.

Announced in June, the Pavilion x2 is arguably the funkiest looking of the trio of 2-in-1 devices that we have gathered here. To begin, it is available in two striking colors, Sunset Red and Blizzard White - there’s no boring black or grey. The application of paint is thorough and the entire device has an even matte finish. Thanks to the well applied paint, the Pavilion x2 does not come across as cheap-looking at all despite its all plastic construction.

The HP Pavilion x2 is shaped like a edge and is really only thick at one end at around 9.65mm. Here it is against the ASUS Transformer Book T100 Chi, which is 7.6mm thick.

Despite being HP's thinnest ever 2-in-1 detachable device, the Pavilion x2 is no match for the ASUS Transformer Book T100 Chi.

The Pavilion x2 is very compact and portable. In fact it is HP’s thinnest detachable PC ever at just 16.75mm thick - with the keyboard dock attached. At 9.65mm thick, the tablet is a little on the thick side compared to its rivals here, but there’s a good reason for it which we will get into later. As for weight, the entire device weighs 1.13kg, while the tablet display alone is around 590g.

The Pavilion x2's display has arguably the best color reproduction. And looks the best to us, despite the unimpressive 1,280 x 800 pixels screen resolution.

Like the other two 2-in-1 detachable notebooks before, the Pavilion x2 has a 10.1-inch touchscreen display that supports up to 10-points of multitouch. Touch sensitivity is good and responsive, so we had no problems using the Pavilion x2 as a tablet. One potential downer is that the screen only supports a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, which gives it a pixel density count of just 150 pixels per inch - a tad low by today’s standards. That said, you’ll only notice the difference if you look really hard as images and text still look passably sharp. Colors are also brighter and more vibrant than the other two machines. Viewing angles are good too.

Diving deeper, the Pavilion x2 is powered by a quad-core Intel Bay Trail processor, specifically the Atom Z3736F (1.33GHz, 2MB L2 cache). This processor shares nearly identical specifications with the Atom Z3735F processor from the Acer Switch 10E. The only notable difference is that the Atom Z3736F can boost to higher clock speeds - 2.16GHz vs. the Atom Z3735F’s 1.83GHz. The Atom Z3736F also features Intel HD Graphics integrated GPU with four execution units. The Pavilion x2 also comes with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC flash memory storage.

The Pavilion x2's tablet display might be a little thicker but it sports a full-sized USB port. To the right is a USB Type-C port, micro-HDMI port and microSD card reader.

Now, the reason why the tablet display is thicker than its rivals is because it packs a full-sized USB 2.0 port. This makes connecting external storage devices and peripherals a breeze. On top of that, the Pavilion x2 also has a USB Type-C port, which can be used to charge the device and also use with USB Type-C accessories. The unfortunate thing, however, is that this USB Type-C port only supports USB 2.0 throughput speeds. Elsewhere, the Pavilion x2 has a micro-HDMI port, 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card reader for increasing storage. Wireless duties are handled by the Realtek RTL8723BS wireless adapter (identical to the Acer Switch 10E), which supports Bluetooth 4.0 and only a Wireless 802.11n standard with throughput speeds of up to 150Mbps.

The Pavilion x2 works well as a tablet and is easy to handle thanks to its wedge shape.

The keyboard, like its rivals', feels cramped and needs getting used to. However, the biggest problem here is that the trackpad is woefully inaccurate and unreliable.

Like its rivals here, the Pavilion x2’s keys are a little smaller and takes some getting used to, but the feel is good and you can type pretty quickly once you get adapted to the smaller size. The trackpad, however, is wide but a tad too narrow, making it hard to scroll up and down. But the bigger issue with the trackpad is that it is extremely unreliable to use. Many times we gave up and used the touchscreen display instead. And though the tablet display is thicker than competition, the thickness is really only on just one side. This also means that the tablet display is shaped like a wedge, which actually makes it easier to handle.

The Pavilion x2 has Bang & Olufsen branded speakers and it's the only ones that are forward facing. In terms of audio performance, the Pavilion x2 is noticeably more powerful than its rivals. It sounds appreciably louder and stronger - there's stronger bass and clearer, more powerful vocals. But even so, those observations are relative to the competitors and audio performance  in general is still poor and headphones/speakers are a must if you really want to enjoy music or videos on the Pavilion x2.

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.