HP 15 (15-dw4000) – Top 5 Pros and Cons

The HP 15 is one of the most affordable laptops that you can get with this level of hardware. The 12th Gen Intel processors can only improve the laptop, completely outclassing their 2021 Tiger Lake counterparts when it comes to performance. For 2022, the laptop received the Alder Lake upgrade, while keeping its low price tag and features from last year.

Today we present you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about the HP 15 (15-dw4000).

HP 15 (15-dw4000): Full Specs / In-depth Review


2 reasons to BUY the HP 15 (15-dw4000)

1. Upgradeability

It’s really weird when more affordable notebooks are more upgradeable than their flagship counterparts. The HP 15 offers two SODIMM RAM slots that carry up to 64GB of DDR4 memory. Storage-wise, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot that supports Gen 3 drives, along with space for a 2.5-inch SATA drive, but you’ll have to fetch the mountain hardware yourself.

Here is our teardown video, which shows how to access both the RAM and SSD slots.


2. I/O

Here we have really decent port selection, for a budget notebook, at least. There are two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, one USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an SD card reader, an HDMI 1.4 port, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and a LAN port.


3 reasons NOT to buy the HP 15 (15-dw4000)

1. Build quality

The HP 15 series has never had great build quality. The 2022 model, with its plastic chassis, doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in us, as the lid shows flex a lot, while also not opening with one hand. The design is what you would expect from a budget device. We have a grey exterior that tries to mimic metal, with rounded corners and sharp edges. The laptop is pretty portable for a 15.6-inch device, weighing 1.70 kg, and has a profile of 19 mm.


2. Display quality

The display selection offers two TN panels with either 768p or Full HD resolution. If you go for a more specced out version, you can get a Full HD IPS panel. However, we couldn’t find a retail model with an IPS display, so we had to settle for the TN option. In short, its got poor viewing angles, and a low contrast ratio, which will show especially during the night. Color coverage is poor, with the panel covering 50% of the sRGB color gamut.

Here are the results of our color accuracy test with both the stock settings (left) and with our Design and Gaming profile applied (right).


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP 15 (15-dw4000) configurations with 15.6″ FHD (TN, 1920 x 1080) AUO AUO499F.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


3. Cooling

The cooling setup consists of one heat pipe that connects to a small fan and a heatsink.


Max CPU load

Intel Core i7-1255U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
HP 15 (15-dw4000)3.19 GHz @ 2.42 GHz @ 69°C @ 40W1.90 GHz @ 1.49 GHz @ 57°C @ 17W1.91 GHz @ 1.49 GHz @ 56°C @ 17W

The CPU keeps a low temperature throughout the entire test, but the clock speeds and wattage drop significantly because of it.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce MX550GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max fan)
HP 15 (15-dw4000)1309 MHz @ 73°C @ 30W300 MHz @ 55°C @ 16W

The GPU shows poor thermal management as well, with prolonged workloads making the GPU run at 300 MHz.

Comfort during full load

However, due to these low temperatures, comfort is really good, as the base reaches only 35.4°C, while the fan is very quiet.


All HP 15 (15-dw4000) configurations:

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